Chapter 16: Locked in the Room

Sept. 20th, 2015

One second, West was talking to his student Rick Wille.

And then the next second, the seventeen year old was gone.

He barely had time to register this, when he realized there was a sticky note attached to his arm. After reading it, he immediately knew Harry and Emille were probably behind this. West scowled and walked out of his office, looking around to see if Rick was possibly anywhere around. He noticed Jessica looking around for him as well.

“Um.. Mr. Johnston? Where did Rick go?”

West paused.

“I-I don’t know.”

“What?”

“He-he just disappeared.”

Some of the other students heard this, and in disbelief, jumped up without permission and ran to poke their heads into their teacher’s office.

“Dude!! He’s right! Rick’s gone!”

“But he just went in there-I saw him?”

“Where did he go?”

Well, West knew where he was going after school…

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Rick and Cadi were locked in a room with one bed and no windows.

As soon as they had gotten to the creepy house on the edge of the park that Harry and Emille owned, they had been shoved into a room, and the locking of the door could be heard.

“I’m sorry Rick!” Cadi said again, starting to bawl.

“Oh no no no Cadi…” he soothed, kneeling down and hugging her. “None of this is your fault.”

“I wish I never got these stupid powers!!”

“Did they hurt you?” he asked seriously. His little sister sniffed and shrugged, looking at him with her big green eyes. Rick looked her over and then held up her arm, which had several bruises on it like they had been holding her arm really tightly. She winced and took her arm away.

Rick did his best to breathe and not lose it. He could already tell that he was going to have some issues with his anger, and if he wasn’t careful, that could really get them in trouble in this situation.

“What else did they do to you? What’s that thing on your ankle?”

Cadi shuffled and kicked the mechanism subconsciously.

“I don’t know exactly what it is… But… it lets them control my time powers. And… it stops me from using it unless they make me… They’ve also been doing tests like we did to see what I can do, but sometimes they make me do things that are too hard and it makes my head hurt.”

Rick pursed his lips, trying to control himself.

He could get mad later.

Right now, he had to be strong for his little sister. He wiped her tears away.

“We’re going to fix this ok? I’ll protect you if they try anything.”

Cadi nodded solemnly.

“And we’ll get out of this somehow. I promise. Then you can see Mom and Dad, and you can go play with Juno…”

“Are they worried about me?” she asked.

“Of course.”

“Well they’re going to be worried about you too now.”

At this, Rick gave a little side smile.

“I guess they are.”

They were interrupted when the door unlocked and opened, revealing Harry and Emille. Emille was still holding a gun, and Rick subconsciously stiffened up at the sight of it and stepped in front of Cadi.

“Time to talk. Why don’t you freeze with everything else?” Emille demanded. Harry glanced at her and scribbled something on a clipboard.

“I don’t know.” Rick told her truthfully.

“What? You don’t think I’ll fire this gun?” she asked.

BAM!

Cadi screamed and Rick jumped as the bullet went through one of the walls.

“Emille! Calm down!” Harry exclaimed. “We don’t want holes in the walls!”

“I-I really don’t know!” Rick said desperately, throwing his hands up. “I just remember one day when Cadi first realized she could do these things she tried to show me and it gave me a little shock on my arm or something!”

Emille narrowed her eyes.

“Harry, go get the scanner.”

“Ok.”

A moment later, Harry was scanning him.

“Emille-he’s showing some of the same readings as the girl. He has some of the time stream in his system! I mean, it’s really low in comparison, but…”

“Hmmm. Well we should put a boot on him too and try some things out.”

“Sure.”

Rick’s hands closed into fists.

Try some things out?

What did they even mean with that?

Soon, Harry was back, and Rick had to watch at gunpoint as this bulky black thing was attached to his ankle.

“Alright. Let’s see if he can pause time.” Harry mumbled, pulling out what looked to be some kind of remote.

Suddenly, pain rushed to Rick’s head and he gasped and collapsed to the ground. It was unlike any kind of headache or pain he had ever experienced. It was worse than the headache that had come when Cadi was gone, worse even than that concussion he had when he was younger.

“Rick?!” Cadi yelled, grabbing him by the arm as he doubled over in pain.

Then, just as soon as the pain had come, it stopped. Rick knelt there on the ground, a hand to his head, breathing heavily and feeling the dull throb lessen bit by bit.

“So I guess he can’t pause time…” Emille said with a bit of interest in her voice.

“But look at the scanner-it’s showing more of the time stream energy in his system now.”

“Hmmm. Well, get some rest than kids. We’ll have a lot to work on in a few hours.” Emille sneered as she turned on her heel, putting her gun in a holster on her hip. Harry watched her go, and then turned to the two kids.

“I swear-you guys shouldn’t be here too long. We just need to make sure you’re safe for society and all.” he said quickly, avoiding eye contact. Then he quickly left the room and shut the door behind him. As soon as the two scientists were gone, Rick clutched his head and groaned.

“Are you ok Rick?” Cadi asked, concerned.

“Er… I guess…” the boy winced, clutching onto the side of the bed for support.

Well there went all plans out the window of trying to figure out an escape plan any time soon. He could barely function with this dull ache, and it felt like he had been hit by a bus.

“I think I just need to… lie down…” he mumbled, collapsing onto the bed. “Can you turn off that light? It’s hurting my eyes…”

“Yeah.”

Darkness enveloped them as she flipped the switch, giving him a little bit of relief. Then, he heard the bed creak a little bit as she crawled up to lay down next to him.

“What do you think’s going to happen to us?” she whispered. Rick closed his eyes.

“I don’t know Cadi. I really don’t know.”