Chapter Two

I walked across the long narrow hallway, perplexed and confused as I could ever be. Just hours ago I was in my own backyard celebrating my tenth birthday, and then trapped in the back of an old van. The van entered a building, parked and then they opened the doors of the van and pulled me away. I was forced in to some lab room where they ran tests on me. Needles after needles, they inject quaint compounds in to my body. There were chemicals everywhere, piles of syringes just sitting in the garbage can. I felt like some sort of a lab rat, in which they were conducting some sort of experiment on me. I screamed and hollered my way through, but it made no difference. They only injected more chemicals in to me to relax my nerves. I was clueless as to what was going on; it all remained a big blur. Finally they performed one last surgery, one which I suffered from the deepest. Cut, snip and sew. Sterilization.

 I had no memory of the lab, just nightmares one after the other. They gave me more chemicals to forget it all, but I knew where it hurt. The past may be forgotten, but the scars remain.

I continued walking down the hallway handcuffed, with a man holding tightly on to my shoulders. He opened the door, releasing me from my handcuffs, and then pushed me in to the room where I would spend an eternity. Across the room the tear-strewn face of a girl glanced up at me.

“They took you away too, didn't they?” I asked the girl once the man had left. I walked closer and sat down next to her.
“Ah-huh. I miss my mummy and daddy and my big sister Stella.” She said, still sobbing out tears. Beneath her tears were her eyes, they were unusually big, and brown like her dark hair. Her hair, it was as fine as silk, and was tied in to ponytails, which brought out her cute little button nose.

“Please don’t cry…” I whispered.
“But I will never see them again.” She said stubbornly, wiping a few tears from her face.
“You don’t see me crying, do you?” I answered.
“You would be, if I weren't in this room.” She smirked. The tears had stopped rolling down her cheeks; my words had actually moved her.

“Today’s my birthday; I was in the middle of celebrating at my party when they came…” I said slowly. A disappointed expression rested upon my face.
“I'm sorry, that must have been bad. But happy birthday! How old did you turn?” She asked politely.
“I’m ten now.” I said.
“I’ll be ten too, later this year. By the way, what’s your name?” She asked, scooting closer to me.
“Erik. What’s yours?” I responded, giving a small smile.
She smiled back. “My name is Melissa.”

“That’s enough! Get off the damn floor.” The man shouted at me, who was now standing inside the shower room. “Hurry up! Get dressed! You wasted all the hot water!” He yelled at me, exiting the room. The room was still steamy and densely fogged. I felt light-headed and dizzy. I must have passed out from the extreme temperature.

“Melissa?” I whispered out loud. There was no response, the steam was now clearing and her ghost was nowhere in sight. I grabbed the towel, dried off, then immediately got dressed and left the room. The man gave me blank stares and didn’t say a word on the way back, not that they ever did.

It was such a drag to step on the grimy floor and get that un-cleansed feeling once again. Nevertheless, I put up with it and we made our way back to the room. The man released me from my handcuffs and shoved me in to the room, before exiting in an orderly fashion. I walked towards the centre of the room then sat down, rejoining the others.

“How was your shower, Erik?” Brienna asked.

“Fine.” I answered briefly.

“You look blanched, dude.” Dice noticed.

“I just took a shower, so I'm clean now.” I answered.

“Well, obviously. You look a little troubled though.” Dice clarified himself.

“It’s nothing. How are you feeling Bri?” I asked, hoping to change the subject.

Her cheeks flushed red, a scowl spreading over her pale, delicate face. “I thought I told you not to worry. I'm just fine.”

No one said a word afterward. We remained silent, sitting down on the crusty, run-down floor in boredom.

The flashback had me begging to ponder on about how things were operating around here. What went on inside the factory, what were they doing to us, and what was our purpose? I wanted to ask the others, but I felt awkward asking them. They might have much different opinions and might be uncomfortable talking about the whole situation.

“Do you guys ever wonder what would happen if we escaped?” I managed to ask.

“All the time. Do you think want to be stuck in this hellhole?” Dice gave a petty answer.

“Of course we’ve thought about it, Erik. Anyway, haven’t we already had this conversation?” Brienna replied.

“Yeah, but we were just kids. Incapable of escape. Things have changed.”

“Man, the only thing that’s changed is our height. Everything else will be the same forever.”

I ignored Dice’s pessimistic reply. “But just think… what if we did manage to finally escape?”

“How? And even if we tried, they have this place covered. There are cameras everywhere if you have forgotten.” Dice explained.

“I suppose it’s out of the question then, forget I even asked.” I began to feel stupid.

“No, it was a good question; I just don’t think it’s even possible.” Brienna agreed.

After another few hours of sitting aimlessly on the dirty, cold hard tiles, they turned off the lights. The room immediately became darkened from its usual dim state. I could see nothing but the blurred motions we made. We soon separated from the centre of the room and crawled over to our ordinary sleeping locations.

“Good night Erik. Good night Dice.” Brienna whispered.

“Night.” Dice kept it brief.

“Good night everyone.” I said afterwards.

I rested my head upon my hands and closed my eyes, reflecting one last time on my seventeenth birthday, which would now draw to a close. I kept my mind free and empty, ready to drift off in to a deep sleep. I felt my breathing grow heavier and my body sink in to its restful state. I kept my eyes closed and within time, my mind accepted its invitation to rest and dream.

“Erik, wake up.” The ghostly voice echoed throughout my head. I immediately opened my eyes and scanned around the room. There was a figure lying in front of me, the outline of her body was obscured by the darkness, but I could tell it was Melissa. Her body was slim, with curves in all the right places and her stance was not hard to miss.

“Erik, are you awake?” She whispered.

“Yeah, I’m awake, what’s going on, it’s late.” I answered. The others were still fast asleep, not to be bothered for several hours to come.

“Come a little closer, Erik” She spoke softly. I turned over sideways then crawled my way over to where she was sitting and sat next to her.

“Is something wrong? Can’t sleep?” I said, concerned.

“I’m dying Erik.” She whispered, scooting closer towards me. My mouth hung wide open; I was speechless. I didn’t know what to say to something like that.

“No, you’re not. You can’t be.” I refused to believe it.

“I know I am. I can feel it. Everyday has just been so hard for me. I've had this fever now for weeks; possibly even a month or two. I feel so lifeless, so filled with pain, and I can’t live like this any more.” She tried to explain.

“Melissa, it’s all in your head. Please, you can fight this. I'm here for you. We’ll make it together, just like we promised from day one.” I tried to convince her.

“I’m sorry Erik, but it’s not like that. It’s not like that at all. I can’t just simply resist the pain, in time it will consume me. I don’t want that to happen.” She said, putting an arm around me in comfort.

“Why don’t we tell someone? Maybe they can help you.” I suggested.

“I don’t want their help. Do you remember how scary it was lying on that cold metal table, completely naked? While those mad scientists stuck syringes in to every vein. I don’t want to have to go through that again,” she said, trembling.

“But if it’s a choice between life and death, which will you choose?” I asked her, resting my hand on her knee.

“This isn’t living, Erik. What kind of life is this? They treat us like caged animals. Is this how you want to live for the rest of your life- to grow old in this room and never experience the joys of life ever again? This is worse than prison and y all means beyond humane.” She tried to explain, but I was so set on the fact that I didn’t want to lose her that I had forgotten the message that she had tried to deliver.

“Melissa, don’t leave me here. We said at the beginning that we were going to stick together through all of this, that we would find the good in the bad and make everyday worth living. We’ll get through all of this. We’ll leave here one day and we can return to everything like normal.” I tried to convince her once again. She shook her head and held on to my hand, squeezing it hard.

“We can’t just go back and pretend nothing ever happened. Things have changed; years have gone by. I can’t fight this pain forever. There is a time when you have to say good-bye to it all. Promise me that you’ll escape here one day, that you’ll leave this god-forsaken place and become a better person. You’ll help people in need. One day you’ll look back on all this and remember me, because I will be looking down at you from heaven or whatever’s up there, and I will be smiling down at the grown man you have become.” She let go of my hand and slouched down on to the floor, lying down on the cold tiles.

“What about the others? Should I wake them?” I asked as her eyes slowly made their closure.

“No, you don’t need to wake them up. They never really liked me. I was always just the second girl in the room.” She answered.

Melissa, no you’re not! I shouted in disbelief.

“Erik, hush. You’re making this harder than it already is.” She complained. I kept quiet and watched her face grow colder and paler within each passing second. With her last remaining strength she whispered, “Promise me, you’ll escape.” I watched as tears soon filled my eyes. Through the darkness, I envisioned a light shining down on her, just enough light to see her beautiful body reach its tranquillity. Her heart took its final beat and she drifted off in to an eternal sleep.

I woke from yet another dream, another memory of the past still haunting me once again. It was now clear to me what I had to do. My mind was set on her promise, a promise I intended to keep. We had to escape this all, leave this all behind and bask underneath the sun’s warmth once again. Escape might have been inevitable, but if there’s a will, there’s a way. Let it burst and bloom.