The Spook

Melina meets Wraith, an assertive young man who is an agent.

     Walking calmly through the hallways of the building, the young man’s face seemed to hold no expression. His attire consisted of a long sleeve shirt, slacks, boots, gloves, and a trench coat, all of which was as dark, was his hair, or even darker if that was possible. Keen amber eyes scanned anything of interest, which wasn’t much to be honest, and quickly darted ahead when done with their scrutiny. His gloved hands were comfortably placed in the pockets of his coat, and his boot-falls made little or no noise at all.

     Wraith was his name, and although he was nineteen, he was no pushover. He was an agent, and surprisingly enough, most of the government workers stayed away from him, only talking to ‘the spook’ when they absolutely had to. Getting his nickname and job from his two powers, he seemed to take both stoically like he did with everything else. Able to use shadows as doorways, and having the power to manipulate most forms of darkness, it was nearly impossible to escape him at night.

     Her eyelids fluttered open. She realized where she was and what had happened as soon as she awoke. She gasped at the straps holding her down. There was also a gag in her mouth. She was in a room, unfamiliar of course. The freshly manicured fingernails were now chipped. Now she was angry. This wasn’t right! Go ahead and take any other gifted girl on the streets, but not her. She was important!

     It wasn’t till a few minutes of thinking, when she noticed someone was in the room. Since she couldn’t move, she just stared at the guy.

Seeing that she was up, Wraith walked to her side, pocketing the necklace. "You there. You're different from the others we pull in. Belong to a wealthy family do you..? A shame. Now, I'm going to ask you questions. And you will answer. Understand..?" If not, well, he'd let her find out first hand what he'd do. She meant nothing to him.

     Melina cocked her head to the side. She was still a bit confused and the man wasn’t making things more clear. What questions? What if she didn’t want to answer? Wait...she couldn’t.

     She gave a weird face gesture to indicate that she had a gag in her mouth. It was obviously there because of her ability. But being strapped down didn’t give her much energy anyway, thus limiting her power. The farthest anyone would probably go was about a foot. Maybe a little more or less.

Removing the gag, he frowned. "First off, what's your name?" It was probably a bad idea to remove the gag, but she was strapped down, and he was confident in his abilities anyway. "Secondly, your powers?" Staring down at her with a blank expression, he continued. "And last but not least, I need you to tell me your past. Failure to do so will result in a few, unpleasant, experiences. And I'm sure you wouldn't want that, now would you…?"

She cleared her throat and coughed once it was out. But that still didn’t want to make her talk and answer his nosy questions. Though the "unpleasant experiences" sounded bad.

She was quiet for a few seconds when she realized that being stubborn wasn’t going to help. She sighed.

"My name is Melina Korayle. My power is to control and create wind."

There was more to that, but she hated using her other ability. It was too difficult and strained away most of her energy. Mentioning it was pointless because she never used it.

"My past?"

Melina fell quiet. She didn’t want to answer that but she was so frightened. Still, she kept her mouth shut.

"I see..." Create wind..? Hm... The higher ups might have a few things in mind for her later on. Best not bang her up too hard. Waiting for her to reveal her secrets, he cleared his throat after a minute of silence, taking out her necklace to inspect it. "Quite a pretty trinket you had on you... A gift, perhaps? Well, in any case, even if you are able to withstand my ministrations, how would you hold up if we hunted down your parents, and friends…? I'd like to keep you in one piece, so you have some lee way with me, but don't push your luck, Ms. Korayle..."

Melina’s mouth dropped when she saw the necklace in the man’s hand. Her dad had bought it for her when he went to Europe. It was his way of making up for the time that they never got to spend together. Since the gift made her happy that day, she decided that she liked it. Usually her dad would come home loaded with all kinds of cool things but she never smiled. The necklace was so pretty to her. She loved it and since she got it, it was always on her neck. She glared at the man.

Her friends and family were great. Her life was great. She had gone to a normal school, though. Her parents thought that was the best thing to do. All her friends thought she was just a regular girl. They probably still thought that even though she was missing. They would still love her even if she told them her secret.

A small tear rolled down her cheek at the thought of them dead.

"You’re disgusting," she said in a low voice. She was afraid that he would hear her and do something bad.

She gave him her famous little puppy-dog face. Her big eyes filled with small tears and her lips curled up. It seemed to always work with her parents.

Wraith took note of her expression when she saw the necklace, and chuckled. "So it is important to you... And please, don't try to flatter me with such comments." Carefully rubbing a smudge from the necklace, he smiled. "To be fair, my name's Wraith. My powers..? Shadow manipulation among other things. I'm sure you've kept a secret or two from me, so don't complain. And, the only thing that face will get you," at this point he narrowed his eyes at her. "is a slap across the face... Or perhaps, another painful experience of the sort. You'll learn quickly, that I'm not here to be your friend."

Why was she here with this creep? She wanted to go home and have a nice cool glass of lemonade. Her maids by her side, telling her stories and doing her nails. Nice servants doing whatever deed she wanted to be done. She wanted that back!

She watched as he touched her necklace and stared longingly at it.

Once he told her his power she was shocked. She didn’t even know these people had powers! How could he betray his own kind?

He certainty wasn’t friendly. When he said he wasn’t here to be her friend she could believe that.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked, in a soft high voice, her bright blue eyes staring right at him.

When he threatened her again, she was just even more frightened.

Seeing her rather shocked expression at his explanation, he raised a brow. "Surprised, are you…? That the government employs gifted agents? Don't be. It's not as uncommon as you think." Placing her necklace on her stomach, he smirked. "..Why...? Tch, I'm the one who should be asking the questions here, Ms. Korayle. My patience has its limits, mind you. Now then, your past…?" A black haze started to rise up from under the table she was strapped to, and blotted out the spasming light from above. It was completely dark now. "I can see you perfectly, so don't think you can lie your way out of this, alright..? Now then, shall we begin..?"

Melina didn’t answer him but was glad that her necklace was safe, even if she could touch it. Why her stomach? Why didn’t he hand it to her? He was just that cruel.

As the room got black, she was started shaking uncontrollably. This was degrading! She didn’t want him to see her like this. She wouldn’t want anyone to see her like this. Melina was a coward and a big one at that. From years of being pampered and spoiled she felt like everyone was protecting her. None the less, she needed to talk.

"My dad is gifted and my mom is just normal," she started, in her high shaky voice. "Mom was scared of me, but I never knew why. My dad has the ability to control and create water-and storms. My parents sold mansions in Europe and gave tours and such. They moved to New York and basically, just left the maids to take care of me. They hardly ever visited. It was only about a few months or weeks, and sometimes a little longer or shorter. I was a little depressed because of that

But I went to school and was a little weird. Eventually, I learned to fit in and became really popular. I was never really told much about my life or myself. It was just school, friends, maids, and my parents sometimes."

She stopped and took a deep breath. She hatted thinking back to the past. She didn’t want to tell him anything.

"...Anything else..?" Although his voice was on one side of her, something slick and wet rubbed against her arm on the opposite side. A vine..? Probably not. Wraith shifted in the darkness, pausing for a moment. "Or, my apologies..." With a snap of his finger, something beside her hissed before a rather unpleasant sound of movement shuffled away from her and faded into oblivion. "Sometimes I lose track of what I do, all business and everything. Please, continue..." He could see her shaking, and allowed a circle of light to land on her face, and nothing else. The bulb still flickered, as if taunting her.

She shook her head. When she felt the thing on her arm and screamed, loudly. It was very high pitch, since she was already on edge. What was that? When the sounds came she screamed again. That jerk! He was doing this...

As the light formed around her face she was scared again.

"Stooop!" she whined. She realized that he wanted to know more.

Remembering more was not one her highest intentions. Remembering would put her in bad place.

"I don’t have to tell you anything! It’s none of your business!"

She started crying again. It reminded her of the times her father would say that she needed some backbone and had to grow up one day.

"As you wish..." Having the shadows block out the light, he then lifted her necklace from her body. "Let me tell you something, Ms... Korayle, correct..? Once you leave this room, you are no longer under my jurisdiction, or watch. You will be at the mercy of scientists hoping to replicate your DNA, doctors who want to study what makes you tick, and mean government officials who want to make genetic weapons out of you. In my opinion, your best bet for remaining unharmed, is cooperating with me. If I can't learn anything, I'll simply have others force it out of you. And you wouldn't want that, trust me... Now then," Placing her necklace on her hand, he raised a brow. "what do you feel like telling me...?"

Melina whimpered a little. Who did he think he was? She wished she had her bodyguards to beat him up.

"Fine," she said. "My real mother is dead and my father replaced her with another woman. My dad killed my real mom. He just never told me because he thought I would be scared of him. I know all of this because of what my maid said. She’s like my best friend. My childhood was hell and I mean that. My life was miserable and most of the time I just locked myself in my room and cried. I once had brothers and sisters but I don’t know what happened to them. I’m pretty sure my dad killed them too. He’s really dangerous. I’m not even sure if he really sells mansions."

She sighed. That was a lot to let out.

He paused for a few minutes, wondering if she had anything left. After waiting for a bit more, he cleared his throat. "Well, let me say this... if you attempt to escape this complex, you best hope that I find you before security does. They have the go to shoot to kill. I, on the other hand, try to take people alive. So try to behave yourself, alright..?" The light slowly shone through the darkness, and the shadows faded away as well. When the room was back to what it used to be, Wraith was already long gone. The heavy steel door opened, and in came a man dressed in a doctor's white lab coat, followed by another, carrying a tray of tools. "Well, looks like she's still sane, the Spook managed to leave this one alright enough for us..." Ignoring the girl, they took a blood sample from her—

arm, while continuing to talk amongst themselves. "hey, I heard the count's up to two digits now... Is it still safe to use him..?" With a raised brow, the other male shrugged. "Who cares..? We haven't had any problems with them so far." Writing a set of numbers on her forearm with a pen, the other smirked. "What about the rumors..? The Spook broke out once before..." "Please, that was just an accident, if it even happened. Now let's go."

Author's Note

I haven't really gone through this part.