by C. C. Lynch
Erik tossed me a blank stare. “I didn’t say it to be comforting, I said it to be honest.”
I rolled my eyes at him and crossed my arms, staring at the entrance to the room until he finished his lunch. After he was satiated he picked up our plates and tossed them into the compost bin in the corner of the room. Apparently Replyx cared about the environment but not human lives.
Erik took me back to the room and let me know that I was done with the medical evaluations for now and I was able to relax for the rest of the day. His statement of there being replicators that worked at Replyx rolled around my mind for far too long. Certainly they knew about me, but had I seen them? Why were they helping Jeremiah? Were they actual workers like Luther and Slade or “workers” like Lacey? Jeremiah surely could have found some sort of flaw in a prisoner type of worker solely for the purpose of putting us into battles so it had to have been other henchmen or henchwomen.
Lacey came into the room stomping about as if she had gotten her first C in junior high then leapt onto my bunk. Before indulging in whatever had her so frazzled she began braiding a chunk of hair and pulled it taut so that it resembled a headband just above her hairline.
Once she finally finished she crossed her legs and faced me. “Apparently there was some security issue and they huddled us all into a room while we had to wait for the alarms to stop ringing. As a result,” she let out a puff of vexation, “there were no battles and I’m stuck here for another day.”
My heart leapt and fell in the same instance. I wanted the concern to have been caused by Vlaine trying to get me out of this place, but if it was he was clearly unsuccessful. “Where was the security issue? It must have been isolated to a certain floor because I never heard any alarms go off.”
Lacey let out a low whistle. “What did they do to you today? The entire building gets locked down in the event of a breach and the alarms go off in every single room.”
Was she messing with me? Panic sent a flutter through my chest and I started to breath rapidly.
“No,” I shook my head, “I didn’t hear any alarms.”
“Oh,” she smiled at her epiphany, “they must have done the bone marrow sampling on you today and knocked you out. They take it from your clavicle so you’ll probably have a scar.” She pulled at the top of my shirt, “let me see.”
“Um,” I pushed her hand away, “I can check for myself, thank you.” I looked down quickly to see if she was telling the truth but there was no cut, stitches, or scar. “Nothing.” I checked my hip areas for added measure finding none there either.
She narrowed her eyes as she tried to figure out the mystery. “What did you do today?”
“Well, I did some sort of questionnaire thing, had lunch with Erik, and came back to have my roommate play a practical joke on me.” I watched her eyes closely to see her reaction, which seemed more like pity.
“Abrielle,” her voice was soothing, “how long was the paperwork?”
“It took half an hour maybe.” I shrugged. There were no clocks in Replyx and nothing was ever timed. My ability to guess time was weak and I lost track of the days I had been there. I could not count meals because I did not always eat and tracking sleep was equally as impossible.
Those bright green eyes of hers were so soft and understanding. “So after half an hour of work you got lunch?”
She was trying to lead me to a conclusion but I was stubborn. “Well, I came back to the room for about an hour. I did not have breakfast so it would have made sense to eat anyhow.”
Lacey picked up on my stubbornness and tried a different approach. “I love, love, love the breakfast here. They warm up the syrup so your clothes smell like candy until lunchtime.”
I had smelled soup. Lacey was right, I was missing a chunk of time. Could all those surveys have been just some sort of memory implanted into my mind and the entire time they were doing tests? Was this a test?
“Awesome,” I rubbed my temples as I fought frustrated tears.
“Hang in there,” she nudged my shoulder, “there are at least two other healers here. They’ll do battles with as few as three people. You could be optioned for work sooner than you think.”
She tried to get my mind away from the certain wallowing that was soon to follow my realization that Replyx had far greater control of my mind than I could have thought. For over an hour she gave me examples of how she would use her gift to get out of bad report card grades and punishments from her parents. Both her parents were gifted but apparently did not catch on to her tricks.
Lacey’s tactics of saving me from a pity party were admirable and she was able to get me to laugh. My trust in people had been severely compromised, but it was really nice to have someone to talk to aside from those usurping my autonomy.
I lay in the bunk that night trying to contact Vlaine. I knew that I was being monitored so I pushed thoughts guarded by musical notes to him. I tried so hard and thought so loud that my jaw and ears hurt from tensing. Tears streamed down my face and pooled in my ears and on the pillow. When I could no longer stifle the sobs I pushed my face into the flat pillow and cried until exhaustion overpowered my feelings of defeat.
6
Luther barged into the room at some nonsensical hour and grunted for me to wake up. Heavy lids pushed their way open and my eyes rested on the perfectly kempt silver hair lining the man’s forehead. “Shadow your mate for the day,” he ordered. He turned on his heel and left as quickly as he had entered the room.
Lacey somehow stayed asleep for the brief interaction so I took the opportunity to use the shower. The bathroom was so small that I could practically wash my hair while staring into the vanity, but it was a step up from the solitary conditions I had been subjected to prior to being upgraded to a B room.
Once Lacey rolled herself out of bed she nodded for me to follow her to the cafeteria. There were only a few other people in there but the smell of fresh made waffles, warm syrup, and bacon were invigorating to say the least. The only thing missing from the room was coffee, a point I made sure to provide to Lacey.
“They don’t provide caffeine to the subjects because it can interact with some of the medications they’re on.” Lacey tied her hair back before beginning her feast. “Eat up, Abrielle,” she nodded towards my plate. “Why don’t you have some carbs like a normal American?”
I stared at my beautiful plate of fresh fruit and the yogurt on the side that I was planning on mixing it with. “I don’t like to be sluggish when I’m at the mercy of psychopaths,” I grinned.
“Oh,” she swatted her hand in the air, “there’s only a couple psychopaths here. You probably won’t ever have the displeasure of meeting them.”
“Oh, so Slade is normal?” I gritted my teeth and stabbed my fork at some berries.
“Hold up,” her fork dropped on the table with a loud clink that I was sure would get everyone’s attention. “You met Slade? Like big, bald, and burly Slade?”
I sneered and nodded. “I’ve had the pleasure of getting attacked by his masses of flying infernos.” My eyes widened at the mistake that I had just made. If I didn’t think of something to say quickly she would know that I was not solely a healer. “He was one of the ones that attacked Glaston Academy,” I clarified. Clearing my throat, “him, Jeremiah, Luther, and probably some other people that I didn’t recognize.” A bitter taste in my mouth arose as I thought of Will pretending to be Jay.
Lacey’s jaw hung slack. “Wow, there must have been someone with a high priority to get Jeremiah himself there.”
I shook off a shiver that crept up my back as I remembered Jeremiah finding me standing against the wall while I was replicating Liz’s invisibility. It wasn’t a day I wanted to relive but anger made words flow from my mouth that I did not necessarily give permission to. “Slade was the only one that brought a gun to a gifted fight.”
“Tranq gun,” she nodded. “When I go to scout for Replyx talent there’s usually one person there with some tranquilizers. It’
s just meant for someone that may get a bit over zealous. We shoot them right in the neck and they barely feel it until they wake up groggy.”
I remembered seeing the gun pointed towards Vlaine’s head. Maybe it was his neck and I was too protective of someone I cared about that my mind could not exactly process everything. The more I thought about it, the more infuriated I became.
The subject needed to be changed. “I love your hair, Lacey. Once you actually get to work for Replyx can you do whatever you want appearance wise?”
She shrugged with a slight nod. “It’s a reward system. The more helpful you are, the more rights you have. There’s a guy here that was a subject and he can go on assignments without supervision.”
Even though Lacey had been detained for over a year, it still seemed like quite a risk to let someone so valuable leave the building. “How do they trust you enough to let you go scout people?”
“They know I actually like it here.” I raised a brow at her waiting for a much needed explanation. “Oh don’t give me that look, Abrielle. They didn’t find me at one of the fancy academies. What am I going to go back to? A broken family and a minimum wage job down at the local grease spot? I get free food here, a roof over my head, and a sense of purpose.”
“All for the small price of your soul,” I mumbled under my breath.
Lacey’s face was crimson with anger. “Before you get too judgmental about the places we choose to go to maybe you should look at your precious Glaston Academy. That place usually just gives their students to the tree house.” She pushed herself from the table and stomped away.
My entire body went cold. Was she serious about students being dumped here from Glaston Academy? I had clearly struck a nerve with the girl. Perhaps she had just said that to try and hurt me like I had unintentionally done to her.
Nausea rolled about my stomach and halted my appetite. I ended up tossing the rest of my breakfast out before returning to an empty room. Guilt welled inside my chest when Lacey hadn’t returned. My apology rested on my tongue as I awaited her arrival. I went back to the cafeteria for lunch and dinner that day and, though the trip was short, she was nowhere to be found.
I snuggled down under the thin wool blanket and waited for Lacey to come back, but she never returned. Erik hadn’t come in to complete his nightly ritual of annoying me with his presence either. Somehow it was lonelier than being in solitary. I figured the added lonesomeness was from being teased with socialization after weeks without interacting with anyone aside from workers.
When Erik finally came to bring me to my exercises the next morning I asked him where Lacey had gone. He stared at me like I had completely lost my mind. “Who?” He sounded as annoyed as he was surprised.
“My roommate, you know, with the lilac hair.” I had never heard him say her name so for all I knew she could have been named Eucalyptus but told me it was Lacey to spare personal details.
“Abrielle,” Erik stopped abruptly in front of me, “you have never had a roommate. And there certainly have never been any people at the tree house with ‘lilac’ colored hair.”
It felt as if the floor had dropped beneath me. Was I going crazy or was Erik messing with me? Lacey was real.
I shook my head, “she must’ve won the battles and went back to work.”
Erik’s eyes went wide. “How do you know about the battles?”
I gritted my teeth at the possibility this was some sort of mind game. “Because the girl that was my roommate told me about them.”
“Fine,” he threw his hands up, aggravated. “If you had a roommate then you must be able to replicate her gift. So go ahead, show me what this ‘Lacey’ person could do.”
I had touched her so I was sure that I could do what he asked. Suddenly it struck me. What if she had figured out a way for her to use her gift and escape? Why would she have spared my memory if that were the case?
“You’re right,” I shrugged. “I must have just had a really crazy and realistic dream.” I grabbed onto Erik’s wrist and looked into his eyes. “Did you guys drug me or something? Knock me out somehow? That could explain these delusions.”
Immediately after the small interrogation, I knew that my hunt for information had been tactless. If I wanted to get anything from Erik, placing blame on the organization he trusted was certainly not the way to do it.
Erik shook his wrist from my hand and pulled me along without saying a word. Apparently the cause of my missing chunks of time were completely off limits.
A pit formed in my stomach as we entered the demonstration room. Slade was standing opposite to me with his arms crossed. His expression was nonchalant, but his nostrils flared with anticipation.
Erik leaned into my ear and whispered, “impress us and you can go into an A room tonight.”
Hours of being torched at the hands of the grotesque Slade eventually gained me the privilege of being allowed into the comforts of an A suite. The hooded healer took away the pain, but the exhaustion was overpowering. I threw myself onto the bed and fell asleep without even changing into pajamas.
7
Abbs. Vlaine’s voice woke me from a deep sleep.
Vlaine? I called out loudly in my mind. Vlaine was that you?
I propped myself up on my elbows and looked around the room. A red sky peeked through the window above the bed and I could hear soft footsteps outside the room. My mind fought the fog it was immersed in and tried to focus. As I did so, his voice rang in my head once more, quick and loud. “Abbs!”
I sat frozen, listening, waiting to hear his voice echo inside my head again. After remaining motionless and practically holding my breath for several minutes I sensed no change in the building. I muttered to myself about the cruelty of such dreams giving me hope like that and tossed the blankets off myself in a fit of heartbroken anger.
Water pooled into my hands from the zinc faucet; a serene reminder of a mountainside stream. A mind-numbing trance took over as I watched the water flow over the sides of my fingertips before I finally threw the handful onto my face and looked into the mirror realizing just how terrible I looked. My eyes seemed to have lost their vitality and dark bags hung beneath them. I desperately needed to wash my hair and rehydrate.
Though I had written Vlaine’s voice off as a hypnopompic hallucination, hope told me he could be close. After all the quick showers I had taken just trying to keep up with Liz in the morning, I knew I would be swift in the event my delusion was reality.
Flakes of burnt skin from Slade’s attack washed off and down the drain. I rubbed a towel over myself vigorously as if the friction could destroy any mental silt from the trials of Replyx. Pink blotches covered my arms and I finally threw down the towel and dressed, only to begin pacing anxiously.
A piercing loud alarm rang and the room lit up with a rapidly blinking white light. Could it really have been Vlaine I heard? I stood staring at the door rubbing my hands together. My chest tightened in anticipation as it began to open.
“Good morning, Abrielle,” Erik smiled. “Looks like you’re showered and ready for the day.”
My heart dropped and my spirit broke. I had wanted Vlaine to walk through the door so badly and seeing Erik instead sent the marble of hope I had in my chest shattering.
“What’s going on?” I nodded at the alarm that was still going off.
He shrugged with a sly smile. “Nothing to worry about, it’s just a slight malfunction.”
He put coffee and oatmeal on the nightstand then sat on the bed. Erik’s long hair poked out of a beanie and a large belt separated his dark jeans and grey ribbed sweatshirt. Leaning back, he showed no concern about the obnoxiously loud noise and flashing lights filling the quarters.
The warmth of the coffee mug in my hand was surprisingly placating. I held it against my chest and took a small sip allowing the bitter liquid to sit before I finally swallowed it. Nearly black with a slight vanilla taste, he had made it exactly how I like it.
“Thank you,” I held th
e cup up, “this is amazing.”
Sitting next to him on the bed, I pulled the bowl of hot cereal onto my lap and took small, slow bites. Everything was warm and comforting and in that moment it felt like life was normal and I was simply hanging out with my friend; with the exception of the ear piercing siren, of course.
“That’s a really good outfit on you.” My voice was soft and kind. Thus far, it had been made exceptionally clear that the only way I was going to be comfortable in any way at Replyx was to suck up to Erik. Throwing a few compliments his way while I ate could only help me.
“You’re in a good mood today, princess.” He leaned towards me and simpered handsomely.
“Sleeping in a bed, taking a shower, and having some breakfast are probably factors in that.” I hid my sarcasm with a sheepish smile.
Erik sprawled his arm out over the pillow and gave me his best roguish grin. “I thought it was because you knew Vlaine and Jay were here.”
It was Vlaine’s voice!
“What?” The bowl of oatmeal fell from my hands and shattered on the tiles below when I jumped up from the bed. “Jeremiah captured them too?” I acted dumb, but I knew if they were here it was a rescue mission.
“Oh, nothing like that. I’m pretty sure it was an attempted kidnapping.” He glanced towards the flashing alarm lights then back to me.
I ran to the door and put my ear against it, trying to listen to anything happening in the hallway. “Vlaine,” I shouted while I banged on the door, “Jay!”
Erik was by my side instantly. “Easy, Abrielle, you should sit down.”
“Why? So my rescuers can see me sitting pretty when they finally get here?” My mind was racing and all I wanted was for them to find me. I banged on the door and shouted twice more, sounding more desperate with each attempt.
Erik pulled my arm lightly. “Well, because I don’t want you to get hurt when the medication in your coffee finally kicks in.”
I stared at Erik as dark edges began to frame my sight. “You drugged me?” Darkness was consuming my vision quickly as I began to lose the fight against sleep.