Surprise turned to shock as Charlie watched the videoed scene unfold. Wearing the school’s standard
white top and pants, she watched herself sit on the patient bed’s edge while her legs swung back and forth. The room with its white walls and white tiled flooring complemented the clinical setting with a crash cart and vital signs monitor atop a stainless steel cart to Charlie’s left. Charlie had no recollection of being in such a place ever. That made sense because it wasn’t Charlie in the video; it was Jeanne!
The sound of a door opening caused Jeanne to look up. Suspicion was clear on her face as three people in lab coats and medical scrubs entered. She inched back as they approached her.
“What’s going on?” Jeanne asked in a voice that sounded deeper than Charlie’s.
The one in the lab coat placed his hands inside his coat pockets and announced, “Congratulations. You passed the preliminary tests.”
One of the people in scrubs took the steel cart and rolled it to the opposite side of the patient bed. The man in the lab coat went on, “This will be the final stage to determine whether or not you are qualified for the program.”
“What is this program you keep talking about anyway?” Jeanne snapped at him. “You keep referring to it but you never really told us anything about it!”
“Calm down, um…” The man trailed off, giving Jeanne a chance to tell him her name.
“It’s Jeanne. My name is Jeanne. And if you don’t even know that before coming in here, then I’m getting out.” Jeanne jumped from the patient bed but the man in scrubs blocked her way. “Step out of my way,” Jeanne ordered him.
“Jeanne,” the man in the lab coat warned her. “You won’t be able to leave without finishing this procedure. If you get out that door, others will be there to stop you.” Jeanne turned to confront him. Charlie couldn’t see her face from the angle but knew Jeanne was glaring at him. The man continued, “Please understand what we’re doing is highly confidential and for the sake of our country. Once we determine you are qualified for the program, we will disclose the details.” The man waited for her to respond, but Jeanne merely remained standing.
He sighed, “That’s a promise, but only after we’re done with this procedure. Does that help?”
Jeanne crossed her arms over her chest. For a few seconds she considered her options, but in the end, she gave in. “Alright.” Jeanne marched back to the patient bed and lay on it.
“Thank you,” the man said, motioning the other two to gather their equipment. They prepped Jeanne for the monitor, attaching gadgets on her forehead, forearm and her index finger. Meanwhile, the man in the lab coat pulled out something from his lab coat’s inner pocket. The female in scrubs handed him another item and Charlie saw the syringe and a glass vial. The man in the lab coat inserted the syringe and transferred the vial’s contents. Then Jeanne turned her head to him.
Abruptly, she sat up from the bed. “What is that?” Jeanne asked, her voice upset and wary.
“It’s only medicine, Jeanne. Nothing to worry about.” he explained, but Jeanne didn’t look convinced.
“What kind?” she asked.
The man finished transferring the liquid and gave the vial to his assistant. He tapped on it three times before telling Jeanne, “It’s strictly confidential. But I promise, it won’t hurt.”
“No.” Jeanne said, pulling off the gadget on her finger. “I’m out unless you tell me what that is.”
“It’s alright, Jeanne. This is the last part.” He spoke gently but she refused to be subjected to the injection.
“No, you’re not going to---” Her sentence was cut short when the other two grabbed each of her arms and pulled her back down on the bed. Charlie’s hand covered her mouth as she watched her sister be pinned down and strapped to the patient bed while screaming and fighting to free herself from them. What started out as a surveillance footage of her sister turned into a horror film as the man in the lab coat approached Jeanne with the needle as he repeated over and over, “Relax, Jeanne. Relax.”
But Jeanne vehemently protested and refused to yield. She yelled at the top of her lungs until the lights began to flicker. The three looked up, puzzled. Then a spark burst from the crash cart. “What’s happening?” the lady in scrubs asked shakily. More sparks emitted from the crash cart and then from the monitor attached to Jeanne. The lights flickered erratically, causing the three people to step away from Jeanne.
“Unstrap me, you idiots! Get me out of here!” Jeanne shrieked and screamed. The three ran to the exit, as Jeanne howled like a trapped animal. The screen went to static.
Charlie quivered in consternation. The room’s silence and darkness enveloped her, intensifying the sensation of being trapped. The video indicator showed two more minutes to finish time. On the screen, the static turned dark. Then the lights in the room flickered and reverted to normal. Jeanne still lay on the patient bed, seemingly unconscious. The mattress was burnt; the crash cart and monitor were mangled and sooty. But none of that compared to what was by the door. The man in the lab coat and his two assistants piled on top of each other, bodies charred. Tears streamed down Charlie’s face. “Jeanne, oh Jeanne…” wept Charlie.
Something moved behind the pile of burnt flesh by the door. Charlie dreadfully stared at the ghastly scene. The door moved, forcing the bodies to one side. A figure squeezed through the small opening. A woman in a suit, surveying the damage, slowly approached Jeanne. She shook the girl awake. Jeanne looked blankly at the woman before allowing herself to be led out of the room. Charlie recognized the woman immediately. It was Amanda Pitt.
The video ended, but Charlie’s eyes still stared blankly at the screen. The revelation hung heavy on Charlie’s shoulder. Amanda Pitt, the woman who made her a unique offer at ANDREI and promised to reunite her with her twin held more information than she made Charlie believe. She buried her face in her hands, trying to make sense of what she’d just learned. Who gave me this DVD? What do they want? And what happened to Jeanne after the video? Questions burned in her brain.
The video, while filled with information, had not led Charlie anywhere nearer to finding Jeanne. She returned to the blueprint of Gen Laboratory and ANDREI, her eyes fixated on the two marked rooms.
What are in those rooms? Why are they marked? Is there an unwritten message? Charlie wondered. It was no mystery that whoever slipped the DVD in her room wanted Charlie to go to these rooms and perhaps had used the video to bait her.
“What if it’s a trap?” Charlie debated in her mind.
Despite the risk, Charlie deemed it better to take action. The time on her laptop indicated it was 10:23PM. Charlie assumed most of the students to be sound asleep. If she remembered correctly, the building security guard had completed his rounds twenty minutes ago. The laboratory was a different challenge. With all its equipment and research files, security was surely tighter. But she had to try anyway.
Grabbing her backpack, Charlie stashed the floor plan inside, chucked in a notebook and prepared for her own mission. The hall was empty as expected. Charlie walked out of her door and into the hallway, where no witness could see her breaking school policy. Dodging the cameras and redirecting them along the way, she reached the dorm ground floor and stopped as she spotted the blinking red light of the camera. She leaned against the wall and used her power to redirect the camera away from her path. Then she tiptoed her way to the exit of the dormitory, spotting another camera just outside. Charlie redirected every camera as she took the path from the garden and around the building of ANDREI until she reached the laboratory fire exit.
It was to no surprise that the door was locked, but a telekinetic had her ways. Charlie envisioned the bar being pushed from the inside, and soon, she heard it click. Charlie entered the fire escape and shut the door softly behind her. Enveloped in darkness, Charlie pulled out the small penlight from her bag and let the light lead her. The hallway was ominous during the night. Charlie had seen enough Asian horror movies to start jump
ing at every sound she heard. “You have powers, Charlie,” she reminded herself, though she found it hard to imagine how to fend off evil spirits using telekinesis.
Like she did at the dormitory, she kept herself planted against the wall while redirecting every camera she spotted away from her. Finding a small corner where a water fountain sat away from the path, Charlie pulled out the floor plan and shone her light on it. The room closest from where she stood was the one on the third floor. Channeling her inner female spy, Charlie took the stairs cautiously, careful to not let her pen light shine too far and catch attention. Before she’d reached the top landing on the second floor, she heard the security guard’s radio and immediately turned off her penlight. Her heart thumped loudly as she waited for the security guard to move away. She strained her ears to listen and gain more information about the building security personnel. Though the radio’s static made it hard to make sense of the garbled voices, Charlie deduced there were more guards in the building. Briefly, Charlie doubted if she could continue with her plan, but the image of Jeanne in the surveillance video was etched in Charlie’s mind. She would not back down.
Two minutes after the guard’s flashlight disappeared around the corner, Charlie released her breath. She stealthily climbed the stairs to the third floor. Charlie followed the floor plan that led to a number of laboratories housed with equipment Charlie wasn’t familiar with. She recalled passing through this area on the day she’d first arrived in ANDREI. The darkness, countered only by the soft moonlight and her penlight, made the place look eerie. Charlie’s mind conjured images of her falling victim to a mad scientist. The thought sent a chill down her spine.
She rounded a corner but quickly took a step back as she spotted a guard manning the far side of the wall. She switched off the penlight and crouched. Charlie dared to take a peek and noticed something odd. This isn’t right, she thought. She pulled out the floor plan once more, careful not to make a sound nor let the light shine too far for the guard to see. According to the floor plan, the room she was looking for was at the end of the hallway. But as she saw now, it was a dead end where a guard leaned against the wall, enjoying his music through earphones. Did I get it wrong? Charlie wondered. She double checked the floor plan, but there was indeed a discrepancy compared to the actual lay out around the corner.
Charlie speculated on possible secret passageways and concealed doors but doubted their existence outside of mystery films. On second thought, a school for teenagers with special powers only existed in the movies for most people.
She glanced at the guard again. He looked like the ones guarding the training rooms, unmoving but exuding danger. Charlie wasn’t taking any chances. She skimmed through the floor plan again and found directions to the second marked room. Two more floors up, the very top floor. Charlie decided to investigate the first room at another time. Walking quietly with heels raised, she headed back to the stairs.
As she reached the stairway, Charlie stopped abruptly, hearing the sound of footsteps heading towards her. Charlie rushed and tried the doors closest to her. The first two doors were locked. She reached the third door and thanked the heavens it was unlocked. She closed the door behind her and listened to the footsteps getting closer. The clicking steps sounded like that of a female in stilettos.
The footsteps got closer until Charlie realized the person was approaching the very door she hid behind. Charlie rushed out of the way, finding a dark corner between two filing cabinets. She heard the door click open as a sliver of light filtered inside. The shadow of the woman stood just at the threshold for a few moments, then the door closed. The lock clicked in place and Charlie scrambled back to her feet and checked the door. She sighed in relief to see it could still be opened from inside.
Charlie took a moment to observe the room. Six filing cabinets lined one wall of the small room, and one computer sat on a table in the corner. Curiosity took over and Charlie walked towards the filing cabinets, not sure what she would look for or what she would find. Turning on the computer was easier, but the lit screen could stir attention. It’s most likely password protected, anyway. She pulled open the drawers at random, finding nothing that stood out until she reached the third cabinet and saw the section marked “ANDREI”.
Charlie pulled the first two folders behind that section, placing the penlight between her lips as she rummaged through the files. The first folder was marked as “The Unlocker”, a term familiar to Charlie from her conversation with Joshua. She opened the folder and read the information, with a few standing out among the rest.
“Developed by Amanda Pitt and Joshua Thompson.”
“...catalyst for a dormant human gene.”
“...subjects show supernatural abilities.”
“...government approved.”
“...involved in Project ANDREI”
“Orphans taken to GEN Laboratory for assessment.”
“Subjects are injected with the Unlocker for Transition.”
“Serum successful at awakening the dormant gene.”
“...subjects confirmed to gain superhuman capabilities.”
A heavy weight hung in Charlie’s chest as she read further and further. With the video she’d just watched of her sister and these files, Charlie had to face the fact that Joshua had spoken the truth. He wasn’t only part of the project; he had a hand in creating its main ingredient, the Unlocker serum.
Data about her schoolmates in ANDREI proved all of them had been injected with this serum. Charlie lifted her arm, shining the light on her skin, staring at the area where she could have been injected. There was no mark. The surveillance video of Jeanne demonstrated her twin had powers enough to make the entire room explode. So if my telekinesis manifested in me as a child, is it possible Jeanne had hers in childhood as well?
Amanda’s words returned to Charlie. "I can see her in you, the young Catherine who was my friend. I have a feeling it was fate that brought the two of you to the institute, the one Catherine helped build.”
Before, the idea that her biological mother was part of the ANDREI project made Charlie feel special; now it twisted her inside. Was I injected as a baby? Were Jeanne and I no more than guinea pigs to our mother? Charlie fought back tears that threatened to fall on the paper she held. She returned the folder and pulled out the next one under the same section.
The thicker folder contained the profiles of all the Awakened students. They were arranged in alphabetical order, making the first file Aaron’s, followed by Bradley’s and Dorothy’s, and so on. Her curiosity and frustration peaked upon realizing neither Jeanne’s nor hers were among the rest.
She returned to the first profile, Aaron’s, and skimmed through it. A photo of a young boy was stapled on the first page. He had a youthful smile and hazel eyes. He was transferred to GEN laboratory from an orphanage in Illinois at age sixteen. He passed the physical and mental assessment and proceeded to Transitioning. He developed the ability of Intangibility via the Unlocker and was transferred to ANDREI, where he failed in his Mental Training in Stage One. After multiple sessions for Stage One, he began to suffer from migraines and hearing impairment. December 14, 1996 - November 11, 2012. Status: DECEASED.
Charlie stopped. The paper between her hands nearly slipped from her grasp as she read the last word. “Deceased.” Aaron, the boy Hilary claimed to have been promoted with Jeanne to the Advance Training, was dead nearly a year ago and didn’t even pass the first stage of training! There was no information on how Aaron died. Charlie hated to think the worst, but the thought came anyway. What about Jeanne? She staggered back and leaned against the wall, awful thoughts swirling in her mind. If what they told her about Aaron was a lie, then what was the guarantee Jeanne was truly recruited for the Advanced Training Center. Charlie wondered if the center was even real, or just a cover up for deaths like Aaron’s.
Pulling herself away from the wall, she placed the student’s profile inside the filing cabinet and closed the drawers. Her watched showed it was
12:03 A.M. Charlie still had to investigate the second marked room.
Charlie carefully checked the hallway. It was empty. She ascended the stairs as quietly as her feet allowed. She was fortunate not to encounter any more guards on her way to the top floor. She diverted two more cameras off her path before reaching the spot where the mystery room was supposed to be. Charlie half-jogged through the hallway, passing non-descriptive doors until she turned into another corner to see a pair of doors marked as restrooms. A lone painting that seemed out of place hung on the laboratory wall.
The oil painting of a smiling child welcomed Charlie. She waxed nostalgic at the image. Charlie craned her neck, wondering why it was placed in such an inconspicuous place.
Charlie returned her attention to the floor plan. No security camera was in sight, giving Charlie the freedom to inspect the place. According to the floor plan, a door to a small room was supposed to be where the painting was. Charlie lifted a brow and stared at the oil painting. A secret room behind a painting? Charlie moved forward and studied the edge of the frame, checking for any alarm she could trigger if she moved it. So far, there was no sign of such. She moved a few feet away from the painting and stretched out her hand to it. Slowly, she moved the painting off from its hook and carefully placed it on the ground. Charlie counted ten seconds, waiting in case anything happened. When nothing did, she faced the wall and investigated.
Knocking on it, she searched for a hollow spot. She tried repeatedly. She scrutinized every inch of the area and found no discrepancy that would indicate a door. No gaps, no dents, no markings. Sighing heavily, Charlie placed the penlight between her lips again and took the painting to hook it back. Maybe this treasure hunt was someone's idea of a prank. Charlie felt disappointed. Even after all that she had discovered, she felt like the victim of a joke. Maybe those files about Jeanne were even planted. But who would go through all that trouble?
The Unlocked (Charlie Hartley Series Book 1) Page 16