“This is just a dead-end,” Madison said, dejected.
“No, no. We have to check every inch of this wall. Maybe there’s a secret entrance here somewhere,” Charlie told her. “I have an idea.” She turned off the lights again, which made Madison uneasy.
“Charlie, I hate the darkness.”
“I know, but look above you,” Charlie suggested. They both saw a glint of light above the wall. “There must be something inside.”
“Then let’s try to open it!”
“Okay, let’s do it together. I don’t know how we’ll make this work but let’s just imagine we’re opening a door. One…” Charlie counted.
“Two…” continued Madison.
“Three!” They both focused their energies on the adobe wall, willing it to open in whatever way it could. Suddenly, a loud unlatching noise signaled their eyes to open.
“It worked!” Madison exclaimed. Charlie stood there in quiet anticipation of what was to come. When the door opened in full, neither girl moved a muscle. For a moment, Charlie was glued to the ground with her jaw on the floor, unable to speak. A girl with the face that exactly mirrored Charlie’s showed no reaction whatsoever. She was frozen, too. She was clad in the same white overalls as Charlie. They had the same brunette hair that fell to their waists. Charlie couldn't help but notice a fading scar on Jeanne's right forearm, the same as she had on her own arm. The phantom wound that Dr. Wipperman had to come look at. If Jeanne hadn't had her hair in a ponytail, even Charlie wouldn't know how to tell them apart.
"So she is alive," Charlie heard Madison mutter from behind her, but she didn't mind. At this moment, Madison's ramblings were the least of her concerns. She’d finally found her sister. When the moment finally sunk in, she stepped forward and extended her arms.
And then Charlie saw Jeanne's right hand swinging, followed immediately by a searing pain on her left cheek. The shock and pain sent Charlie stumbling backward.
"W-w-why did you do that?" Charlie stuttered. She was answered by a blank expression on Jeanne's face, bearing not even the slightest hint of recognition. And then something remarkable happened: a metamorphosis occurred right in front of Charlie and Madison's eyes. All color returned to Jeanne's cheeks, and a tiny crease formed in her brow. She looked confused, but when her eyes landed on Charlie, who was still smarting from her slap, the crease grew more apparent.
"I..." Jeanne stammered. The sole bulb in the room started to flicker. Madison tugged on Charlie's shirt, and when she looked back, Madison pointed at the lights flickering in the hallway. "I don't know," Jeanne finished, her hand now clutching clumps of hair at the back of her head. Charlie gasped when she saw her sister slowly lighting up.
Jeanne was glowing.
"Jeanne..." Charlie took small steps towards her. "I need you to come with me. We need to get out of here."
Then, like a finger snap, Jeanne reverted back to her original state. Charlie's mirror image stared at her blankly; Jeanne's eyes revealing nothing but emptiness again. There's got to be something that's stirring this up inside her, Charlie thought. Jeanne took steps toward her and Charlie felt a surge of relief, until Jeanne walked too close to her. When her face was only an inch away, Jeanne reached out for something next to Charlie.
Madison screamed: "Jeanne, no!"
The alarms blared. Through the ear-piercing noise, Charlie heard heavy footsteps slapping wildly on the marble floor. She stared at her twin helplessly.
"Jeanne, what have you done?"
CHAPTER 15: Opportunity Costs
"Please, Jeanne," Charlie beckoned in a last ditch attempt to convince her sister. But Jeanne’s expression didn’t change. Madison pulled Charlie's hand.
"We have to go, Charlie," Madison said, sounding scared for the first time. "They're going to catch us. We still have a shot if we run. Come on!"
She freed her hand from Madison's grip without shifting her gaze away from Jeanne. "I don't know what they did to you, but you have to trust me, Jeanne. Let me in. Let me get you through this." Charlie reached out to take Jeanne's hand. Jeanne flinched and backed away as the moment of recognition came back and just as fleetingly disappeared. Charlie had so many things to tell her sister, so many years to make up for; instead of a happy reunion, she found herself running out of time and running away from pursuers.
The guards were at the door. An exasperated Madison groaned and poised herself to fight while Charlie, who had finally realized that her sister wasn’t in her right mind, joined her in the defensive. The guards, each holding a gun, barged in one by one as the door was too small for a massive simultaneous attack. At the end of the hall she saw a bespectacled guy in a white coat. He can wait, she thought.
What Charlie didn't see was the one sandwiched in between the last guard and the lab coat guy.
Charlie and Madison flung the guards to the wall with relative ease, their bullets stopping mid-flight and tumbling to the floor. Madison kept the fallen at bay, pinning their arms with her mind while Charlie took care of the oncoming wave. Their teamwork had fared well so far, despite Charlie making rash decisions in her desire to retrieve her sister.
It’s true what they say: love can make you blind. But at the same time, love can make you see, and to me, it’s crystal-clear. Everything I’ve done up to this point, every sacrifice, every challenge I surpassed, was all worth seeing my sister in the flesh. It was no longer a figment of her imagination that she had a friend she couldn’t see and, more importantly, she was no longer alone. She’d often felt like there was something missing, something that should be with her. Sarah and Carl were amazing parents, but Charlie just couldn’t shrug off the partial incompleteness. The hollowness in her chest she was not even aware of quickly filled up upon seeing her twin sister alive. Now that Jeanne was here, Charlie would do everything in her power never to let her go.
When Hilary came into view, Charlie's knees buckled under her weight. Her friend’s expression was blank, and there was a gun pointed at her temple. The last of the guards held Hilary at gunpoint, and she didn't look like she had the slightest idea what was happening, nor the slightest care. Either way, it gnawed on Charlie that Hilary was being used as a puppet and a pawn.
"Don't move or I shoot her," the guard said. Charlie started to focus on the gun in his hand, but he was quick to notice. "Don't even think about it. I feel even the slightest anything and I pull the trigger."
Charlie knew there were other options, but she didn't want to risk her friend’s life by trying the untested. She waved her hand at Madison from behind, who groaned but understood the gesture and let go of the guards as Charlie requested. They all stood up and pointed their guns at them while Jeanne casually walked across the room and out the door, where a figure Charlie assumed to be Amanda stood in the shadows, waiting for her. Charlie’s chest tightened as if all her oxygen was being suctioned out of her body.
Charlie couldn’t describe the feeling with words; she had never felt asphyxiated, especially not the kind that was caused by a blatant betrayal.
She watched Jeanne’s back, longing for another moment with her sister. Having Carl and Sarah as parents allowed Charlie a great childhood. She was loved by two people who adored her even if she wasn’t biologically theirs. She never dealt with unrequited love simply because she was inexperienced. Yet here was her spitting image, her blood, walking away from her like she didn’t matter. Like nothing she’d done to find her mattered.
“Why?” Charlie sniffled, holding back her tears. Madison grabbed her hand and squeezed hard.
She said in a low voice, while guns were pointed at them: “Remember what you told me earlier? Don’t let it get to you.”
The man in the lab coat took slow and deliberate steps toward the girls, holding up two syringes. "This won't hurt one bit," he said with a smile. A stinging pain erupted in Charlie's arm, and she fell limp on the floor. She saw Madison fall on the floor with eyes closed, and then the world turned black for Charlie as she lost consciousness.
When Charlie came to, she found herself in an infirmary stripped of all furnishings. She immediately rushed to the door and pounded. “Let me out of here!”
“Shut up!” shouted a male voice from the opposite side of the door. Charlie recognized it as Bradley’s.
“Open the door, Bradley!” Charlie said.
“We are not allowed to do that,” said a smaller voice that was unmistakably Hilary’s.
The sound of her friend’s voice shifted Charlie’s words. “Hilary? Hilary, I know it’s you. Please let me out, Hilary. Please. Snap out of it,” Charlie begged. “I know we haven’t known each other for very long but that doesn’t make you any less dear to me. Please, Hilary. I need to see Jeanne.”
None of the voices replied to her plea. Then she heard a faint screaming. Charlie pressed her ear to the door and heard Madison’s high-pitched voice calling for help.
Charlie pounded on the door harder. “Stop! Don’t hurt her!” The screaming grew stronger and more intense, as if the person was being tortured. Charlie’s pounding became heavier and more insistent. “Madison has nothing to do with this!”
When the screaming stopped, the only sound that remained was sobbing that echoed through the halls. Charlie remembered Madison’s reassurance that even if things didn’t pan out, they had tried. Now Charlie heard her from a distance, her cries echoing. Charlie couldn’t imagine what was being done to Madison, but suddenly she was inundated with wrath.
“I SAID STOP HURTING HER!” Charlie screamed and with all her might. She flung the door open with her powers, loosening it from its hinges and causing the heavy metal door to fall on Bradley.
He may be gifted with superhuman strength, but he was not invincible. He also can’t regenerate, so the male sentinel just lay there with labored breaths.
Hilary started throwing fireballs in Charlie’s direction, but she redirected each of them to the side.
“Hilary! Don’t, please!” She didn’t stop firing until Charlie bound Hilary’s hands and gently pushed her to the side. “I’m so sorry, Hilary. I promise to come back for you.”
Charlie ran to the exit only to stop dead in her tracks. Jeanne stood outside brandishing a gentle yet menacing smile on her face, as if she knew something that Charlie didn't. Charlie’s instinct was to run and embrace her sister, but there was something in the way Jeanne hugged her back that was wrong. She moved an inch away from Jeanne’s face and studied her carefully.
“Jeanne, do you know who I am?” Her sister nodded, but Charlie wasn’t convinced. Charlie realized she’d dropped her guard with Hilary so she became defensive, expecting another attack. But when she looked, her friend was no longer making any attempt and merely standing near the door. With a short breather, Charlie looked back at her sister. Jeanne held Charlie’s hand, but the connection wasn’t there. It was like an electric current resisted by a plastic covering.
“Let’s go, we have to go now!” Charlie told Jeanne. “We have to get Madison and get out of here. I promise to explain later.” She pulled her sister and ran through the halls until she saw the exit. As she pushed the metal bar, she expected a whiff of outdoor air but instead saw a white light.
Wait, what?
Then she heard a loud thud behind her. Amanda and Hilary were closing the door. Charlie realized that she was back at the infirmary, only inches away from the steel bed positioned in the middle. Charlie turned to Jeanne, who was a few steps ahead of her. She thought it odd Jeanne’s hair wasn’t as long anymore. It was cut to shoulder-length. She placed her hands on Jeanne’s shoulders. “Jea---” Charlie gasped. The person in front of her was not Jeanne. It was Kio.
Charlie was caught in a moment of confusion. Then she saw Jian standing on the side, the last of the hallways slowly fading, revealing the entirety of the room. Kio grabbed her from behind and pushed her to the bed, strapping her in place. She pushed Kio to the wall, but before she could unlatch herself from captivity, a heavy object that smelled of iron was attached to her head. When she looked above to see who put it there, it was Hilary.
"Hilary, what are you doing?! Stop!"
She struggled to free herself until a figure appeared in the doorway. "Well, what do you know? Our little hero is awake," Amanda said. Charlie tried to locate tools around the room she could use. There was nothing. When Charlie attempted to use her telekinetic powers to throw Amanda, a stinging pain shot through her skull. Charlie screamed, the pain in her head unbelievable.
Amanda laughed, satisfied. “There’s no point trying that in here, Charlie dear. You won’t be able to use your powers.” She was now within arm’s length from Charlie. “I don’t know what you were thinking. Did you really believe you could escape ANDREI?” Amanda’s sly smile transformed into a contorted face of rage. “I welcome you with open arms and this is what you do?!” Charlie looked the other way, but Amanda held her head in place. “You will not disrespect me by not listening! You have no right!"
It wasn't Amanda’s voice nor her tight grip that made Charlie retract and become momentarily immobile. When Charlie looked her in the eye, Amanda’s were filled with hostility and animosity. Charlie had never seen that before. Amanda was mad. Her eyes revealed a fury bent on exacting revenge. From who and for what, she didn't know. It made Charlie feel helpless. She knew well how emotions could drive one to recklessness.
"What is it with you, Charlie? I've had it easy with the other kids, even with your sister," Amanda said, wheeling in a metal cart with a bunch of syringes and vials. "You fascinate me. I like that."
"W-what are you going to do?" Charlie demanded.
"Oh, this?" Amanda said, holding up a syringe. "I'm going to draw a blood sample from you so I can study you."
At the mention of blood, Charlie flinched. Her arms tensed. "You can't do that!"
"Oh, really?" Amanda chuckled. "Watch me."
Charlie felt the needle pierce her skin. "No!" Tears spilled. "Why are you doing this?" she asked in an almost inaudible voice.
"Why am I doing this?" Transferring the blood from the syringe to the vial, Amanda reveled in the satisfaction of seeing Charlie reduced to a subject of her experiment. She was still in control, unbeatable, undefeatable. "Because I can, Charlie. Simply because I can."
The fact that Amanda toyed with her literally and figuratively made Charlie fume. She’d had enough; she bit her lip, preparing for the oncoming pain and focused on what Amanda was holding. The headmaster-turned-megalomaniac was caught by surprise when the vial of Charlie's blood burst in Amanda's hands. She thought of the times when her powers were supposedly disabled and yet she was able to use them, but when Charlie tried to do it again her head throbbed with a sharp ache. Amanda whipped her head back and charged at Charlie. "How did you-"
Amanda stopped short before erupting into a manic fit. "You know, you remind me of your father. We were a perfect team, your father and me. But he was so stubborn; he refused to see things from my viewpoint. Had John been smarter, he wouldn't have married that mediocre woman whose children he sired."
"Don't ever talk about my parents that way!" Charlie screamed.
"It's not my fault they didn't live long enough for you to find out yourself."
Now Charlie was bathing in fury while Amanda continued her tirade. "Our discovery could've helped the world, but your parents were cowards. They feared that that our creation would be exploited and abused by greedy individuals thirsty for more power. Bollocks! We could've been those people who benefitted from our own creation. They were all idiots! Joshua could've been with me, could've lorded over the students here at ANDREI."
Joshua isn't insane after all, Charlie thought.
"But Joshua preferred to commit suicide. And for what? Advocacy? Morality?" Amanda laughed bitterly.
She thinks he’s dead, but I know he’s not.
"He’s better off dead. This world has no room for his morality. Had he lived, the world would have snuffed the life out of him slowly until nothing was left.” Amanda lo
oked at young girl. “That's exactly what's going to happen to you, Charlie. I'm not the bad guy you believe I am. I have... unconventional ways, but I do not harm anyone who agrees with me. So I'm going to give you another chance."
"I am never going to help you, Amanda," Charlie said firmly.
She shrugged. "Alright, then. Just so you know, your so-called friends have been and will continue to 'help' me. Your sister, too. I'm sure you've figured that out I can control the entire school population. I can make them do whatever I want them to. Your friend Madison broke free because she mimicked your powers, but she can be tamed."
Charlie baited Amanda, "Do you have any idea what it feels like to have family? To have kids? Would you have done this to your children? Would you willingly subject them to a lifetime of robotic existence? Would you?!"
Amanda's face softened. "Of course I would, and did, for a time. My little Saraphina..." She stared into space.
Joshua had mentioned the same name. Saraphina must be Amanda’s daughter.
Amanda spoke again, more to herself than to Charlie. Lost in thought, she orated, "Saraphina, my little baby girl. Born in Port-au-Prince, to parents who didn't realize her worth. Left her with relatives who didn't know better." Without meaning to, Amanda clenched both her fists. "Poverty was abound. Saraphina was not spared. She became my personal informal tour guide and was grateful for whatever I gave her to make it through the day. Two weeks in Haiti and I forgot about my career in research. Woke up wanting to see more of Saraphina and hear her unusual laughter. I no longer cared about the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis I was supposed to be working on."
Amanda was caught up in a memory. "I looked forward to the next day, knowing I could spend it with her. She possessed wisdom that went well beyond her age. My dear Saraphina was extremely optimistic, a ray of sun in a dark city. I was ready to adopt her, you see. I had the papers prepared. The day I got the go-signal from my legal counsel was also the day Saraphina was taken away."
The Unlocked (Charlie Hartley Series Book 1) Page 20