Star-Crossed

Chapter 8

     As the light shines on me , i remember whats going on. I stand up, and i am in a room with a door, and no windows. A sign on the wall tells me " Go out the door". Ok pretty straight forward.

     I open the door to find a hallway. I start to walk down it, and the door i exited disappears.  I hear a sound, like a rain storm, and i turn around.

    From an open pipe in the wall, water starts to rush out. Of course then i notice the open wire on the ground. I start to sprint down the hall, with the electrified water right behind me. Up ahead the hall way just stops and I start to panic, banging on the wall.

      The water splashes over my ankles, and I scream as the electricity runs through my body, causing a series of ticks and tremors that render me weak. The water level rises, covering me. So now i am being electrocuted, AND drowning. My body is smashed against the wall as currents whirl around. I try to calm myself, to swim, but i feel my eyes closing........

       I wake up in the exact same room, with the sign reading the same thing. I walk out into the hall, and this time there are 3 doors. "Pick one", reads another freakin sign.

      I choose the left door and walk into a burning room. The flames lick my legs, charring my clothes and rendering the skin beneath a blistered, scarlet mess. I scream, and try to leave, but the door is locked.

     Across the room, in the middle of the flames, is a key. Great, i have to go through the fire to get the key to get out. I rip off the remainder of my shirt and cover my face to protect it. Picking my way through the flames, I wade painfully through waist high flames and charred air until i can breathe no more smoke. I collapse to the floor, and feel the flames cover me. I shriek, and roll around to put out the flames, but there is no hope. I look down to my hands and see blackened, blistered horrors, dead to the pain from being essentially roasted. I black out, again......

     And wake up in the room with the stupid sign. I leave, to again find three doors. I pick the middle door and walk out into a city street.

     This isnt so bad, I think to myself. But then the crap hits the fan. Out of nowhere, a man appears. He of course,is armed, has a scalpel. I recognize him... the pervert doc from stage 2.  He blocks the alley and smirks at me.

     " Ready to play a game honey? To get past me you have to give me something in return." He laughs, and i understand what exactly he wants.

     I turn and run, but the door behind me opens to a cliff. He laughs "Decisions Decisions, which one will it be Cass?" he snakes his arm around me and pulls me to the cliff. "Let me have some fun, and then you leave a ok, or jump for it. Hmmmm??"

     You can guess which i chose. Yep....the cliff. As i fall, i hear Leo's voice, laughing lovingly telling me it will be ok. Then i hit the bottom.......

      I was really starting to hate this room, so as i walked out, i punched the sign, shattering the glass covering it. The simulation wavered a bit, the dimensions distorting. I pick the right door, and all of my fears are unleashed on me.

     It is set up like a museum, each glass window showing one of my worst nightmares. In one, I die in childbirth,bleeding out as my child screams. In another, I slit Sage's throat, no remorse on my face as his blood cascades around us. Elle is disecting me in the far right, while Leo is bleeding out right beside me. I hear all of them overlapping, the screams and terror. I feel all of the pain at once, and feel the hot, slick blood.

    I fall to my knees, in shock from all the sights displayed so openly to me. Then, from a drain in the middle of the floor, acid pours in. Not enough to kill me, but enough that i lose the skin from my hands and calves as i scream and watch the skin disappear. I curl up on the floor, trying to block it all out, when i notice another stupid sign.

     "Accept us,and Face us" it reads. It has a hammer beside it. I realize what i have to do.

     I walk to the window where i am dying giving birth, and smash the glass. As soon as it shatters, the pain in my stomach fades to a dull ache. I stand, and brake the image of me slitting my brothers throat. As i do so, my hands begin to bleed. While Elle is removing my liver, the window fractures, and i stop cramping. When Leo is as white as milk, i shatter the glass, and feel his breath on my neck,and his hands on my back, urging me to finish this.

    The last window, which hadn't noticed til now, was a future in which my brother turned against me. Before i smash the image, i watch Sage betray me, breaking my neck as I plead with him, and a shadow figure, but what and who  it is is to foggy to tell. I swing the hammer to the window, screaming, and wake up in the tank. This is what they want of us. Fears faced, I surface, and am greeted by a familliar face, and familliar lips.