Sixteen (ON HOLD)

4.5 The Room

Kate struggled against her restraints but the electricity coursing through her body made her weak. With blurred vision she tried to look around the room but the harsh light rebounded off of everything that was silver and white and the glare was unbearable. She shut her eyes. The sound of Sadie crying softly could be heard somewhere in the background.

There was a tiny metallic clink, shuffling, another clink of metal, more movement, clink, clink. Kate couldn’t place the sound. She desperately wanted to turn around and look for Sadie and see what was causing that noise but every time she moved a new surge of electricity shot through her body. There were small sticky pads on her head, her arms, her back, her legs. Thin wires were everywhere, running out of the sticky pads, laying across her body and slithering down to the floor where they were connected to a grey box that hummed steadily along.

Kate heard voices, male, talking in low tones behind her. She could tell by the flat, expressionless inflection that they were agents.

“We have to find it with this group; we’re running out of time.”

“Time is irrelevant to us here, just concentrate on the mission. Find the transmitter and we can go home.”

Closing her eyes, Kate tried to connect with Sadie. It was impossible though, each time she tried to hear Sadie’s thoughts all she could make out was a dizzy grey mass of fear and incoherent ramblings.  One thought could be made out clearly, “not again.” Sadie had been through this before although the thought that she had survived it once before was of little comfort to Kate at that moment.  

She thought about David Sellers, where was he in all of this? Was he trying to find her, did he understand? Surely he wouldn’t leave Kate to die at the hands of these emotionless beings?

Trying to sit perfectly still to avoid being shocked again, Kate’s body grew tired. Her heavy eyelids closed and she was thankful as she drifted off to sleep. Her dreams were full of memories, human memories. She watched herself get dressed up, pulling her fingers through her long yellow hair, separating the artificial waves and curls she had just created there. Looking in the mirror frightened her, the girl staring back at her looked like a stranger to her. She frowned, and the girl in the mirror frowned back.

The dreams and memories wandered as Kate drifted in and out of consciousness. There were parties, and friends and laughter shared with a small boy named Kyle who referred to himself as her brother. Kate was fond of the child; even though she was sure they had never met.

Somewhere in front of her a heavy door swung open and then closed. Kate painfully lifted her head and saw the shadows move in front of her. The door swung open again, and closed. Again it opened, again and again. Kate counted the number of times in her head. The door opened and closed sixteen times in a row.

They were messing with her. They wanted her to know that they had her figured out. Kate tried once more to turn her head, as the clinking noise had started up again. She was able to turn just halfway, not enough to see behind her. Instead she could see just the floor a few feet behind her chair. The floor was white and smooth but a wash of thick dark liquid was slowly creeping across the floor towards her. That’s when Kate smelled it, the blood. The room was heavy with it. Warm tears slid down her cheeks and the world went mercifully dark once more.