The Project

Chapter Seventeen: Feeling

Me and Tyler had decided to go and talk to group ten before we got out of the cafeteria last night. After we got our breakfast, we headed over to their table. I sat down by a petite blonde girl with green eyes and freckles dotting her cheeks. 

Tyler sat down next to a pale boy with short brown hair and hazel eyes. I had already put the rings on and lowered the box volume, so I tapped the girl's shoulder. She looked over to me with a bored expression.

Her eyes widened and she immediately went back to playing with her mashed potatoes. I cleared my throat and she winced. "What's your name?" She glanced up and me. "U-Uh.. Cassy." I nodded. "You went for testing right?" She nodded and put her fork down to focus on her shaking hands. 

"What happened?" She opened her mouth to speak but shut it back in place a second later.

"Come on, I don't bite."

She shifted uncomfortably and looked up to me with fearful eyes. "You w-won't tell them I t-told you right?" I frowned, but nodded. She seemed to believe me and continued. "T-They.. injected something into m-my neck.." Tears pricked her dull green eyes. 

"I-It made me feel weird.." Her eyes widened again and she clenched her fists at her sides. "I was a-angry.." Her eyes darted around the room and she fell silent.

"Angry?" The monotoned voice mumbled. She nodded and raised one of her hands to clench onto my dark brown shirt. "T-They're all monsters.." She whispered. "I-I'm afraid now." She held tighter to my shirt and looked into my confused blue eyes. 

"I'm afraid I'm g-going to snap at a-any moment." She released my shirt to scratch at her arm. "I can f-feel it inside m-me." 

"C-Crawling around.." She started to scratch harder. "Th-Through my v-veins." Her nails dig into her skin and draw blood. "Th-They said it'd b-be gone b-by now!" Blood trickled from her arm and onto the floor. "I CAN STILL FEEL IT!" Her voice became louder and the guards rushed over to restrain her. She started to struggle. 

"NO! NO, STOP!" She tugged one arm away from the guard and started to scratch at her face.

He grabbed her arm again and her nails dragged against her face, three lines of blood ran down her cheeks and onto her pastel blue shirt. They dragged her away from the table and out of the cafeteria. "DON'T LET THEM-" Her sentence was cut off by the doors slamming shut behind them. Everyone at table seven besides Tyler and I seemed unfazed. 

Tyler got off his seat and sat in between me and the brown haired boy. The pale boy who hadn't responded to Tyler's questions finally looked up from his food and looked over to me. "You know, Cassy went through the worst of it." 

His words were calm and unnerving considering what just happened. "How the hell are you so calm when one of your group was just clawing at her arms?" Tyler looked over to him in bewilderment.

The pale boy tilted his head in sincere confusion. "What should I feel besides happy that it wasn't me?" Tyler's mouth gaped. "After all, it's us or them." Tyler's face paled and he visibly gulped. The boy offered him a half smile and held out his hand. "My name's Daniel by the way." Tyler didn't move to grab it, so I did. "Mcloughlin."

 He nodded and rested his hand on the table. "So, what happened to all of you? Cassy wouldn't give me a straight answer." 

The boy nodded. "Yeah, she's good at that." He looked back at his food. "They.. injected us with something. I don't know what, but it changed us considerably." He tapped his chin in thought. "I think the side effects are.. drowsiness, being unaware, anger or feeling an unnerving sense of calm." I nodded. The boy must have the latter. 

"But, it varies for each person." He shrugged. "Those are just the ones we experienced.." He pointed to a girl with curly, fire red hair. "Fiona experienced drowsiness. Connor experienced being unaware."

"-And Cassy's was anger. We Don't exactly know what Bella's is yet, though. She's the girl with dark brown hair and grey eyes over there." He flicked his gaze to a guy with black hair and brown eyes. 

"Gabriel's is the same as Cassy's, but he doesn't lash out. They're both adopted." He shifted and looked back to me. "I don't know what it is about you, Mcloughlin." He pointed to me. "But they talk a lot about you." 

I narrowed my eyes at him and he smiled. "I'm guessing you have the role of Jesus in this world." His smile dissipated for a second. "Better be careful though, the Romans don't play well with people like you." He gestured around the room with his hand then looked back to me. 

"Fear can do.. many things to people." His smile returns and he goes back to eating his mashed potatoes. 

I quickly finished my meal. What did he mean by 'I play the role of Jesus'? Tyler nudged me and I looked over at him. "Look man, we need to get as far away as possible from these people. They're freaking me out." 

I nodded and we both got up to sit with our.. friends. I sat next to Felix and Tyler sat with Mark. "Mcloughlin, what did they say?" I looked up at Mark. "That girl was pulled away.. but none of us got a view of what happened." 

"She.. went nuts. That's all you really need to know." 

Mark gave me a questioning look but nodded and went back to eating. "So.. how have you been, Mcloughlin? Is everything okay?" Phil asked, looking up from his half eaten food to give me a smile. "Everything is.. fine. Just fine." He nodded and went back to eating. Felix gave Phil a puzzled look and then looked back to me. I just shook my head. He shrugged and turned to talk with Ethan.