Heartstrings

Chapter Sixteen

When you’re staring up at a picture of Debra Scats she looks friendly. Short curls of white blond hair and radiant brown eyes. She will smile, wearing her tailor made business suit. Her hands will be in her lap, fingers interlaced. It will be like looking at the perfect person. There will be no wrinkles, no crooked smiles, no bad angles, because she is Debra Scats.

   When you’re looking at Debra Scats in person there’s not much difference. She looks shorter, a little lanky and has the same suit on. More than anything else, there is an aura of superiority. When you look at Debra Scats you are looking at the person who decided you were a Heartstring.

   “Debra.” I said calmly. “Can I come in?”

   She smiles, revealing a row of perfectly white teeth. “Of course, Celeste. I’ve been waiting for you.” Debra gestures behind her and I walk towards the release panel, every muscle in my body twitching to stay where I am, or run back to safety where Hayes is.

   You aren’t safe here! She will kill you! If you stay back and regroup, there is a chance of fighting with her. Don’t surrender.

   Celeste!

   I close my eyes and let everything fade into the background. When I open them again, Debra is still waiting calmly for me. “Sorry.” I say, and walk up to her. Taking one last glance back at the Edge, I manage a smile. I see Debra staring curiously. “Reminiscent.” I say, and she just smiles.

   “It’s perfectly alright. What would humans be without emotions?” She holds my gaze and I manage a nod. Conversation with her sounds so normal. It’s almost as if she didn’t actually want to kill me.

   The release panel closes behind me. I’m alone with Debra now. She gestures for me to follow her. I recognise the room. Where Officials broke in and fought Hayes, as I pounded on the door to be let out. Looking at the release panels I shudder involuntarily, remembering how Hayes rammed himself inside one to keep safe.

   “It’s quite amazing what you’ve done in three days.” She says, with a gentle smile. “I’m sorry about your parents. That was never my intention. We were just trying to reach you, but … there are casualties in every war.”

   My hands clench at my sides, but I ignore it. Stay calm. Surprise her. Surprise yourself. “Yes, there are.” I manage to be as civil as I can.

   Debra pushes open a door and leads me down a white hallway. We pass three doors before she opens another one. My fingers twitch. She notices, of course. “Don’t bother counting, Celeste.” She looks at me and smiles sympathetically. “You’re not getting out.”

   My blood ran cold. It’s almost as if she knows everything I’m thinking. “I wasn’t planning to.” I murmur.

   She laughs gently. “Of course you were. You’re young and smart. You think you have it all under control. But you won’t get out, because it’s impossible.” Her voice was so certain. She closed the door behind me, and we stopped walking. “Do you hear that?” I stopped, listening intently. A soft rumbling in the distance echoed to us. “That’s a friend of mine, …” It rumbled again, and this time I heard a scream as well. “And it’ll stop you from escaping.”

    I meet her eyes, trying to drone out the screams and rumbling. It’s obvious she did this deliberately, she arranged for me to hear it. No rest for the wicked, I think without meaning to. I lick my dry, chapped lips and manage, “I’m sure it will.”

   I focus on the room I’m in. A large, rectangular room. A sloping ceiling that arches upwards and downwards at odd angles. Around the room are a series of desks, all with computers and heart rate monitors. It seemed fairly normal, until my eyes landed on the cages.

   That’s when my breathing stopped. And my heart stopped. I stared at the cages with the steel bars and found myself panicking. I took a step forward until I was directly in front of the cages. They were taller than me, just small enough to feel like confinement. My fingers brushed against the cool steel bars and I froze. Without turning around, I whispered, “This is for me, isn’t it?”

   Something that sounded vaguely affirmative came from Debra. “It’s interesting watching you figure things out, Celeste. You’re very quick.”

    I hadn’t realised I was gripping the bars until I felt the steel under my fingers turn warm from my touch. I dropped my hand and turned around. “So … how exactly were you planning to get my wings?”

   Debra walked over to one of the desks. “Well, first I need to know if your wings are actually suitable.” I looked at the computer. Never had a piece of machinery looked so menacing. “I need to run a series of tests, experiments, and take samples before I exert them to the real scenario.”

   “Test one being blood samples.” I clenched my hands into fists to stop them from shaking. Debra continued. “Then spinal fluid. I also need to check your genetic strain for impurities.” She looked behind me, and managed a smile. “Isn’t that right, Dr Scott?”