The 7th Child

Chapter 11: The Directive

May, 2014

The next 2 years went by pretty quick. Legai's mental state slowly deteriorated, and most people credited it to the experimentation and gruel training that started gradually affecting him. The Doctor took him in for a special examination course to monitor his condition, but nothing changed what was happening to him. His friends were all still there for him. They continued to have laughs and fun memories with each other, but something about it just wasn't the same with Legai. Still he just ignored it, it probably was from all the extra tests and stuff anyways. One day, Jennifer was walking through the halls of the facility, conversing with a worker when all of the sudden she heard screaming coming from the childrens room. She and the worker ran to the room, to find another worker on the floor, holding a bleeding hand while two others tried calming down Levia, who had a dagger pointed at them. Levia blocked them from Lenani while screaming, "WHAT DID YOU DO? WHAT DID YOU DO TO US?" She yelled poking the dagger at anyone she tried to get close to. Jennifer, however, was rushed inside of the room by Legai. "Mom! Thank God, I don't know what's happening. They just started going crazy!" He said, pulling his mother to the side of the room where the rest of the children were huddled together behind Ikemi who was trying to talk down Levia.

Levia, whose rage has built up to a dangerous point and is now holding a knife made of ice, yelled at Ikemi in Arabic. "What is she saying?" Jennifer asks her. "What language even is that?" Apollo exclaims. Ikemi replies rushed, "She's speaking Arabic!" She says before going back to calming down Levia. The whole group is stunned, "How does she know Arabic?" Jennifer asks. "How do you know Arabic?" Jackson adds. "She taught me a while ago! And she's from Egypt of course she knows Arabic!" Ikemi responds to both of them. Jennifer refocuses, "What is she saying?" She asks again. "She keeps repeating, 'They poisoned me! They poisoned us!'". Ikemi continues to try to calm Levia down, who has pushed Lenani back into the bathroom, guarding her as she curled up on the floor in what seemed to be pain. Levia seemed to say one phrase in Arabic that caught Ikemi's attention. A suspenseful pause befell the room as Ikemi repeated the phrase in confusion. Ikemi's face went from suspicion to realization as she turned to everyone else, "You guys better leave." She says.

This raised confusion, and Legai protested, "But Keke, what's-" "Just get out of here Legai! All of you! Now!" Ikemi said with a sense of urgency. Everyone, including Jennifer and the workers left curiously, but Ikemi reached out her hand, "Wait, Jen. I might need your help." She says. Jennifer turns to Legai to command him to wait outside and goes back into the room. Jennifer kneels down in front of Levia, who still had the knife pointed at her but lowered it slowly as she trusts Jennifer more than most of the adults there. "Listen hun, just breathe. Deep breath, in and out." Jennifer says, reassuringly, "Just walk me through what happened. Start with when you woke up this morning." She says, slowly taking the knife out of her hands as Ikemi stood beside her nervously, trying to peek over her shoulder so she can check on Lenani, who was curled on the floor in pain. Outside the door, the three boys wait patiently, making small talk with each other, "What do you guys think is happening with her?" Apollo begins, sitting with his back to the wall. Jackson, standing adjacent to Apollo, responds, "I'm calling it, it's her first period." He says bluntly. Legai and Apollo are shocked by this answer, reprimanding Jackson for his lack of respect for her privacy, "What? You asked!" Jackson said defending himself. Legai, pacing in the middle of the hall answers back in a hushed voice, "I know, but you can't just talk about stuff like that. Remember what happened when we asked about Ikemi's first period?" He asked. "I still have the scars." Jackson said, zoning out as he thought about perhaps one of the scariest things to happen in his life, and that's saying a lot in The Facility.

All the boys decide to change the subject to something less horrific, and Apollo nudges Jackson with his foot, "Hey, perfect time to ask him." He said. Jackson's face lights up with excitement, and he turns to Legai, "Yo bro, I gotta question." He says. Legai looks up at him, "What's up?". "Does water ever taste metallic to you?" He asks with a grin on his face. Apollo chuckles in the background, and Legai is puzzled, "What do you mean?" He asked. Jackson explained, "Well, it's this thing going around on the internet that if you swim in water and it tastes metallic it's because it's got electric volts in it." He starts. 'Why would you drink the water you swim in?' Legai thought to himself. Jackson continued, "So me and Apollo have this bet, cause since you're...made of lightning..... I thought that water would always taste metallic. And Apollo is wrong." He says, pointing a thumb behind him to Apollo. Apollo defends himself, "I just can't see how it would make sense.". Jackson swats at him playfully, "Ok, come on. 1 hour in the break room hangs in the balance. Does water taste metallic or nah?" Jackson says, as he and Apollo wait anxiously for an answer.