Beyond Control

Chapter 14

There comes the thundering footsteps that surround the entire building, rushing towards my cell.

I found the door out and began banging on it, pounding against the metal door till my hand hurt.

I could hear faint talkings from the person on the upper floor, but I didn't respond. It was extremely quiet over me pounding on the door but I managed to hear bits of it.

The clearest sentence I could hear out of the colossal explanation which had been uttered by the unknown was "I'm trying to help you."

Though it might seem to be true, I kept on calling for help since I refused to trust someone who'd just been remarked as a murderer wanting to kill me. He sounded panicky and stopped when the footsteps arrived at my cell.

The lights didn't turn on like I expected, instead, the door was opened in a matter of seconds and a few workers trampled into the room. All I could see was people wearing white coats which represented workers, rushing in and using a flashlight to point at me.

After ensuring no one broke into my cell, they asked through the observation window, "What happened?"

I was going to speak but I stopped to monitor my own shaking. I lowered myself onto the ground and sat whilst taking each shaky breath gradually.

The workers stood impatiently, they repeated the question in a rushed manner till they threatened to electrocute me again. When I tried to speak again, someone rushed into the room, footsteps loud and clumsy.

The workers stepped aside and their actions told me that someone with a higher rank had arrived. Without a second later, I see the dark colored clothes worn by the captain appear before the window. I couldn't see his expression or anyone's, since they're pointing the flashlight down on my face deliberately.

"Crystal," He called, loud enough for me to hear, "are you hurt?"

I shook my head with my eyes dilated, slowly processing what was going on whilst calming myself down. When Kaysen saw me silently fighting the panic attack, he turned away and spoke a few things to the workers. To that, the workers ran out of the observation room leaving only the two of us.

When I found myself in a better condition, I immediately raised my gaze to the upper floor again, checking and searching for any figure using the slight light source from the reflecting flashlight. There was nothing there, nothing other than the few workers who I assumed were sent there by the captain to inspect the scene.

It took a while but they restored the electricity that was cut off by an unknown worker. I squinted my eyes and saw the upper floor filled with light as well. The workers crowded the room, thoroughly searching for any marks left by the unknown. I tried looking for any suspicious individual in that room but they're all busy doing their work with indifferent movements.

"Did you see anything?" Kaysen asked, abruptly grabbing my attention away from the workers on the upper floor.

I shook my head, still not wanting to voice up.

"Nothing at all?" He asked again, indirectly convincing me to speak up.

I brought my gaze up to him, "I can't see anything, it's dark as hell.", I spoke, poorly managing my voice not to crack.

He nodded, then proceeded to ask, "So you heard him?"

"He was up there," I raised my shaking arm and pointed at the upper floor delicately, "He was knocking and I heard him muttering and telling me to be quiet in an impatient tone."

I left bits of it out since I didn't want to speak more.

"Well, I'll leave you to rest for now, and I'll be bringing some of the workers in for you to recognize their voice." He informed me before leaving again.

I settled myself back to the corner, sitting on the melting ice underneath me as my shaking began to ease. I watched the workers investigating the scenes as a way to calm myself down, hoping to search for any clues of the traitor amongst them.

There are a few workers who begin to express boredom when they're done searching the area but are told to be more meticulous. They wandered around the area, glancing on their surroundings leisurely as if they'd made themselves at home in this awful place. The upper floor was almost an empty room with the lack of furniture, given I was a worker told to cast about for evidence, I would be leaving this job.

After they're done with searching and find no evidence since the traitor was careful. I wondered how that person had managed to cause an electrical outage without alerting the crew of workers who are always on duty. I was surprised that they'd left the lights on after they left.

With the lights on, I could see everything around me clearly without fear of anything lurking in the dark.

I'm trying to help you.

That sentence popped into my mind abruptly. I felt cold sweats by my neck and chest as I realized the complicity of the current situation.

Kaysen remarked the intruder as a traitor amongst their crew. One who'd tried to kill me since I was a successful invention and could be life threatening and make changes in the future. At that time when he admonished me on that, he sounded absolutely austere. I read his expression which evolved from no lies and the incident earlier had justified his statement.

Even after Kaysen had warned me of the intruder himself, I'd still had doubts that they're just messing with me by putting up an act.

If the intruder incident he's talking about is true, I may have to be more sentient rather than sitting in this cell frivolously and obliviously to my surroundings.

While Kaysen is busy with the whole intruder and traitor stuff, I should take the chance to plan another escape since I've got a faint picture of this building's structure in my head ever since the last escape. I presume that if I could briefly make a plan and strategy regarding what I have.

I knew that it hadn't been long enough since my last escape attempt to discover their system, but I had to move before they could concoct another plan to seal off the slightest bit of chance I had of escaping.