Unwanted Touch

Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Futile

My mother's eyes don't open at my voice.

"Mum? It's me, Aurora."

Her head turns very slightly and her swollen eyes peer over at me.

"My baby." She croaks longingly and goes to reach out for me, the restraint stopping her.

I step towards her instead but the guards raise their guns to halt me.

"There is no time for a family reunion," the woman in charge shakes her head, "We must get straight to work."

I ignore her, "Our friends are on their way down, Mum, it's going to be ok. They're coming to rescue us."

"They will never get down here, you naive little pest." The woman spits at me and I narrow my eyes at her. "Restrain it and lets bring them both back to the work station." She orders.

My arms are locked on to and I am pushed behind the people wheeling my mother on the table. We go through a doorway with plastic flaps hanging from it and into another section of the room. It looks even more sinister than before, terrifying tools and machinery everywhere I look.

Mum is lowered down horizontally and hooked up to monitors. I kick and fight, but still they manage to get me laying on a metal table next to her, immediately strapping me down.

"Make sure that one is down tight, we don't want it getting away on us again." The woman smiles as a guard fastens a leather strap across my neck.

"Let me go!!" I scream helplessly with anger.

"Isn't this sweet," She hums, "A mother and daughter, dying side by side."

I grunt and squeal, trying anything I can to break free. My fury was spurring me on and making me try harder and harder to get off this table.

"Aurora, my child." I hear Mum's sweet voice. All anger and fear falls away suddenly and I am a kid again, innocent and safe.

"Mum?" I look over at her through tears. Her head is turned to face me but her eyes and mouth are closed. She looks on the edge of death, her body a victim of prolonged torture and violence. Her mind probably in not much better condition.

"I've missed you." I hear her voice again, realizing she's using her powers to speak to me.

I choke out a sobbing breath. "I missed you too."

"I thought I would never see you again. You were just a child, you would barely remember me. But I could never forget my daughter."

"I've never forgotten you, Mum, I remember. I've missed you everyday of my life."

I hear the scientists talking and tools being sharpened.

Is this the end? I discover my dead mother is alive and now we die?

"Aurora, I love you to the moon and back."

A memory flashes before my eyes of me as a child, my mother tucking me into bed and kissing my forehead softly. She would always tell me that phrase as I fell asleep, the famous saying being a play of words on our last name.

"I love you too, Mum." Tears leak from my eyes and roll down my cheeks.

The scientists fire up a machine and send a wave of electricity through me, zapping my brain and rattling my bones. No sooner has the current stopped, another is jolted into me making my body jerk. I yelp out in agony as they calmly record results from my reaction. Another scientist brings over a large needle full of thick silver liquid and pushes my head to the side. I feel the point of it on the back of my neck, slowly piercing my skin. I scream in protest but no one in the room even flinches. I look at my mother as they pull open her eyes and shine a torch in them, not getting much of a response.

I silently pray for our friends and hope they are not all laying dead above ground. I pray that any second they will burst through the door and free us. But seconds pass as the fluid is pumped into my veins, and still, they don't come. The liquid begins to burn under my skin and I can feel it working its way up to my brain and down my spinal cord. I can't hold my pain in any longer so I let out a futile plead.

"HELP MEEE!!!" I scream at the top of my lungs, wishing it would be enough to stop the pain.

It isn't.

"I'm sorry," I hear mum's voice, faint but clear.

"Mum don't die!" I cry, "You can't die! You can't leave me again, please!"

She is silent, then something begins to happen. I can feel the ground trembling beneath me, the people in the room pausing to examine what's happening. Still looking at my mum, I can see light beaming from her now open eyes and mouth. The scientist steps back from her, and the woman in charge has a look of shock on her face I never thought I would see.

Mum's body pulses with energy, her entire body letting off a bright light. Her back begins to lift of the table, her restraints only holding her for a second before breaking. Her body lifts up like she is an angel rising to meet heaven, and for a moment I think that that might be true. She turns so she is vertical and faces the room of people, her hair floating mystically around her head and defying gravity in every possible way.

"Get away from my daughter!" She shouts, her voice holding a deep echo.

The light becomes so bright I have to shut my eyes and turn away. I feel a surge of heat and energy pulse through me and the rest of the room. It isn't particularly painful, just strange and causing me to feel fatigued.

I try to open my eyes again, but the tired feeling is now embedded in me.

I fall into a blank sleep.

*****

I sway with the step of whoever is carrying me. Their arms are strong under my back and knees, the warmth of their body against me.

I blink my eyes open and look up to see Quentin. He is looking straight forward, a determined expression on his face. It is night time, but the full moon is giving off enough light to just be able to see.

"What happened?" I croak.

Q looks down at me, "Don't try to talk, you're safe now."

I roll my head to look behind us and the light of a fire almost blinds me. The entire building is set alight, flames licking up the walls and bursting from the windows.

"My mum?" I whisper, suddenly concerned but lacking any energy to move.

"You're dad has her just up ahead, she will be ok." Q gestures his head slightly forward.

I look onward and sure enough, I can see the back of my dad and my mothers body in his arms.

"Everything is ok, Rory. Just rest and we will get you home."

I do as he says and close my eyes, scrunching his shirt in my fingers for comfort.

As I drift off once more, I can't help but wonder where everyone else is, or if they are even alive.

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