Touched - Order of Odium: Book One

Michelle - 5

After the last experiment, where she had ended up killing John, they moved her to a different room. Both scientists, each in their way, had tried to comfort her and assure her that John's death was not her fault, but Michelle couldn't bring herself to believe them.

Intellectually she knew that she hadn't had any control over what had happened, emotionally she continued to blame herself. When she would lay in bed to sleep at night she would see his heart, still spurting out what blood it had left inside from before being pulled from the formerly functioning artery and vein system it had been attached to.

The gruesome memory would play in her mind at night like a video. Her touching the box, a sick squishy thud followed by spurts of blood as the heart pumped; a piece of human machinery removed from its host, trying to continue working without the necessary parts. John saying something behind her, the sounds of his body falling back against the wall and slumping down upon itself.

In her dreams, she was a witness to the events. A bystander with no ability to help, only able to watch the horrific events unfold. It was worse this way because she could see everything at once, or at least how her dreaming brain imagined and warped it. She could see the surprise on the two scientists' faces, followed by them scrambling to take notes; her horrified face as she noticed what she had summoned followed by her rushing to help John even though he was already dead, his body unaware of the situation at that time.

She continued to do experiments with the two scientists, Aleksander and Steven, and she was becoming better at summoning what they asked for, but still had room for plenty of improvement. The Order required her to go to bi-weekly psychiatric visits, something Michelle was unaware the Order had until recently.

The room she had been moved into was nice, much nicer than anything she had lived in below. The room was more of a suite, with a living room, bathroom, bedroom, a kitchen, and some weight machines as well as free weights in one section of her multi-purpose living room. It had all the latest technology she remembered from before joining the order, along with some things she had never dreamt of.

One portion of her living room could turn into a treadmill, a rectangle of what was usually her carpet turning into a rubber-like surface at the push of a button or by voice command. Controls for the treadmill were voice-activated and had sensors that could change the speed according to how fast she was running. It was as close to actual running that a treadmill could be. The wind could blow on her, and virtual reality screens could be made to rise around her to make it seem even more real.

When not working with the scientists or seeing the psychiatrist Michelle trained extremely hard; trying to keep her focus on her workouts rather than what she had done to John. Most days she would work herself so hard that she was too exhausted to do anything other than shower and sleep afterward. It was far from ideal, and she was becoming thinner than she would have liked, but she had to admit she did like the new muscle she was gaining. One of the best things about training so hard was that she could eat whatever she wanted and didn't have to worry about her weight.

Since being moved into this new suite of rooms she was given access to a concierge of sorts, who would get her most whatever she asked for, and kept track of her toiletries, food, and anything else that she used regularly but forgot to ask for. It was a huge difference from her old guard quarters where she had to go to the commissary to get what she wanted. Although the Order had so many different kinds of technology and artifacts that she assumed they had something that could read her mind and have what she wanted to be sent to her via teleportation or something, they didn't give the guards anything of the sort. It was all the same as living down below when it came to getting food, entertainment, etc...

She assumed it was due to the surprising amount of turnover with the guards. She knew that some of the things they guarded were dangerous and that sometimes an anomaly would occur with one of the artifacts, causing the death of one or more guards on duty. Until John, she had always assumed the being on C-Level wasn't that dangerous, as long as you didn't touch the artifact you were guarding. Michelle assumed they were conducting experiments with the other artifacts also because it seemed as if guards were being replaced at least once a week.

'The same type of shit that happened to me and John. They use people to experiment with these artifacts when they have no clue how they'll affect the people doing the experiments.'

***

Michelle had just gotten out of the shower and dressed when she heard a knock on the door. Opening it she noticed it was that scientist, Aleksander, without his usual scientist buddy Steven. Michelle and the two scientists had slowly formed an acquaintanceship through their talks and the experiments, but that was as far is Michelle was ever going to allow it to go. Aleksander was too cheerful and always overly optimistic, even when an experiment he was working with her on had killed someone. Steven was... kind of creepy, if she had to be honest with herself. He didn't talk a lot, he was very socially awkward, and tended to hold eye contact too long. As if he was staring through her, or maybe just through her clothes, rather than looking at her.

"Hey Alek, need something?"

"Michelle! So nice to see you! Are you ready to try more experiments? We have some interesting ones to try today!"

"Yeah, I guess so. It's not like I have anything better to do, right?"

Aleksander laughed heartily, even though what Michelle had said was not funny. "Michelle, how can you say that? You have so many things here to keep you entertained! I personally love the VR game shows," Aleksander chuckled, "I especially love that old show "Wheel of Fortune", although I seem to have abnormally good luck on the wheel and the puzzles are too easy."

He leaned towards Michelle and whispered conspiratorially, "I think they rig them to make me feel good. A happy scientist works better than an unhappy one, yes?" He chuckled loudly to himself and motioned for Michelle to exit her room.

'I wonder if he even realizes that he's the only one laughing at his 'jokes' most of the time?'

She closed the door and followed Aleksander to the room artifact C-116 was contained in.

~ ~ ~

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