➵ 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐭

CHAPTER TEN

Violet woke up with her eyes opening slowly. She gained the strength to sit up from the thin bed. She looked around the room only to see white walls and small pale cabinets. She started to walk around the room wondering where and why she was there.

“Where am I?” she questioned.

She was met with deafening silence as she blinked around. The door was sealed shut and there was no way out. She glanced back to the cabinets. They weren't connected to the walls or the floor. "Huh," she muttered to herself. As she walked toward the cabinets she looked up to see a camera recording her, small green light blinking, affixed to the corner above the bed. If she had any chance of escaping, the camera would be keeping her from it. She quickly ran over to the thin bed she woken up from and took off the pillow case. She stood on the bed in order to wrap it around the camera so they would not see her. She then started to move the cabinets which soon led her to find a vent. Violet opened it with relief and said, “Never thought I’d have to climb through one again,” and quickly clambered into it.

❋

Toph had been pacing in her room, puzzling over where she was. She was interrupted, though, by a sharp beep of the door. A guard entered and quickly shut it behind him.

"What are you going to do to me?" Toph demanded. "Where are my friends!?"

The guard held a finger to his lips. "Do not question."

"OH FUCK YOU I'LL QUESTION ALL I WANT, YOU BRAINLESS PRICK-!" she screamed, suddenly tackling him and punching him in the face.

He was deterred only for a moment, grabbing her by the throat and shoving her against the wall.

With a thin cry she kicked him hard in the stomach and he fell to the ground. She kicked him again in the ribs and snatched the key from his belt. She escaped the room looking for Violet, Jules, and Sapphire.

She runs down the eerie halls to find the doors that held Sapphire and Jules. She opened the door, panting trying to catch her breath after killing the guard.

“What? How-” Jules asked.

"No time- We gotta get out of here- Where's Violet!?"

"We don't know!?"

"Well come on, we have to go find her fast!” Toph said hurriedly as the girls ran down the hall.

❋

The residents and staff were all in the main room questioning what was happening. 

“Thanks to your guys’ research, we will be able to start our experiments that will change my world, our world for the better. No longer will we be consumed by chaotic voices screaming for attention. We will all be one mind, in one universe. Placid. So, please stay calm as we test the recruits,” Ivan affirmed.

Jonas ran up behind Ivan asking strictly, “Where is Violet?”

“You don’t need to worry about that. We have everything under control,” Ivan insisted.

“Oh really. This is what you call control? Using innocent lives for your own wacko experiment. This is what you want to do to our society?”

"I am in complete control, actually. I don't care what you think is right. We all know you won't think it much longer."

“You’re going to tell me right now where Violet is,” Jonas said in a demanding voice.

"See, that would be relinquishing my control."

"TELL ME RIGHT NOW OR YOU’LL REGRET IT,” Jonas said as he grabbed Ivan. “Show me to her,” he stated as he was holding a gun in his right hand.

Ivan walked into the hallway that was filled with nothing but grey walls and many white doors. Ivan used his key to open the door that Violet was supposedly in.

“Where is she!?” Jonas said.

“That’s what I’m wondering as well. I need to go sound the alarms right now.”

Jonas went into the room and started to look for any way that she could’ve gotten out. He saw the vent behind the cabinet and immediately knew that’s where she was. After a second of reflection he climbed in, hoping he was following her.