Sound Track: Who We Are -Imagine Dragons
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I had been sitting like a prisoner for the past ten minutes. It was getting to the point where I felt like I was going to explode if someone didn't shut this girl up. She wasn't even giving a speech yet. She was just talking to those who seemed like body guards.
My gaze started to get tossed around as to not go crazy and find something entertaining or something that could get me and those around me out of this situation. Then I noticed something; it's the end of January, I was outside and I wasn't freezing. I had been out walking (more like freezing) with Wanda just a few days ago.
Little white dots caught my eye and it was as I predicted; snowflakes were falling from the heavens, but they were not reaching the ground as they should have been doing. They gathered on the top of what seemed to be a giant invisible dome. They would stop there like a fly bought in a spiders web, then they would melt and send tiny strips of liquid racing down the sides. I immediately looked around for the cause of it. It had to be a mutant, but they must have been out of my view.
"I just want to make one thing very clear, we are not the enemy here" I loud voice finally spoke up. "everyone on this lawn is a mutant, our visions are similar."
"Then what do you want from us at two in the morning?" Another voice said from the crowd, the only reason I knew who it was is because I recognized the voice as Sage's. Phoebe looked surprised, as if she had not anticipated being interrupted.
She paused, processing what had been said, "look, I won't lie to all of you; there is a war starting. Some are saying that it's dying with the fall of Trask industries" there was a change or dip in her voice when she mentioned Trask, I couldn't pinpoint if it was out of fear or hate. "But it's not, the circulation of the Registration Act is nothing but another way to force people to be afraid of mutant who may have a devastating set of abilities but may never use them for harm. My program is purely political, we're not her to force anyone to do anything."
"Then leave" Sage said. Phoebe clenched her jaw, clearly restraining herself. Sage got a couple sounds of agreement from the rest of the crowd.
"Listen to me for a moment!-" She cried, but she was interrupted by an object flying too close to her head for comfort.
Piotr, the guard beside me instantly became some kind of metal in a defensive tactic. I looked to the crowd to see a part in the masses and Marrow was in the middle of it, a look of defiance glimmered in her eye. It took only seconds for gunshots to begin to be fired. The crowd ducked down in sync like a school of fish, some people were collapsing from gunshots.
Chaos erupted as people began to fight back. Kids were being pushed to the ground and out of the way. I took the opportunity to dive into the crowd, pushing past bodies, looking for the green glint of my sister's hair. It was killing me not to be able to read people, it would make it ten times easier to spot her.
I saw her ducking the crowd with the small Rachel girl. They were running towards the institute. I instantly followed them. My mind was trying to find everyone I cared about as I pushed my way through a frantic and angry crowd.
My arm was suddenly caught up in someone's grip "where are you going, sweetheart?" Phoebe's voice hissed in my ear as her tight grip began to drag me through the scattering crowd. I stumbled on my feet as I tried to stop her.
"let go of me" I growled.
"Oh no, no, no. We can't have that. You fascinate me therefore you're coming with me" she chuckled in a low tone. "Peter!" she called out and I looked where her gaze fell with panic seeping into my heart like blood oozing from a paper cut. My fears were put to rest when the steel man responded by looking up. "Sedative please."
"No" I seethed, trying to twist out of her grip. She gripped my throat by the base of my chin and held me still while I felt a thick needle plunge into my neck "don't" I whispered as I felt the world go black and my eyes rolled into my head.
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My eyes fluttered open. The space around me was dark, the only light came from the crack under the door. The bed I was on was old and the thick woolen blankets where suffocating me even though I was not underneath them. The worn and sleepy spring in the mattress had sunk under my weight and I had to strain my neck to look around.
"You know, my life was so nice at first; happy family, normal life, big house, loving parents-" Phoebe's voice said. I looked up from the concrete floor to the black silhouette that sat with their back to the thick steel door.
"Just leave me alone" I said tiredly, moving my gaze back down to the floor. "I've had it with crazy people."
She observed me for a moment before continuing. "That was all shattered the day I found out I have a mutation. The people of my home didn't see me as the same ever since. I was treated like a witch, hated and nearly tortured. I was lucky that my mother saved me and then unlucky because she couldn't stop my father. You may know him, he's very famous. Bolivar Trask?"
I finally looked over at her, my eyebrows pinched together. "Yeah yeah, I know, he's a great guy" she said with sarcasm. "For Two years I was experimented on, needle after needle, experiment after experiment, lie after lie... My mother was brave enough to continue fighting for me, but she quickly found out that she could not handle a damaged kid like me. So at the age of 14, she took me to Queens to live with my aunt, uncle and my cousin, Coraline. You should have seen the joy on her face! Finally, someone is going to fill her spare time, someone to be entertained by. I, on the other hand didn't know what to do. If I showed them what I could do, they would hate me. You see, they didn't know I was a mutant, they thought I was being sent away from a failing marriage. One day I sat alone in my room after my one of my ballet lessons. A kid had made fun of my eyes, being different colors you know. The tears where rolling down my cheeks, without realizing they started floating around me. This was still when I had no idea how to control my powers." I could hear the emotion in her voice as if she were reliving the moment.
She cleared her throat. "Coraline decided to barge into my room and ask if I could teach her a couple of moves from my class. When I realized the gravity of the situation I panicked; she had seen me. Before I could say a word she grabbed my hand and ran to my aunt screaming 'mutant! Mommy, Phoebe is a mutant!' My aunt, Ailla and her husband, Jacob stopped everything they were doing in the middle of making dinner. I expected to throw me out, but they just smiled and asked me to do it again. The way that this part of my family accepted and treated me was so strange and foreign. Coraline always told her friends about me with praise I never really deserved. She always defended me when I was called a freak. She would read with me books about elves, wizards, dragons, religions, science, art, anything. Ailla would comfort me when I was sick because of my blood disorder, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. It means I have a low number of platelets in my blood, due to some unknown cause. Jacob taught me how to fight, how to defend myself in an increasingly dangerous world."
"Why are you telling me this? Am I some sort of therapist to you."
She laughed. "No, you just have to listen since you're stuck in here and besides, isn't people your thing?" I winced. Wanda said those words to me/
"Who else did you take?" I asked, trying to sit up, feeling both the sedative and the suppressant wearing off.
"Just a couple of interesting friends of yours. That one girl with the long brown hair, she may just be more fascinating than you."
"What can I do? Why would you take me?" I asked, rubbing a sore spot on my head.
"You can help me. That mutant who can sort people is just a weaker version of you. You can read so much more than him."
I looked at her incredulously "I'm not working for you, you crazy bitch. Are you crazy?"
"No, but you will be. I won't have you persuaded like my dear friend Peter, you met him actually. His gift isn't as interesting but you always need some kind of muscle in an operation and his organic steel skins provides just that."
"Is that what you call brain washing, persuasion?"
"Brain washing implies there's no going back to who they were before, therefore I chose not to use it." she said nonchalantly as she stood up and turned the handle to my door. I turned my gaze to the floor
"Good night Josephine."
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A/N: sorry for the delay guys! This chapter is a little boring but we get to learn about Phoebe more.
like always, I'm open to hearing suggestions (which would actually help a lot) or any feedback in general.
Y'all are so silent I don't know if it's a good thing or not. you're making me nervous lol
Question of the day: is there anything you don't understand in the story or I can help explain? I love chatting with you guys