Guys! Can we all take a moment and say a huge thanks to @MYSECRETDIARY16 for the awesome new cover!!! Really appreciate it <3 Enjoy the chapter guys :D
***
It was this brisk Monday morning walk that could alter my life, change it, the thought kept pounding in my mind as I walked toward the National DNA Scan building (NDS.)
I slipped on my jacket hood, shielding myself from the snow, or rather slush that was angrily pelting my head while I walked underneath the graying Dumont sky. It wasn't a lovely morning to say the least, but that didn't bother me the slightest as I continued my trek, my fingers tightly wrapped around the folded DNA scanning letter in my pocket. I waited long enough for this moment to come, and being here now...it was hard to describe.
I nervously walk across the white linoleum and take a place at the end of the line, praying it wouldn't take too long since my rucksack was starting to feel extra heavy against my back. In front of me, the line was made up of varying ages, some kids, several teenagers, a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties, and one woman who was clearly beyond her 60's.
To the left and right of the reception desk, the giant reception room branched into multiple hallways. After signing in, each person followed an escort robot to one of the branching hallways on the side; yet it didn't look like there was any particular pattern and I could never guess to which hallway the robot would lead to. Only the ancient woman remained in front of me, and out of the thirteen who were signed in, the majority was either sent to hallways 7 or 9.
The lady before me stepped up to the desk and I inched forward, my excitement, fear and anticipation all increasing ten-folds. Before I knew it a robot escort came for the elderly woman and she was on her way. I step up to the desk, bringing out the paper from my pocket with trembling hands and place it on the desk.
The receptionist eyes me from behind her glasses then at the worn paper on her desk, then looks back at me and I instantly dislike her,
"Name?" Her harsh tone is matched with a raise of one of her auburn eyebrows.
"Stella."
"Your full name." She says as if it should have been an obvious thing,
"Stella Chesterfield"
She types away, a holographic screen showing my picture and name displayed in varying shades of pixels in front of me, she gives me one last disapproving look before handing me a freshly printed ID card.
"You're scheduled for 8 AM with Caretaker Elyson. Next." I ignore her overly dismissive tone and grab my paper back from the desk, glad when my robot escort comes for me. He's a little metal box with "Robert" printed across all four sides, the little thing zooms past rooms 7 and 9 and I'm left wondering whether it's a good thing to be where most people went, or if it's bad to go where the majority was as I continue following him.
Robert turns into hallway "G" and I try to remember when the hallway numbers turned into letters, there are doors along the entirety of the hallway on either side, and it's almost unfathomable to imagine what so many rooms were used for, what they were filled with, who worked in them, or even how many people walked into them each day...it was crazy to think about all of it.
This waiting room was small, a blue navy carpet and 24 matching navy chairs, all of them empty save for one. The blonde haired girl sitting in them doesn't look up as I make my way past her to the chairs up front. I'm tempted to ask her, to spark a conversation, but instead keep my head back to her as we wait in an eerie silence for the infamous "Caretake Elyson."
"Chesterfield?"
I follow the Caretaker through another maze of polished hallways, all identical, making them that much more confusing and maze-like. When we finally arrive, Caretaker Elyson ushers me into a room much like that of a dentist, and reeking of antiseptic.
"Alright, let me see your wrist, this won't take long." he had an easy going manner, the kind that could get along with everyone and make everyone feel at ease. He slips on a metal bracelet to my wrist, then takes my ID card to place into a machine on the other side.
"So here's the drill, the bracelet will draw out some blood to sample your DNA and send to our labs. The process will take..." he put on a pair of glasses before reading something on the screen,
"Six months. Is this the right address?" he read aloud my shabby address at Mason Park,
"Yes. It's correct."
"Alright then. We'll be forwarding your results to the stated address at Mason Park." he gave me a thoughtful glance from behind his spectacles before connecting some wires to the metal bracelet around my wrist.
The bracelet beeped once, twice, a third time and then Caretaker Elyson unplugged the wires and removed it.
Checking something off the tablet in his hand, he motioned for me to follow him,
"One last thing, before you go."
The room we entered was even smaller, enveloped in a blue hue of lights. Whatever walls were lined with shelves and filled with clutter, leaving barely enough space for the chair that occupied the center of the room.
"Take a seat, I'll be right back."
Caretaker Elyson walked back with a lady beside him in her thirties, her face oddly resembling that of a hawks.
Hawklady walked into the tiny space, her hands searching through the clutter until her hands found whatever it was she was looking for.
Caretaker Elyson's sillhoutte remained at the door entrance, arms crossed, the tablet in one hand with his gaze fixed solidly on us.
"Hi Stella, if possible could you extend one hand please." her tone was polite, but unsettling.
I extended my right arm to her which she took in her cold hands, and placed it atop the chair handles, then braced them into the chair.
Hawklady didn't look at me as she tucked her hair behind her ear and pressed a metal device dipped with ink against my exposed and locked in wrist.
Excruciating pain instantly shot up. It was a burning, cutting sensation and I didn't know what to make of it, my face searching for answers in the Caretaker that was avoiding my gaze and hawklady who was intently focused on ruining my arm.
"Stop! Stop it!"
"Just a second sweetheart." hawklady replied just as polite, the tasering sound of the device in her hands not stopping as she cut deeper into my wrists, narrow rivers of blood oozing out the sides.
I resorted to screaming. What was this thing they were doing to me? It hurt. It hurt. Make it stop!
"Make it stop!"
"We're almost done." her tone carried a hint of frustration now, and then finally, finally, she lifted her devilish device, my blood smeared all over it.
"You can take her now."
Caretaker Elyson sprung into action, unlocking the brace around my arms, while I, disoriented with confusion, followed his lead to take me out of the room. Part of me didn't want to follow him anywhere else, but I did nonetheless. Not daring to look behind me where the hawklady was busily cleaning her device from my blood.
"Well. That was interesting." Caretaker Elyson said braking the silence.
"What---what was that?"
He gave me a quizzical look, one handsome eyebrow raised.
"Don't you know? It's a tattoo."
I looked down at my wrist, sometime after removing her hellish device she had placed some gauze around the area, curious, I peeled back part of it, revealing a tribal triangle made of faded ink, blotchy skin and more of my blood.
***
Thanks for reading this far! Also, can you believe it's been 30 chapters...like what how did this happen xD