In the days that followed, Hunter climbed out of her grief and depression and fell deeper into the cold fear that swarmed the institution like angry bees. Though she eventually became used to the routine and the testing and the morbid atmosphere, she still felt it clinging to her soul. At night, when the lights were off and silence danced around her and her blanket didn’t warm her enough, she felt it the most.
The fire became like a dog deprived of taking walks: it grew lazy and hid away. Often she felt so empty of warmth that she feared the fire had diminished completely. She practiced circling the flames through her skin, from her toes right up to her scalp. After that, she felt better. And then she would become cold again.
Things about the outside world she took for granted were now in her thoughts constantly. Things like sunlight. It would be coming into winter soon in New York, but even to see the sky would be glorious. She missed take-out, movies, even school. She missed her freedom.
One other thing she felt ashamed to miss was Joshua. Yes, she hated him with every fiber of her being, and whenever her thoughts strayed to his despicable acts, the fire raged. Perhaps it was the familiarity of a guardian that she missed more than Joshua himself. But then she remembered the small things. Like his snow globe obsession, or checking to make sure he hadn’t left the ripped tissue on his face after he cut himself shaving. And despite all he did, Hunter regretted taking him for granted, disrespecting him at times, and especially not realizing just how much he sacrificed for her.
And it took the death of a loved one and an abduction by scientists for her to grasp that.
Every now and then, she wondered about Jack and if he was safe, or if Joshua had killed him too. But the one person she yearned for and would never see again was Eli. It didn’t pack quite a punch as it did the first few weeks after his death when he never left her thoughts, because now she was far more distracted. But the ache still remained and it would until she found something to be happy about. Sometimes, in spite of the awful and nauseating feeling in her stomach, Hunter tried to remember things about Eli. She remembered never feeling so happy than to be with him, a normal girl if only for a little while.
Until Joshua ripped him away from her.
Hunter tried not to let her anger cloud her mind and stop her from keeping focused on her present. Not much happened after her first couple of days in ICE, but she preferred to stay sane for as long as she could. And wallowing in either grief or anger didn’t help.
She spent most of her time in the breakfast hall and common room with the others she’d ‘made friends’ with. That included Zac, who was consistently cracking jokes or speaking sarcastically or asking annoying questions that Hunter always ignored. Chantal often grilled her about fashion in the outside world – something Hunter couldn’t care two hoots about. But she felt bad for the girl, so she made it up. Benji and Ryo were just happy to sit around and listen to the conversation, and Fearne was there from time to time. Hunter had no idea where she went otherwise. As for Jet and Mikayla; they kept to themselves after Hunter’s falling out. She wondered if Dr. Wolfe really scared Jet after he was sentenced to Solitary for provoking her, because there were no more suggestive smiles or winks in her direction.
The other kids waved at her sometimes, or otherwise left her alone and stopped staring. Once she was no longer ‘the new girl’, they treated her like one of them. It felt nice to be in a place – however horrible it was – in which Hunter truly belonged.
It was around the four week mark, and she decided to hit the showers before dinner. Grabbing a towel and fresh clothes from her cell – where the Men in White left them each day – she ran to the girl’s bathroom and was relieved to find it empty.
She took her time, scrubbing herself and rinsing out her hair, pausing every now and then to glance at her withered reflection in the grimy tiles. After a while, she couldn’t handle the cold any longer. She switched off the tap and patted herself down. The bathroom felt eerie and in the back corner, a tube light twitched like a scene from a horror movie. Hunter, however, had seen too many horrors there to be afraid of anything.
She was just dipping her toes into her jumpsuit when the bathroom door creaked open and shut tightly.
Hunter was used to other girls seeing her naked in the showers by then, and so she didn’t even bother to shy away when she heard someone enter. But a moment later, there came a sense of heated male testosterone in the air and Hunter looked up to see not a female striding towards her but a guard, fierce determination and a crazy gleam in his roaming blue eyes.
Jamison.
Hunter’s heart dropped. She started backing away as he came closer. His shoes splashed in the fresh puddles. He didn’t say a word, but his eyes screamed desperately at her. She knew that look. She’d seen it in the hungry and wanting stares of two men in an alleyway.
“What are you-”
Jamison lunged for her. She stumbled backwards and slipped on the wet floor, nothing but her cotton underwear to cushion her fall. Her bones cracked painfully against the tiles. She was just about to usher out a scream when he fell down upon her and pressed his hand over her mouth. It smelled of sweat and metal.
“Don’t speak,” he growled. His blue eyes were glittering with a desire she’d seen countless times in many of the guards. He pinned her down hard on the cold floor, keeping one hand over her mouth as the other reached down for the zipper on his pants.
Hunter’s heart was pounding in her chest, desperate to be free. She was lost in a spiral of memories of that snowy night in New York, the night she found out about her past and her powers, the night she was so out of control that she killed a man. Back then it felt like she deserved to die, that her powers were demonic and she was out of control. But they had saved her. And there, beneath the strong and vicious man, she was weaker than she’d ever been.
What’s worse; she didn’t have her powers to protect her.
For the first time in forever, Hunter felt truly helpless. She had absolutely no strength to pry him off. Punching bags did nothing when it came to having a two hundred and twenty pound muscled man pressed down upon her. She wriggled furiously, but it did no good. She screamed as loud as she could, but no one came. And even if they were stumbled upon, would anyone care? She knew Dr. Wolfe certainly wouldn’t.
“Ever since I saw you Fire Girl,” he hissed, his face buried into her chest, “I wanted to get my hands on-”
Hunter bit down on his palm and he cried out, releasing her mouth from his grasp. Hunter let out a shriek before he threw his hand across her face. The slap was so hard that her jaw rattled and tears blurred her eyes.
“You little bitch,” he growled. His grip was so tight that it bruised her skin instantly. “Oh you’ll pay for that.”
Hunter struggled to keep his hands from pinning her down again. Jamison only laughed and forced her down harder.
And then a miracle occurred. Two large hands wrapped around Jamison’s throat and yanked him backwards with so much force, his neck nearly snapped. Hunter choked on a gasp and pushed herself up in time to see Will standing over the man, his entire body rippling with rage, hunched but still huge and menacing. He thrust his foot into the guard’s chest, causing him to cough harshly and double over on the floor.
“Will-”
“Get out,” he growled at her. “Go!”
Hunter scrambled to her feet and snatched her towel and clothes. Her instincts begged her to do as he asked and run, but another part of her longed to join Will standing over the guard and kick his teeth down his throat. Will turned to her, his doe eyes urgent, pleading her to leave or they’d both be in trouble. The grit and torture had vanished from his expression and his brow was creased with worry. “Hunter, leave!”
She couldn’t.
And as Will turned his back, Jamison clenched his teeth and crawled to his feet.
“Look out!” Hunter screamed, but Will was too slow.
Jamison rammed into Will and knocked him to the ground. Will’s head smacked against the tiles and he blinked and gasped for air. The guard sat on top of him with his knees pressing into Will’s stomach. Pinning Will’s free arm, he raised his fist and threw it across his jaw. Once, then again, then again. Blood spurted out of his nose and a gash opened on his cheek. Will wasn’t strong enough to fight back – the punches alone would have knocked him out. Instead, he turned his head and vomited blood.
When her body finally decided to act, Hunter dropped her belongings and ran to Jamison. She couldn’t do much else but throw herself on him, wrapping her arms around his neck as Will had done, only this time she squeezed. He actually laughed, tossing her against the wall like a rag doll. Hunter’s head hit the tiles and the world started to tip.
Get up, she ordered herself. Tears falling from her eyes, Hunter forced herself shakily to her knees, but she was so frail that she couldn’t make it any further. Words could not describe the frustration she felt at the fact that her withered body could not fight her own battles, that she couldn’t so much as damage Jamison. She had lived so long in ICE that even her hair had begun to lose its color.
Get up! the fire shrieked inside her, blazing and swirling, desperate to fight, to be released, to burn. GET UP!
I can’t.
Her vision blurred and she swallowed to try and stay conscious, but her eyes were closing. The last thing she saw was the guard beating down upon Will, smashing his bones into broken pieces, a pool of blood dribbling through the cracks in the tiles to the drain next to her hand. The door of the bathroom was blown open and voices were yelling, but that was all she remembered before she fell under.
The noise was gone. The cold, wet bathroom floor was gone. The flicking fluorescent light was gone, replaced instead by a blinding white light everywhere around her. She was definitely lying on a hard surface. It was a moment before Hunter could actually move, much less turn over, stand up and see where Dr. Wolfe had put her.
Hunter could hear nothing but silence. Her eyes were burning from the glare. Honestly, she didn’t think that the institution could get any brighter than it was, but apparently she was wrong. The space around her went on forever.
She wobbled to her feet. Someone had dressed her in a jumpsuit. The throbbing ache of a bump on her head reminded her of being thrown against the wall. What happened to Will? Is he alright? Did they bring him here too?
Those questions would be answered as soon as she knew where she was. Solitary? But she wasn’t wearing a strait jacket. Before Hunter could even consider the second option, she noticed a figure standing in the distance, maybe ten meters away. Despite her thumping headache, dizzy vision and wobbly legs, Hunter started running towards the figure. He was familiar, his back to her. Six foot something. Strong shoulders. Long, brown hair. Blood-stained white jumpsuit.
Somewhere between them, Hunter ran straight into a solid surface and went tumbling backwards on the white concrete floor. Her head thumped and she brought a hand up to touch her skull when she noticed something that flattened her stomach like a pancake.
Her bracelet was no longer blue and tight against her skin. It hung like a regular band of silver slipping up and down her arm. For a moment Hunter almost smiled, the fire dancing excitedly beneath the surface, but then it dawned on her. About that same time, the figure turned and Will met her gaze behind the giant glass wall that separated them, disappearing high above their heads. His expression voiced her own fears. His eyes were sad and almost whispered to her words of regret. He looked around them at the sphere-shaped stadium.
Hunter found that if she stared long enough at the impending wall, she could just make out around the edges of the glass little faces peering in at them. Kids, scientists, Men in White. Everyone had come to see the show.
A single spark of fire burst from her fingers like a firecracker and suddenly, she knew exactly where she was.
The Orb.
And Will, her knight in a white jumpsuit, was sentenced there to fight her.