The man turned back to Vess, “Let’s go.” He took Vess’ hand and led her down the hallway to the left of the doorway. Vess turned to look in the other direction. The whole hall was covered in dark grey stone, with lights that hung down from the ceiling. They looked a little odd, being either covered in a metal cage of their own, or dangling from the ceiling. Other than wooden beams that seemed to keep the stone at bay, the rest of the hall was plain. At the end of the right side seemed to end in a spiral metal staircase. It looked stuffed into the cramped space.
The pan pushed o[en a door on the right wall, closest to Vess and revealed what looked like an operating room. If an operating room housed large machines connected to a flat metal table with leather straps. The room was dimly lit by a couple of lights similar to the hallway. It also shared the large stone walls that curved to the ceiling like her original room had.
He led her in and let go of her hand, “I just need to adjust these straps real quick. I didn’t actually expect you to go first.” He tuned to the table, putting his back to Vess, and leaving the door open. Vess turned around, her heart pounding in her chest, but her head remained clear. ‘NOW!’
Vess turned on her heal and began sprinting out the door. She turned quickly left and ran towards the staircase. The man called something after her, but she couldn’t hear it over the pounding of her feet on the stone floor. She knew she was the fastest out of her siblings. She was the hardest to catch, so this was their best chance at escape.
She passed the doorway to the cages, hearing Tony scream out to her, “Keep going Vess! Get out an-” Blood rushed through her ears as she ran out of range of her brother’s encouragement. She felt something poke at her wrist and something warm rush into her blood, but she kept up her pace. She had to make it out!
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her vision had started to blur. She felt more out of breath than usual, but she kept moving. She began to climb the steep stairs, her sneakers clanging on the metal as she ran. As she got higher, the floor started to tilt and her mind began to feel foggy. She felt so tired.
As she tried to take another step, the dizziness overwhelmed her, causing her to slip and fall hard onto the step. She tried to press herself up from the step, feeling a stinging start on her knee, but she felt so weak. Her arms shook as she tried pulling herself up and she couldn’t get her eyes to focus. She stayed down as her vision darkened. The last thing she thought as a steady metal clanking followed her was ‘I failed.’ Then everything went black.
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Vess felt herself wake up slowly. When she was finally able to open here eyes again, she recognized the neon glow of the cage around her. ‘Damn it’.
She felt someone caressing her hair softly. She turned her head up to see Zach. He looked down at her, “Are you feeling okay?”. She nodded slowly, still waking up her brain.
The sounds of screams filled the room suddenly, making Vess shoot up off her brother’s lap. The immediate dizziness forced her to lay back down almost instantly though. “It’s okay” Zach tried to comfort, though his tone was a little strained, “It’s only Tony.” He placed his hands over her ears to dampen the sounds.
She sat up and looked over to Tony and Nya’s cage, except Mya was the only one sitting there with a worried look on her face. Putting the pieces together, Vess felt herself wake up fully with the fear that pumped into her blood. With the more awake feeling came a pain from her knee and arm. It wasn’t a bad pain, just sore. She took off her hoodie sleeve to look at her arm, only finding a few scrapes across her forearm and a small pin prick at the base of her wrist, where the bracelet sat.
Vess started rolling up the leg of her pants, struggling a bit. Zach noticed and tried to help her, uncovering one of her ears and revealing her brother’s distant screams, making her flinch. Her entire knee was stained with dark red blood, already long dried. It was stiff and made her knee a little itchy. She rubbed her skin, trying to get it off, but Zach grabbed her hands, uncovering both ears. “Don’t do that. You’ll start bleeding again.” He let go and grabbed her pant leg, pulling it back down. “Let’s cover it back up so nothing gets in. We don’t have any band-aids on us and a doubt that guy would lend us any.” He seemed to sneer at the mention of the doctor “testing” them.
The screaming stopped suddenly, plunging the room into silence. Vess couldn’t tell which one she hated more, constant screaming or quiet. All of her siblings seemed to freeze for a moment, before the sound of footsteps fractured the tense quiet. The quiet squeak of wheels followed the steps.
The man appeared at the door way again, but he wasn’t what caught Vess’ eyes. Tony was lying still on the metal table the man had wheeled down the hall from the machine filled room. His eyes looked to be closed, like he was sleeping. Nya looked up at the table and shot to her feet, screaming “No! Tony!” Her voice wobbled with fear. Jordan stood and looked gravely at the man, “I-Is he…? D-Did you-u…?” Her voice trailed off before the Man rolled his eyes, “No. He’s alive. I wouldn’t have brought him back here otherwise.” He started to mumble, “Would be a waste of a trip through that shit hallway.”
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He opened the door and ungracefully lifted him from the table to the cell, basically letting him fall to the floor inside the cage. Nya slid over to him as the man closed the door. He pushed the table back into the hall, “Feel free to try waking him up. Then I can see if the conditioning worked.” Nya stared at the man before starting to tap him and shake him gently awake.
The man’s gaze fell onto Vess, “I see you’re awake.” He had a false sweetness to his tone. HE crouched to her level, right in front of the bars, “You are very smart. You almost had me. But I’m just a little smarter than you little girl. I’m always two steps ahead.” Vess did her best to glare back at the man, Zach holding her protectively to his chest.
Tony quickly shot up, wide awake, startling all of them. Tony looked around, seeming dizzy and equally surprised. The man creeped over to the cage, locking his eyes onto Tony. “Tony. Stand.” He said sternly. Tony looked at him confused, sparing a glance at Nya, and spoke with a slightly horse voice, “Why?”
“Dammit!” The man exclaimed, pounding a fist on the ground. He stood at took a deep breath of the stale air. “Well, that’s what I get for hoping that this would be quick and easy.” He turned, accessing the rest of them. “Though,” He spoke to himself, “It might just be him being difficult. Or even just the older ones.” His eyes landed on Zach, still curled behind Vess. “Lets try you next, yeah?”
Jordan moved close to the bars again, screaming, “No!” The man whipped his head to her, “Is that your favorite word? Can you say anything else?”
“Take me instead. He’s never been through anything like this before.” The man smirked at her, “Exactly.” He unlocked the cage, “He’ll be more vulnerable.” He stepped into the cage, walking over to Zach. Vess backed up, away from her brother, as the man grabbed Zach’s arm and put the bracelet around his wrist. Zach did his best to pull away, yanking his arm, but the man’s grip didn’t loosen. He closed his hand tighter around his arm, making marks on his skin.
He pulled Zach off the floor and basically dragged him out of the cage and towards the hall. The door closed before Vess could even think about slipping out. She looked over to Tony and Nya, trying to find any reassurance. Instead, they were whispering to each other. Tony was looking down at his hand, opening and closing his fists. Jordan didn’t look much better. Staring at the door intensely. Vess looked back into the dirt and traced out symbols and shapes. There was nothing that they could do. There was nothing they could try, or even attempt. Not without risking themselves.
Vess didn’t realize it, but at some point she fell asleep. She only noticed when she was woken up by screaming. Though it wasn’t quite screaming. More so yelling. She opened her eyes to find Zach laying next to her. She slowly sat up, seeing her siblings turned to their cage, the man watching intensely. Vess’ ears honed in on Nya’s voice, gently encouraging her, “Vess, tap his shoulder. Make sure he’s breathing.”
Vess leaned over him very carefully. She tapped his shoulder a couple of times and then tried shaking him, just as she saw Nya do. Her sister’s voice carried over to her again, “Put your hand under his nose, try to feel him breathing.” She followed her instructions and felt a small puff of air. She nodded her head to assure her siblings, hearing them sigh in response. She attempted shaking him again, slightly harder this time. He stayed asleep, breathing a little shallower than normal.
Jordan called out from the other cell, “Zachary, wake up! Move, or do anything! Please!” She turned to the man, “If you killed my brother, I swear I wi-”. “You are not in control here. Did you forget that?” The man interrupted, “You hold no power over me. I can do what ever I want to.” Vess looked up, finding Jordan and the man inches from each other. The only thing keeping them apart being the glowing bars of the cage. Jordan’s face held a strong grimace, highlighted by the blue glow. Vess felt goosebumps spread on her skin.
“I can’t lose him. He is too young to have to deal with this bullshit! I won’t let you take him from me, not now.” The man only smiled at her. Vess couldn’t tell which was scarier, Jordan’s rage filled expression or the man’s cold smile.
“I don’t think you understand.” He stepped impossibly closer to Jordan’s cell, “You don’t have any say. You don’t hold any power. I have you stuck, where no one will find you. Feel free to try and escape, but you already saw how that went for your sister there. I can do anything I want. I make all the decisions.” He turned his wrist, unlocking the cage, “And I think we know who our next volunteer is at this point.”
He ripped open the door to the cage causing Jordan to stumble back. He reached out and grabbed her wrist as she dropped herself onto the floor. She screamed at him, pulling back from his grasp, “No! No! Not until he wakes up! Please! I need to know he’s okay! Please!” There was pure fear and worry in her voice, unlike any Vess had ever heard from her before. In fact, she’s never seen Jordan this scared before.
Vess shied away from the violent tug-of-war occurring and focused back on her brother. She still heard her sisters pleads and screams, even as she was dragged out. It hurt Vess. Not just emotionally, but physically as well, due to her sensitive ears. She put her head on her brother’s chest, trying to block her ears from the scared screams.
Once the screaming diminished, she heard a quiet whimper. She looked up to find Nya staring at the door way, her eyes glossy with tears. Vess waved her hand, trying to catch Tony’s attention. He looked over at her and wiped his wet eyes. “What do I do?” She signed. “Just keep trying to wake him up. Make some noise.” Vess clapped her hands over his face, inches away. He didn’t move an inch. She shook him even more and tapped his chest, but nothing happened. She even worked up the courage to whisper to him, but nothing happened.
Finally, after about five minutes of trying, Zach’s eyes shut tighter and then opened. He blinked rapidly and then shot up, looking around wildly. Vess grabbed onto his arm, trying to comfort him. “Where’s Jordan?” He asked, looking to her cage. Tony looked towards the door, “Down the hall.”
Vess felt him let out a shaky breath and tense up. She could practically hear the fear drumming through his heart. Vess felt her own heartbeat speed up as well. Normally, she would be able to stay relatively calm, but something about this time was different.
Hearing Tony and Jordan scream. Seeing Nya cry. Feeling how tight Zach held onto her like she would disappear. They weren’t scared. They were terrified. They didn’t have any plan. They didn’t have any control, any power. They were stuck.