Notes:

(Best read wilst listening to relaxing/sad music. Just saying)

## = Flashback, just warning ya.

Chapter Two – The Raven Calling

The cool water washed over my hands, flowing through the gaps and cooling the warm crevaces. I felt the water rushing inbetween my fingers, bringing with it dirt, grime. I wish I could do that, stick my head beneith some water and have all my problems wash away, left with nothing but a clean mind and with nothing better to do than work. But I cant. I'm stuck here, pretending to love working for a .. corperation.

I looked back up to myself in the mirror, which like everything else at WICKED is shining new. I'm not beautiful, I'm ordinary. I take very little care of myself and you can tell, my hair runs down just past my shoulders and is more like straw than anything else. I have a slightly angular face, nothing anywhere near as attractive as some of the other ladies of the office.

But that wasn't what was on my mind, I only cared about what was going to happen to my little boy. Little he wasn't, though, at 16 he was fully capable of taking care of himself, but I've had a hard time thinking of him in any other way than as the cute child that lay in my arms. A sweet, innocent smile beamed up at me as he lay on my lap. The warmth from his little body far brighter and more powerfull than that of the flair. But I may never get to do that again. He's going to have to grow up, and fast if he's to make it through what WICKED will do to him.

Then something struck me, I don't know why it occurred to me, but it did. If my boy was to be sent to WICKED, surely I'm going to have to watch over him. Not in the way I wanted to, but in the way that I've now been promoted back to head of my department, the department of overviewing the Trials…

Jake

I don't know what to do,

I can't do anything but think of you.

A perfect smile to a perfect face,

The pinnical of the human race.

I think of a way to say,

I think of you every minute, every day.

I think I love you, you're perfect in every way,

I think I love you, but I don't want us to decay.

I quickly deleted the email before I'd even thought of sending it. There was no way. The only love she felt was for her son, and was still grieving not only the death of her husband, but even more that of the subjects in the maze..

'Subjects'

I've been using that word more and more now. When I first started at WICKED I wasn't so sure, I couldn't tell why killing and torturing innocent children would help to find the cure to the Flair. But as I've spent more and more time in the technical department I've seen and made some of the technology that is processing the killzone patterns. I can now see what WICKED is doing, and I think I know now that WICKED is good.

ROSE

I don't know what to do. WICKED is taking my child, and now I have to watch them go through whatever terrible task he is put upto. I need to speak to Jake.

I quickly washed the tears of my face with some cold water from the tap, the cold almost made me shiver as I felt the drops drip down my neck. I looked at my watch, I'd been in the toilets for over an hour. I knew I couldn't go back to my office, not with the way that I left. So I walked myself down to Jake, he worked on the 7th floor, down in IT, or whatever it's called. I wasn't exactly sure of what I was going to say to Jake, I wondered if I should tell him about what was happening, about my boy. But I decided against it.

I knocked on Jake's door and walked in, I knew he wouldn't mind. Jake turned round on his chair and looked at me, that same odd look was in his eyes. I couldn't tell what.

"Hows it goin?" Asked Jake, as non-chalaunt as ever. He definitely didn't know about the whole message thing, he's usually really sympathetic to me.

"What's going on? You don't look yourself.." Jake's tone was wavering slightly, concern creeping into his voice. He could obviously tell that I had spent the last however long crying.

"I don't know," I said, unsure where to start. "You know the drive you gave to me?"

Jake mumbled a reply, but I could see that he was worried. I'm not usually that emotionally unstable.

I continued; "I sent an email back to the Chancellor, you know, the one about the end of the tests"

"Trials", Jake interrupted.

"Trials," I sneered, unsure why he was being so.. WICKED like. "Well, I said that they shouldn't be quite so.. torturous in their next Trials. And, now they're blackmailing me into giving up my son to the Trials"

Jake was taken aback, he hadn't been expecting this, but neither had I. He fumbled on his desk and dropped eye contact. He picked up a small metal ball or something and started rolling it between his fingers.

It was some sort of fluid metal, it was sliver and reflective, but it seemed to roll and flow between his fingers, finding its way into the cavities of his hand. As he did this we sat there in a discomforting silence, Unsure of what to say next I decided not to open my mouth, I wanted Jake's opinion on this.

"I don't know where to start," started Jake, "I don't see why you spend your time getting attached to the Subjects…"

Then his words started to blur, I couldn't make head from tale of what was being said. All I knew was that Jake, my only friend here, he was lecturing me on "WICKED is good". I couldn't deal with that, I turned around, swung open the door and stormed out. I don't know where to, just somewhere that wasn't near WICKED.

Jake

Rose, she stormed out the room. That's not what hurt me the most, what hurt me more was the fact that I'd just.. I couldn't believe myself.

What had I become?

##

I thought back to the old days, before the tests. Before, when things weren't.. real. When things were just a plan and nothing more. No harm, the worry of the cure was far from us, only concentrated on finding the patters in the killzone. At least for some. I'd been concentrating my time in getting to know Rose.

We'd been best friends, we'd spend our lunch breaks talking about past times, times before the flair. She'd spend hours and hours talking about her husband, crying into my shoulder for her boy, the one that she left behind. I didn't mind though.

Anything to be close to her.