A/N: Haha, first time around I didn't upload the entire Chapter 2. Here's the whole thing.
My eyelids fluttered open. I glanced to where Savvi should be and saw nothing. Lolly's worried expression told me all I needed to know. They'd taken her. For some reason, the whitecoats had been taking her more and more often lately, but no one knew why. Except, of course, the whitecoats. "I don't know what they're going to do..." whispered Lolly. "Mrs. Sullivan, she felt... excited..." The tiny bunny girl shivered, pulling her knees up to her chest. Poor Lolly; she was only five years old. She shouldn't have to go through this.
Did they take Savvi again? said Fay. I started. However many times she did it, I would never get used to Fay's voice sounding inside my mind. That was her special power, the bat/human hybrid who inhabited a crate about twenty feet down, out of my sight. She and her twin brother, Shade, used to be right next to us, but they'd been moved. I think they were worried we would get organized, or something. Ha. But I could still clearly picture them in my mind: Tall, thin, big bat wings sprouting from their backs, and bat ears that drank up every noise. Shade, fair-skinned, black-haired, brown-eyed. And black-winged. And Fay... Extraordinarily pale skin, white hair and wings, pink-red eyes... She was an albino. That sounded like an ugly word, but it was better than "mutant bat freak". And she was mute. The only way she could communicate was with her mind... and she could only project her thoughts to a certain few. That included me, Savvi, Lolly, Shade (of course), and another of our great friends, Berry. Unfortunately, they'd taken Berry for testing early this morning, and he hadn't returned. Yet.
Did they take Savvi? Fay asked again, more forcefully this time. I can feel her, down in a room somewhere. Oh, and Fay could kind of tell where we were. That, too.
"Yes," I answered, very loudly. She could probably hear me, what with those bat ears and all.
Great. she answered. Yep, she heard me. To Lolly's questioning gaze, I said, "Fay asked about Savvi." The young girl nodded, her brown curls swirling around her face.
Oh, and I suppose I should tell you why I'm sitting here. I'm a fish/human hybrid. I can breathe above AND below water. I have scales on my forearms, upper legs, chest, and neck. I have a dorsal fin smack dab in the middle of my back, and a large fin coming down from each arm.
Yeah, oh.
I don't know how much time passed, but eventually click-clacking footsteps woke me. Thirteen years of living in this place had made me a very light sleeper. It was Mrs. Sullivan, holding a groggy, worried Savvi by the arm. Mrs. Sullican unlatched Savvi's crate, and the cat/human hybrid crawled in, her brow furrowed.
"You're worried," Lolly said.
I glanced at the clock on the wall. Savvi had been gone for five hours. The only reason I can read at all is because Fay taught me, and the only reason Fay knows is because she and Shade came from the Institute, where apparently things were different.
Savvi groaned. "Five hours?" She bent over and her hand flew to her stomach with a little gasp of pain.
"What's wrong?" I hissed.
"I'm fine," she answered through gritted teeth.
(Berry's coming!) Fay warned. Lolly, Savvi, and my heads all jerked up, so I knew she'd spoken to all of us.
Thirty seconds after Fay's announcement, two sets of feet - one bare, one not - crossed into my line of vision. There was a soft klchk! as a crate was unlatched. The shoes moved away, revealing Berry sprawled in the crate directly across from Savvi's. At least as much as you can sprawl in a space too tiny for you to fully lie down in.
The nine-year-old chameleon/human hybrid looked exhausted. A sheen of sweat covered his fair-skinned forehead, his blond hair standing up in clumps. Like me, Berry had scales along his forearms, upper legs, chest - all the same places I did. He had small suction cups beneath his fingers, and he could - get this - change color. "You okay?" Savvi asked, her tone much more tender than the annoyed one she'd just used with me.
"They were having me change colors." His head fell back against the back wall of his crate. "For hours."
Savvi made a small sound of sympathy, and I reflected once again how my closest friends - Savvi, Lolly, Shade, Berry, Fay - and I went through this every day.
Not to mention the countless other experiments trapped in this horrible place.
A/N: Please review? *puppy dog eyes*
