10. The horror!

'Hey Zach!' Zoey called out as he walked into the kitchen at Saskia's one night, later on that week. Now that it was clean, he rather enjoyed sitting in that room to read or just relax. Knowing this, Zoey always attempted to draw him out to the more social part of the house – the living room.

'C'mon, Jason's starting a movie, everyone's coming!' she pleaded, messily going through each cupboard looking for popcorn. Zach followed her around, absentmindedly picking up everything she had scattered and placing them back on the shelves.

'What movie?' he asked as she threw the popcorn kernel packet into the microwave.

'I think it's some old school horror film,' she was practically jumping around. Zach couldn't imagine how else she could fit her Goth stereotype.

'You're not…sick of them?' he sure was. He was never really into slasher films; he preferred action, explosions and all. Zoey rolled her eyes and took the hot popcorn out from the microwave.

'Please?' she pleaded distractedly, hugging Zach. She was looking past him, so he turned around and watched as Alice walked down the stairs and towards the kitchen, with a look on her face showing that she was aware they were both looking at her.

Alice walked straight past them and towards the fridge.

She opened the door and crouched down low to hide a much needed look of confusion.

Why were they staring at her? Was there something on her face? Was he planning on pushing her out another window or something? She looked to her side to the large glass doors that opened out to the backyard in fear.

She grabbed a can of soda and slammed the door shut.

Zoey looked as though she was analysing every step she made, and as she walked past the two, Zach backed off from Zoey, getting free of her grip.

That was really weird, Alice thought, walking into the living room. Some of the recruits had organized a movie night, and she decided to go along. With Markus not around, she realised how little she spoke to the other mutants.

'What was that about?' Zach asked Zoey, who looked as if she was calculating something. 'Zoey?' he waved his hand in front of her face.

'Oh, sorry. I zoned out. Let's go then!' she replied, trying to cover her sudden strange behavior.

The movie began as soon as someone turned off the lights, tripping over the ten or so people lying on the floor. There was the usual chatting at the beginning, but as the story progressed everyone lost interest in one another and focused on the film. Zoey looked as if she was in some euphoric trance, so Zach let his eyes wander from the screen.

Even though it was dark, he could see her clearly, sitting against a wall, next to another girl he had seen a few times. The girl was clutching her arm with a look of terror on her face, Alice looking slightly amused. She didn't look like she was concentrating on the movie, though.

The television let out a long, high-pitched scream as someone was slaughtered ruthlessly by the masked villain, and the room erupted in cheers and shrieks, Zach returned his focus to the television.

Alice looked over as the near-naked female co-star was hacked to death and saw Zach staring blankly at the movie. Everyone else seemed to be reacting in either disgusted or sadistic delight, but he didn't. It didn't even look like he was watching the movie.

Not wanting to have to sit through the next two hours trying to get a glimpse at him as his weird girlfriend was getting a little too into the movie, she stood up and quietly left, hoping to escape to her bedroom.

Realizing halfway up the stair case that she had left her drink in the living room, she descended the stairs and walked back into the kitchen to get a new one.

She was still angry at Zach, there was no doubt about it, but she was long past wanting to talk about it. It was obvious he was avoiding the issue altogether, so she did likewise. The harder she worked, the more she'd earn, and the faster she'd be able to get back to Australia.

She climbed back up the stairs with a new drink in her hand, trying hard to remember whatever she could.

Since she had woken, she had been trying to remember, hoping that even the smallest amount of information about what happened in those two years would surface. Though, it never would, and she would go to sleep at night, hoping for a revelation in the morning. But all she would get were dreams of Blaine, forever trapped outside his body, and never being able to see her friends again.

Alice had tried calling home and sending letters to her parents, but got no reply. This confused her, because they never hated her. Sure they were afraid, but… she never thought it'd ever be more than that…

She was considering talking to one of the telepaths to help her remember, but the thought of someone finding out anything about her or her mutation frightened her too much to go through with it.

And really, apart from Markus (who she really didn't want to share her whole life story to), Zoey was the only other telepath she knew.

The way she was acting around her wasn't exactly comforting. Alice had caught her a few times looking at her with a puzzled expression, and on occasion, following her around.

Once the carnage on the television had subsided he turned to study Alice again, but she had gone. He could hear soft footsteps on the floor above.

What was she doing up there? He was tempted to ask Zoey but quickly decided against it. Only a select few were able to go upstairs after hours. Everyone here respected that rule.

He whispered a clumsy excuse to Zoey and walked calmly out of the room.

Zach was halfway up the stairs when the pungent smell of paint fumes assaulted him. He had never liked that smell before, and he could feel his gagging reflex start up.

'What the hell is she doing up here?' he asked himself, holding his breath as he quickly ascended the stairs. He did a quick check of the three main rooms, but she was nowhere to be found.

He turned a corner and looked up the staircase that led to Saskia's room. She might've gone up there, but he was doubtful. Alice may have saved Saskia's backside by giving her that information, but she wouldn't have gone that far to thank her.

The smell was getting stronger down this hall, though. Zach looked past the staircase and towards the small storage room. She was in there; he could sense her, even though the fumes were clogging his own senses. He walked cautiously towards the door – the smell getting more intense. How was she breathing up here? What was she trying to do, suffocate herself?

He panicked and rushed to the door, flinging it open.

'Excuse me?' Alice jumped up off her bed, startled. 'What are you doing here?'

'I smelt paint fumes…I thought…' he looked in awe around the room. It used to be a spare bedroom, but it had turned into storage space a long time ago. It was transformed now. The once dusty, stained floor was now cleaner with most of the suspicious stains gone. The walls were a creamy white colour, and the wide window – which was opened – had purple curtains flapping around them.

'Probably because I just painted,' she snapped.

'Yeah, I can see…'

'Are you here to apologize?' Alice got up from her bed and crossed her arms, standing a fair distance from him.

'No,' he replied blankly. Zacharias Thorn didn't apologize to anyone. He turned to leave, not bothering to close the door behind him.

'Why would you care anyway?' she muttered under her breath. Zach glanced behind at the short, brown haired girl who looked as if she was putting all her strength into standing up to him. He didn't care, he replied, and walked away.

Alice sighed and flopped on her bed. It was hard work keeping her composure around that guy, no matter how mad she was at him.

x

He returned to witness twenty more minutes of bloodthirsty madness when Zoey got bored and dragged him out, rambling on about that assignment she had stolen.

They arrived at her apartment – a place Zach tried to avoid visiting. The walls were each painted in deep reds and purples, and the ceilings and floorboards were black, making the rooms much smaller than they actually were.

And, on top of that, Zoey opted for an array of bright, white lights as well as a plethora of black-lights. The latter being the one he hated the most and the one Zoey liked to use all the time. The black-lights seemed to burn through him – it was awful. She knew, but thought he was overreacting.

'So, anyway, I was going through some of this stuff today,' she held up a few official-looking papers, 'and I found this description of some facility.' Zoey passed the papers to Zach who peered at them, uninterested. It seemed to be some enrolment forms for a school type place.

This kid, Blaine Marsos, came from a place called Newcastle in Australia. He grinned, of course Australia would use the names of places in England. He was a mutant that could detach his spirit from his body.

'Yeah, so?'

'Well, it looks like this place wasn't just a place for mutants like Xavier's. It was like, well, a weird recruiting joint. Worked for you guys,' she answered, reading through another piece of paper.

'Us guys?' he placed the forms down.

'You Brits. The Australian Government had no idea about it… or that's what it seems.' She smiled at him, proudly showing off what she had learnt.

'So, this person that you have to find…'

'Yeah, well, she's here, in America. Close by, if what I've concluded is right; it wasn't the hardest thing to figure out' Zoey got stood up and walked to her kitchen, 'coffee?'

Zach fiddled with the papers as she made herself something to nibble on.

There wasn't much information about the girl herself, rather information about what she may have done, and where she had come from. She seemed to be something close to a mercenary, created by this facility, among several other young mutants. She was sent to America to do something – that was blacked out – and never completed it or returned. There was also nothing about her mutation.

Zoey returned and placed a cup of hot coffee in front of Zach, 'I think it's weird that they didn't tell us about her mutation,' she commented, as if reading his mind.

He looked at the mug and wondered if she remembered that he couldn't drink – or eat – anything. Typical absent-minded Zoey.

'You have an idea who it is?'

'C'mon Zachy, as if you didn't realize. Who do we know that's Australian, has no memory of anything between now and two years ago, and refuses to tell anyone about her mutation?'

'Alice?'

'Melanie Smith,' she grinned taking a sip.


A/N: Blaine Marsos is my own character from The Key.
Erm, I know I'm losing readers with this story, which is a little sad.
Well, it's quite sad for me. Sigh.