Voices. Amanda could hear voices, which told her she had slipped back into consciousness (she hadn't yet decided if that was a good thing). They sounded male…deep and rich. But they sounded kind of far away as though she was hearing them through a wall or screen (or maybe it's just my foggy hearing).
"Right now, I could care less who they are, I just know I have to get to them. It might be my only chance to be saved."
She opened her mouth (which was dry to the point of dehydration), her tongue felt thick and heavy, and tried to call to them. She could feel her jaws opening and closing like the gaping mouth of some beached fish, but she didn't hear the one thing she needed to…her own voice.
Amanda kept trying, flexing her jaws and willing her voice box to work. She felt like screaming, but that wouldn't help. So she did the only thing she could…cry. It was a relief to feel the hot wet tears slid down her face. Her eyes ached too badly to open…but what would be the point anyway? To stare at more cracks in the ceiling?
In truth, Amanda wanted to huddle up into a ball and disappear, like when she was five and would hide under her bed covers and pretend to be invisible.
A small rush of warm breath passed her ear, "So I see our sleeping beauty has awakened."
Amanda's heart nearly stopped in her chest…someone was talking to her. Again, she tried futilely to connect with the man (by this time she was sure the voice was male), to ask for his help, to beg to be set free.
"What's that my little one? I can't seem to quite hear you. Cat got your tongue?"
It dawned on her, the man was mocking her. Amanda could feel the tears under her eyelids come faster and faster.
The mans placed his rough hand on her head, rubbing it back and forth, in what would be a soothing motion from anyone else, "Shh, do not cry little one. Your body will not respond because of the sedative we've given you, it'll soon wear off. The pain is not significant, you have become a part of something great, something amazing. You see you are an intricate part of our little…experiment."
Amanda stopped crying. Experiment? The word jarred her mind, "They're experimenting on me?" A picture of a white rat running through a maze entered her mind.
Fear rocked her, as she mouthed the word, "Experiment?"
The man seemed pleased; his voice was light, "Yes an experiment. Not just an experiment, the first one of its kind…groundbreaking. And you my dear are at the head of it all, you and…Kurt, that is his name, right?"
Amanda's breath caught in her throat. It was one thing to do something scarily freaky to her but to Kurt, the sweetest person in the world; that was another matter entirely. What kind of maniac would want to harm him?
The man continued oblivious to Amanda's unanswered questions, "Yes, that wonderful…creature is needed, for you and he are essentially the ties that bind our little project together. Of course we are only in the beginning phase, but the stage is set and if everything goes according to plan, amazing things will happen."
Amanda cringed, "Who are you?"
The man seemed to come out of his thoughts for a moment, "Ah, as the saying goes, the messenger is not important. But you are important, Amanda, you are the vessel. The vessel to carry what is to come."
Amanda was too afraid to ask what she was being used as vessel for, she was sure she wouldn't like the answer.
Fear swelled in her breast, "And…K-Kurt? What is his part in your little experiment?"
Amanda couldn't see, but she was sure the man was smiling. She could feel her stomach turn at his answer, "Ah my dear, he is the most important part of our testing. For without him there is no experiment. You see he is the… creator."
Amanda swallowed the bile rising in her throat, "Creator, of what?"
The man laughed, as though the answer was so simple a child could have seen it, "Life, my dear Amanda. A wonderful new life."