I was trembling and I couldn't seem to focus on anything except the barrels of the guns pointed at me. The terror that flowed in my veins overwhelmed me until I almost didn't see Fang slip silently in place next to me. "You're not doing this alone," he muttered. I went to push him back inside, "Go! Go now!" My voice broke on the last word.
"You have to go," I put my hands on his chest and went to shove him towards the house. He didn't move an inch. "Stop or we'll shoot," the menacing voice came from an eraser.
Slowly, I turned toward the erasers and the robotic machines that were terrifyingly human-like. "Let him go," I spoke every word with caution, not wanting Fang to get hurt or the Eraser to decide to do anything rash. "It's me you want."
He gave me a grin that was more a flash of teeth than a smile, "Another test subject can't hurt." A familiar figure came forward before he spoke, "I agree completely." Jeb, the figure was Jeb.
I wasn't stupid enough to lunge for him right then and there, but I wanted to. I wanted to wrap my hands around his neck before he could ever look at Fang or I again with those beady, hungry eyes. Gazing at us as if we weren't people, but objects. Objects to be manipulated and used.
I took a shuddering breath as Fang moved to stand closer beside me, his hand encompassing mine. He wasn't even slightly scared. I looked up at him, wondering why he could be so calm. Clueless as to how he wasn't phased by this at all; Fang looked as if there was no other place he would be besides here, next to me.
"Please, I'll do anything," I pleaded. "Anything. Just let him go." Jeb smiled a sickly sweet smile, "Oh. That's not necessary. I think you'll do anything regardless. You're desperate and you have nothing to bargain with anyways."
"Will you take the others?" Fang's eyes flashed dangerously as he asked the question. "No, not yet, we still have plans for them. Now's not the time." Jeb's words sent another jolt of fear into me but I also couldn't help but feel relieved. They were safe, at least for now.
Jeb raised his hand, I assumed it was a signal for the rest of them to lower their weapons. I was faintly aware of the quiet hissing of a dart before a small, sharp pain pricked my arm. I didn't even glance at it, keeping my eyes trained on Fang. He didn't look away from my gaze as well.
It was as if we were saying nothing and everything at once. I could feel my limbs grow heavy as my vision began to blur into an endless darkness.
At the school:
I awoke to the sickeningly familiar white room. The small white cot. The painted white cement walls. The white marble floor. It was all so familiar. I jumped out of the bed, pressing my back to a wall. I spied a camera hovering in a corner.
I took a breath before screaming, "Let me out! Now!" I pounded the walls, the impacts sending jarring pains into my hands. "Let me out!" The old me wouldn't have struggled. She would've done nothing, knowing it was pointless anyway. They wouldn't let me out, I knew that.
But this time I had something to fight for. The door swung open. "Don't you think you're being a bit dramatic," Jeb sneered from the entry way. I flung myself towards him, aiming to hurt him.
He simply stepped out of the way before I went stumbling into the hallway. I was out. No longer trapped in my room. "You can go anywhere you would like, unless it's a restricted area or you're trying to escape." I eyed him suspiciously, "Why? Why let me out now? I could escape if I wanted to."
"I don't think you'll want to," Jeb sounded so sure of himself I had to ask how. "And how do you know that." Jeb jerked his head to my right, and there stood Fang.
Only he was being restrained by two eraser's, looking unlike himself in all white clothes. "Skylar," his voice was pained. "If you get the chance go. Understand me? Go."
"She won't, because her little boyfriend will get hurt if she does, and we don't want that. Do we, Skylar?" Jeb's smile was teasing, testing, and full of amusement.
Reluctantly I nodded, I apologized once more. It felt like the hundredth time, "I'm sorry. You wouldn't leave me, I won't leave you." Fang's body was limp with helplessness, but I knew he understood. I moved closer to him, expecting to be told off by the eraser's. I wasn't.
I continued forward and my arms wrapped around his waist, his face was buried in the crook of my neck. Jeb ordered, "Let him go." Fang pulled me closer to him. "We'll get out," he whispered. "We will." He pressed his lips softly to my forehead.
"This is sweet and all, but Skylar, you have some Chinese scientists to impress and some testing to endure." Fang shoved me behind me, "No." I felt arms go around me, only this time they weren't gentle and loving. They were hairy and clawed and menacing.
"Don't touch her!" Fang seethed. More eraser's came toward us grabbed him by the neck. I immediately stopped struggling. "Better. Now come on." I watched Fang as I left and followed Jeb.
As I walked away, I couldn't help but wonder why Fang loved me. Why he found me worth it? I felt as if the trouble I was causing wasn't worth it at all. I had taken him away from his family, even if he had gone willingly. But, why? I didn't get the chance to finish my train of thought as I entered a large gymnasium.
The lab wasn't really a lab. Or at least that's how you wouldn't describe it if you ever saw it. It was more like a large arena, with obstacles on the floor and hanging from the ceiling.
Chinese men stood in the corner, they're eyes drinking me in with disgusting thirst and eagerness. It was growing abundantly apparent that no one here thought of me as a person, as a human.
I was just another lab test with too many variables. To many what-ifs and maybes that had to manipulated until I was just another predictable experiment. Fascinating, but controlled.
Fang's POV:
I hated the way Skylar looked as she left. Lifelessness coated every inch of her until she had morphed into another willing victim of Jeb's experiments. I couldn't do anything for her, I couldn't stop them. I had already been forewarned of the consequences if I did.
We were both stuck here, I was stupid, thinking I could help her if I was here. Instead I made us both prisoners. I regretted coming, knowing if I hadn't I would've been outside of the windowless walls of the School, planning how to get her out. It was a bad move, but I would not let her face this place alone.
In a twisted way, being able to see her, being able to know how she's doing, or at least know more than I would if I wasn't here, it made everything worth it. Being here with her made a sort of diluted calmness wash over me. I wasn't able to protect her, not really. But I was still here with her.
I hissed as an eraser dug it's claws into my arm as it jerked me down a hallway until I stood I front of a glass window. Bullet proof and double sided, obviously. On the other side was Skylar, gritting her teeth as she froze a stack of cinder blocks. Her color was draining and she looked exhausted.
They were pushing her as hard as possible without breaking her. She collapsed to the ground but Jeb strided over and said something to her, something that made her force herself to her feet and keep going. I tried to shake off the eraser's strong grip, but it was no use, there were three others right behind us and I could still feel the drug they had injected me with earlier weighing down my limbs.
So instead I was forced to watch Skylar hurt and tire herself until she couldn't do anymore. They may have been avoiding breaking her for her uses and powers, but I was still just another bird kid; there were seven others of us. So they were seeing how much it took to break me.
Skylar's POV:
My vision was growing blurry and my heart was pounding in my chest. I knew I wasn't going to be able to hold out for much longer. Luckily, Jeb stopped me soon after that. Then it was time to melt the frozen blocks of stone in front of me.
I blew out through my cheeks and began to bring flames towards my palms until the fire started to penetrate the ice. There was a loud knock on the double-sided glass beside me, I didn't know who it was. Either way, I didn't stop. Jeb was going to hurt Fang if I did. Jeb eventually said I could stop, that's when I noticed all of the ice melted into a puddle before every. I had been to tired to watch and pay attention.
He clasped my arm painfully and dragged me towards the scientists. He wore a pretentious grin that was a cue for me to smile as well. Mine came off as more of a grimace until I felt his strong fingers tighten and begin to hurt even more. I smiled a broad, white flash of teeth. Jeb nodded: Better.
One of the scientists said something I didn't understand. Another one translated, "He said you are very impressive." Politely I replied, "Thank you." "Can we see your wings more closely?" He asked earnestly. I wanted to shudder at the thought but I obeyed. Opening my wings to their full span.
I could see the way the light glinted off the silver feathers out of the corners of my eyes. I felt a rush of smugness when they gasped. "Yes, Skylar always seems to be a crowd favorite," Jeb remarked kindly. It amazed me every time how he could be so horrible yet seem so nice. I forced a giggle that I knew would evoke a laugh out of the scientists.
The routine was instilled into me, coming as a second nature. Please them, impress them, make them invest in the School. It was what I had done since before eight. Once it was obvious that they were going to invest, Jeb dismissed me.
When I walked out the door, I was greeted by erasers. Only none of them took ahold of me or tried to force me back into my cell called a room. They knew as long as they had Fang, I would be their willing victim. To every experiment, every test, and every examination.
Author's Note: Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Let me know in a review your thoughts, opinions, and story ideas. I would love to hear them. (Also, I'm nearing 100 reviews, which means I will host another contest/prize for the 100th reviewer. I let you know more when I reach 90 reviews.) Thanks! XOXO- Skai.
