Awakening
The burning smell of cleaning agents, bright fluorescent lights, generic white walls. It's all too familiar. I begin to get up when I find myself strapped down. I try to move my hand, but the metal cuffs are unrelenting. I instinctively scan the room for an escape route. The room has three white walls with what I assume to be one-way glass. The fourth wall is covered with all sorts of machinery – blinking lights, number pads, screens with various number patterns written across them. There are two doors at opposite sides of the room. I follow the sound of birds chirping to find an open window not too far away. This is too easy.
I turn my head and find the others in similar situations. Confusion, recognition, and finally fear flash in all of their eyes. Their eyes eventually find mine. "Everyone okay?" I ask, trying to stay calm. Slowly each of them nods. Fang opens his mouth to say something when a creak echoes through the room. We all snap our heads to one of the doors.
Two kids peer inside before walking in: a girl with long dark hair woven into a braid and vibrant midnight eyes, and a boy with short dirty blond hair and light freckles under his warm chocolate eyes. There was something strange about them though. It wasn't just that they looked like they were barely over 15. It wasn't just that they were wearing a red blouse and a football jersey, not white lab coats. It was that they were…smiling. Like, full-out, ear-to-ear grins – not those forced ones they usually wear. Something was definitely off.
"Jamie! You're finally awake. Good morning," says the boy. He walks over to me and rubs his knuckles into my head as if we were old pals. I flinch away and he gives me a confused look.
The girl runs to Fang and wraps her arms around him. "Peter, I missed you so much!" she sobs into his chest. Fang just lies there stiffly.
I involuntarily yell, "Hey, get off him!"
Blondie to my right snickers. "Hey now, Sarah. Better keeps your hands off Peter. You're making Jamie upset."
The girl – Sarah? – smiles at me. "Sorry, Jamie. It's just that I haven't seen Petey in forever." I furrow my brow. Was she talking to me?
Fang was the first to talk. "Uh, I think you've got the wrong guy. My name's Fang."
Sarah turns to Blondie. "Marcus, what's he talking about? Doesn't he know it's over?"
The door at the other end of the hall suddenly slams open. A middle-aged woman with unruly brown hair dressed in a lab coat storms in. For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of normalcy at the sight of a whitecoat. "How did you two get in here?" she snaps. Sarah and Marcus hide behind the table I'm strapped to like two little kids caught in the middle of stealing cookies. It was all too surreal.
"You left the back door open," Marcus says smoothly.
"And by that you mean Tommy used his lock-picking kit?" the woman asks, raising an eyebrow. The two hang their heads in shame. The woman simply rolls her eyes and smiles, as if she were used to this. "You guys. Speaking of Tommy, where is he?"
"Oh, he's –" Sarah begins, when I cut her off.
"Can someone please tell me what the heck is going on?" I interrupt.
The woman looks at me in surprise, as if she's just remembered I was there. "Jamie!" she exclaims, smiling at me as if I were her long, lost daughter or something. Tears form at the corners of her eyes. "It's been so long."
"What's going on?" Angel asks. "Max, I can't read their minds."
Marcus laughs. "I'd be more worried if you could read our minds."
The woman, however, frowns. "Kids, I don't think they know."
"Don't know what?" I demand, starting to get impatient.
"That it's over. The experiment is complete. You're in the real world now."