It was dark.
Dark and scary and cold.
The room was small and there was a distinct metallic smell, one which seemed to come from her. There was tiles beneath her, and walls touching both her shoulders.
The door on the other side of the room open, revealing the vague shape of a man in a lab coat. He leered down at her, grabbing her arm and dragging her down the fall.
He dropped her into a lit room where two other men were waiting and they hauled her onto the cold metal table she knew was waiting for her.
She whimpered, flailing her pudgy hands weakly as they strapped her down.
The men smiled down at her, reassuring everything was okay. And then they plunged a scapel as deep as they could into her leg.
She screamed, trashing against her bonds as one of them attached a cord to the metal in her leg, metal that sat beneath her skin, metal that was part of her, metal that was her.
The second man flicked a switch, and the cord crackled with blue electricity as power pumped into the frail body. He turned the switched back off after several excruciating minutes, leaving her weak and panting as blood and sweat dripped from her body. Crimson already stained the floor.
The first man was joined by a third, and the second meandered over carrying a tray of medical tools. The third scientist pat her head before lifted a large knife from the tray and placing it in the middle of her skull. He drove it through her skin as she screamed, waiting until the instrument hit metal before tugging the scalpel back to the base of her neck.
Accessing recharge protocols: offline?
Recharge protocols offlining in 0.34 seconds...
Jasmine sat bolt upright, hands running along the scar on the back of her head, terror flashing through her eyes as she fumbled for the lamp beside her bed.
The model pulled her legs up, leaning against the wall as tears slid down her pale cheeks.
They had started again, her nightmares. They'd hadn't plagued her since she was seven. The model wondered what had caused them to return as she slid from her bed, hugging her stomach as she padded to the kitchen for a couple of sleeping pills and a glass of water.
The pills; she hadn't used them for ages, but kept them around anyway.
She sighed, placing the glass on her beside table and falling onto her plush bed. The redhead leaned forward, holding her head between her hands.
The time on her clock read four-thirty and she wondered if she would end up going back to sleep.
The pills slid down her throat and she fell back into the bed with a sigh, bright blue eyes closing.
Jasmine grumbled as she got out of bed, and shuffled over to the shower, where the redhead dunked her head under the icy water.
It woke her up instantly and she dried her hair off before heading downstairs for breakfast.
Nikki would be picking her up at eleven for a fashion convention, where she was going to be modelling some of the outfits all day.
Hopefully her nightmare was a one time thing, and wouldn't affect her much.
Jasmine smiled at one of the male visitors as he held up a camera, spinning so he could take a proper picture of the dress she was wearing.
It was a very pale blue, and it swept the floor. The dress was paired with silver heels and her hair was held up with an array of silver pins, all different flowers. The flowers were connected to each other by chains.
"Thank you." The man nodded, and he moved through the large crowd. Jasmine rolled her eyes and then vanished behind the curtain behind her.
Nikki was waiting with a garment bag.
"This is the last one, and then we can go." He smiled, thrusting the bag into his arms and then pushing her into a curtained off area.
There was a short black-on-black polka dotted dress, and a cropped elbow length jacket with brown fur around the top. A black fedora sat on the hanger, and a pair of black ankle boots were already placed inside the 'stall'.
It didn't take long for the model, who was used to dressing quickly, to take long to change.
As Jasmine stepped out into the crowd again, the loud announcement speakers screeched to life.
"Attention. Attention. This thing is on right? Great!" The male voice was awkward and obviously not used to using the system. "Everyone, listen up. We have received a a bomb threat. Please vacate the area calmly, in an orderly fashion. Immediately."
There was a moment of dead silence before someone screamed and someone else snickered. One of the designers activated the link they had with the speakers.
"Models, please keep whatever you are wearing. You may return them at a later date and the two-thousand-eight L.A. Small Designer Convention is over."
The redhead sighed, and headed for the parking lot. Unfortunately, Nikki had another model here today, one of his younger ones, and he had to take her home. The poor guy was ten, and looked exhausted last time she'd seen him.
Jasmine had actually walked here, and she wasn't too please about the fact she had to walk home in five inch black heels and a short dress. If she had a cigarette, she probably would have looked like one of those pimp chicks, but she had never focused on stuff like that so her comparison probably sucked.
She sighed, cursing the sunlight that heated her far more than she wanted.
Someone whistled, and she glanced at whoever it was out of the corner of her eye. Jasmine stopped dead, and blinked her longer-than-usual-because-of-mascara eyelashes at the blond sitting in the beat up 1970's Dodge Challenger.
"Where have you been all my life?" Miles asked, leaning over to open the passenger door.
"Hello, Miles. Nice to see you again." Jazz shook her head and lowered carefully into his car. "I was at a fashion convention today, but got shut down because of some bomb threat. I'm not too worried. Thanks for the ride."
The blond grinned, pushing his foot to the gas and roaring down the busy street.
"No prob. I felt bad watching you walk back in those shoes. How do women wear those things!? They're like death traps for feet!"
Jasmine laughed.
It was dark by the time Jasmine and Miles made it home. They had stopped at a restaurant to grab a bite to eat, and had sat in a park afterwords.
Jasmine had told Miles, who she considered a friend, how she hadn't ever played on a playground when she was little. So despite her five-inch heels, the blond male had dragged her to the park and they'd spent nearly three hours running around on it.
The redhead yawned as she pulled on an old pair of boxers and her father's old ACDC shirt, before collapsing into bed.
The little girl paused, peering around a corner before darting to the next one. She crouched at the base of the wall when she heard voices, scowling, before she continued on.
The men in white coats would be back for her later, but for now, the girl had escaped and was free to explore. Her tiny face was set in a determined expression and she ducked into a large hanger as several men appeared at the opposite end of the hall.
She let out a sigh of relief, glancing around quickly before her eyes met the nearly roof-high robotic figure. He, the girl assumed, was covered in ice and several people in bright yellow bioharzard suits stood on platforms, taking readings and samples from the Ice-Man.
A hand suddenly clamped down on her arm, and the little girl squealed, struggling to get free.
"There you are, Thirteen." The man frowned down at her. The little girl stuck her tongue out and her cheek was met with a harsh slap. "Enough. You should have stayed in your cell...room. We don't know how you escaped, but it will not happen again, you hear?"
He was leading her away now, dragging her down the hall. Thirteen struggled, and kicked him as hard as she could in the shin. There was a sickening crack and Thirteen raced down the hall again, only to collide with a woman in a white lab coat.
She lifted an eyebrow and picked Thirteen up, throwing the small child over her shoulder.
The girl got a glance through the door behind the woman, and her bright blue eyes widened. There was a really big...
Thirteen's vision grew hazy, and she vaguely felt the tiny pinprick of a needle before it collided with the metal beneath her skin and released the tranquilizer.
Thirteen woke sometime later, strapped to a table. She blinked away her morning tears and yawned, wiggling her wrists only to receive a shock.
The little girl shrieked, and jerked, only to be electrocuted again.
"Thirteen, stop moving." One of the doctors in the room scowled at her, and pulled away the skin on her side. The skin he'd been slicing through to get to her abdomen. "You can visit with one of the others later if you hold still."
It wasn't as though she had a choice. So Thirteen held rock-still and the scientist was soon done, and Thirteen's visitor came.
"Thirteen, this is Four." The grey haired head doctor motioned to the teenaged male beside him. Four was tall, gangly, with crimson eyes and dark tan hair. His face was sharp, and the skin on his left arm, and both legs had been cut away. "Four is going to keep you company."
"Hi."
"Hi." Four waved. The doctor left. "Who are you?"
"Thirteen."
"What's your name?"
"What's a name?"
"It's what normal people call themselves. The doctor is Dr. Daniel Johns. I call myself Tech." The teen puffed himself up with a grin and then looked down at her. "I'm fifteen. How old are you?"
"I'm..." Thirteen thought for a moment. "Three years, five days, forty-seven minutes old."
"I just wanted the year. Gosh." Tech snorted, pulling up the chair the doctor had left there before sitting in it.
"Are there more? Like us?" Thirteen asked, curiosity in her eyes. She talked well for a three-year-old, exceptionally so. Her intellect was higher than an three year old too, but that was to be expected when one had a computer for a brain.
"Yeah. Two, me, Six, Seven and Nine. And you. You're the youngest of us. We've all got names. Two is Cathy, Six is James, Seven is Abigail, and Nine is Joshua. You need a name too, then you can be part of the group."
"Oh. Thirteen is fine. That's what the doctors call me." She shrugged, and winced as the movement set off the shock bonds. The doctor reappeared.
"Four, or Tech, as you like to be called. It's time to go. Cathy, James, and Abigail are waiting for you." He held the door open.
"Right. Bye, Thirteen. Maybe I'll see you soon!" Tech grinned, and strode out the door.
The doctor shook his head and rolled his eyes at the hopeful little girl.
"You won't see him again."
Thirteen blinked at him and then nodded slowly.
And it really was the last she saw of Tech.