Gonna try to update again this weekend. Enjoy:
Ember's cell room was a large square shape, but not very much room to walk around. In front of us was this huge transparent wall. It looked like glass, but I wasn't sure if it was. The glass-like box covered the rest of the room. There was one guard in the room behind the glass, but I was sure there was a whole team waiting in case of emergency. There were many security cameras, but none were in the cell. They probably didn't want Ember torching them. There were two, thick, metal doors on the left side of the cell and another one on the right. There was red curtain towards the back of the cell, and there, shrunken up in the corner, was Ember.
Her orange jumpsuit was about four times to big, and looked like it was trying to swallow her up. I remembered the first time I saw Ember. She had died the tips of her hair orange red, so that when combined with her own naturally blond hair, it looked like fire. But after nine months the tips had grown out and faded. Now her hair just looked Blonde, with a pinkish color at the very end of the tips. Ember, being a twin and all, was a very petite girl. She was incredibly short and pretty skinny, too. She looked like she had grown an inch or two. As for her weight, the jumpsuit was confusing me to much to tell. She was sitting with her head in her hands, so I couldn't see those red eyes I remembered so well.
I wanted to step closer, but I just couldn't find the strength. Truth was, I was dead nervous about seeing her.
"So…the…uh…her jumpsuit looks too big." I remark to Jim.
"We had to fire proof everything in the cell. Most fireproof clothes are really baggy." He explained. "What Ember used to wear was a new prototype that she stole. It was looser and more form fitting."
"Oh…cool…I guess…" I still was feeling nervous, so I kept making small talk. "How does she breathe in there? There aren't any holes in the glass…or whatever this is."
"It isn't glass, it's some new material. And there some sort of filtration system in the ceiling or something. It allows oxygen and sound in and out. I'm not sure how the whole thing works, but it was designed by a rocket scientist or something specifically for her."
"That's pretty complex…so, uh, she can hear us?"
"Yep. You can go talk to her, if you like."
"O-Okay…" I stepped forward slowly and put my hand on the glass. "Uh…hi Ember." No response. "She can hear us, right?"
Jim sighed loudly. "She can but she chooses not to." He banged on the wall. "Come on Mary, wakey wakey!"
"MY NAME ISN"T MARY!" She screamed loudly, leaning forward and banging on the floor as her body became engulfed in flame. I jumped. I couldn't help myself. The sudden outburst was scary. There was a loud "beep beep" noise as a ceiling sprinkler activated, putting out Ember's flame. I was now starting to remember what Jim had said back in the mental ward…
"Then what is your name, Mary?" Jim asked.
"I AM THE PHOENIX!" She yelled jumping up from the floor and smashing into the wall. She was just inches away from me but I couldn't reach out and hug her or anything. "I AM! FEAR THE PHOENIX! THE PHOENIX WILL ESCAPE AGAIN!" It would have been comical if it wasn't so scary.
Ember glared at Jim through the wall, smashing her fists into it every now and then. It had to be incredibly strong material to be resisting her continuous blows. Also, I could've sworn it sounded like she was growling…
"Ember…" I said softly. "Ember look at me…please…" I must've gotten her attention because she turned slowly and her face twisted into shock as she saw me.
"Rai…Raimundo…" She said quietly, side stepping over to me. "Raimundo…" She said again. There were tears falling down her cheeks, and her eyes looked tired and sunken in. She put her hands on the wall mimicking the position of mine. If it weren't for the wall, we would've been touching.
"Raimundo…" She pressed her nose into the wall, leaving a small smudge. "No…he can't be here…no…no…it can't be you…" She took her hands off the wall and took a step backwards.
"OH NO!" She wailed loudly. "NOW I'M HULICINATING!" She started to sob loudly as she backed away more and fell on her rear end.
"Lunch. It's feeding time, Ember." A voice came over on the loud speaker. I then noticed that the guard was no longer there. It must've been him on the speaker. At the speaker, Ember instantly turned to face the single door on the right. The movement gave me a better view of her hair, which looked limp and un-groomed. She definitely needed a haircut.
A slit in the door opened up and a plate was pushed through. It was simple white plate and it had something that looked like mashed potatoes on it and a chicken drumstick. Ember got on her knees and crawled over to the plate, almost tripping on her long orange outfit.
"Oh boy…" Jim said. "Now you'll get to see what she does when-" A loud scream pulled me away from Jim and I looked towards Ember. She was hovering over the plate screaming as loudly as she could. Next thing I knew the food had caught fire. It just spontaneously combusted or something from Ember's screaming.
With another 'beep,' the sprinklers activated but Ember kept screaming and sustaining the flame regardless of the water spray. She was soon dripping wet. But she kept screaming, no pauses in between. She was soaked, red in the face, and just standing over the flambéed chicken leg.
After a minute she stopped but the sprinkler kept going, even after the fire was put out. The piece of chicken was now very black and gross looking, not to mention very wet.
"Aw crap…" The voice on the speaker said. "The sprinklers are jammed. 496, you're just gonna have to wait until the water runs out. Sorry…I'll open up the drain holes…" There was mechanical click, but no visible signs of anything happening. Anything that I could see anyway.
"Ever since she got her original sentence she's done this. She sets all her food on fire. But eventually she always eats it." Jim says to me.
"That…doesn't sound appetizing. Or healthy."
"Doctor said she was fine and eating enough…however, the doctor was only in there for five minutes before he came running out screaming. His hair was on fire and he had second degree burns all over himself. Guess that's our fault…we forgot to warn him about her…condition."
"I vaguely remember Ember saying something about not liking doctors…" I comment.
"Well we certainly know that now. After the check-up she stood in the cell for two days, hands ablaze, yelling that if we ever had anyone 'violate' her again that she would burn the whole building down. No one doubted her, either. You know, she has her own bed? Yeah, it's not like a little mat or anything. She gets a lot of stuff just because the staff is too afraid to refuse her requests."
"What do you mean by violate?" I ask feeling an inner fire in my own body start to flare up.
"We asked the doctor about it. He said he just preformed a regular routine. He said she really started freaking out when he took her heart rate…guess she didn't want anyone touching her chest."
"Guess not…I can't believe…I mean She…she's not even remotely happy to see me." I said, hurt.
"Don't worry about it Rai…I'm not sure if you want to hear this or not, but with her current mental state, killing her may be a mercy." No…I didn't want to hear that. How could he be so cruel? A mercy killing? Mercy killing is when you have the vet put down your cat when it gets a tumor in it's lung and can't breath. Mercy killing is not eliminating all the crazies in the world.
I turned away from Jim and back to Ember. She was now gnawing on the burnt chicken leg. Small pieces of charred chicken kept falling on the floor. She looked up at us and her eye narrowed when the met Jim's gaze. A small piece of food fell out of her mouth.
"Get out of here Jim." She said throwing a first full of mashed potatoes that splattered against the wall. "No one wants to see you here…none of us wanna look at you…you and your ugly face…" I involuntarily looked at Jim…he did sort of have an ugly face…
"You to!" She yelled throwing more potatoes. "Get out of here you hallucination…go bother Stacy…"
"We should leave…" Jim said slowly.
"Okay…" We started walking away.
"AND TELL DAN TO CLEAN UP MY DAMN CELL!" She screamed as we entered the hallway.
"Dan is the cleaning guy…he hates going into her cell. We think she tries to dirty it up to annoy him. I'm sorry you had to see her like this Rai, but…still, I thought you would need the closure…I'm starting to think maybe I was wrong about that…"
"Who is Stacy?" I ask. "She told me to go bother Stacy…"
"We're not sure who Stacy is but we have a guess…"
"What?"
"We think…perhaps…an…imaginary friend."
"Oh…."
"Uh…I'll drive you home now. We can get lunch on the way."
I nodded silently. Ember couldn't stay here anymore, her condition was horrible. Ember couldn't die, she just couldn't. It was then that I made up my mind:
I was going to break her out of jail.
In case you need help with the visual when Ember is screaming continuously, then I have an example of which I based it on. It was sort of based on the scene in the movie "Mean Girls" when Regina realizes what's been going on and just screams and does the whole thing with the 'burn book.' And if you've never seen "Mean Girls," then it's also sort of like the part in the game "Nancy Drew: Danger by Design" where Minette gets mad in the beginning at Heather and screams her head off. And if you've never played that game or seen that movie then…just picture someone screaming insanely. And then go watch Mean Girls 'cause it's an awesome movie. Right…well, please review now.