Yay! Another chapter done. I feel really good at the moment.
Things just keep poping into my head. Gah! Too many ideas!
Anyway, here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it. Please leave a comment, it's nice reading what people think.
And don't worry if you're confused right now: it's meant to be confusing.
Any questions, and I'll be happy to answer them.
Ta ta for now~!
Chapter 9 –
Fay looks up to see Dr. Slur looking over her cage, a sad smile on his face.
A mixture of emotions play though her all at once: rage, fear, relief, anger, sadness, love, loneliness, longing, regret.
How could someone she resent have such a huge impact on her?
"Hello Fay." He says, tapping a few of the bars as he walks around to face her better. "You know, I've missed you."
"But I haven't." She replies, yet she was unable to keep the sense of longing and loneliness out of her voice. She curses herself on the inside for appearing so frail and weak.
"You're voice betrays your words, Fay." He says as he stops walking and bends down to about eye level with the teen before him. He reaches a hand inside the cage, running his fingers down her long green hair, before pulling back, a few lose strands caught in his hand and falling like pools of water out of his palm.
"I'm sorry that you all ended up in this place." He says. "I never intended to let you go."
"You kept us in a prison." Fay replies. "Of course we would wish for freedom."
"Even so, you should have known better than to come here."
"Why should I know that? Why do you care?"
"Because I created you."
This causes Fay to reel back in surprise.
He created her? What did he mean by that? Was it like how he created Viv and Nick? Was he her father? Or was it because of the things he had done before, the personalities she had manifested in her mind? It was his fault that she was now Fay instead of Angel. Was he saying that he created Angel? That even she was another false personality, a false self like the others? What was her true self?
Dr. Slur smiles, as if having read her mind, as he turns around and leans on the cage bars.
"You are not my child, Fay." He says. "But you are very dear to me, dearer than my own two children actually. I have a greater desire for your safety than of my own flesh and blood. I know it may seem harsh, but there are reasons behind my words and actions. Reasons that you, yourself, asked of me to keep hidden."
"But if I asked you to keep it hidden, then wouldn't me asking to know be alright?"
"Now tell me Fay, why would I listen to a shadow of the person you once were?"
Fay knew that the doctor was right, yet she couldn't shake a sinking feeling that Dr. Slur was keeping something hidden from her. Something different to what he implied she asked him to keep hidden.
"So Fay," the doctor says, disturbing her silence. "How did you get here?"
"You mean in this cage?" She asks.
The doctor nods his head.
"They drugged me." She says. She could tell that the doctor was not pleased to hear this as his facial expression seemed to tighten up in anger. She felt like smiling, but knew better than to make him angrier than need be.
"How do you know?" He asks though gritted teeth.
"Lucy gave me lemonade. After I drank it, I felt tired and sleepy. I don't understand what this place is. Is it a circus or is it like Koo Island? Are we just test subjects here like we were back there?" Fay's eyes begin to tear, small trickles sliding down her cheek.
"All we ever wanted was to have normal lives, to live as we wished and freely without having to worry about what others would think of us. Is that too much to ask for?"
Dr. Slur looks down before turning his head to the side so that he could see the teen better. "Do you really want to know?" He asks.
She looks up at him, tear tracks still evident on her cheeks, as she nods her head.
He sighs.
"You're right in thinking that Angel was another personality created, but you're wrong in thinking it was my own doing. It was something you had requested me to do."
"I don't understand." Fay says. "Why would I ask you to do that to me?"
"Because," Dr. Slur says. "You knew what you were already."
Dr. Slur sighs as he rubs his face. "Fay, you have a special gene in your body that allows you to adapt to changes in the internal and external environment far greater than the average human can handle. An example of this would be living in the Arctic. After a short period of time, you would get used to the climate change and it would seem like you had lived there you're whole life. Another example would be if someone were to splice your genetic code with a gene that would turn one eye pink. To anyone else, the splicing itself would surly cause great damage, but with you, the process would work. That's why every time you see a light shade of blue you smell peppermint. It was an experiment we conducted earlier on, a splicing experiment."
"So, you're saying, that you conducted these experiments on me? You changed my DNA to something new for the sake of science?"
"I'm not saying I did it alone. It was always your idea. I would never have done any of this to you if you hadn't of ordered me to."
Fay shakes her head in disbelief. Why would she have wished to be experimented on if it meant she would end up someone new? Why would she want to have all these personalities, all these people she created, for the sake of science?
"So, what am I then?" Fay asks. "What am I to you?"
"If I tell you, what will you do then?" He asks.
Fay shakes her head. "I don't know. But it's better than not knowing, isn't it?" She asks.
The doctor sighs. "If I tell you who you are, then I have to tell you everything, and it's a long story to tell."
"I want to know." Fay responds.
Dr. Slur could tell by the look in her eyes that she was serious, and that nothing could sway her away from what she wanted to know. It was the same look she used to give him before conducting an experiment on herself. If he told her now, would he be forgiven? Would she return to who she once was?
He sighs. "Alright, I'll tell you everything."
Shan felt someone nudge him awake as he looks up to see the twins beside his cage.
After they had returned, the ringmaster had declared that they were allowed out of there cages, so long as they didn't leave the tent.
Viv still remained silent since their return, and Nick hadn't spoken a word about what had happened when they left.
Fly was still asleep in her cage, yet even in her sleep her mournful sobbing could be heard.
Viv's eyes were open, but glazed over like she was in some sort of trance. Nick's eyes were closed as he seemed to be fast asleep.
"Viv," Shan whispers so not to wake the sleeping twin. "What is it? Is everything alright?"
She begins to shake her head before remembering her twin and decides to whisper instead. "No, I can't sleep Shan." She replies. "I keep remembering things that I don't want to remember."
"Like what Viv? What are you remembering?"
"Everything. I remember what the red room was for. It was some place where people didn't come out of, it was a place where we all went to at some point. It was a room that was used for experiments, it was used to enable us to adapt to what they wished for us in the future. Nick and I went though experiments that strengthened out link together to enable us to live on the same body. They had a cure for Fly's condition but they chose to make it worse, speeding up the process. And you, Shan, you weren't born blue. You were born like any other normal person was. They spliced you're genetic code, Shan, and the splicing resulted in this. And Fay? She… she… she's gone though so much more. And for what? I don understand. Why would they do this to us?"
Tears begin to fall down her cheeks as her sobbing rocks the body she shares. Nick slowly opens his eyes and notices where he was. Shan looks at the younger twin momentarily before returning his attention back to the sobbing girl.
"It's alright Viv." He says. "It's not your fault. None of this is your fault."
"But that's just the thing Shan." Viv says. "If it's not our fault, then whose is it?"
"That father of yours." Fly replies. She sits up and looks at them all. "It's Dr. Slur's fault we're all like this. It's his fault for hurting us all, for hurting Angel too."
"You can't blame everything on him though!" Viv cries.
Everyone looks at her in shock.
"What, do you mean Viv?" Nick asks. "It was his fault. We all know it was."
"Nick's right Viv," Shan replies. "You may not like it, but it's the truth. It is Dr. Slur's fault we're all like this."
"But you don't understand; it wasn't his fault. It was someone else's."
"How can this be someone else's fault? Are you even listening to yourself Viv?" Shan yells. "If it wasn't for that man, we might have had normal lives! That's all I've ever dreamed of, and your about to tell me that the man responsible for all of this is not to blame?"
The tears began to fall freely from Viv's eyes. She felt like her chest was being crushed, and that nothing was right anymore.
"I know it's not his fault because... because… because Marita Young is the funder for Koo Island. Marita Young was the one paying for the facility. She's the one to blame; she payed for this torture."
"Marita Young tried to help us!" Fly yells.
"She did it to make it seem like she was the good guy!" Viv cries. "This is all her fault! Marita Young is no friend of ours. She's at fault."
"She was the only one who did anything to make our lives comfortable." Shan counters. "How could she be anything but a friend?"
"I don't know." Viv answers honestly while sobbing. "I just don't know."
Nick looks down at his twin sadly before placing a hand on her head. It wasn't much, but it was all he could do. This was not a memory he could see, nor was it something that he could remember. One thing was certain to him: what Viv said about the red room was correct, and he knew that if anyone else were in their shoes, none would have survived. So why were Viv and Nick so different? Why were they able to survive having their head's cut off and sewn onto a new body?
Why was this happening to them?