Fear overwhelmed Ivy. She guessed the whitecoats were off to a good start.
"We're going to test your fears," a whitecoat had just told them. Both bird kids froze, but there was no escape. Two strong men, dressed in white, gripped their arms. They were being marched out of their cold, white room.
Ivy shivered in her hospital gown. Chase was lucky, he'd gotten and shirt and pants to match the hospital theme. But they weren't much warmer than what she was wearing. She stumbled along, barefoot on the cold tiled floor.
A few halls later, there was a window. Ivy saw sunshine. It was already the next day. She was trying to look out to see where she was, and felt a sharp tug on her arm. They were jerked violently into a room. They tumbled in, while the two men and the whitecoat were left outside. The door swung shut and the intercom crackled.
"This room was designed for us to hear and see all. We can test your levels of adrenaline, and how well your decision-making process is affected. We can also measure your stress levels. Each test lasts three minutes. Test 1 will begin now."
There was another crackle and the voice fell silent. They were in a large, windowless room. It was white, but not tiled like the other rooms. Ivy was looking around when a fireball whizzed past her head. She screamed.
"WHAT WAS THAT?" she shrieked. Another one whizzed past, this time narrowly missing Chase. Small openings were being created in the walls, and fireballs were being shot out of them. Fire whizzed past Ivy's head as she turned, singing a couple of inches of brown hair off.
Chase was looking around, livid. Another fiery ball shot at him, followed by two others. He hopped around, trying to avoid the burn. Ivy got pelted by five fireballs, which followed her as she ran, missing her only slightly every time. The edges of her hospital gown were singed.
She was breathing heavily as another row of fireballs pelted after Chase. Another one was headed for Ivy's face, when she suddenly ducked. There were no more fireballs. Both bird kids tensed, moving in circles, waiting for another attack. There was none.
"Three minutes are over. Test 2 will begin shortly," said the voice on the intercom. Ivy was breathing heavily, dreading the next test. Chase was clenching and unclenching his fists nervously.
There was a slight noise that sounded like gears turning. To Ivy's horror, the room started shrinking. It had always felt the like room was shrinking when it was small, but she was actually witnessing it happening.
The walls were being pushed in, towards the center of the room. Slowly, they progressed, shrinking the size of the place. The previously large room was only average sized. It kept its square proportions, but kept steadily shrinking. Ivy yelped.
"We'll be crushed!" she said. Chase shook his head.
"They don't want to kill us, only test on us," he tried reasoning with her. He didn't know one important thing: never reason with a claustrophobe during a panic attack.
She was shaking violently now, her eyes wild.
"We need to get out," she said unsteadily, all reason abandoning her.
"No, we'll be fine. It's not painful or anything," Chase said. He made his biggest mistake yet.
"DON'T YOU GET IT? I NEED TO LEAVE!" she hissed, slamming Chase into the wall. The room was now the size of an average kitchen. She felt the wall pushing her into the center of the room and whimpered, letting go of him.
It was now the size of a queen-sized bed. Ivy huddled onto the floor, whimpering steadily. Chase had no idea this was her biggest fear. The room shrank into the size of their hospital bed. Chase and Ivy were sitting closely together, in the middle of the room.
The walls kept advancing until they were pressed together. The walls touched them, and stopped. Ivy broke. She started crying frantically, trying to punch and kick the unyielding walls.
It wasn't even big enough for her to move more than her arms. She started to scream bloody murder.
"GET US OUT! GET US OUT! I'LL DO ANYTHING! MAKE IT STOP!" she shouted, broken to her core. The walls were still pressed to her. After a while, she just sat, sobbing quietly, her arms clenched around her head.
Chase tried to soothe her, to tell her it would all work out. He'd never seen the fearless leader like this before. It made the situation all the more terrifying. Ivy wouldn't respond to anything. She lay there, shaking, adding to the fear in the small space.
"Three minutes. Your stress levels skyrocketed, Subject Ivy," the voice mocked. Chase felt the walls recede. The room was quickly as big as it was at the beginning. Ivy was still scrunched up on the floor, unresponsive. Her eyes were squeezed shut and her arms clenched over her head.
"You'll get a five-minute break before Test 3," the voice added, this time slightly unsure. Ivy still didn't respond. Chase got closer to her slowly.
"Hey," he said softly. Ivy trembled slightly. Slowly, she unclenched, crouching shakily. He helped her up. Her eyes were still those of a hunted rabbit and she was deathly pale.
"You're claustrophobic," he said. She nodded slightly, not quite steady. "I didn't know."
"Sorry I pushed you," Ivy said.
"Don't worry about it," Chase waved her off. She managed a small smile. Maybe she would survive.
"Max…" she started.
"I'm sure," he answered. Neither one wanted to say anything under surveillance. They nodded, and Ivy tried to wipe at the tears on her face.
"Five minutes," the voice said. "Test 3 will now begin." Both of them screamed, backing into a corner of the room, when thirty-odd large snakes came out of a hatch that had opened on the opposite side of the room.
! #$%^&*
I smiled sweetly at the secretary at the front desk. It was ten a.m., exactly. She'd made us wait until the exact minute. We'd arrived at 9:58, and she'd shown us the seconds on a watch. She didn't let us in until the seconds said 10:00 exactly.
"Now, can we visit our parents?" I asked.
"What floor?"
"Um, intensive care?" I asked. I hadn't planned that one.
"Floor seven," she told us. I thanked her with another fake smile and walked over to the elevator. I pressed the button and the flock piled in.
I surveyed the buttons. Floor seven was intensive care, of course. Fang pointed to floor nine, the top floor: it said restricted access. Really, they make it too easy.
I jammed my finger onto the "floor nine" button. We rode up silently and were faced with an empty hallway and a single locked door. Great.
"Iggy, will you do the honors?" I asked him. He nodded and I guided his hand over to the lock. Nudge can do it, but I let Iggy do the fun part sometimes.
Three paperclips and two bobby pins later, we were in. It was a key card access door, but there was an emergency keyhole. The halls were empty. I led the flock in.
I heard footsteps. I ushered everyone into an empty room in time for a whitecoat to pass. It was an impeccably dressed blond woman. As soon as she was out of sight, we walked along the hallway. We were about to go explore other hallways when I heard a scream.
"It came from here!" I hissed, running along a hallway that went to the right. I heard another scream and took a turn to the left through another hallway. The screams were coming from behind a white door marked "Test Room."
I pulled Nudge over to the door, and she concentrated on the lock. She turned the knob and it opened. I was greeted by snakes. There were snakes all over the room. I also saw two bird kids in a corner.
"Chase! Ivy!" I yelled. They turned and I saw relief in their eyes. Forgetting the snakes, they ran towards the open door like there was no tomorrow. They burst out into the hallway and I closed the door. They must have gone through hell and back. Their faces were streaked with tears.
"Come on!" I said, sprinting to where I remembered the exit to be. The flock followed, weaving through hallways. I jerked to a stop when I saw who were blocking my way: ten Erasers, Avery, and a man with bright green eyes and combed wavy black hair who looked just like her.
"The Director," Chase breathed. To my horror, Avery turned and smiled up at the man.
"Here they are, Daddy."
A/N: Half the claustrophobes died during that middle part. It was difficult to write as I kept imagining it and hyperventilating. Thanks for reviewing, but don't stop now! REVIEW (AGAIN) PLEASE!