I know it's been a while since I last updated this story, and I'm really sorry about that. I honestly put it off for a while because I wasn't sure if these chapters were good. But, here you go, enjoy :) Sorry it took me over a month.


Mephiles and I soon made it to my prison again, and he motioned for me to have a seat on my bed. When I raised my eyebrow in questioning, he just glared at me until I sat down; then his gaze loosened, and he sat on the other end of the bed, across from me. I could tell he was trying his hardest to not make me feel uncomfortable. After all, we knew nothing about each other, and he probably didn't want to sit next to me anyway.

When Mason walked by our room and saw Mephiles in here, his tiny eyes widened. "Uh, Master?"

"Bring Renata her dinner. I wish to stay here with her."

Mason nodded at the back of Mephiles' head and waddled away, muttering something indistinctly. There was a slightly awkward silence for a few seconds, then Mephiles looked up at me. His eyes were still that creepy shade of icy green, but they didn't seem as angry as before. I could still detect a thin layer of manic hostility behind the charm, but as soon as I saw it, it disappeared.

I blinked, unsure of what to say.

I looked over at Tails' room and saw he was playing with some pebbles in the corner, watching Mephiles with slight fear. Apparently he wasn't usually this close to the Dark.

The smell of sashimi salmon hit my nose and I licked my lips. Before I knew it, Mason had set a plate of it with a pair of delicate chopsticks in front of me, bowing to Mephiles before exiting again. The Dark gestured for me to begin eating, and I dug in, filling my hungry stomach with the delicious sushi. It was absolutely perfect. I wondered how they knew it was my favorite food; if they didn't, they had some damn good guessing skills. I savored and enjoyed the flavor of the first few bites, then began shoveling it in my mouth as politely as I could.

Several minutes later, the curfew bell rang, and Tails stood from the corner and climbed onto his bed, curling his tails around him. I heard Mephiles sigh, and I looked up to him. "I need you to come with me. We need to do some tests before you go to bed." When I stood, he put a hand on my shoulder, gently pushing me back down. "Finish eating first."

"I'm done," I told him, looking down at my plate. The lovely salmon had lasted less time than I had wanted, but I guess I had eaten it a little too fast.

"Well then, follow me." Mephiles stood and walked from the room with swift steps, and I tagged along behind him, not wishing to get lost in this place; more confusion was the last thing I needed.

We kept walking until we met, of course, another gray door. The monotone was starting to make my eyes droop. I knew I needed to sleep, but I plodded on behind the Dark through the door, knowing that he would need me to stay conscious.

The bright lighting inside the room nearly blinded me, as my eyes had become adjusted to the dim light of the hallways. I had to blink repeatedly before my eyes stopped swimming and could focus on my surroundings.

There was a long, steel table with a thin mattress on it and wax paper. I saw a desk in one corner with a complicated looking computer that had a bunch of unlabeled knobs and buttons. On the screen, white numbers against a black background scrolled quickly from the bottom to the top. The walls were a crisp white, and the floor was tiled the same white. A bright yellow orb hovering a few feet above our heads emitted a light reminiscent to the Sun.

Mephiles guided me over to the table and, lifting me up, set me down on the wax paper like a 5 year old child. I didn't comment on it as he went to a hidden cabinet painted white and pulled out some items: a plastic cup, something that looked like a small white and blue piece of paper, and my worst enemy - a bunch of needles.

My heart froze in my chest as I gaped at the injection needles. There were... seven? No way. There was no way in hell would I have that many needles going into my skin! "I have a phobia of needles," I squeaked, realizing how much I sounded like a squirrel after a cup of coffee.

Mephiles chuckled slightly cruelly. "No need to be afraid, Renata. It's not like they're going to hurt you. Besides, we don't need them until later. For now, I'll be doing other things."

I sighed with relief. Mephiles handed me the paper thingy and the plastic cup. He opened up a door, and I saw it led to a small bathroom. "Urinate on the pregnancy test and in the cup."

My eyes bulged out of my sockets, staring down at the little thing that now seemed a lot stranger now. "This is a PREGNANCY TEST?"

"We need to make sure."

"Okay, but I'll tell you truthfully that I'm a very inexperienced virgin, so don't expect much." I closed the door behind me, wondering why the hell he would want to know such information. It's not like I was fooling around with any young guys around here in my spare time. The only relatively young people I knew were Tails - and I didn't exactly want to think about him trying to do that - and the little green hedgehog outside in the field. I didn't even know his name yet.

When I came back out a few minutes later and showed him the negative test, he threw it in the trash after writing on a clipboard. He took the plastic cup and put a lid on it, storing it in a refrigerator.

Then he picked up one of the needles.

I felt my chest clench again and I bit my tongue, cursing myself for being so afraid. I knew I had to relax. If I were tense, I knew it was just going to hurt more, based on experience. I took a deep breath, thinking about my mediation sessions with Aidan back on earth.

Her words swam through my head. "Close your eyes and clear your mind of all negative thoughts. Think of nothing but the trees, the life of the grass. The life of the beings around you. There is no past. There is no future. There is only now. Imagine swimming in a bottomless pool, weightless. Imagine flying among the clouds, all of your troubles down on the ground. Nobody can touch you."

With that I felt better, but it didn't last very long. Mephiles approached me with the needle in his hand, a smile on his face. It wasn't menacing, but it did seem like he would take joy in terrifying me for these few seconds.

"What's in that needle?" I asked.

"Since you haven't been here very long, you are similar to a newborn child in that way. You need to be vaccinated against the different diseases that could sweep across us at any time." He placed the needle against my right upper arm and, with a quick shove, it went into my skin.

I hissed through my teeth, my discomfort apparent. He injected the vaccination, and the needle was gone after that. A cotton ball was placed on the tiny wound with a piece of medical tape; I guessed they didn't have Band-Aids here.

The second needle came, and it repeated in the same fashion on my other arm. The third was in my left thigh, and the fourth was in my lower left arm. He inserted another into my lower back, next to my spine - this one was the longest, and the most painful. I let out a harsh groan as it entered my muscle, but I kept myself relaxed, telling myself that this would be easier if I just stayed calm. Regardless, that didn't ease my nerves on haywire as the last two went into my calves, one in each. I was covered in cotton balls by this point, which humored me slightly for some reason. It must have been very late by this point. People tended to laugh more close to the middle of the night.

He helped me off of the table and walked me over to another door, this one being metal. With a few swift fingers, he entered a password into the number pad next to it, and the door slid apart. It closed behind us as we stepped in. He leaned down and murmured into my ear, "I wanted to show you this room before you go to bed. It's not really of any importance, but I think you need to relax and see this."

I don't know what I had expected to be inside, but this was definitely not it. I saw about 20 identical little one foot tall dolls that looked like old-fashioned Barbie dolls with their heads torn off. But they weren't just laying around, broken - they were walking around with their arms out in front of them like zombies. A few would run into the walls, and some ran into each other, flailing their arms as they fell backwards. Like a machine, they stood up again and kept walking. All were stumbling, blind. Their clothes were stained with red, as if their necks had gushed blood when their heads were removed.

The sight was appalling in a way, yet sadistically humorous in another. I giggled as a particularly clumsy one broke into a sprint and smashed into the wall, leaving a little dent in the white wood. Mephiles chuckled at my response. "I beheaded these girls just to see them run around like this. It's quite amusing."

"Yes it is," I laughed. My mind was telling me, WTF is wrong with you? Regardless of this voice, I did not stop giggling at the zombie dolls. I couldn't wait to come back to this room later and watch them some more.

Mephiles laughed again, then sighed. "I think it's time to retire now; it's nearly midnight. We're all tired, and you definitely need your rest. You're working out in the achomedla garden again tomorrow. You will be awakened very early... I don't know what I was thinking, letting you stay up so late." He seemed to be talking more to himself than me now; he took my arm and exited the room full of blind dolls.

When we made it back to my prison, I began to enter the room, but was held back by Mephiles. I looked back at him in question, wondering why he didn't want me to leave. We stared at each other for a long time, then he let go of my arm as if he had decided against something. "Good night." With that, he flitted down the hallway, not looking back.

I looked over to Tails's room to see if he was still awake. I wasn't surprised to see he had fallen asleep since I was in here a while ago. I smiled and changed into a long white nightgown that someone had left on my bed for me. I laid down gently, careful to not irritate my already sore muscles. I let my eyes close, ready to go to sleep.

"Psst. Renata. We're here."


R&R :)

~gabl