Chapter Nine
Dark Gift
The term 'Dark Gift' spreads quickly through Seablite. First Richard and his skin, then Eli and his ability to meddle with anything electrical. He says the Doc called it 'electromagnetic pulse.' They aren't the only ones who are starting to display these Dark Gifts. Other inmates in other cells also start to notice strange things happening to their bodies as well. The chatter at meal times quickly turns to talking about their own Dark Gifts. Richard thinks that it is interesting to see what happens to people when spending time in an underwater prison. He can't shake the feeling that something is deeply wrong about this. They shouldn't be having these Gifts. It's unnatural. Whenever he meets up with Doc, he explains the situation and Doc assures him that he is doing everything he can to figure out a cure for the problem. Of course it has been several months since Doc said that to Richard.
It's now month sixteen in Seablite. His mind is now dull and empty. He's thought of everything possible to keep himself entertained. Reliving past memories, thinking of old TV shows, and other entertaining things that live only in his mind. Once he ran out of memories, he didn't know what to do. Now Richard uses his Gift to entertain himself, something he never though he'd do. He can practically do anything with his skin. He can change it into any colour he wants, any pattern, anything artistic and colourful. There are no limitations to what he can do, other than turning transparent.
Peter finally started to display a tendency of a Gift after their one year anniversary in this prison. Richard can't really describe it but whenever Peter concentrates on a person really hard, they go glassy eyed and become absolutely still, like a statue. It's like the person is in a trance. Then Peter can talk to them and they soak up every single word he spouts. They repeat his words and then the trance ends. The thing that creeps Richard out the most is when Peter gives that person a task to do, and they do it right away! He doesn't know what to call Peter's Gift so he says it's like mind control. He's been wary of the blonde boy ever since he discovered that Gift
It is a normal Sunday dinner when a new batch of inmates arrives. Richard turns his attention to the line of boys dressed in orange, slogging their way to their respective cells. They are locked up in their cells as what Richard refers to as 'the waiting game'. The waiting game is pretty much to see who breaks down first. Usually it's a small and weak kid who breaks down crying out for their non-existent parents (all the inmates so far have been orphans). The waiting game is also for the new inmates to get used to the cells they will be living in until they are released and so far no one has been released yet.
After fifteen minutes of the waiting game, the guards release the new prisoners and direct them to the cafeteria on the first level of the prison. Two new inmates find their way to Richard's table. Each table serves as a seating for two cells. Eli slides over to the other side of the table and allows the two new inmates to sit on the other side of the bench and adjust to life in Seablite.
The first boy is young, say eleven. He's also meaty looking, like he'll become an ox-like man when he's older. But for now he'll have to stay the same short and stocky boy he is right now. The other boy is probably near Richard's age, a quiet boy and thin looking as well. He continually glances at all the others, like they might be plotting against him.
"The name's Richard," he says and rests his arms on the table. "Welcome to Seablite, I guess."
"Thanks," the stocky boy answers. The quiet one doesn't say anything. "I'm Henry," he says and points to the quiet boy at the other end of the table, "and that's Matt."
Richard nods. "This is Eli and Peter," he says and gestures to his cellmates. "We live in the cell next to you guys."
"What is this place like?" Henry questions.
"It's alright," he answers with a shrug. "Lots of physical activity to keep you busy," he adds and receives of pair of smirks from Eli and Peter.
"You'll find out tomorrow, kid," Eli says. "Just focus on getting a good night's rest. That's the only way you'll be able to prepare."
Henry seems to understand and takes the advice to heart. Matt doesn't seem to acknowledge the other boys' presence and continues to eat in silence.
The next morning, the guards have something else in mind for Richard. He strolls out of his cell and is confronted by one of the guards. "No pannin' for you today," he says. "Doc wants to see you once the others have left.
"Okay… sir," he adds and walks down to the first level for some breakfast.
He sits down at the table with his usual meal of cold cereal.
"What's panning?" Henry asks. "The guards have been saying that's what we do here."
"You stand knee deep in black ooze, digging for pearls," Peter explains and pulls back the long blonde hair with an elastic. That boy insists on keeping his hair long. Richard stopped trying to convince him to cut it months ago when he realized that Peter had his mind set.
"It's not as dreaded as this joker makes it," Eli says. "I make a game out of it. See how many pearls I can find in one sifting."
"What's a sifting?" Henry asks.
"They'll explain to you when we leave," Richard says and turns to his cellmates. "You guys can make sure they gear up properly right? And that they do their jobs properly?" They both nod.
"Why can't you?" Peter asks.
"Oh, you know, the usual. Doc's checkups and all that kind of stuff."
"He favours you," Eli mumbles into his food.
Richard rolls his eyes. "Yeah, well it gets me out of panning for a day so enjoy your time in the muck pits."
The inmates make their way to the gear room to prepare for panning. Richard waits in his cell alone for a guard to arrive and take him to Doc. The orange mass slowly walks off and the chatter eventually ceases. The inmates are all out in the open ocean now. As he expects, a single guard arrives and leads Richard away to the same examination room with Doc's medical team already assembled.
Doc comes up and greets him kindly. "Hello, Richard," he offers with a warm smile.
"Hey, Doc. What's lined up for today's visit?"
"Oh, pretty much the usual," he answers and gestures Richard to sit on the medical table. "Just some tests, oh, and this new test which I hope will help us to determine the cause of your Gift."
"Really?" he asks. "Have you found a cure?"
"First we have to understand how this problem came to be. So, after the first few tests, you'll be put into a deep sleep so we can monitor your brain activities when you are in a deep sleep. We hope that sleep will helps us pinpoint where this Gift starts in the brain. Once that is discovered, we can move on to finding a cure."
"So I just go to sleep for a while and that's it?
"That's it."
"Simple enough."
Richard slips out of the orange prison jumper and pulls off the undershirt as well, leaving himself in the white shorts. The medical team closes in quickly and begins their usual routine. They record his pulse, check his reflexes, his breathing, his eyes' reaction to light, and everything in between. Once that is all in order, one of the members of the team brings for an IV tube and bag. Richard winces as the tube is injected onto the top of his hand, right into a vein.
He lies down on the medical bed at their orders. The cold steel makes it uncomfortable to lie on and makes him cold right away. The team pulls on face masks that cover their noses and mouths. They pull on rubber gloves as well.
"Alright, Richard," he hears Doc from his side. "Just relax on the table and soon this will all be over." Two hands grip the sides of his head gently. A gas mask slowly hovers over his head as he squints against the harsh bright light that shines down upon him. The gas mask is pressed down over his mouth and noise. Doc instructs him to take in deep breaths and soon he'll be asleep. He takes in several deep breaths and nearly coughs from the foul smelling gas. His eyes eventually begin to droop and soon they are closed in a deep sleep.
He flexes his fingers first then wiggles his toes. He begins to stretch out his long limbs out on the bed he is lying on. He collapses back onto the mattress and waits until he's a little bit stronger to move anymore. He tries again and stretches out his rubbery arms and legs. Once he's sure he can sit up without overtaxing himself, he does.
Richard looks around the strange settings of this new room. It has a hospital like feel to it. Several beds line both sides of the wall and everything is quiet for the patient- or patients- to rest in peace and quiet. He finds the IV tube still hooked up to his hand. The liquid methodically drips down into the tube.
A sharp pain from his head blinds him with stars and black spots. He lies back down on the bed and waits for the pain to pass. He's not quite sure if this is an after effect from the gas. He brings his hands up to his head. His palm brushes against something that definitely doesn't feel like hair. His blood turns ice cold. He holds his breath and gently brushes his fingertips against the non-hair substance on his head. The surface is rough for the most part. On the edges he feels a soft cotton substance as well as the plastic from surgical tape. A bandage. Did he fall off the medical table during the test? No, it is more than that. He feels bare skin, just a little bit of it, surrounding the edge of the bandage. Someone had shaved his hair away.
He slowly slips off the bed and pulls the IV tube off of his hand. He finds himself dressed in a thin t-shirt and drawstring pants. His bare feet tread along the cold ground to a bathroom on the other side of the room. He flicks on the light switch and stands in front of the mirror. To his horror, he sees a large square bandage covering some sort of wound. A dark brown stain shows clearly from the bandage, dried blood.
His fingers tremble as he grasps the edge of the bandage and slowly begins to peel away the cloth, even though he knows that this is not a good idea. He winces as the bandage is peeled off, revealing the perimeter of bloody and black stitches, forming a rectangle.
The dirty bandage floats to the ground as Richard inspects the mutilation to his skin. The blood surrounding the stitches is gooey and in a few places is dark and dried up. Whatever happened to him didn't happen too long ago. He supposes that whatever happened in the examination room went along something like this: that test that Doc explained to him earlier was really a surgery in disguise. The surgery was to get inside his brain and see if they were scrambled or not. After they saw what they wanted, they stitched up his skull and sent him into the small hospital room to rest. They had used him to get their answers.
"Richard?" a voice calls out. "Where are you?" He quickly readjusts the bandage and peeks out of the bathroom where he spots Doc near the entrance of the room. "Oh, there you are." He sounds relived.
Richard slowly walks out of the bathroom and keep s afar amount of distance between him and the man whom he though was supposed to help him. "What did you do to me?" he asks quietly and points to the grotesque wound on his head.
"It was all part of the test," Doc answers calmly and without sympathy.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" he roars again. The pain of being betrayed is all too much or him. He feels himself quivering and trembling. Just saying those words is hard enough on him. "You cut me open like some animal! You said you would help me! How is this helping me?"
"We have to understand what it is first," he says simply and strides towards the inmate. Richard backs up against the wall and does his best to stare down the doctor. "With understanding, we will be able to figure out what to do. But we need to do more tests first. Nothing like this has ever been documented in the history of the world."
"And this is your solution? By cutting me open? I expected you to help me and this is how you do it?"
"Yes."
Richard throws up his hands in exasperation. "I didn't want this. I expected you to come up with some sort of medication that I could take and this would all be over."
"You have no control over what I can and cannot do." Doc paces back and forth along the length of the room. Richard sits down nervously on one of the beds, finding that he could no longer stand without shaking. "When I was put in charge of the inmates' and guards' health of this prison, I took that very seriously. When you started to display these talents, I had to find out what it was that was causing this abnormality. My first guess is the water pressure on young minds. It affects the brains and causes them to become more active in areas where normal people don't experience activity."
"And your solution is to cut into my brain?" he retorts. "What kind of monster are you?"
"I'm a doctor, not a monster. I'm just trying to find answers. This whole undersea colonizing needs to be researched and studied so that we can understand what water pressure does to people for long periods of time."
"So you cut me open?" he says breathlessly. "There is no cure is there?"
"Not that I know of but the information we have learned from you will help us greatly."
"I'm just an experiment to you aren't I?" he asks and sidesteps his way towards the door, towards the safety of his cell. "You just wanted to cut me open."
"Don't say it like that," Doc says and watches Richard fumble for the door.
"You aren't denying it." He grips the door handle and begins to leave the infirmary. A guard stands at the ready with Richard's clothes and shoes in his arms. Richard stays clear of the guard as he leads him back into his cell and hands him the bundle of the clothing. The cell door slides shut.
Peter and Eli book look at Richard. They both are shocked to see Richard just standing there with a slight lost look on his face. Usually he is the strong one here but now he looks defeated and very tired. He doesn't look at them but disappears into the small bathroom to change back into his prison jumper.
When he returns, Peter asks, "Where have you been? You've been gone two days."
Richard raises his gaze and turns his head slightly for the two younger boys to see the bandage covering a particularly gruesome wound on his head. Richard doesn't know what to say to them. He opens his mouth but the words are stuck.
"What did they do?" Eli asks softly, his voice cracks under the fear.
Richard tries to speak again. "They cut me open. Because of the Dark Gift."
Both of the boys pale significantly. Both of them have Dark Gifts as do most of the inmates in Seablite. If Richard was operated on because of his Dark Gift, that isn't good for the rest of the inmates. Anyone of them could be next.