Beatrice is poised like a cat ready to strike, hands up to protect her face and her light frame bouncing on the balls of her feet. A crowd surrounds the centred ring including a pair of uninterested looking adults. A boy, at least a foot taller than Beatrice and most likely twice as heavy, chuckles and taunts her, a smirk infesting his face. The ring explodes suddenly into action, Beatrice strikes out first at the boy before being quickly countered by his strength and is thrown to the floor. I let out an involuntary gasp. Beatrice scrambles to her feet with a look of determination that I've never seen in her before. The taller of the adults calls something out and the boy begins to pound Beatrice with powerful calculated movements. She doesn't stand a chance. I lunge forward, intending to interfere but find myself trapped by an invisible wall that keeps me pinned in my birds-eye-view. The boy yanks at Beatrice's hair and punches her in the nose. I let out a cry and pound against the wall as blood drips from my sister's face. I scream and yell and beg and cry but nothing works as I watch my sister get beaten to the floor. Finally, her knees give out and she drops to the ground in an unconscious heap.

I was shook awake by a pair of ice cold hands against my sweaty body. I thrashed out violently, confused and disorientated until a controlled and oddly familiar voice swam into my violent haze.

"Caleb. Caleb. Caleb, calm down. Relax, no one's going to hurt you. Open your eyes Caleb. Caleb, just relax, I'm going to count to three and on three you will open your eyes, understand?" I paused and listened to the voice, still wary and unsure.

"One," I was still confused but the voice seemed to be making sense.

"Two," A lot of sense actually, yeah, the voice was right.

"Three." My eyes snapped open almost involuntarily and the face that greeted me was cold and unexpected.

Jeanine sat back with a look of satisfaction and nodded to a man in a white coat with a clipboard that stood behind her. He left the room without hesitation as I took in my surroundings. The room was small and angular in a symmetrical fashion with four sterile walls, rigid and un-giving. A mirror was set into the white expanse to my left and a solid metal door blocked my exit. The smell that greeted me was neither pleasant nor putrid but instead acted like an odourless blanket engulfing the room. Its presence was clear yet it was indescribably absent. All noise was blocked by those four blank walls that barricaded the room like bodyguards.

Eventually I turned to face the addition I was hoping to avoid. Her face was calm and analytical and though I knew she is attempting patience, I could see her temper wearing clear as she analysed my every move. Her first question was not quite what I expected.

"How many planets are in our solar system?"

"Excuse me?" I eased myself upright, using my elbows, and reached back to stroke the throbbing bulge at the back of my head.

Jeanine stood up casually and began to pace in front of my steel frame bed. She averted her eyes initially before snapping to attention as she spoke. "How many planets Caleb? Just remind me."

"8," I reply uneasily. Generally I would be confident in my answers, but Jeanine's presence has thrown me off guard.

"Name them."

"I'm sorry?" Her response is not a request but a command.

Jeanine stopped pacing and stared me down. In an attempt to keep my composure I dropped my hand, sat up straight and bore into her eyes. I didn't know what it was, but I was going to pass this little test of hers; with flying colours too.

"Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune." I rattled the answers off like an alphabet, never breaking eye contact and without a breath. Jeanine smirked and snapped abruptly out of our trance.

"Very good Mr Prior," the happy-go-lucky expression returned, "or Caleb rather, a doctor will be back shortly to take a full examination. Until then, that green button to your right will call the nurse, red in an emergency. Farewell." She moved steadily to the door and I watched her sceptically.

"Oh! And one more thing Caleb," she popped her head back around the door. A failed attempt to receive a reaction, "twelve fourteens?"

"One Hundred and Sixty Eight."

Huge apologies for the major delay! With the school term back up and running things got a bit hectic but I will try my best to update whenever possible :)