Chapter 5
A/N: The whole idea of this story is a commentary on evil. The character of Luke, despite being one of the good guys, cannot escape the evil that comes from being associated and related to Brenner, which is why he brags about his violence and talks calmly when discussing it. The whole idea of the story is the evil within, here we have no heroes nor do we have any role models because Brenner, Edward and Luke are just as bad as each other; but their evil manifests itself in different ways. For Brenner and Edward it is the idea of blindly doing horrific acts for your country, whilst for Luke it is the fact that he isn't scared of what happened in the war he enjoys talking about it he enjoys remembering about it, despite telling other people a different story. This is a key part in the story and as you will see has massive implications for the characters in the following chapters. Aside from that, Enjoy! And thankyou to all of my reviewers!
The stuffy room in the school was designed to be comforting and yet was the complete opposite. The cream walls beckoned to Luke, staring at him like an imposing magistrate, ready to deliver the sentence. The low ceiling felt as though it was edging closer to him, closing in and swallowing him whole. To make matters worse, the teacher sat opposite him wore an expression mixed with pity, fear and false understanding. The three mixed like paint in water.
"So I get it, you fought in a war, saw some pretty horrific stuff. Why were you so calm then when addressing the class yesterday? I know some veterans from Vietnam and yet they never mention any of their action" Mr Clarke was sitting, hunched over a table as Luke sat down in a plastic chair in the sweltering classroom.
"I don't know why, if I'm honest, it's just that whenever I think about it, it does disorientate me but I don't feel scared, nor do I feel worried. It's sort of like an electricity that passes through me. For a second or two I feel invincible, almost euphoric" he finished, rubbing his hands yet again.
"So you feel happy when you think about this?" Mr Clarke asked, growing even more confused.
"In a way yes, I wouldn't describe it as happiness, more of an excitement. It's not bad but it's not exactly good either. In a way, it is euphoria but at the same time it is tenseness"
The darkness in his eyes spoke more than any words could.
Luke walked out the class, entering the car of his brother.
"How did it go?" He asked as Luke had slumped down onto the fabric seats.
"Alright, making progress" Luke lied, fully well knowing what conclusion Mr Clarke had reached.
"If you need anything, just let me know" Matt replied before pulling the car in gear. The two rode in silence for a while, the crackle of the radio playing some obscure punk music being the only refuge from the awkward silence.
The two arrived home, and Luke climbed the stairs leading to their rooms. He opened the wooden door and was met with Edward looking at one of his posters.
"Hello stranger" Luke said, dumping his bag at the door. "Where have you been?" he asked, eyeing Edward with weariness.
"I've been working at the hospital" Edward but special emphasis on the word "I'm going to university next year and I need the work experience"
"What did you do there?" Luke asked, relaxing slightly.
"Oh nothing much, pretty boring stuff, just some tests" the last word was cold and hard, making Luke suspicious.
"What kind of tests?"
"I won't bore you with that, they're pretty repetitive little brother" Edward said diminutively.
Edward walked out the door when his father called him from his office, leaving Luke slightly stunned at his brother's interaction. He lay down on the bed, looking at the poster that Edward was inspecting. The poster was for an old sci-fi movie about an escaped experiment. "Strange" Luke thought, before drifting off to sleep.
He awoke in a ditch, the same one they had taken cover in on the first bombing. The earth smelt the same and the dampness was identical. The armoured car stood still on the road, an eerie peace descending on the scene. Suddenly the blast hit the underside of the car, the lifeless bodies of the soldiers being thrown onto the road, their remains smouldering from the heat. The flames licked the side, making the paint peel as the black plume of smoke rose into the clear blue sky, branding it with its suffering. Soon the smell of burning flesh overpowered Luke, forcing him to throw up in the ditch. When he looked up, the car was intact again and then the bomb went off, repeating the scene. Then it repeated for a third time, a fourth, a fifth. The scene repeated in his head, going round into a perpetual circle until Edward shaking him in his bed woke him up. Sweat dripping off from his face and from every crevice in his body. The electricity, the thrill from seeing death, coursing through his body as the adrenaline subsided.
"Are you okay" Edward asked, genuinely concerned for his brother.
"Yeah, I'm fine" For a reason beyond him, Luke started giggling eventually developing into full blown maniacal laughter.
"Okay" his brother stated, slightly perturbed.
Lucas, Dustin, Will, Max and Mike all sat in the familiar basement, watching some obscure horror movie. Mike had been healing well, and he had now escalated to eating with only mild discomfort.
"Guys, I have something to tell you" Mike said, voice quiet from his jaw.
"What?" Lucas asked, still looking at the film.
"Brenner's alive" Mike stated, taking the wind out of the air.
"As in the Brenner?" Dustin asks, looking away from the movie for the first time.
"No Dustin, as in the Brenner off of TV" Lucas snapped sarcastically.
"Either way, what do we do about it?" Dustin asks.
"I don't know" Mike says "We can't exactly do anything because he isn't experimenting on anyone, so far as we know, and he just works on the hospital" mike finishes
"So you're saying we just leave him?" Lucas half shouts, shocked.
"No, I'm not saying that. I of all of us here want him dead the most" Mike said.
"We just have our hands tied behind our back" Will says, ever the diplomat.
"Why do we have our hands tied behind our back exactly?" Max asks, speaking for the first time.
"Because he is Luke's father" mike finished, making Will gasp out of shock and the others stare at him.
"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Dustin exclaims.
"Because this is the first chance I've been able to without worrying about being bugged!" Mike shouts, rubbing his jaw out of pain.
"Fine! What's the protocol?" Dustin asks, glaring at mike.
"We can't trust him, so El never existed right?" and she's in hiding with hopper still, so no mention of what she is, who she is or where she is" Mike says, shocking himself with how stern he's sounding.
"Is he a friend or foe?" Max asks.
"Friend, for the time being, but he's still a risk so I don't want to take any chances" Mike finishes.
"He seems alright" Will states, his voice slightly weak.
"He's a Psychopath" Max scoffs.
"What makes you say that?" Will snapped back at her.
"Well firstly he didn't shy away from practically threaten to kill someone, Secondly he openly talks and nearly boasts about killing and making explosives and have you seen his eyes!" Max exclaims, glaring at will.
"I've got to agree with her Will, sorry" Dustin says.
"Plus he's Brenner's kid, of course he's going to be messed up. The war and his attitude towards it just prove it" Lucas says, throwing an arm around max.
"Alright, Alright, but he still seems like a good guy" Will said sheepishly.
"What worries me is his brother, Edward. He's the one that openly agrees with what went on with the lab" Mike said
"Now that is messed up" Will said, admitting it.
"See what I mean!" Lucas exclaimed "He might be a good guy on the outside, but he is still a child of the beast, he still ahs Brenner's evil within him"
"And I'm anything like my dad?" Will argues, getting defensive.
This silences Lucas, partly because Will has a point, but mainly because of Will's sudden offensive.
"Your father isn't a murdering psychopath though is he?!" Dustin shouts back at will.
The group argues for the next hour, Will defending his friend with passion whilst the others attacking him left right and centre, all while Mike is trapped in the middle.
"Right, I'm off, I've got a late shift tonight" Edward says to his other brothers who were camped around the fire, reading.
"You're always there recently!" Matt protests.
"Sorry mate, I need the work experience for next year" Edward replies, grabbing his coat and a lanyard.
The drive was short but quite boring, the trees creating long shadows against the road, their blackening trunks reaching out into the sky. The car reached a wire gate, armed guards on each side and Edward pulled up his lanyard, the troops giving a nod of approval as the gate slides open. The grey building loomed over Edward, the sharp corners and clusters of satellite dishes crown its brow, mimicking and mocking the building itself, like a crown of thorns. Edward walked through the doors, the woman at the desk giving him a warm smile as he entered his office. The room was small and compact, Edward ever being the pragmatic one out of the three, and on the desk piles of papers littered it, imitating sky scrapers in some urban metropolis.
Grabbing a folder off the shelf, Edward left as quickly as he entered; reading the contents of the folder as he walked down the cold, grey corridors of the facility. He eventually came to his father's office, knocking on the wooden door.
"Are we ready?" he asked, keeping the door open.
"I expect big things from you" Brenner says, following his son down a dark corridor towards a holding place, the once barren corridor now lined with steel doors, armed guards at each. They entered a one room where five other scientists waited, standing as soon as they saw Doctor Brenner, before sitting down curtly. Edward took up position at the front of the group, standing in front of a one way mirror.
"Gentlemen, Fellow associates. It is my great honour to present to you my little project. As you aware subject 11 escaped and, to our best knowledge, died in the incident at the Hawkins facility in October last year. Nonetheless, by exposing a prostitute to the same doses of LSD as Terry Ives was and after graciously taking her newborn son into care, we have managed to induce similar powers to that of subject 11, only to a greater degree. The subject is young, but is showing promise. Given five years study and 'encouragement' it is my belief that this subject will supersede subject 11 and be a great asset to our countries defence; as I, out of all present here today, am painfully aware of the importance of it. Anyway, we have a demonstration today; we discovered that when we pass a current through the subject, his abilities increase in strength. Gentlemen, I present to you, subject 16." Edward moved aside as a technician wheeled in a young boy, no older than seven, who was strapped down to a rubber coated steel chair. Two electrodes were attached to the temples of the boy, the technician giving the thumbs up to Edward.
"16, it's me, Mr. Brenner. How are you today?" Edward asked in a deceivingly charming voice.
"Scared" the boy replied his eyes wide and his body shaking in the leather constraints.
"Don't be, I'm your friend okay. Now, one of my friends is going to bring something in for you and I want you to do something to it" the boy started shaking even more as Edward finished speaking through the microphone.
"Please no, I don't want to" the boy broke down in the chair.
"16 what have I told you, if you do not do as I say, bad things will happen to you. Mr Fish might even have to be hurt as well; you don't want to hurt Mr Fish do you?" Edward said, speaking in a warm voice, despite the chilling message.
"In fact, I will even let you have Mr Fish with you" Edward nodded to the technician in the room, who left and brought a stuffed toy fish into the room, placing it on the steel table by the boy, who's expression softened.
"Bring the cat in" The boy's face went white, as a cage containing a cat was wheeled in by a technician who placed it on the table and left.
"Now, 16, remember what I said. You don't want to hurt Mr Fish do you?" The boy shook his head violently.
"Just to be sure, my friend will look after Mr Fish and if you don't do exactly what I tell you he will have to hurt him. Do you understand?" the boy nodded, tears streaming from his eyes.
"16. Kill the cat" Edward spoke, his voice cold and demanding.
The boy focused on the animal as it began to his and screech, making all the men in the room flinch, except for Edward. After a while, blood started streaming from his nose and the boy fell limp in the chair as the cats screams died down.
"16, what did I say" Edward said with a sigh and a tut of his tongue.
The technician pulled a knife and held it dangerously close to the stuffed toy, making the boy wail and scream.
"Kill the cat" Edward said again. As the boy concentrated on the creature, Edward turned a dial on the wall next to the mirror up. An ear piercing scream came from the young boy, but he still focused on the cat. Edward kept on turning the dial upwards and upwards, the screams of the boy rising in intensity and pitch as the current passing through his body rose slowly. The cat continued to hiss and scream, before it too was howling in pain. Edward stopped turning the nozzle, but the cat's and the boy's screams kept constant, neither was going anywhere.
"Remember 16, you don't want to hurt Mr Fish do you?" Edward said with mock emotion.
The boy concentrated further, blood now seeping from his ears and nose in a steady stream. Edward jerked the dial up to full blast, as an unearthly screech came from the boy and the cat was torn to shreds, its insides being spread on the one way mirror, covering the technician and the boy in blood. Edward immediately shut down the current as the boy fell limp in the chair, An ECG machine being the only indication that he was alive.
"Well done, 16, you have done very well today and have made me incredibly proud" The room Edward was in started applauding at the display, his father patting him on that back and the other scientists shaking his hand. "Now, Mr Fish got a little dirty so he will have to go for a wash, but he will be with you when you go to bed tonight. I might even treat you to some chocolate later on" Edward finished, the boy still limp in the chair, but now looking up and registering Edward's words. The applause lasted a while longer, the scientists going for a second round of handshakes as the boy was wheeled out of the room, dried blood on his face and by his ears.
A/N: So... Edward is purely evil and Luke is demented. I guess the Apple really doesn't fall too far from the tree. R&R!
