FOUR

~Kezi 

Once I had swallowed the pill with a gulp of the crisp water they offered, they all gather their things to leave.

“Wait, where are you going?” I question.

I’m sitting here, having swallowed a pill with unknown abilities followed by a threat, about to be completely left on my lonesome. Who knows what it will do to me. I don’t even know if their intentions are true to their words. I might be allergic to a component of it too. I just want Avia. I wonder if they would even let me contact her.

“Well we have other subjects to administer with their dosages,” Sermon says, as her workers – as I assume – file out the door, taking everything they had with them. “We shall leave you in peace.”

A moment of panic arises in me. I don’t want to be left alone. As much as I don’t trust him, it’s about the devil I know. If something happens, they may be the only ones to hold any kind of antidote.

“I have nothing to do in here,” I note.

“There are books, paper and pens to your left,” Sermon mutters, motioning beside me. On a small desk, I notice she is correct. A rather thin book on Wisdom Pack culture, and a few scattered pieces of paper with three different coloured pens. “We an hour of recreation with other subjects later in the afternoon.”

There are other people here? How many? I had known there were more travelers, but it is disheartening to know they have been caught also.

“That is, if you react to the drugs how we predict,” Sermon says, as heaves the door open.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I question frantically.. “What could happen to me if it reacts badly.”

“Have a good day, subject #062.”

And with that, she walks out the door, closing it tightly behind her. 

I sit back in the chair. It’s uncomfortable and hard in all the wrong places. I sigh. This was the fate I have been fearing for a long time. My stomach is empty, and I can almost feel the pill dissolve within me. My fingers quiver nervously for the potential effects of this. They could have administered that to kill me. Who knows what’s outside that door. 

Sliding off the chair, I wander around the room. There’s nothing but an empty bench and a damp bathtub. I notice there’s some kind of clip on the tap, keeping it locked. 

A small window allows me to see a portion of what is happening outside the one door in this room. There’s another door similar to mine directly in front. To my left and right, I spy a long alleyway. The door is locked.

Naturally.

I wonder where Alpha Alden is. I’m assuming in another building somewhere, gloating about his success. He finally caught me. I make a dramatic show of clapping toward a small camera I caught wind of in the corner of the room. 

On the bench, I spy a note. Picking it up, I notice it’s pertaining to the pill I just took.

Pill A … Title: Juniper

Instructions: Take with water or dry swallow. Monitor closely. Reactions take up to 15 minutes. 

Caution! Pill can affect cognitive development, do not administer to children. Discontinue use if symptoms persist such as:

-  Momentary vision loss

-  Racing heart

-  Migraines

-  Fever

-  Seizure

-  Nausea or abdominal cramps

Common symptoms:

-  Memory loss

-  Dizziness 

-  Itchy, watering eyes

-  Lethargy

-  Dry mouth

Should be used only with the intentions to withdraw immortal toxins from the body. 

Created by Wisdom Pack labs.

My fingers let go of the paper, letting it flutter back down to the bench.

This is serious. I was just fed a pill that’s about to cause a medley of unwanted symptoms to draw out what…Toxins? Whatever Time did to me, I don’t believe it has anything to do with toxins. Hell, this is about to cause me more harm than the mark on my back and shoulder ever did.

I take another glance at the piece of paper, attempting to memorize the potential horrific symptoms, and predicted ones. However, when I look at the words, they are swirling everywhere in a mess of letters and ink.

It kicks out the stability from under me, and I find myself stumbling back. Everything is moving around me at rapid speed, molding into various colours and shapes. To join the sudden confusion, I can hear my pulse in my ear, and the moisture is suddenly vanishing from under my tongue.

I feel the back of the chair behind me, which I crawl onto. It’s started.

Lying back, I close my eyes. My entire body feels like it’s swimming in a large body of water, floating barely on the surface. I’m shivering too, and my face feels itchy. Perhaps it’s from the tears streaming out of my eyes.

I’m panicking. My breathing is rapid, which I try desperately to calm. Freaking out won’t help me at all. Not when I feel like my entire body is seized by cold, while my forehead burns intensely.

I’ve felt helpless many times in my life. However, this is paramount to anything I have ever experienced. I’m grasping at consciousness, which is slipping out from under me.

I can’t let myself go…But it looks like I don’t have much choice.

***

Someone yanking on my limbs greets me as I wake.

However, I immediately deduce that perhaps I’m still dreaming. My vision is split in a foggy haze right down the middle. To one side, I see nothing but darkness. On the other, which seem a lot more distance and detached, I see the cold eyes of Sermon staring at me. I’m unsure of which reality to grasp too.

“You reacted to the pill as we hoped,” Sermon tells me. I frown, confused. Her voice echoes in my left ear. “This is great news.”

On the other side, my vision is still consumed in darkness.

“You are about to go back to sleep, subject #062. But know you have done very well,” Sermon tells me. And then she vanishes from my vision, like wiping a slate clean. And then I’m jolted awake.

It hit me in my consciousness that I just experienced a distant memory. When did that happen? Today? It must be night now.”

My eyes are all of a sudden abused by bright light. I shield them, listening instead to the grinding of my door open. I feel groggy, but I’m fresher than I was moments ago. I’m assuming the pill I took has been flushed from my system. I won’t be taking that again…

“Get up,” a gruff voice snaps in my ear. I flinch at the abruptness of it, as someone plasters a cloth to my face. My protests come in wild flailing or my arms, and harsh words as they tie the cloth around my eyes, stealing my vision. Is this part of the process? Because if so, I was briefed on this.

“Get the hell off me,” I snap, as someone yanks me off my chair. I kick out, hitting flesh – I assume an ankle. A hiss in response tells me I was successful. 

“You better cooperate,” someone growls in my ear. “We don’t always play nice.”

The voice isn’t from the Wisdom Pack. I’m guessing from the roughness around the edges, these males are from Vengeance Pack. Just like me. I’m assuming by the fabric from their outfits, they are the security Alden hired. What authority do they have to be in my room? Especially to threaten me. I may not know what’s going on, and what my fate may be, but this can’t be right.

“What’s going on?” I question. I’m being dragged away, the tiptoes of my feet dragging across the linoleum. I’m trying to fight, but it seems useless. From their discussion, there is at least three of them. 

“Shut up,” one of the snaps in my ear.

I decide to heed his advice, and keep my mouth shut. Only because I want to hear what they are talking about. It might be the only way to figure out what is going on.

“This one is Alden’s special one,” someone in the front says. His tone is faster paced. Greedy. Whatever he is doing, he is doing it for his own gain. “I was in her room this morning. She’s only had her first pill.”

“Liar,” the one to my right says. He follows his statement with a jaunty laugh. “No one is special to Alden. He’s coldhearted. And we are the ones selling his subjects.”

“She will get us plenty of money, that’s all that matters,” the one to my left snaps, shutting the conversation off. 

I’m dragged through many doors, and past many people. Each comment on my appearance to some degree. Some are demeaning while others are just pure vile. But I keep my mouth shut. I’m not going to tempt the authority of the three men I’m in the hands of. 

And I still don’t say anything, as they finally let me go. 

I’m pushed forward, feet almost slipping out from under me. I take a few steps blindly forward. Everything is completely silent, as if we have been left alone in the darkness to fend for myself. 

“Hello?” I question, as I tug my blindfold off. 

And staring right back at me, are hundreds of people. All sitting in stands. All watching me.