Experiment Number One

After Lieutenant Wallace dropped me off in my cell, the rest of the day, or night, consisted of me just lying in bed staring at the ceiling. Although it burned through my eyes, I couldn’t help it. To focus my sight and mind on the blinding lights kept me in a paralyzed dream as I felt the unknown presence of another. Lieutenant Wallace’s words haunted me. I was waiting for something, anticipating that I would finally catch a glimpse of what was hidden above.

I had hunger that pains grew to be unbearable and my head ached with everything I learned in the meeting with Ren Clash, Doctor Taylor, and George. I couldn’t believe I was in that predicament. It seemed like only moments before I was holding an ice pack to Amilio’s head, trying to make his fever go down. I was just latching onto Mariana as she cried at the thought of leaving her brother alone with our father. Staring at the void of light above me reminded me of my mission in the compound. I couldn’t take care of my siblings if I was paralyzed in a cell thousands of miles away from them.

That annoying alarm rang out in my cell again. I groaned as I sat upright. Four guards appeared outside my glass walls, and once the final note sounded, the lock unlatched and my door flew open. The sound of heavy boots clambered in. The sight of the leading guard’s finger resting on the trigger of his automatic 84-UI– I just made that up. I don’t know anything about guns. Anyway, the sight of him ready to shoot me at any movement caused me to hold still. But the scent of warm food caused me to move. I leaned forward, not more than an inch, and the guard yelled, “Do not approach!” I went back to being still. His voice vibrated in my skull, causing my whole body to shake. For a moment, I was vulnerable. Even as he dropped the food tray on the floor, spilling the glass of milk in the process, I sat there staring at him like a deer in headlights. It wasn’t until after the guards sealed my cell and walked back up the stairs that led out of the room that I threw myself towards the food to choke it down.

The meal combined gray meat, runny mashed potatoes, and gravy with a hard dinner roll. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t even care. I started losing track of time in the compound at that point. I assumed I hadn’t been there for more than a day but hadn’t eaten a proper meal in a week.

It was a challenging season in the Mendoza household before I was detained. It was the late days of winter, meaning my job at the antique store was not stimulating. Around that time of year, my boss usually cut my hours, so most of the money I made went towards bills. When it came to Amilio and Mariana, I had to ensure they were well taken care of. So they could grow to be healthy or whatnot. So that meant sometimes I couldn’t eat meals, opting more for snacks or something small so that they could eat as much as they could. The food the guards gave me tasted like Heaven on Earth, even if it took a couple of extra chews.

After I finished the meal, my mouth felt dry and oddly sticky. I wished the guard who dropped my milk would have replenished it, but on second thought, it looked a little chunky. I would’ve rather drunk water from the Silicon River, the most polluted water in the country that runs right through Lusha, than those curds.

I got off the floor and placed the tray by the door, thinking it would be easier for me and the guards when they came to retrieve it. I grabbed some tissue from the toilet and tried to wipe up as much milk as possible before it started making the room smell. If I was being held there against my will, I didn’t want that smell of rotting milk consuming the space. The liquid soaked through the toilet paper, causing me to use a lot of it. Once I noticed that I had a bundle of the thin material on the floor and there was still a wet spot, I gave up on trying to clean it. I doubted they would give me any more if I used all the toilet paper.

I threw the useless material into the toilet bowl and when I hit the handle that flushed the toilet, the power in the room shut off completely.

I stood there for a second, listening intently for any sign; I couldn’t hear anything. No voices, sounds of boots touching the ground, or even just electricity running through the wires, which I never noticed was a thing until then.

When my eyes adjusted to the dark, I noticed a weird hole in my cell. As I approached it, I realized that my door was ajar. The power outage must’ve disconnected the security locks. If that was true, the bracelet they gave me was also off. I looked down at my hand and saw that the red light was gone. The bracelet came off with ease when I pulled against it. I could feel the power returning to my veins.

It was now or never. The electricity was out, I had my powers, and no one was around. There was no doubt that they would come rushing in there to check on me, but the coast was clear right then. If I could just get out of that room and into the maze of the compound, I could look for an exit or hide until I found one.

I pushed my way out of my cell and climb up the stairs and out of the doors. Once you leave the room where my cell was, you enter a hallway with the only option to go left or right. Since Lieutenant Wallace and I went right earlier and ended up in a place with no exits, I opted to go left.

As I ran down the hallway, a sickening feeling hit me. I recognized it; my intuition whenever something terrible was going to happen- the same way I felt when my father and mother would fight. The way my body sank in just minutes before I found my dead mother. But escaping was different; I knew the danger that lay ahead of me, and I knew that if I was found, they would definitely kill me. That must’ve been what I was feeling, not nervousness but fear. I had no room for fear, so I swallowed it down.

I twisted and turned down the paths- left, right, left- gauging where a wall ended and a new hallway began. I ran for a few minutes in the pitch dark before I stopped to catch my breath. My hands fell to my knees as I dry heaved to the burning feeling in my chest. My stomach clenched, threatening to push up the most likely spoiled food I had eaten earlier. I choked it down and decided not to waste any more time.

I inspected my surroundings, a four-way intersection with pits of darkness in each direction. After a short contemplation, I choose the corridor to the right of me. I braced myself to run down the hallway but was stopped short by a scratching sound behind me, like nails on a chalkboard. Stunned, I turned around, thinking that I was caught. But the sound seemed so distant, so far that I had time to run and hide before the guard found me. A force inside my bones took control of my body and pulled towards the sound despite my brain yelling at me to stop.

While approaching the rhythmic scratching, it got continuously louder. It didn’t sound like an animal, but more like a human trying to pry a piece of metal open with their hands. The only way a guard member could make that noise was if they were locked in a room, which didn’t make sense because the power outage disengaged my cell door. Wouldn’t it unlock every other one too? A feeling in my body was telling me that something else was going on. I approached the noise and found the pinpoint of where it was coming from. It suddenly stopped as soon as my feet were planted on the ground. The darkness around me seemed to thicken like clouds of smoke hung in the air. It covered my eyes and made them burn slightly, filling my lungs and making them heavy. I brought my arm up to my mouth to cough and tried to wipe my eyes out, but the grim didn’t let up. I pull my hands in front of my face, trying to see if I’m actually going crazy or not. If there was smoke in the air, I would smell some type of gas, but the only scent that hung in the air was death.

As I examined the outlines of my hands, I remembered that I was a mutant. My power could light up a room if I used it right. But I had never tried to use it willingly before; I didn’t know how. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to push my power to my hands, but nothing was there when I opened my them. I shook my hands, opened and closed them, and even blew on them, which only gave me lungs full of smoke in return.

I thought back to all the times my powers went off: my father attacking me, when I got arrested, and Doctor Taylor antagonizing me. All those situations had one thing in common– Amilio and Mariana. They were the driving force of my power.

I closed my eyes and thought about my siblings. I pictured their smiling faces as we played board games every Friday night. I imagined them running around at Lusha County Park and swimming at the town’s pond. I thought about Amilio reading to Mariana and her cuddling beside him with her stuffed bear. I visualized all the exquisite drawings Amilio made for me every birthday and Christmas that outlined my bedroom wall.

But it didn’t work– my hands were cold and lifeless. Happy memories weren’t enough.

I knew deep down that the memories had to be sad, heartbreaking, ones about our lives that I don’t like to reminisce on. The things I pushed to the back of my mind that I tried so hard to forget.

But do you truly forget anything?