Chapter 15

Chapter 15

‘Who said that?’  Cheater thought quickly.  Dillenwater snapped his head to the side so quickly that Cheater’s head spun.  There was a figure sitting up on the hospital bed.  After Cheater’s head stopped spinning he realized who the figure was.  Alexia!  It was Alexia!

“She’s awake!”  Dillenwater yelled, causing a frenzy of scientists to go to Alexia.  She quickly pushed them all away from her and stood up.  She swayed a little on her unstable feet but quickly got her balance and waved away the scientists who were flocking to her again.

“I repeat.  What is going on?  I wake up on a hospital bed with a bunch of nut jobs in lab coats surrounding me so you would think that someone would tell me why.  So who wants to start?”  Alexia asked her voice rough from disuse but growing stronger with each word she spoke.  She looked around at their shocked expressions.  “Well?  Any takers?  C’mon!  What’re you afraid of?”  She impatiently swiped a hand through her messy brown hair which was sticking up in random places from when she passed out.

“Well, you have been in a coma for the last five days.  We have been keeping you here under twenty-four hour surveillance.  Your friend Cheater found you unconscious in your apartment and called us.  We think that your body became exhausted by our tests.  We’re going to give you a full day to just rest before any other experiments.”  Mrs. Jomen answered the question calmly.  Alexia looked shocked but recovered fairly quickly, Cheater noticed.

Alexia took a deep breath and let it out in a loud huff.  “Ok.”  She said, sighing.  “That explains that, but what about the shocked looks?  What’s that all about?”  She asked angrily.

“Well, we knew that you might wake up today, but we didn’t expect for you to be so wide awake.  We thought that you would just kind of lay there, not get up and ask questions.  I’ll be the first to admit to being shocked.  You shouldn’t be talking or sitting up, let alone standing up on your own.  That’s why we’re shocked.  It’s just completely unrealistic.”  Mrs. Jomen stated without expression.  Cheater thought about it and decided that he had never seen much of an expression on her face.  The lady was just a creep in general.

“If I’m not supposed to be up and about, then why am I?  Can your tests, that I’m sure you’re going to do on me, tell you that?  Or are they just as useless as they seem?”  Alexia said sarcastically.  Although Cheater knew that she was normally feisty and disagreed with the school constantly, he thought that it was more so since she woke up.  He had to remember to ask her about that later.

“Yes Miss Lambre.  Yes it is.  So you know what that means don’t you?”  Mrs. Jomen asked.  Cheater could feel the smirk growing on Dillenwater’s face through the telepathic connection.  ‘Stupid man.’  Cheater thought irritably.

“Yeah. I do know.  I know that you’re not going to let me leave until you run your stupid tests on me.  But I also know that you’re not going to risk drugging me because you don’t want me to go back into a coma.  So I’m sure that you’ll just strap me down with some fire-proof straps and you’ll wear fire-proof stuff so I don’t burn you.”  Alexia commented softly.  Cheater could feel the shock rolling off of everyone in the room except for Alexia.

“H-how, how did you know all of that?”  Mrs. Jomen asked with a very shocked expression on her face.  ‘Whoa,’ Cheater thought to himself. ‘expression! That’s a new one.’

“I-I honestly don’t know how I know it, I just kind of do.  It is kind of what you’ve done before after all and the other thing is common sense I guess.”  Alexia stammered quickly.  Cheater could read Alexia like an open book even without his power and knew that she was hiding something, even if they didn’t know that.

“This is interesting.  Very interesting.  We’ll have to run some tests on that as well.  When will we be able to start the tests?”  Mrs. Jomen asked one of the scientists.

“Anytime ma’am.  This room will suffice for our purposes.  It has water sprinklers and a bed with fire-proof straps.”  The male scientist stated quickly, backing away after he was finished.

“Good, good.  Ok then, Miss Lambre, will you please make this easier on everyone by simply laying on the bed so that we may simply strap you down?”  Mrs. Jomen asked simply.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Sit on the bed so I can be strapped down like the prisoner I am.  I get it.  Fine.”  Alexia said angrily, laying down on the bed and putting a pillow under her head to get comfortable.  “Happy now?”  She asked sarcastically.

“Yes, very.”  Dillenwater grumbled.  If he could have, Cheater would have laughed at his reaction.  Alexia could however, and she did.  Loudly.

“Oh wow!  Are you really going to freak out about me talking back?  I mean really!  You’re holding me captive and are strapping me down to a bed to do tests on me!  You should expect a little bit of back talk!  That and I am a teenager anyway, most people are shocked when we don’t talk back in normal circumstances, and these aren’t normal circumstances.”  She said through her laughter.  As she finished speaking the scientists finished strapping her down.  Dillenwater grew a maniacal smile at the sight of Alexia strapped down, Cheater could feel it.  ‘What’s he planning?  He’s blocking it from me!’  Cheater thought irritably.

“Well, it looks like someone forgot about my little toy didn’t they?”  Dillenwater said with an evil smirk.  ‘Toy?  What is he talking ab- oh no!  Not that!  He wouldn’t!  Actually he would…  Oh no!’  Cheater thought.  Alexia’s eyes widened, showing that she hadn’t forgotten the ‘toy’ after all.

“You wouldn’t!  It might put me into a coma!  You can’t risk that!”  She gasped loudly, almost yelling.  She was shaking slightly, the straps still holding her down.

“Would it put her into a coma?”  Dillenwater asked one of the scientists rudely.  The man shook his head slowly.

“No sir.  It would not put her back into a coma.”  The man stated, taking a slow step back.

“Good, good.  Are you ready for me to play with my toy?”  Dillenwater asked Alexia with a smirk.  By this point Alexia was squirming in her bonds, trying to break loose.  Sweat was breaking out on her forehead from the terror she was going through.  Everyone in the room, including Cheater, knew that her attempts were futile.  Alexia was literally shivering with fear.

“Please, no!  I’m begging you!  I’ll do better I swear!  Just please don’t do that to me!”  Alexia yelled, still moving under her bonds.  Dillenwater smirked and moved closer to the wall.

“Oh, look at that!”  He pointed at a button on the wall.  “A big red button!  I wonder what would happen if I push it?”  He smirked.  “Let’s find out!”  He slammed his hand down on the button and Alexia instantly screamed in pain, squirming under her bonds.  She was writhing in pain on the bed, the sheets becoming twisted around her body.  She screamed again, it was a horrible, guttural sound.  It made those who heard it cringe.  Cheater watched on in his own form of agony, agony that he could do nothing but watch.  Finally, after what seemed like hours but was more likely only a minute, she stopped moving.  She was breathing heavy and her eyes were wide and slightly unfocussed.  Her body was drenched in sweat.

“Are you going to obey me now?”  Dillenwater asked with an evil grin.

“Yes of course.  I’ll obey.”  Alexia whispered with her eyes still wide and unfocussed.

“That’s what I thought.  Now you’re going to sit here quietly and not fight us while we do these tests.  Ok?”  Dillenwater’s smirk was making Cheater’s blood pump with fury.

“Yes.  I will sit quietly.”  Alexia said, almost as if in a trance.

“Good girl.  Are you ready to be tested?  Of course not, who am I kidding?  But you’re going to be tested anyway!”  Another evil smile.  Cheater wished he could punch the man.

“Ok.”  Alexia had a soft spoken reply.

“Well then, Cheater, I’m kicking you out of my head.  Bye for now.”  Dillenwater said. Just as he finished, Cheater’s vision was filled with darkness.  When he opened his eyes, his consciousness was back in his own body.  He turned his head and noticed that Jada was still sitting next to him, looking worried.  She gave him a look that he had grown to understand as ‘What’s the news?’  He hurriedly explained all that had happened.

“So she’s awake?”  Damon asked loudly, walking up to them.  Cheater knew that he must have been listening in to know what was going on, but he chose not to comment on that fact.

“Yeah, she’s awake now.”  He said in a tired voice.

“Good.”  That was all the reply that Cheater heard as Damon headed back to his apartment.  Cheater was fuming at him for acting like he didn’t care, but he knew that if he did anything about it that Alexia would get mad.

“Yay!  She’s awake!”  Trixie pranced all around the room yelling after she heard Damon say it.

“Awesome!  Adam she’s awake!”  Jared called out to the other boy with a wide smile.

“That’s amazing!”  Adam yelled out, coming out of his room.  They were all excited over Alexia being awake.  Even Jada wore a broad grin.  Cheater couldn’t keep the grin off his own face despite his worries over Alexia.

“Ok guys, remember it’ll be a while before she comes back here because of the tests their doing on her.  I’m going to stay on the couch in the common room tonight so I’ll know when they bring her in.  Cheater said quietly.  He was hoping to talk to her alone as soon as he could.

“Can I sleep out here too?  I’ll sleep in the chair!”  Trixie asked eagerly.

“I’ll bring blankets for the floor!”  Adam said excitedly.

“Me too!”  Jared agreed.

“No thanks guys.  You need to go to bed ok?  Alexia wouldn’t want you guys staying up all night.”  Cheater admonished.

“She wouldn’t want you staying up either Cheat.”  Trixie said quietly.

“I know, but it’s something I’ve got to do ok?  Alone.”  He added after seeing the hopeful look on Jada’s face.  “Sorry but it just seems right.”

“What time is it anyway?”  Jared asked.  Cheater looked at his watch and was shocked.  It was already 10:05. He had been using his power for around five hours.  No wonder he was so tired.

“Well, it’s ten so it looks like it’s time for bed.  I’m going to go get some blankets and pillows from my apartment.  You guys going to bed?” Cheater asked, already getting up from his spot on the floor.  Everyone else followed his example.

“Yeah, I am.”  Adam said.  Everyone else followed by saying their own goodbyes and goodnights.  Cheater walked to his apartment and went to the closet and dug out extra sheets and blankets and an extra pillow.  He gathered them up in his hands and took them out to the common room.  Everyone was in their own apartment by this time so Cheater was alone when he made the couch into his own make-shift bed.

Cheater was exhausted by the time he sank down into the cushions.  It had been a long day of reading minds, especially when he had taken over Dillenwater’s mind for so long.  That always left him feeling angry when the person had to be Dillenwater.  ‘Stupid man.’  Cheater thought as he started to drift off to sleep.  He knew that he would still be tired in the morning though.