Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Alexia woke up on the couch the next morning, her neck stiff from sleeping in such an awkward position the night before.  She had thought she went to bed after Cheater left the night before, but she had actually just walked him to the door and made it to the couch before she passed out on it.   She really wished that she had made it to her bed; her neck would feel a lot better if she had.  She probably would have woken up feeling better about the day ahead if she had slept in her bed too.  She looked at the clock and noticed that it was seven a.m., she had an hour until they came to get her for the experiment.

The night before when she and Cheater were thinking of ideas on how to escape before her experiment, they couldn’t think of one that wouldn’t require days of planning or resources that they didn’t have.  So they had no plan whatsoever; there was no way for them to escape before the experiment.  They couldn’t just try because so much could go wrong.  They only had one chance to escape the school; if they tried and failed they would never have the chance again.  Everyone would know not to underestimate them, so they would pay much more attention to them and their security.

Alexia had to go through with ‘experiment C.’ She had too, as much as she didn’t want to have a child at age sixteen.  All she could do was hope that it wouldn’t get her pregnant, and that the try would fail.  Surely the first time they did the experiment wasn’t expected to be a perfect success.  Maybe it wouldn’t work; maybe she would get lucky and not have to worry about it quite yet.  Maybe they would still have some time to escape; maybe she wouldn’t have to be pregnant while they were on the run.  So many maybes for them, but it didn’t mean that any of them would actually happen; in fact none of them might happen.  She just had to hope that they would.

After getting off of the couch and stretching her neck, Alexia took a shower, got dressed, and ate her breakfast.  She wanted to talk to Cheater before ‘experiment C’ happened.  She looked at the clock after she ate and noticed that she had another half hour before they came for her.  She desperately hoped that Cheater was awake, if not she was going to have to go in his apartment and wake him; she hoped that he didn’t sleep in the nude!  If so, she would be scarred for life!

She waited for another minute, hoping that he would walk through her door and that she didn’t have to go to him.  After that minute had passed, she gave up and walked out of her apartment, turning towards the door to Cheater’s apartment.  She double-checked to make sure that none of the others were in the common room before nodding to herself and knocking on the door.  After another minute had passed and he didn’t answer the door, she sighed loudly before seeing if it was locked.  Knowing Cheater, he wouldn’t lock it because any of the scientists could unlock it if they wanted to anyway.  When she turned the handle, she realized that she was right in assuming that it wasn’t locked.  She slowly turned the door, bracing herself and hoping that he was fully clothed.

When the door opened widely, she found Cheater fast asleep on the couch.  To her happiness he was fully clothed.  She looked around the room and noticed that it was just like the others that she had seen, only in an orange color scheme.  She walked in and shut the door loudly, jolting him awake.

“Huh?”  He asked loudly and confusedly.  Alexia thought that he looked funny with his hair all ruffled up from tossing and turning on the couch all night.  He turned and noticed her.  “Alexia?  What are you doing here?  What time is it?”  He said, attempting to get off of the couch.  His legs were all wrapped up in the blanket that had covered him, so all he succeeded in doing was falling off the couch and flat on his face.  Alexia couldn’t help but burst out laughing.  He glowered at her, and she quieted her giggles.

“I’m here because it’s almost seven-forty and my experiment is around eight.  I wanted to talk to you before I had to go and you weren’t awake.  So I decided to come here and wake you up!”  She said, smirking at him.  He grimaced back at her, it was obvious he didn’t want woken up.  She smiled widely back at him.  He began to get up off of the floor, and she smiled at him again.

“So, should we tell Damon about what’s going on?”  Alexia asked quietly.  Cheater instantly knew what she was talking about, and she was glad for once that he could read her mind and that she didn’t have to say it out loud.  Cheater looked at her strangely, and she wondered if she had asked a stupid question.

“Well, what do you think is the smart thing to do?  We can’t really hide it from him forever if we decide not to tell him yet, or anyone else for that matter really, because if the experiment works it’ll grow obvious.  It would be kind of hard to hide that from everyone.  The real question is whether we want to tell him before or after the experiment.  We don’t want to tell the younger kids until after we’re sure, because we don’t want to worry them.  When do you think we should tell Damon though?  I think it should be up to you.”  He said softly.

“I’m honestly not sure what to do.  I really want to trust him, but I’m not entirely sure that I can.  I mean, I know that there’s no reason not to trust him, but I just have a weird feeling.  I don’t want to tell him yet, but I don’t want him to be angry when he finds out later.”  Alexia said, worry evident in her tone.

“I don’t think that he’d be mad, maybe a little bit upset, but I don’t think he’d be mad.  I think that you should tell him afterward.  That way, he doesn’t have to worry about it, and if it doesn’t happen then he doesn’t have to know at all.  Besides,” He said, looking at the clock.  They only had about eight minutes until eight o’clock.  “It’s almost time anyway.  That’s not enough time to wake him up and explain it all to him.  Therefore it isn’t our fault that he won’t know until afterward.”  He said with a sneaky grin, trying in vain to cheer her up.  Alexia felt bad knowing that he was trying so hard but she knew it was a waste of time, it was hard to feel better when she knew what was going to happen at eight.

“Ok, well let’s just relax on the couch until they come to get me.”  She said quietly.  He sat down and she leaned against him shoulder.  After a moment, he moved his arm and let her head fall to his chest, moving his arm so that it was around her.  She smiled; it felt safe to her, even though she knew that it wouldn’t be safe for long.  She felt that it was nice having him there when she really needed him.

The minutes passed by way too fast for the two teenagers, as they stared at the clock.  They counted down the minutes much too quickly for their liking.  Seven minutes to go.  Six minutes until Dillenwater came for her.  Five minutes to go, they both became a little more edgy.  Four minutes left; they both tensed themselves more.  Three minutes left; both were thinking about the experiment.  Two minutes left; Alexia closed her eyes and Cheater took a deep breath.  Only one minute left.  Time was up; Dillenwater would be there any minute.  Alexia took a deep breath and turned to Cheater.

“I’m scared.  I know I shouldn’t be, but I am.  I mean, I’m not going to be hurt or anything, but look what could happen.  This could change my life forever.  But then again, my life has already changed so much since I was brought here.  But a kid?  Before this I could just not use the new powers and basically pretend I never was experimented on, but I can’t do that after having a kid.  That’s a big responsibility Cheater, a big change.”  She said, burying her face into his shoulder.  She didn’t cry although she wanted to.  Instead she lay there while he held her tightly, whispering to her that everything would be ok.  It helped her calm down, and when she was breathing normally again, it was five after eight.  Dillenwater seemed to be late, but that wasn’t a problem to the teens.  They were happy to be there longer before he came for her.

They sat there for another minute, when the door slammed open, hitting the wall next to it.  Dillenwater stood in the doorway, a malicious glare on his lips.  Alexia couldn’t help but shrink down even closer to Cheater out of fright.  Dillenwater turned his glare on her.  “Come on.”  He said in a low angry voice.  She didn’t know why he was angry, but she knew enough to know that it wasn’t a good time to ask him that.  She also knew not to make him angrier, so she went to him of her own free will.  As they walked out the door, Alexia turned her head and sent one last fleeting smile at Cheater.

They walked through the common room, and Alexia took time to notice that still no one was in sight, which may have been a good thing.  They might have asked too many questions about where they were going, and that might not be too smart with the mood Dillenwater was in.  When they reached the door, he opened it quickly and stepped through.  She followed him quickly, hoping that he wouldn’t tie her up or anything else if she was cooperating.  He shut the door behind them, and softly grabbed her arm to pull her down the hallway.  He didn’t grab her hard or even pull on her arm very hard, which suffice to say surprised Alexia.  She realized that it might have to do with trying not to hurt her too bad since she might be carrying their next experiment soon.  ‘They wouldn’t want to hurt that.’  Alexia thought sarcastically.

As they walked, Alexia tried to get a read on Dillenwater’s emotions.  He was so angry it was scary.  She wished that she could just calm him down.  She could feel his anger, so she worked on making sure that she was calm.  As she did, she also kept a read on his anger.  She could feel his anger lessen more and more the calmer that she got.  ‘But why?’  She wondered to herself.  ‘Why is he getting less angry?  It can’t be because of me, I can only feel other’s emotions.  I can’t change them, right?’  She thought, growing less skeptical of the idea by the minute.  She was thinking of doing an experiment of her own, but just as she readied herself, they arrived at the door to the lab.

Dillenwater opened the door and Alexia found herself being pushed into the room that she had been in the last few times she had been in the lab.  The same room, same bed, even the same scientists as before were all there.  Dillenwater pointed to the bed, telling her without speaking to sit down on it.  She walked over to it, and did as she was told, not wishing to make them angry during the experiment.  She made herself as comfortable as she could without lying down, she wouldn’t do that until they told her to.

As she watched, Dillenwater spoke quietly with the scientists; she couldn’t hear them whatsoever.  It didn’t matter though, they would be turning on her soon enough.  She wasn’t sure she wanted to know exactly how they were going to do it anyway.  After a moment, he turned to her and smirked.  “Lay down.”  Again Alexia quickly did as she was told.  She quickly got up enough courage to ask him a question.

“Are you going to drug me for this?”  She said slowly and carefully, afraid to risk his wrath.  He smirked at her.

“Actually, yes I am.  Does that bother you?”  He asked her back.  She shook her head slowly, trying not to seem too eager that she didn’t have to be awake for it.  She didn’t want him to decide to keep her awake.

“Ok then.  I’m assuming that you already know what is about to happen am I correct?”  He asked with a nasty smile.

“Yes.” That was all Alexia said.  She didn’t want to satisfy him by adding to that answer.

“Good.”  He said, as he turned toward the other scientists.  He spoke to one of them.  “Strap her down.  I don’t want to hit something in her arm when I stick her with the needle.  We don’t want her getting sick or hurt now do we?”  He asked, smirking at the two men.  The one he spoke to came closer to Alexia to grab the straps that hung off the bed.  He quickly strapped her in, and when he was finished he took a large step back.  Normally Alexia would have laughed at the open show of fear, but she didn’t even attempt to.

After Dillenwater noticed that she was strapped down, he nodded to the other men and walked to a cabinet.  Alexia didn’t watch him, because she knew exactly what he was doing, she had seen it so many times already.  When she heard his footsteps getting closer, she turned her head to look at him.  He held a large needle full of the same liquid as normal.  When he reached her, he smiled before plunging the needle into her vain.  She only lasted a few seconds before completely blacking out.

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Hope you like it! Please let me know! This is no longer in the Watty Awards sadly because I started it in August instead of November :(