Hello World

Chapter 31 Hecate

The darkness surrounding me began to fade, and I started to see the objects around me. At first they were just silhouettes and then they became clearer and I could make them out. There was a desk in the corner of the room with a monitor and some bizarre objects. There were some metal tables, and microscopes and more strange instruments lying around. Below, I could see a girl strapped to a chair, unconscious. It was me, I realized and the memories of the day came pouring back. I was still in the laboratory, and was still tied to the chair, rendered unconscious by whatever the doctor had injected in me.

 And Samantha and Ferdinand? Where were they? Had they gone home and left me here? Where were they. As I tried to remember, my mind became fuzzy. The room began to appear dark again and I fought against it, trying to stay aware.

"I am sure they will  make it right..." said a voice. 

I waved my arms, trying to pull myself through the darkness which seemed to cling to me like some viscous fluid.  I made to swim towards the voice, but my arms felt heavy and I pulled them through the darkness. I stared down at my body, it seemed to stay the same distance no matter how hard I tried to move. 

Suddenly, light flooded in, illuminating the room as the door opened. I watched as the doctor walked in. He was carrying more strange instruments. He approached my body. "Still asleep?" he asked. He lay the thinks he was carrying down on a tray, and started to whistle. "Well, this will make this step easier. We do need to hurry you know before your folks get here."

He picked up one of the instruments. It was a razor. I watched, dismayed as he undid my hair and began to shave chunks of it off.

"Stop it!" I screamed at him. But my words were absorbed into the darkness.

After removing multiple squares of my hair, he put the razor down. He began to attach wires to the places he had shaved, continuing to whistle as he worked. At last, he appeared to be done for he took a step back. "Time to wake up!" he said. "Hecate!"

I felt a gentle pull towards my body, as though I were attached to it by a chord. 

"Hecate!" he said again. This time, he shook my shoulder and I was pulled back into my body.

 I look around the room. My vision was blurred slightly, and I felt extremely groggy. 

"Hecate, do you know where you are?"

                                                                              ***

I was sitting with a small group of my female classmates in the field behind the school. I could hear screaming and shouting as some other kids played around us. I glanced at them occasionally, then would bring my attention back to the group.

"He is disgusting, and weird," said one of the girls. 

"He is definitely yucky!" said another.

Jack. We were discussing Jack.

"Have you seen his hair? I don't know why he doesn't cut it."

"He's such a girl."

They were giggling. I did not know why they were giggling, but I tried to giggle to so that I would blend into the group. It came out too high, and suddenly their attention was on me. 

"Jack is a loser!" said the girl sitting closest to me. "Isn't he, Catie"

"Yes," I said, assuming this response was expected. "And he is mean too," I added. This was the first time I had seemed to belong to a group and I was determined to fit in. 

The bell rang, and we headed to the grade one class. We sat down, and waited for the teacher to enter.

"Hey Jack, Hecate thinks you are a gross loser," someone said.

My heart sank.

"Hecate thinks you are gross and mean! She told us!" 

And as the girls broke down laughing, I could feel Jack glaring towards the back of my head. A wave of confusion swept over me, and I stared down at my desk.

                                                                                          ***

"What do you see?" asked the doctor. 

Nothing. How could I see anything beyond the bright light he was shining at me. I tried to tell him this only what came out made little sense so I was unsure whether he understood. 

"You go to school, don't you?" he had asked earlier. I had nodded yes. "Well then you know that matter is made up of atoms, and light is made up with photons. You are going to tell me if you see atoms or photons."

I had concluded that he must be deranged. Atoms were not visible to the naked eye. No one could see them.

No one could see them. Except I could see them. I often seen them when I was upset or excited or bored. Those times when the world would break apart, and the ground would seem to dissolve beneath me. Yes, I could see atoms and photons. But right now I could not.

"What do you see," he repeated.

"Light," I forced myself to say.  I could see the light and right now it was stinging my eyes.

He shook his head, frustrated. "Must be the sedative," he said. "Oh well, we have lots of time."

Just then, the door flung open, and Ferdinand entered, followed by a women I did not recognize.