The Darkness Overwhelms (The Gifted)

Chapter 4 Part 2

Lauren's Pov

I could hear their whispers through the cell walls. "Murder" "terrorist" "mutie" "murder" "murder" "murder" 

I couldn't make them stop, I couldn't make them go away. I pressed my hands against the sides of my head wishing the whispers would stop but they wouldn't. I knew I was shaking but I couldn't stop. A loud bang sounded. I jumped and looked up at a guard who had banged on my cell door.

He looked at me with an expression that I could only describe as complete and utter disgust and hatred, "Get up," he said.

I did and he smiled and pressed a button on a remote in his hand. I felt the awful shocking feeling from the collar race through my body. My throat started closing from the collar. I fell to my knees, my hands gripping the collar trying to pull it off of my neck even though I knew it was pointless. My throat started closing and I started coughing trying to get any air into my lungs but it was pointless. I wouldn't be able to breathe until they stopped.

Slowly the pain faded and I could breathe again. My throat felt raw. I sat there coughing on the floor gasping for breath trying to fill my lungs as quickly as possible. I didn't know if they would do it again.

I looked up at the guard, he was smiling, "If you don't get up we're going to have to do that all over again."

I took a deep breath and shakily stood up, I leaned against the wall just to try to stay standing. My knees felt like jelly.

"Well come on, it's not like we're not going to let you out of your cell every day." the guard said, smiling strangely.

I suspected that this was just some new form of torture but I shakily walked towards the cell door, keeping my balance by keeping my hand on the wall until it got to the cell door.

The guard roughly grabbed my arm, grabbing exactly where I already had a bruise. I winced.

The guard leads me past a bunch of different prisoners. None of them were mutants that I could tell but they were all staring at me. Even though I tried not to look at any of them and keep my head down I could feel their stares on me, making my skin crawl.

We got to a door that leads outside. The guard punched in a couple of numbers on the keypad, 6124537. Making a mental note in my head of the numbers hoping to remember it if I ever got the chance to escape I stared at the guard hoping to find a weakness to exploit if I got my powers back.

The guard opened the door and shoved me roughly outside causing me to stumble and fall, my legs still weak from the collar shocking me.

I squinted as I tried to look up. I hadn't seen sunlight in days. I shakily pushed myself to my feet. I looked around as my eyes adjusted to the sun. There were other people here, which half surprised me but I guess it made sense.

I shakily walked to the corner table where no one was sitting and sat down in the seat furthest away from everyone so I could watch what was going on.

I could see 3 other mutants sitting at another table together. I briefly thought about joining them but dismissed the idea within seconds. Most mutants still hated me and Andy because of Sentinel Services. After we destroyed it, life got a lot worse for mutants everywhere and it was all our fault. Mutants blamed us for what happened after.

I watched as a few more groups of people were escorted out by the guards. I tried to keep my head down so they wouldn't notice me but it didn't work. Almost all of them spotted me immediately.

Most just kept their distance but some were braver and wandered over to me. One of them actually talked to me.

"You're Lauren Strucker," A tall girl with dark brown hair who was probably in her mid to late 20s.