Wings: More Than Just Two Worlds

Chapter 16: Do you remember me?

Esoteric Azuré

Age: 12

Species: Iridescent

I sat alone in the dark hallway leading to Leo's lab, just where he wanted us to meet. I touched the glow in the dark paint, recalling of simpler times when I played tag in this Hallway with my sister. Cyrus never joined us; he said the hallway brought back bad memories. Lian and I would run up and down this hallway for hours, hiding in the dark, and playing pretend. Sometimes we would make it down to the big metal door with one of those key pads that read hand prints. There were four kids we occasionally talked with through the door. They said they were waiting for Cyrus. When we told Cyrus about them he claimed he didn't believe us. He'd say we were lying or it was our imagination. Pretty soon the kids' voices stopped. We never got the chance to ask them what it was like on the other side. In labs people perform experiments, so what kind of experiments did he perform on those poor kids?

Cyrus gradually walked down the hallway. His hand touched the wall, and then he suddenly paused.

"You actually came," I baffled with astonishment. For the life of me I could never get him to come down here, but when Leo says to do something Cyrus always did. I moved to Cyrus, and then came to a stop. My eye caught sight of what Cyrus was staring at. Four small, glow in the dark hand prints were on the wall in a horizontal row, very low to the ground. Cyrus was written under one hand print while the letter's C, K, and N were written under the others; and above all that, "Friends Forever." I put my hand on his shoulder, questioning, "Bad memories?"

"Yeah," He smiled. I didn't want to ask him what it meant. I had a hunch the voices behind the door, the ones I heard as a child, had something to do with it.

Leo's big, clunky feet echoed down the slender hallway announcing his arrival. If I were him I would have felt claustrophobic. His wide stature could hardly fit. The closer he got the more I could see his shoulders grazing the walls. He baffled, "First Cyrus is late and now Lian? I'm sure Lian has her reasons. Very well, I will begin without her." It's clear as day he favors Lian over Cyrus.

Leo saved our handprints into the computer system on the lock pad, then we proceeded on the... tour? Yeah, tour. We entered a large room full of yellow test tubes holding a range of fragments and complete bodies of deceased experiments. They floated in the test tubes like ice in an extremely bubbly soda. Just seeing the one body mutilated beyond human recognition was enough to make me throw up. I swallowed my vomit in secret; I can't let Leo know I'm weak. Just like everyone else in my family, I had my own façade. I've always known Leo was twisted. Seeing what Leo did in his lab didn't surprise me. I just couldn't get my mind off those children I used to talk to through the metal door. Cyrus tried his best to protect Lian and I from seeing our parent's fight, even if it meant his view of love got distorted along the way. He gave up so much for us, a simple thank you could never suffice the sacrifices he made.

"This is where I keep my favorite experiments," Leo claimed prideful. He walked with his filthy hands behind his back, "I won't go too much into detail, but most of these are relics from when I discovered cures to life threatening diseases." He glared at Cyrus, "Not everything I do is evil you know."

Cyrus growled under his breath, "Bite me." You're lucky Leo didn't hear you.

We went through different empty rooms, and Leo explained the many torturous experiments that went down. In one room he made experiments fight to the death, even experiments related by blood. My heart ached thinking if I had to be the one to take my brother or sisters life. In another he sewed experiments together; I saw the pictures he took of some with their backs sewn together. The more pictures I looked through the more painful they looked, and the more people were added. Their stomachs, knees, nipples, faces, he did them all. The rooms kept getting worse and worse. I couldn't begin to tell you the amount of burn victims I saw. He designed a microwave oven to cook people alive, and cooked someone right then and there.