Number Four

Drifting

"Am I in trouble?"

"Yes. But that's not what this is about." Doctor Brenner said as he lead Four along the halls, flanked by orderlies. He was obviously very put out by the entire marbles incident. "We have something we wanted to try. We've tested it out with some of the others to... varying degrees of success. And considering your somewhat different abilities, we wanted to see how well it would work for you."

A short while later, and Four was floating in water. Blind, deaf and struck dumb by the darkness, she drifted. She could feel... everything. A million emotions, all at once, buzzing around her head. Happiness, sadness, boredom, fear, frustration, intrigue and wonder. She could feel everything and everyone in the complex. Pulled in every direction, she tried to focus her mind and latch onto something in particular, and suddenly... she was outside.

She was outside the sensory deprivation tank, looking at the tank where presumably she herself was. She was looking through someone else's eyes. She was in the head of one of the orderlies standing in the room. Fascinating- she had to try something, to see what she could do, to let them know it had worked.

"Write Papa a note." She put the feeling behind it. You want to do this, you need to write him a note.

She watched as the orderly reached out and picked a pen and paper off the table, writing under her guidance the words: Hello Papa. She saw Doctor Brenner's reaction to the note, how he and the others looked intrigued, some of them glancing around the room.

She could plant a suggestion in someone's mind and convince them it was a good idea. The thought was thrilling.

She skipped from one orderly to the next, as simple as walking through through doors, testing- some were harder than the rest, some easier, some fighting back, even subconsciously. At last, she plucked up the courage to try Doctor Brenner- only to find his well-practiced walls firmly up. Damn. She should have tried him first, before he figured out what she was doing.

She sort of drifted, untethered, between them all, around the room. Then, the wall seemed to become soft, membranous and dark, and then... she fell through.

It was a darkness like she had never experienced- a complete and utter nothing. Except, in the dark there was something. She could feel it, a... hunger, a hatred, something carnivorous, wanting, all consuming.

Far away, as if echoed underwater, she heard a shout. "Get her out, something's going wrong!"

Suddenly she was yanked back, back from the dark, back into a body that was rigid in fear, breath coming in gasps, heart pounding in her throat as she was pulled up out of the water. Somewhere in the room, a beeper was going, a heart-rate monitor shrieking out a piercing sound. People were talking to her, but she could not hear them, white noise ringing in her ears. Exhausted, she took one step forward and stumbled into a sopping wet heap on the ground.

Suddenly, there were strong arms around her and she was pulled into someone's lap. She was Heald gently like a child, soft hands petting her head as soothing words were spoken in her ear. "It's alright, Four." One said. "You're alright. You're safe."

"It- it-" Four was horrified at how broken her voice sounded. "It was terrible. It's out there... there's something out there." Slow tears streamed down her face.

One looked up at Doctor Brenner standing over them. "... Take her back to her room." Doctor Brenner said. "We'll likely not be trying that again."

A/N: So the image above is from the Covet Fashion app- I just thought it was really good and worked well for this story. I've actually considered swapping the cover of this fic with this picture, but I'm not sure. On one hand, I don't want to confuse anyone with a sudden change; on the other, I have been wondering for a while if a new cover would be better and get the fic more attention. Idk, thoughts?