Enhancement

- - 58 - -

The elevator doors crawl open, reluctant to let me out of its enclosure. I'm still kicking and yelling, for one final moment before the Enhancement Project releases its control to me.

My feet stumble to the side, knocking me into one of the glass walls. I groan, pushing myself upright. It takes me a second to realize I'm not sweating. At all.

So battling with the Project doesn't work? I swipe some flyaway hairs away from my eyes. I kicked and screamed so much I thought I broke the technology for good. Turns out I didn't even dent it.

My heart falters in my chest. Everything is trapping me in. The Project, the boy. I can't stop thinking about that little boy. His future is gone. He'll end up in the Enhancement Project if he's unlucky enough.

I skim the area around me, processing that most of the boxes around me are occupied. The inductees around me pace in their boxes or glance at me, as if we're going to enter a gym class simulation instead of an Equinox nightmare.

I step towards the front portion of my box. Nicolette is right in front of me, sending me worried signals with her eyes. I give her a slow shake of my head and a shrug. She must have saw that inductee gang attack me. At least she knows I'm okay, and I know she's still hanging in there.

I turn my gaze to my right. Dozens of glass boxes line my vision, and there's only one person I'm looking for right now. Not the redhead girl or the boy with the curly hair but the boy with the number 399 tattooed on his wrists. The nicest, purest, most resilient person I know. He took on two years of Enhancement Project abuse and still has the willpower to keep fighting them.

At last I spot him. Pacing around his box, I spot Stephen. With his cropped brown hair and irresistible dark eyes. I suddenly realize that if I didn't have him or Nicolette, things would be a lot more difficult.

Stephen catches my gaze. Our eyes connect like lighting to metal. Stephen raises his eyebrows in question, and I shrug subtly. No, I'm not in any pain. I'm fine. Don't worry about me.

Stephen nods slowly, carefully. He looks over his shoulder and back to me before mouthing a few words. I understand them better than anything else: we're okay.

Now it's my turn to nod, and I feel the sudden urge to laugh. All the glass fades out of view, and it's just Stephen and I left to ourselves. It makes me miss the Project, at least the parts where we could talk freely and enjoy each other's reserved company. I miss our careful conversations, our mystery-filled talks of getting to know one another.

The urge to laugh hasn't gone away. It sits in my stomach, and I don't know why.

A body steps into the way, snarling into my soul. I leap out of my skin. It's that girl! That girl who attacked me and killed Stephen in the induced dream. A revengeful look possessed her body, and she punches the air in front of her. A threat made just for me.

"Inductees," a monotonous voice blares into my ear. I jump again, this time spinning to face my pedestal. My nerves are so shot from all my fear, I can barely keep it together. I let out a pant as the voice continues.

"Step onto your platforms. Task two of the 220th Autumnal Equinox will begin right now."

With a swallow, my heart sinks to my gut. I take a few strides towards the platform, mounting the three circular steps. The inductees around me follow suit, looking on-edge but not downright terrified. That emotion is always saved specifically for Stephen, Nicolette, and me.

The voice returns, unemotional as ever. It's unsettling. "Blink when you're ready, and your task will begin. Remember: perform your duty to the nation. Do your very best."

The lump on the back of my neck pulses with heat. Whatever the device is doing, I don't want to know. I'm too preoccupied with the trembling of my body in the complete opposite of anticipation: dread.

With a final deep breath, I flick my eyes shut. For my own benefit, I don't open them right away. I just wait a few moments between reality and dream. Am I ready to take on this next task?

I blink my eyes open, a gasp throttling my throat. I'm on a vast stage in the dead center of Grand Rapids. Hundreds of people in an endless crowd stare back at me, ready for a spectacle. The silent sir forced into souls like gags.

The corners of my vision help me realize I'm wearing a short-length gray dress. High heels. Wavy hair. The weight on my right hip tells me I'm carrying a gun. A middle class citizen carrying a gun.

Everything feels real. A cool breeze hitches the air in my lungs. I shiver, turning to the side, and there he is. President Hybriad in a loose jumpsuit, hands bound behind his back. Kneeling on the stage next to him is my dad.

I nearly cry in fear and relief and utter confusion. I haven't seen my dad in ages, and there he is. But what is President Hybriad, the supreme leader of the nation, doing on the ground next to him?

"Welcome to today's execution," a voice beside me says.

-- -- -- -- --

well this is that lovely surprise no one expected. welcome to the second Equinox task! "Hybriad" was the winning word by a landslide last week.

Question: choose a phrase: continue with  the horror, stop the madness, or leave it to fate.