Agent Reptilian: Exploiting Gold|editing

Chapter three: "To my best friends, Alaska Brooks and Phoenix Scott."

I spun my head around to get a perfect glimpse of the site before me. It looked like something out of a nightmare.

I stood in silence, waiting for something to jump out from somewhere and hurt me. I frantically turned my head around, my body already gone into fight or flight mode, searching for threats in the environment. I glanced around the room.

The four walls all had small beige tiles but had cracks running through them and chipped in many of the areas. The ceiling had cobwebs but no sign of any critters. The lights that hung from above looked outdated but they must have changed the fuse because it was still working.

Around me I heard water dripping, as if it was far away but close at the same time. It must be coming from the pipes in the walls. Some of the pipes stuck out from the broken tiles of the room, appearing old and rusted. What freaked me out most was the color of the water. It was dark green and appeared murky. I swam in that? A chill ran through my body and I shuddered. I leaned in closer to take a look at the water but it was impossible to see anything. It was too cloudy.

"Hey um how deep is the pool?" I whispered to the assistant beside me. He stared at me then at Marisa, asking her with his eyes if he should talk or stay silent.

"Uh let's go and get you cleaned up. Don't worry, the water may seem filthy but it was changed before you arrived in here. Michael, please take her upstairs and get her freshened up." The assistant, Michael motioned his arm towards the stairs. I gave my surroundings once last look then I began to climb the flight of stairs I had come down earlier. My extremely curious mind made me halt halfway and I asked Marisa about what I felt down there.

"It must've been in your head Alaska dear. This is just a swimming pool there can't be anything down there." Right. Something in my head made me thrash around the pool and made me feel like I was going to drown. That must be it.

When I finally reached the top of the stairs, Nix was standing at the top waiting for me with a towel and extra clothes in her hands. She handed it over to me and I snatched then from her and marched towards the room Nix and I were kept in for the past few months.

My eyes caught the mattress from earlier as I walked towards the clothing divider but I stayed silence. I wasn't sure if Marisa was in hearing distance or not but I didn't want to end up getting myself in trouble.

"Everything okay?" Nix's voice called from the other side of the clothing divider.

"No." I mumbled as I fought with the patient's gown and tried to rip it off of me. When I finally did, I tossed it somewhere in the back and quickly pulled my normal clothes on. I sighed as I stepped away from the divider and walked towards my cot where my suitcase lay.

"Al? What's wrong?" Nix sat down on the cot and it squeaked under her weight. I scoffed.

"I don't know Nix. Maybe that we're both now part animal is something that's wrong?" I collected my clothes from the chair in the corner and threw them in my red suitcase, not bothering to fold them and just bunching them up.

"Well, humans are animals actually so, we always were animals technically." She shrugged. I paused and turned my head towards her.

"What? I'm just saying." She held her hands up defensively. "Plus, we established this a while ago. What's wrong right now? Did something happen during the testing?" I groaned and collapsed beside her and the cot groaned under my added weight to it.

"I'm just tired of being here. I'm tired of being this stupid thing. I didn't ask to be a reptilian." I didn't want to talk about the pool thing. I knew it wasn't just a figment of my imagination. There was something down there. Secrets. But I had other things to handle. I didn't want to open more doors without closing current ones. I felt too overwhelmed.