Altered

Chapter 3

I woke to a stabbing pain in my head. I went to clutch it but found that my wrists were restrained. My eyes shot open and I stilled, forgetting the burning pain in the base of my skull. I forced my eyes to look around a clean white room. It was small, probably only 6 feet by 6 feet. I was sitting -or more like stuck- in a chair with multiple tubes stuck in my arms. An annoying beeping was coming from a machine beside me and I craned my neck to look around even more.

Behind me was a mirror and 3 fancy looking machines. 2 of which were hooked up to the needles stuck in my arms. The other was idly sitting there. It probably had a use.

The door in front of me clicked open and I jumped to face the culprit who came in.

"Where am I? Why am I here?" My voice was hoarse like I hadn't drank anything for days. Which was probably true because I felt like I'd been out for days.

"I cannot answer your questions. I will have the Agent in charge of your case explain this to you now that you're awake," the man talking was short and had a clipboard in his hand. He was wearing small glasses and had a white lab coat on. He had thinning grey hair and a pointy nose. Typical creepy doctor. I shivered, not out of fear but because I was freezing in this metal chair. He wrote some things down and and left the room.

A short time later, a man wearing an expensive looking suit walked in. I curled my lip. Something seemed wrong with him.

"Hello Charisma. I see you're awake. Now, you're probably wondering why-" I cut him off to yell at him.

"Tell me why I'm here!" I screamed despite my throat ache. He continued talking, ignoring my outburst.

"You're probably wondering why you're here, and it's because we needed you. Or more specifically your rare genes. Right now you are in one of our many hidden facilities. We are working with a huge team of the worlds smartest people to develop DNA that can give people tremendous power. In order to see if it worked, we needed someone with your genes -the rarest in the world if I might add- to test it out. While you were unconscious we implanted these altered DNA strands into the base of your spine and skull. Soon enough you will possess abilities never seen by man," he momentarily stopped to let all the information he told me to sink in. I got dizzy.

These people kidnapped and experimented on me. They're all inane and I'm their next victim. I'm going to die. They're going to kill me trying to alter my genetics. I must of gone pale or something because he a looked slightly concerned.

"Are you okay? Should I stop? I can come back later to inform you of how things operate here. I'll go get someone to get you some food and water," and then he left. I was nearly hyperventilating when a girl who looked my age came in. She had a glass of water and a bowl of crackers in her hands. She places the food on a table and walked over to unlock my restraints. I tried to get away from her but it was no use. The room was so small that there was only a few feet of space between us. She gave me a sympathetic look and spoke softly.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you, I only brought you food and water. It's not drugged or anything. I promise," she kneeled down to my level and held her hands up in surrender. When I didn't move she sighed and slid the tray of food towards me. A peaked at the food before picking up the glass of water and downing the entire thing in one breath.

She laughed a bit and cocked her head at me. "Thirsty, huh? I can get you more if you want," I nodded my head apprehensively and handed her the glass. She took it slowly as not to scare me and left the room to go get more.

I pulled the bowl of crackers over and picked one up, examining it slightly before shoving it in my mouth and chewing. Even though these are probably the least sustainable thing they could of given me, they tasted like heaven. I had finished the whole bowl before the girl even came back.

The door clicked again she walked in. She looked at the bowl and smiled a bit.

"Good to see you're eating," she crouched down to hand me the glass again. I gulped it down again, slower this time but still finished it fast. I took a deep breath and looked at the girl.

"Thank you, you're a nicer kidnapper than I thought you'd be," she stared at the ground before huffing.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn't really able to stop that," she scratched the back of her head awkwardly which made me remember that the guy before said they did something to my neck. I touched the spot on the base of my skull but felt nothing there. What the heck? I though he said they cut me...

"What...what did they do to me," I whispered to the floor.

"I don't know that I should be telling you that, I'd rather have Agent Barker tell you that. I'm not really allowed to. I'm truly sorry that it had to be you that they took," when I looked up she looked genuinely sorry. "At least I can try to become your friend, if you'd let me, that is," she looked at me hopefully. I liked this girl. Sure, she was with the kidnappers but it could be much worse and I could use her to help with my escape.

I smiled a bit at her when she sat down in front of me, looking a bit like Alice. "I'm Charisma. What's your name?"

"Cinder. It's nice to meet you Charisma. I'm happy that you actually talked to me. I know that you think it's bad but honestly, being here is pretty nice and with your position in this facility, you'll be treated like a queen," she explained while turning off the machines and walking over to point at my arm. I looked down and saw that she meant the needles stuck in my arms. I shook my head and pulled them out on my own.

I nearly screamed when the holes healed almost immediately. My eyes widened and I backed myself up against the wall, holding my arm out in front of me like it was diseased. My breathing was erratic and I felt a panic attack coming on. How did I just do that?!

I could hear Cinder curse and rush out the door. When she came back my vision was fading. The man I now knew as Agent Barker kneeled down in front of me and tried to calm me down.

"It's just a perk of having altered genes. It's not a problem, just slow your breathing and don't focus on it," and surprisingly enough, when I did what he asked, I calmed down and my vision came back. I saw a worried looking Cinder and a calm looking Agent Barker in front of me. I closed my eyes and told myself that it was okay. When I opened them again he was standing and Cinder looked much better. I looked to Agent Barker. I wanted answers about what they did to me. I knew I was no longer completely human.

"What did you do to me?" I sounded calm. It surprised me.

"I told you. We altered your genes so that you are superior over any other human ever. Now, I can show you all of the things you can do, or, you can stay stuck in here for longer.

I chose the former.

"Show me," if I was ever going to escape, I'd better embrace my non-human side.