The Red Room

𝔽𝕀𝔽𝕋𝔼𝔼ℕ

The class ended and I headed off to bed. My night gown was set out for me as it always is. This time, though, on top of it was a small metal ball like a BB gun bullet. There was also a knife.

I glanced around and nobody else had anything like that. I also saw Amelia standing by the door watching. I caught her eye and she nodded. The gifts were from her. She knew I didn't want to kill him.

I put the items under my pillow and slipped the nightgown on. As I attempted sleep I came up with a plan. It was perfect, it had to work. I also  figured out what the small metal ball was. It was a transporter. If you crushed it in between your fingers it would take you and whatever you're touching wherever you want to go. We learned about them when I was eight years old but were told we weren't allowed to use them until we graduated because they didn't want anyone to escape.

I finally fell asleep and when I woke up I got changed into my usual uniform. I slipped the transporter into my pocket and the knife into my waist band. Amelia was the only one on guard so I could do this easily.

Instead of marching to class after breakfast everyone went to the execution room. We all lined up against the back wall. Morgan was sitting on his knees with his hands cuffed behind him in front of three hundred and one beautiful girls and one very evil Madame. He was trying to meet my eyes but I wouldn't look at him. I was too nervous for my plan to fail to look anywhere except the blank wall ahead of me.

"Izabella!" Madame commanded. "Step forward!"

I walked with poise to the red "X" on the floor directly ten feet across from Morgan.

Madame handed me a gun. I calculated how I was going to do this. How could I get to Morgan in time without being killed? None of my sisters were armed that I knew of, but that didn't mean they weren't. I knew they would kill me in an instant to get a higher ranking and graduate sooner. Only the top five ranked people graduated at the end of each year, so it took a long time to get out. Natasha Romanoff was first in her class and graduated early.

The only armed people were Madame, Amelia, and another brown coat. That meant I only had two problems, Madame and the brown coat. Sure, I could do this.

I raised my gun and met Morgan's eyes. I could tell he was scared by how fidgety he was, but his eyes were set, unmoving, on mine. He was determined to go out strong. Kind of like me, if I went out today, I would go out with a bang. A bang that would affect the academy forever.

Madame was standing about five feet to the left of Morgan with the brown coat that wasn't Amelia diagonally behind her. This would be easier than I thought. Unless, of course all of the girls were armed.

"Strelyay!" Madame shouted.

At the last millisecond, so quickly not even Madame would be able to detect it, I moved my aim slightly to the left and pulled the trigger twice. Bang! Bang!

My bullets impaled Madame and the brown coat through both their hearts. Madame fell to the ground with a stunned looked on her face. An eerie silence fell over the room as I raced to Morgan and picked him up. Jumping into the air I crushed the small metal ball between my fingers.

There was an odd sensation of throwing up as we vanished from the room. I thought of a wooded area somewhere in Kentucky and put us smack in the middle of it.

When the puking sensation stopped I looked around and we were in the middle of a very large woods.

I laughed in disbelief. I had done it. I had actually succeeded. I was continents away from them. Then I remembered the trackers they implanted in our arms and pulled out my knife.

Don't celebrate yet. I told myself. They could still find you. Your not out of the woods. I internally laughed at my own joke. Iz was coming back.

I dug the knife into my arm and flicked the tracker out. It hurt a lot but I concealed the pain as I was taught.

I looked to Morgan. He was watching me warily. "Give me your arm." I instructed.

"Why?" He shook his head.

"I need to get your tracker out so they don't find us." I took a step towards him and he backed up.

"No. You're going to kill me with it."

"Yes, Morgan. I went through all the extra trouble to get you out just so I could kill you." I rolled my eyes. "If you don't give me your arm they will find us and torture us in horrible ways for months until we finally die, so I suggest you learn to trust me."

"How can I trust you when I don't know anything about you?" Tears welled up in his eyes again. This was too much for him to handle.

"You have no other choice, Morgan. Now give me your arm." I was trying very hard to keep my voice calm but it was difficult. "Once we are out of danger I will explain everything to you, okay? I will tell you what happened and why you were involved."

He held out his arm. "This is going to hurt a lot. Try not to scream." He nodded.

The point of my knife broke his skin and he let out a pained noise that tore me up inside, "I'm so sorry." I repeated the words during the whole process.

His tracker was finally out. I took both of the trackers stepped on them. They crunched under my shoe and broke to pieces. I then threw them in a nearby river so if they still worked they would be moving so it seemed like we had them in. We then started walking in the opposite direction of the river flow.

"We have to get out of these woods." I said.

"Where are we?"

"Somewhere in Kentucky." I said guiltily.

"So you don't know where we are? Why didn't you put us like back home or something?"

I looked at him, "You do realize that you can never go back there as long as the Red Room is still running, right? That's the first place they'll look, and if they find us, they will kill us."

"So I'll never see any of my friends ever again?" He looked broken at the thought. "I grew up with them, they're like my brothers."

"I know, and I'm sorry but it's the only way to stay alive."

"I didn't ask for this." He sounded angry. "I didn't ask for any of this. If I'd have known dating you would have ruined my life, I never would have done it."

"We'd both be dead right now if you hadn't. And you know what? I didn't ask for any of this either. I was ripped away from my family when I was four years old and forced to be a soldier of the Red Room. I didn't ask to be raised as a mindless zombie. I didn't ask to be scared my whole life because if I messed up I would die. I have feared for my life everyday since I was four years old! I would give anything to have your life. Anything. I wanted to grow up with a family and friends and be able to live my life. But I never got to go to a normal school or play on a playground or go to McDonald's!" I realized I was yelling at him.

Then something dawned on me. I could picture my mother and father's faces. I could picture my little brothers baby face as well. The tracker must have been what was holding back my memories of of my past life. I could picture the cute little house that my family lived in and the brown coats coming to take me to me prison saying, "This is an honor. You should be proud to be a part of this."

"I'm sorry." I said. "That wasn't fair of me. I'm just confused right now."

"Not as confused as me, you promised me an explanation for everything. But first I want to know the actual truth." He paused for a second. "Did you ever love me?"