"Well, aren't you lucky?" Dad said, as he pawed at the noodles with his fork. "Getting off school for the next couple of days." I looked up from absently playing with a meatball.
"Yeah, I guess." I said, breaking out my awkward smile. All three of us, including Mom, were seated at the perfectly white kitchen table, with spaghetti for dinner. The same dinner everybody else in the Community was having that night.
Mom scowled down at her dinner. "Dan, it's not something lucky. A mutant is inside the city, hiding among us. It's very worrying."
"Just trying to put a positive spin on things." Dad shrugged. He popped a sauce covered meatball into his mouth. "Don't worry, this'll all blow over. The Community Board will fix it." he replied. This wouldn't be happening if it weren't for the Community. I thought angrily.
"Too bad you have to spend the next few free days inside." Dad said, "There won't be much to do."
"I can read books." I said lamely. Mom pursed her lips and nodded. Ever since she had gotten the news about the failed experiment, she had been in an anxious and grumpy mood. She worked pretty high on the Community political senate, but not high enough to be in the Community Board. I knew it bothered her that she was so close, but still blocked out.
"Mom, do you know anything about the failed experiment?" I asked, trying to keep my voice low and uninterested.
"Not really. Katy from down the street said she heard that the mutant has enhanced senses, or something of the sort." She shrugged. "But it's probably dis functional. Why else would the Board send it out if it wasn't a failure?" That was a good question. If I was certain of one thing about the Board, it was that they planned everything to the slightest detail. If something did not fit in their perfect jigsaw puzzle, it was eliminated. The mutant was clever, since it had broken through and disguised themselves, But we could very well be dealing with a mentally unstable monster.
"Tabby, eat your dinner." Mom said, snapping me back into the present. I hurriedly stuffed some cold noodles in my mouth, stood up, and placed my plate at the sink. I rubbed my hands awkwardly, thanked Mom for dinner, and returned back to my room. I buried my face into my pillow. A little bit of me told my mind that it should be swamped with emotions, but all I really felt right then, on my bed, was a feeling of blankness.
My eyes started drooping, and exhaustion pressed on my mind, like someone had placed a heavy stone on the base of my neck. I sighed, and my brain started collecting those fuzzy cotton balls of sleep. My nerves tingled from the stare of the moon that glared at me through my window. I slipped into an uneasy unconsciousness.
I was awoken by the swishing sound of cloth in my room. I jolted awake, and sat up. Nothing. All lights in the house had been turned off, and the hallway was empty and releasing cold air into my bedroom. I wiped my nose roughly, and checked the alarm clock on my bed-side table. It read 2:00 am. Groaning, I slumped back into my bed.
Sssh. The same sound, like cloth against cloth. I immediately stood up, muscles tensed. Fumbling badly, I grabbed my lamp and held it up as if it were a baseball bat.
"Who's there?" I demanded in a stage whisper. Nobody answered. Gulping, I inched my way to the hallway, and peered out. "Mom? Dad?" I hissed. I waited a good ten seconds, with no answer. Sighing and rubbing my eyes, I lowered the lamp and turned back to my bed.
Something large and brutish suddenly clamped against my mouth, and I screamed in surprise. My right arm was snatched and yanked behind my back. I hollered, but my voice was cut off by the thing around my mouth, which was probably a hand. My mind shot into panic mode. Was it the mutant? A kidnapper? What were they going to do to me?
I kicked and fought, but the hands holding me were too strong. The tiny logical part of me that was still alive told me to save my energy, but the overall fear made me fight harder, even though I got nowhere. Something sharp, cold, and thin pressed against the vulnerable skin of my neck, and it felt like fire being pushed into my veins. My limbs slackened, and I fell into the arms of whoever was holding me. Sleep pushed on me once again, but this time it was forced. I slipped into a tormented, heavy state of limbo.
-------------------------------------------------
All I felt next was pain. A horrible, sickening pain in between my shoulder blades that crackled through everything else like lightning. I was draped over a stiff, hard board, and something was strapped around my head, keeping my head from moving. I groaned, and tried to move, but pain immediately coursed through me.
"She's waking." A stern voice broke through ringing in my ears. I felt the presence of people clustered around me. My eyes opened, but all I could see was darkness. I tried to flex my bound hands, but they didn't move.
But something else did.
Something soft brushed the bare skin of my back. It was new, and strange. But it was undeniably connected to me. Like I had two new limbs glued to my spine. Pain momentarily forgotten, I tried again. Sure enough, the two things moved. They were soft, and they felt incredibly large. Like, take up the whole room large. My mind was blurry and lost, but one thing was for certain: whatever those things were, they weren't supposed to be there.
That's when I started screaming.
It was an awful shrieking noise that echoed and rang, and it sounded completely animal. I arched my back again and again, fighting against the binds and fighting against the big, soft blocks. The big things started going up and down, flapping and heaving. They curled and twisted insanely, like two monsters that were stuck to my back and wanted desperately to be free. They were mine - but they weren't.
The people around me scattered and scrambled, trying to get away from the huge things that I apparently was in control of. With one of the descending heaves, I felt one man be slapped to the floor, with an ugly crunching sound. I tried to twist my face to see, but the binds on my face kept my head in place. I sobbed, arching the huge things on my back feebly.
The unmistakable sensation of a needle pressed into my neck, and the familiar feeling of drowsiness settled into my body. The big things slowed, and flumped to the ground with a thud. I moaned, before I was once again swallowed by darkness.
YOU ARE READING
Empyrean
Random"It's for the Community, Tabby. We are just protecting you." The Community is all Tabby has ever known. It's what protects her, and the people around her. It is flawed, but it's safe from the rest of the world. It's that fact that keeps the people...
