A Hero In The Dark

Chapter 117: Fit To Be Tested

I am taken to a room.

A room with bright lighting but dull air. Or maybe that is due to the unease I still feel, radiating from that girl.

Freakshow, she said her name was, or at least, that's what they all call her. I hate that she stays behind me, watching my every move. I hate that she was able to put me back in a place of horror and fear. I tried so hard to forget about my days in Mogadorian captivity over the months. And she just put me back there, like all my attempts to forget meant nothing. I hate that she is always just within reach to do what she did again.

I know I promised to protect the Human Garde, but I feel no sympathy for her.

Although I hate to admit it, I've grown scared of her. As an extension to being scared of what she did to me, I've grown scared of her legacy and scared of her. I can feel myself try to shift away from her any chance I get; make sure she is not within reach. Whenever I even look at her, I can feel a lump in my throat.

He hurt me, and she made me remember that. She made all the pain come back.

And for that I want vengeance. It's as simple as that.

"Wow, you actually managed to get her," says a man with short-cropped black hair at a table at the opposite side of the room. He wears a lab coat and goggles but removes the goggles when he sees us enter.

"Yeah," says the Gruff One. "Was a pain in the ass. You better make it worthwhile. You have 16 hours until he shows."

The lab geek nods. "Right. Get her on the table."

At that, the girl – Freakshow – pushes me forward and my breath catches in my throat. Though I'm glad that nothing else from my past appears to haunt my mind.

"You heard him," she says. "On the table."

"Please," I say meekly, staring at the metal table yet too afraid to turn and face her. "You don't need to do this. Help me stop them."

She lets out a short amused chuckle. Though before she can respond with anything, the Gruff One barks, "Stop chatting and do as your asked kid. Or else you're next."

Only at that point does she shut up and push me again.

I stumble but remain upright. It isn't until the two other men – Gruff and Arrogant – grab my arms and force me over to the ominous table themselves that I begin to panic.

My resistance increases the closer I get, and I shout, "Wait! Wait! Don't do this!"

I dig my heels into the floor, try to plant my feet, pull away from them, wriggle in their holds. Nothing I do matters. Nothing stops them.

I reach the metal table and they sit me onto it and I am forced into a lying position.

Before they even so much as touch my cuffed wrists, they strap me down. Securing my waist, torso, ankles, neck, and then wrists with thick leather straps. They are impossible to break in this position. I would know; I've tried. I've been like this once before after all. In a Mogadorian cave kept as Setrákus Ra's prisoner.

It is the same as it is now. How I hope it isn't for the same intentions.

No matter how hard I try to pull myself free, it does nothing. And due to the electrodes they placed on my temples after that girl reminded me of just how scarred I was, my Eneration and telekinesis and telepathy won't work either.

There is nothing I can do to get out of this. I am as helpless as I was back then.

Just the thought is enough to bring me to cry.