Thursday, April 19, 2012

Side Story: "Pain" Chapter 2

"Alright, let's begin. Please say your name, age, station, and your reason for being here."

A young couple sits in the recorded video, nervously watching the camera.

"Both of us?" The woman asks. There is no verbal response, but she must have received some kind of signal as she glanced briefly at the man beside her, then turned back to the camera."My name is Emily Peters. I'm... I'm 27 years old. My current station is as a labratory technician and my reason for being here is... Do I have to say it?"

"Yes, Mrs. Peters. We need to record all of our patient's responses."

The blond woman sighed and looked straight into the camera. "My reason for being here is money. They've promised us a large sum of money for participating." She immediately breaks down into tears and runs off camera, causing the image to turn black.

Alex spent the first ten years of her life not even knowing if she had parents. She was brought up by young men and women in white coats, who taught her how to speak and control her powers. They weren't quite as talkative or friendly as she supposed humans were to their own children, but she never really considered herself human. At least not until she was old enough to understand the tapes she was now watching.

Another video, but this isn't a regular session. This time, the woman is sitting in a wheelchair. She is heavily pregnant and sweating, but smiling happily.

"This is a private tape I've asked your father to record. It will be given to you when you've watched all the others. They told me I won't get to see you after you're born. I may not like it, but I did sign a contract."

She rubs her swollen stomach, then smiles at the camera."They did tell me you are a little girl. They have also allowed me to name you. So, my little Alexandra, I may never meet you, but I love you. When we did this initially, it was for money. I won't lie to you, my baby, but over these months I have come to understand that, no matter what you look like, I will always love."

She pauses, seeming to almost say more, but a spasm grips her and she gasps in pain, after which the camera shuts off.


The next few tapes Alex watched were of her learning things in the lab where she grew up. She reaches up to finger the locket with her parent's pictures in it and decides to flee for good. At two years old, she managed to escape the lab on accident. She spent two weeks on her own before they found her. She then spent two months chained to a pole in her room. Now, for the past few months, she's been trying to look like a human. With effort, she can draw her demonic traits into her body and have the outward human appearance. By the time she is done, she is exhausted but happy. She can look in the mirror and see her mother's blond hair and her father's green eyes.

She managed to walk out of the lab that day. At 14, she was finally free.

She spent the next 4 years jumping from school to school, changing her hair color or wearing wigs, wearing contacts, and occasionally changing her name. Whenever people got too close, or teachers got too suspicious, she would change schools yet again. Now, in her last year of school, she hoped to try and make a friend or two and stay long enough to graduate.

She had put off going to school as long as possible, but she finally made up her mind to show up. It was noon by the time she walked into the office. She was given a schedule and told to return when the bell rang.

Wandering the halls seemed like a good idea, so she looked into every classroom she came across, wondering if she would make a friend at all. She'd had one before, but she had told them her secret and they panicked and called the cops.

She fingered the locket around her neck as she looked at yet another empty room. She thought about finding her parents, but she had seen the contract they signed. They had turned over all control of their daughter to the lab and vanished into anonymity. She sighed as she closed the door and sank to the floor outside of it. Most of the school was at lunch and she was already starting to regret coming here.

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