The Black Box

32

We run through the hallways, finding out way through them and to the main area. I just about see Feye's hair whip around the corner.
"Over there!"

We run towards where I saw Feye's hair and see them just as they take a sharp right. We run after them and run into the middle of the main area of The Shaft. We stop and look around the area and don't see them in sight.
"Do you see them?" asks Jax.

Just then, Sophie runs away to the right, the opposite way of Noah's lab.
"Where are you going Soph?" I yell after her. "Come on, we have to follow her!"

I sprint over to where she went and through the hallway. It's like all of the others, dimly lit. The hallway ends in a narrow room that stretches to the left and right and I can't see the ends. Against the wall is a row of chairs. The opposite wall has doors all along it, each with a symbol above it that I don't understand. The doors have keypads next to them too.

"Glad you found your way," says Isaiah appearing from the left of the room. "Have a seat."

Navi and Feye appear from the right. I feel trapped and sit in a seat very cautiously. My friends arrive after a few minutes with Noah at their side.

"Take a seat," says Noah to my friends. They do as he says, wanting not to mess with him.

"Where's Sophie?" I ask Isaiah. He points to the right of the room. She's sitting in the last chair and looking down at her feet. I start to stand up, but Isaiah holds an arm in front of my chest, blocking me.

"Uh uh," he says, staring at me in the eyes.

I stare down at his arm and back at his eyes. I push off of my seat and stand up, but Isaiah forcefully pushes me back. My back hits the hard back of the chair and probably bruised me pretty badly.
"Stop. You don't really want to mess with me, do you Peter?" He glares at me.

"How'd you know my name?"

"I know things that you don't."

He looks at me for, what seems to me, an eternity then removes his arm and walks towards Navi and Feye.

I finally can take a deep breath and slouch in my chair.

"Let's begin," says Isaiah like nothing ever happened between us.

All of us stand in a neat, straight line facing Isaiah like we're in an army or something. He walks casually back and forth in front of us, looking at us top to bottom. Like he didn't already check me out earlier.

He walks over to Navi and Feye and they talk to each other in hushed voices. Navi walks to the middle of our line and starts to talk.
"We will start immediately, like we have been wanting to do for awhile now. Isaiah will take Peter and Annabeth, Feye will take Adam and Sophie, and I will take Kevin and Jax."

I have Isaiah, of all people. At least I won't be alone. Kevin and Jax high five each other.

We split up with our "trainers" and go to different places in the room. Isaiah takes us to the far left wall and turns left into another door I didn't see before.

It has a tube-like container in the center in the back. It has a keypad next to it. Connected to the keypad is a computer and a spinning chair. There's also a glass cabinet built in the wall to the right. It has something silver in it but I can't make out what's in it. There's a white couch in the leftmost part of the room with a small metal coffee table.

"Have a seat," says Isaiah, motioning to the couch.

Annabeth and I look at each other and sit cautiously down. The couch is really comfortable.
"Who wants to go first?" asks Isaiah. He's sitting in a spinning chair near the computer with the keypad attached to it. Annabeth and I don't answer him, we just stare into open space. "Anyone? Going once, going twice, sold! Annabeth's heads and Peter's tails. Hope you have good luck!" Just then, he takes a coin out of his pocket and throws it up into the air. We watch it as it lands on the ground and slowly begins to stop spinning.

Tails. I have to go first.

"Well, Peter it's your lucky day! Get in The Tube," says Isaiah, clapping his hands together and smiling.

I sit there, motionless. I really don't want to know what will happen to me if I go into "The Tube".

His smile faded and he's getting impatient. "Get in The Tube. Now."

I still don't move a muscle. He shakes his head and walks towards me. Before he grabs me, I kick out and hit him in the chest and stomach. He just stands there like I didn't even hit him. Then he lunges at me and grabs me at the shoulders. He pushes me towards The Tube.

"I don't want to go in Isaiah!" I yell at him.

"Shut up. Let's just get this over with," he says between gritted teeth. I'm using all of my strength to hold him from pushing me into The Tube.

I finally give up 'cause I know I can't beat Isaiah. He gives me a hard shove into The Tube and pushes a button. Doors slide from both sides and I'm sealed into The Tube.

Isaiah walks over to the keypad and presses a few buttons, then walks over to the computer.
"Don't worry Peter, this won't hurt a bit," he says reassuringly.

He presses a key and I feel something crawling up my back towards my neck. It then goes to my arms and legs. My body starts to become numb, then I have a sharp pain in the middle of my back. I scream but it's muffled by the soundproof glass. The pain starts to go towards my arms and down to my fingers. I look down at my arms and see that there's black lightning bolts from The Tube going down my arm, striking pain with every contact.

"Don't worry. It's almost done," says Isaiah from a speaker from the back of The Tube.

The pain slowly stops when it reached my fingertips. Then the black lightning vanishes. I look down and see that my whole shirt disintegrated, exposing my torso. I hear Isaiah whistle and I wanna punch him in the face. I look over at Annabeth and she's just staring. Hopefully not staring at the shirtless guy in the transparent tube.

The doors open and Isaiah pushes another button and reveals a mirror. I walk over to it and look at myself.

The front of my torso is unharmed. My arms though, are not. I turn them over and see that the backs of them have black lightning bolts, stretching to my back and to my fingertips. I turn around and look at my back. It's covered with bolts of black lightning. It's so dense that it almost looks like my back's black.
"What the heck did you do to me?!" I yell at Isaiah.

"Oh. Nothing. I just gave you your natural tattoos you have and by the way, " he adds, "I have something to give you too."

"Whatever it is I don't want it," I reply, almost spitting the words. I don't want to hear another word from him after what he did to me.

"Oh really?" he questions.

"Yeah, and I don't want these 'natural tattoos' either. I don't even know what they are." I spat the words this time.

"Too bad Peter, they're permanent." He walks over to the glass cabinet and opens it. He opens it and looks in it even though it's transparent.

"What are you looking for? I can probably see it from here," I tell him.

He ignores me and continues to look. "Ah ha!"
He closes the cabinet and holds something up to the light.

It's a silver ring. It's like someone tangled lightning bolts together and made it into a ring.

"For you." He hands me it.

I take it and look at it carefully. I put it on my right ring finger and it fits perfectly.

"Alright. Peter you're done. Annabeth, it's your turn."