In White Robes

Chapter 14 - How the Tides Waver

Tabby rubbed the little wound with a fingertip, not showing any signs of pain but looking admittedly distraught. I was feeling bad for him, both angry at the Concealed and pained for his sake. They shot him, was all I could think. They really shot him.

"So many questions," he said softly. "What are we supposed to do now? Why am I still here? What's going on with the injections? So many questions, and not enough answers." Tabby was looking off at the ground now, distant. "I can't figure anything out anymore. I'm so confused. I don't even have memories from before I was here. I don't understand what I'm here for."

"I don't have memories either," I piped up. And it was true. There was never a time before the facility, at least not for me, and not for Tabby either. The ways in which this could have happened were endless. Maybe they had a device hidden that was capable of erasing memories. Maybe they did not want us to remember what came before this prison, these chains.

All I was really left with was the thought of family, the knowledge of freedom's existence, and my dreams. That reoccurring dream where someone--I believe it was me--reached desperately for safety. And then the little version of me was pulled back into the surrounding water and everything turned hot-orange.

It was oddly specific. Strangely symbolic, as though there was a meaning to it. Nevertheless I did not know this meaning. I was just as confused in real life as I was in my dreams.

"We need to get out of here," said Tabby, and I immediately agreed with a nod. "The most we can do is get outside the facility. After that . . ." He began trailing off, losing his voice. "I don't know what comes after that."

"We're not getting out while Koko's around. We've both seen what he can do at this point." Tabby nodded slowly at my words.

"And he's not the only problem." He started thrusting his head into cupped palms, a frustrated gesture. "The Concealed have guns. Koko has his wacko strength. That guy in the office is just—"

"He's a coward," I said. "I say we go for him first."

Suddenly a tap came at the door, right above Tabby's head. The two of us froze, stuck in place and hoping this didn't spell out our doom. Hoping that this unidentified person would move along.

I looked at Tabby, pushing a finger to my lips in a shushing gesture. He nodded, staying right where he was, lips zipped.

The tap came again. And again.

"Is anyone in there?" A voice from the other side. My breath caught in my throat, sweat slicking along my neck. The voice, although muffled by the door, sounded too familiar to me. It was kind of low, kind of emotionless. Quiet.

Then the taps stopped coming and instead, the locks on the door began clicking. Koko was trying to open it. It was now or never—life or death.

Quickly I pressed all my weight into the door, holding it shut. Tabby followed suit, standing up and twirling around swiftly to join me, the two of us now combining our strength to keep the feline out.

Koko was slamming against it.

"Open the door," he spoke calmly but his tone did not match his actions—pounding against the door with speed, with fury, with bloodlust.

"You creepy bastard!" screamed Tabby, shouting more at the metal door than he was at Koko. "You come in here and we'll—we'll kill you!" He was stuttering. Horrified, just like me.

"Open the door," Koko said again, continuing to throw himself against the door.

The hinges sounded as if they were about to crack. I should have expected Koko, of all people, would be able to break a door down, metal or not.

Tabby glanced at me, fear on his face. It was like he was asking me what do we do, and truthfully I didn't know. I was just as scared as he was. I could only think of Koko's unnatural brute strength inside of that skinny body, and how he would likely be capable of taking us both out before we knew what hit us.

If he was once a subject and he, too, was injected with those substances, he was meant to be stronger than us. Perhaps that was all arranged by the Devil headmaster himself.

Koko was a puppet on strings, dangling helplessly under the Devil's sinful hands, granted power beyond any of our understanding.

I could hear more footsteps filling the halls that must have belonged to the Concealed. We were cornered. On one side there were guns and Koko's presence and no hope for any means of escape, and on the other side there was Tabby and I.

Weak. Scared. Hopeless. Hanging onto what final moments of life we had left. Just holding the door shut, struggling against Koko's strength, waiting for death.

We had escaped our room.

The Concealed had no mercy.

Koko was our biggest obstacle.

They would kill us.

And in the flash of an eye, finally we were thrown away from the metal body of the door as it was blasted inward. The light from the hallway flooded our view as the doorway stood open, and Koko and the Concealed rushed inside.

Right here, beside Tabby and awaiting certain demise, it felt so reminiscent of my dreams. Of the ocean, how it would trap me in its vortex, chaining me in one place while forcing me to watch my mind unfold.

Right now, I just wanted Avery. I just wanted to see him one last time.