The Black Box

41

When I wake up, all I see is white. I look down and I'm shirtless, which I hate being, and tied to a metal chair. The room has no windows and the ceiling, floor, and walls blend seamlessly together, making it seem that I'm in an endless white area.

An invisible white door opens across from me and the guy named Cyril comes in.

"Where's my friends?" I ask him.

"You're all being kept as prisoners. That guy with the teal colored hair is being interrogated right now," he answers me. "Now I'm going to do the same to you."

He appears right in front of my face. I didn't even see him cross the room.

"Where is it?" he asks.

"Where's what?" I try to move my face away from his but he won't budge.

"You know what I'm talking about."

"I seriously don't dude. Can you back up? You don't need to be this close to interrogate."

Cyril backs up enough that I don't see only his eyes.

"Where is it?"

"Tell me what you want to find 'cause I have no idea what you're talking about Cyril."

"The virus."

"You want me to tell you where a virus is?" I try to sound like I have no idea what he's talking about. "Try a hospital 'cause there isn't a virus here." I motion to myself.

"That's not the kind of virus I'm talking about!" He's getting frustrated which is good. This means I don't look like I'm lying. "The bullets."

"Bullets?"

"You're so impossible. Peter." He spat my name when he said it. "I give up."

"You really just gave up? I know I'm a hostage but seriously, that's all you can do to me?"

He looks at me with malice in his eyes. "You know I really hate you right now..."

"Yup. I've known that for the amount of time I've been kept in this jail cell."

"...and that I can't hurt you."

"Oh really?" I raise an eyebrow.

"But I can bend the rules a little can't I?" He smirks. I've seen that smirk. The realization hits me like a sack of rocks.

"Jason?"

"Who?" he asks. His eyes become wary.

"Jason. The guy, you, who beat me up in the cafeteria and was transported here by me and left here."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He crosses his arms and looks away.

"I didn't kiss Marin."

He ignores me.

"Allen did."

His eyes shoot towards me when I said those words. "Allen?"

"Yeah, Allen O'Connell. One of your posse."

"I don't know that name." He looks away again.

He's close enough that I kick him in the shin. Hard. He looks down at his shin. It'll bruise pretty badly later. He looks at me and a small ball of black energy pools at his palm and it hits me in the face. It trickles away like I was splashed in the face with water. Cyril, Jason, curses under his breath.

I look at him with a confused look. He looks at me. He lets out a long sigh. "I didn't know where else to go okay? I had to go here."

"You went with the corrupt." He glares at me and I shut up.

"You're still tied to a chair."

"I know."

"I have to get some information out of you before she assaults me again."

"Who's she?"

"Avi."

"Who?"

"The girl I came with into your base. She threatened to touch me. I don't know why people started to run out of the room. She always has gloves on."

"You don't get it do you?" I ask him.

"Get what?"

"The enhancers."

"You mean powers."

"Enhancers, powers, whatever. All I'm saying is that if a person with pale pink eyes touches you, you die instantaneously."

"Really? Most people in this facility have pale pink eyes." He looks into my eyes.

"I don't want to do this anymore. To kill people. Innocent people. Just to find the stupid Purest."

"Stupid?" I feel offended. Then again, he has no idea what he's talking about.

"Yeah, stupid. Avi's hunting them down so she doesn't die. She can't die. The Purest have to reunite and wipe people, like Avi, off the face of the Earth."

"How do you know a person's Pure?"

"Avi told me something about the Purest having the ability to pass the impossible and do enhancers that weren't read when they were examined."

Like when I melted the glass while training. Noah didn't say anything about melting stuff.

"Can we escape?" I ask.

"We can when the guards change positions. I'd have to distract Avi. I have the code for unlocking the cells where Annabeth, Kevin, Jax, Sophie, and that other girl, Christie right? The other people are held in tighter guarded area. The code's are all the same, 1-3-8-5-2."

Why are the codes always the same pattern?

"I'll release you when it's time." Jason almost walks out of my cells when he turns around. "Don't call me Jason in front of Avi. She only knows me by Cyril." And he closes the door behind him.