Thunder and Storm

Hell

  


SALLY

I was floating in space, a dark void. It was just the darkness and me. I heard a voice in the distance. It sounded like someone was singing. The voice got louder and nearer. My mom. I could hear her singing to me but I couldn't see her.

Ki-Mo Ke-Mo, Ki-Mo-Ke

Way down yonder in a hollow tree

An owl and a bat and a bumblebee

King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O

A soothing breeze blew as her voice surrounded me. It was calming and painful at the same time. I wanted to feel her embrace again just as I used to when she used to sing to me.

He rode up to Miss Mousie's door

King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O

There he knelt upon the floor

King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki Me O

A piercing pain broke through the darkness and my eyes snapped open with a gasp. Once again, I was lying on a bed. The bed was placed upright so I could see everything and everyone in the room. The walls were white like every other room I've been to in this place but this one wasn't designed like a hospital room.

There was a furnace not far from where I was placed. It was covered but the heat emanating from it made me sweaty. There was a table beside it with some equipment on it but I couldn't see what they were. Dr Reynolds smiled down at me. He looked rough. His hair was standing on end, the left side of his eyeglass was cracked, there was a gash on his forehead that was covered by a Band-Aid but the skin around the area was glaringly red.

That must be quite painful.

"Nice to have you back, Sally." He cleared his throat. "Well, that was something." He tapped his laps.

That was when I noticed he was sitting on a stool. There was a tray beside him on a table with a used syringe on it. I remembered the pain that I had felt before waking up.

"What did you give me?" I croaked out.

"Calm down, Sally. No need to get all murderous on me. The shot I gave you was to stabilize you, your vitals were through the roof. It's a miracle you're still alive."

He frowned. "I can't believe it. None of the others has shown such signs,” he seemed to be speaking to himself.

Others? There were more like me?

"Tell me, Sally, what did you feel when you choked those men earlier? When you almost destroyed the room, how did you feel?" He asked, looking down at me with utmost curiosity.

Flashes of what I did earlier came to me and I shook my head. There was something around my neck. A thick band. My hands and legs were held down to the bed by a metallic restraint.

"What is this?" I asked as my breathing quickened. I was at the mercy of these people.

I looked around the room and there were at least six guards in the room, this time holding guns that were bigger than the last ones. I tried to move out of my restraint and they raised their guns in the air, pointing them at me. My eyes widened and I shrunk into the bed in fear.

"Please, I want to go home." Tears stung my eyes and I blinked. My lips trembled as I looked up at the doctor who was still staring down at me like I was the most fascinating specimen on the planet.

"Answer me, Sally. Tell me what I want to know,” he said in a placating tone.

I scanned the room wildly, looking at the big guns pointed at me. Flashes of what I'd done earlier came to me and I flinched. An overwhelming sense of guilt swallowed me whole. I killed people. Without mercy, I choked them to death. Men that were stronger and bigger than me and I snuffed out their lives like it didn't matter. I couldn't even kill a cockroach and I killed two men. I was a murderer.

"Please, don't make me remember,” I pleaded. My heart hammered in my chest as tears fell down my cheeks.

"Just tell me what I need to know and I'll leave you alone. I'll make it all go away, I promise."

"Please," I cried, "Don't make me remember."

"Tell me,” he shouted and I flinched. 

"I don't know how to explain it,” I rushed out.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, letting it out through his lips. He opened his eyes and fixed his glasses.

"Okay. Explain to me however you can.” His grey eyes sparkled with excitement as he stared down at me.

I swallowed and licked my lips. "I felt tingly. I could feel things in the air," I said as I tried to remember. "I felt a connection to them and I could bend that connection to my will. I could make it do whatever I wanted it to do. That's all I know."

"Amazing," he whispered. "You can manipulate matter at a molecular level. You created a force field without even trying. Do you know how amazing that is?"

He pulled his salt and pepper hair and looked up at the ceiling in wonder. "This is incredible. You're incredible," he said as he looked down at me.

"But that's not all, is it?" He paused and stroked his grey beard in thought.
"When you were brought in here, you had created a tornado. You made lightning rain down on your car." I flinched as I remembered what had happened in the car. Dad had been trying to get us to safety and I had ruined it. I hoped they were alright and I could see them soon.

"I think you can do more than manipulate matter. I think you can do more." He nodded.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg." He stood up suddenly and moved closer to the bed.

He stroked my cheek. "There's more to you than meets the eye, Sally Jenkins and I'm going to find out everything."

He turned to face the guards in the room. "We just found our first Level Five."

One of the guards, a woman, gulped as the words left his mouth. She looked at me with fear written all over her face and held her gun tighter. I shrunk further into the bed, trying to make myself one with the steel. Dr Reynolds walked away from the bed, moving towards the exit and I panicked.

"Where are you going?" I called out.

He turned to me and smiled. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon.” His words held a promise. It somehow made me feel better. He seemed like a nice old man though he was a bit of a mad scientist with the way his eyes shone earlier even though I had been on the verge of killing him a few moments ago.

Dr Reynolds exited the room and the doors slid shut behind him with finality. The guards moved closer to me, their guns still pointed at me and I gulped in fear.

A man stepped forward, daring to move closer to the bed while the others stayed behind him in a defensive position. His brown hair was slicked back with gel, he had bushy brows and steely grey eyes with a clean-shaven face. There was a wart on his temple right between his brows, closer to his left brow. I looked up at the name tag on his chest, Major C. Kowalski was emblazoned on it. He glared down at me and I cowered beneath his penetrating gaze.

"You killed my men,” he stated. His accent was thick but his words made me quiver. The glare in his eyes wasn't from fear, it was hatred. This was a vendetta.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I didn't mean to."

"You didn't mean to." He nodded his head. "I didn't mean to do this too." He pressed a device attached to a harness on his chest, and an electrical charge transmitted from the band around my neck through my body, shocking me.

I shook violently on the bed, my nerves felt fried, my blood churned and he looked down at me with a satisfied smile on his face.

He let go of the button and the collar stopped zapping me. I took a shuddering breath as my eyes watered.

"What is that thing?" I asked as I panted still recovering from the shock.

"That." He pointed at the collar around my neck, "Is a power dampener. A device created to stop you freaks from attacking us at will."

"It is also used to bend you." He pressed down on the device again and I screamed out in pain.

He stopped and just when I thought he'd had enough, he pressed down on it again. "Control you."

He stopped again and continued as he went around my bed. "Shape you into what we want you to be."

He stopped in front of me and smirked down at me. He looked pleased to see me in pain.

"Please, stop. I can't take anymore." I panted as sweat trickled down my face.

"Did you stop when those guards were begging you to stop?" He sneered, bringing his face down to mine. “I watched the footage, Hybrid and he begged you but what did you do? You choked him to death,” he screamed, spraying spittle on my face.

Tears smarted my lids and they fell as guilt washed over me. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill them, I couldn't control it."

"Lieutenant Harvey and Sergeant Matthews were good men. They didn't deserve to die by your hands. Harvey had a wife and a son waiting for him back home. Matthews was engaged, he was going to get married this summer and you killed all his hopes and dreams just because you felt like it,” he yelled in my face.

"No. I was scared, I didn't mean to," I cried.

He straightened and motioned with his head to a guard standing behind him. The man moved to the table beside the furnace and picked up an iron rod. He opened the furnace and put it in. It took a moment for what they were about to do to dawn on me and when it did, my eyes widened.

"No, please don't," I begged as I moved against my restraint, trying to set myself free. The metal chaffed my skin rubbing it raw.

"Stop wriggling, Hybrid," Major Kowalski spat. He pressed down on the device again and I screamed out as the current zapped me again. I shook violently as water dripped out of my eyes.

"Stop it," I screamed.

He didn't stop. My eyes rolled back into my head. I was tethering on the edge of consciousness.

"Oh, you're not falling asleep yet. I want you to feel this.” He took his finger off the button.

I panted as I struggled to breathe in. I felt weak and tired. I didn't think I could take another one of those charges. My cheeks were wet with tears. I shook as a faint tremor ran through me from the aftershock.

The guard by the furnace opened it and took out the rod. It blazed red, staring back at me with hot fury. I swallowed. My heartbeat quickened as he moved closer to me. Major Kowalski pushed up the sleeve of my left wrist and I strained against him, trying to move back as possible. I hoped if I shook enough, the bed would move out of its hinges on the ground and I'd be free but such was not the case.

"No, please don't do this," I begged.

Major Kowalski chuckled as the guard moved closer with every step he took.

"Dr Reynolds!" I screamed. "Dr Reynolds, help me."

"He can't hear you.” He laughed.

"Please, I'm begging you,” I pleaded.

The guard got to my front and the Major nodded his head. "Mark her."

"No!" I screamed. The hot iron sizzled on my skin as a shriek tore through me.

"Welcome to hell, Hybrid."

*****

Sorry for not updating last week. I've been really busy and I was making plans to have the book available for publishing. Yes, I will be publishing the book in paperback with a print on demand service.

So if you're interested in having the full copy of the book without waiting so long for updates, you can send me a message.

Bye for now 😘