The Secrets of The Soul Wanderer (In

Chapter 24

I almost said "hello," but I was grabbed by the wrist and recognised the grip as Marnie's, she dragged me into another room. There was a laminated floor between our rooms, she shut the door behind me. This room smelled of vanilla and sage, the floor felt like velvet and the walls were rough like stucco. Marnie put her hands on my shoulders and cried, "what have they done to you? I swear I'll make them pay sis." I wanted to cry and scream but I couldn't, all that came out was a stupid "uh huh."

Marnie was crying in the corner of the room, so I decided to feel around the room, it came to my conclusion that this was a bedroom. When she stopped crying, I heard her say something that made me want to attack her. "Listen to me Claire, I know you're in there but you have a parasite inside you, it's eating you and I need to take it out."
My rage grew and I lunged at a wall, this only knocked me unconscious. I unknowingly Soul Wandered and 'watched' what Marnie was doing, she was blotchy with tears and had two crows near her, she muttered a spell with her hands over my body.
This spell took a long time, her voice was getting hoarse until I saw movement on my nape, she grabbed a knife and made an incision. The parasite was like a big, fat blood red catterpillar, both of the crows flew over and picked it up gently. The creature had blood vessels and nerves grow around it, I saw Marnie gently cut it away from my nape. Both crows killed it and placed it next to my body, Marnie didn't chant a spell but muttered, "may this parasite give back my sister the sight that she lost. To go with the laws of nature, I will exchange my right forearm and hand, please accept my offer."
Within a few seconds, I woke up I could see! My fingers felt actual eyeballs under my eyelids, but in return I saw Marnie with her stub of a right arm, her forearm and hand gone.

That day, we cried and thanked each other, an arm for an eye or shall I say eyes. One thing we both had was painful phantom pains, I felt my left foot and its toes despite it not being there anymore. The same went for Marnie,  eventually a Sentinel came to us and hand cuffed me. "Why has the mage got one arm? And why can the Soul Wanderer see?" I lied saying "I can't see shit, everything is blurry to me." Marnie helped me hop downstairs, who ever lived here before was very old.
I could tell from the old, antique furniture and flower pattern vases in some room corners. Even the air was dusty and smelled of ageing leather, on the wall of the staircase were photographs of a white haired old lady, she stood and sat with I guess her children and grandchildren.

A pang of uneasiness hit me, I felt a bit sick when I arrived on the ground floor. The Senitel walked into a room on my left, Marnie helped me what I saw was a laboratory. It was sterile white with three glass tanks, inside the tanks were three different creatures. The room was large and I noticed two gurneys at the rear of the room, it wasn't long before I saw a man the room behind us. He had a smooth face and was of east asian descent, his black hair was short and lanky, eyes looking very tired with dark bags.
The Sentinel left the room, shutting the door behind us. I knew what was going to happen, my body was ready to attack him.
"Missing foot, wings and arm but your eyes are back. You Knights always fascinate me. The names Dr Jin Riju, come sit over here girls." Dr Riju's voice had a Japanese accent, he spoke english really well.
We sat on our gurneys and with no time to waste, Dr Riju jabbed a light sedation drug into us. It wasn't enough to make us go to sleep, instead it made me relax.

We saw him inject a catheter into our veins, that was connected to a bag on a hook above us. It was now that I was starting to feel faint, until I smelled chocolate. Yes it was chocolate, Dr Riju looked relieved "I'm taking a few blood samples for the experiments. The chocolate helps with the faint feeling, I can't have you both fainting on my watch girls." 
He gave me a bottle of water and a chocolate bar with a square missing. I saw him fill up the bag of blood, he was right the chocolate helped me enormously.
With that done, he gave us a sandwich that was filled with peanut butter and strawberry jam, I quickly devoured it despite it being white bread which I loathed. So far Dr Riju seemed like one of those blood donor doctors, I never went to donate blood but I knew it saved lives.

It was at this moment that one of the nearest glass tanks held a person, I asked Dr Riju what it was? He chuckled and leaned back on his office chair, he looked at both of us, his eyes were full of excitement. The doctor answered with enthusiasm, "that my dear is what the Maker and the Holy One call, Project Albatross. The most superior human, resistant to all disease, intelligent beyond the gifted and has the same abilities of a Knight."
He pointed to the three tanks, all three had different features one with fins, wings and long wide feet. Dr Riju continued, "each human has an environmental advantage, fins to navigate water, wings to fly to buildings and long wide feet to navigate rough terrain." I could tell he was clearly excited to talk about this, I admired his enthusiasm despite how fucked up the project was.

There was a short pause, he approached me and just stared at me, examining my face. I stared at him he must be in his thirties, his face had a few red blemishes. I saw him make an unsettling smile, "now Claire why are you here? It's because I am going to give you the task to test these humans. They are just prototypes right now, with your Soul Wandering ability and my research. We will be so rich." The maniac doctor gave me a wink, I internally recoiled.

Suddenly Marnie began to speak, she sounded really pissed off, "oi! What about me? You don't need me." I saw Dr Riju slap Marnie's face, his neck veins bulging in anger, he spoke down to Marnie. "You be quiet! Understand? You're here under orders of the Hoky One and the amazing Maker. I won't tolerate mage scum talking to me," he spat at Marnie's face.
I looked at my sister and tensed my muscles, Dr Riju saw my face and chuckled, "oh how sweet to see two half sisters protect one another. That face Claire, you don't scare me I find it adorable, like a little puppy trying to guard his food. Now what do I do with misbehaved bitches?"

I had an inkling that he meant we were like female dogs, so I shrugged my shoulders. He got two large leather loops with metal prongs inside, these l knew were shock collars. His voice was stern and loud, "now both of you get to wear your new collars. I am your owner now. You obey me and you get fed, if you disobey you get a shock." I saw him press a button, it was like a built in taser. He put the collar on my neck, it was cold from the prongs but was ok for now. I could tell this was going to take a long time to escape.