Tanner's Story: The Before

Crossing the Line

Tommy kept screaming. It was terrible he was only five years old and he was being tortured because I was a coward.

I attempted to tug my shoulder out of Dr. Hatch's grip so I could do...something, anything. Unfortunately the only thing I succeed at doing is causing him to tighten his already bruising grip.

"Please sir," I cried turning toward him as much as I could. "Thomas has nothing to do with this. Please stop this!"

"Oh Tanner," he sighed. "I already told you. You are the only one who can stop this. If you decide to keep being disobedient then I will bring in your other brother, then your parents, and then your friends. How does that sound?"

"Your a sick monster!" I yelled openly crying.

"One day you'll see that I am doing this to help you and to help humanity."

The fact that the devil in human skin actually managed to souls compassionate made me want to throw up. Instead I turned back to the back to the window.

I stared at the electricity arching off of Zeus's hands and hitting Tommy. Zeus. Zeus was the guy torturing my brother. Zeus was the guy that I though was my friend. Was Bryan like this too. What about Quentin and Tara. Was everybody in this place murderers?

I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears tightly. It might have made me a coward, but couldn't watch my little brother be tortured!

Dr. Hatch didn't like that though apparently. He tugged my hands harshly away from my ears and jerks my head up with his free hand.

"You need to watch this Tanner. Remember this, 'if you look away then Zeus might not stop when I tell him too," he hissed in my ear.

I forced myself to look back up and stare at Tom's face.

"Is this right," I asked myself. "Is this what my parents would do?"

Suddenly Zeus pauses and 'looked' at us. Thomas was panting and had fresh tears running down his face. I let out breathe thinking it was over. I forgot what what Hatch had said before.

Pressing the same button as before Hatch said, "Use twice the power Zeus."

"What? no! He can't take that! He's only five!" I shouted, struggling tenfold to get out of his now two handed grip.

"It can stop anytime you'd like. All it takes is one little word."

I never had time to realize before Thomas's screamed returned louder than before. His face screwed up and his eyes that use to hold so much joy and happiness instead held, sadness, fear, pain, and confusion. Confusion as to why to was happening. I knew the answer. My brother was getting electrocuted because of me.

After what felt like an eternity(but I found out later it was only 10 minutes in total) something inside me broke.

"STOP!" I shouted. I was sobbing hysterically by that point and the only thing keeping me standing was Dr. Hatch's grip on my arms.

"Do you have something that you'd like to say Tanner?" He asked.

"I'll do it," I whispered.

I vaguely registered Hatch saying something and Zeus stepping away from my younger brother.

Dr. Hatch spun me around so that I was facing him and knelt down to my level.

"What will you do, Tanner?"

With sobs still raking my body I forced myself to look at him and said shakily, "I'll bring down the plane."

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After I told him that I would do what he wanted, Dr. Hatch left me in the room for several minutes. During that time Thomas was dragged out and Zeus left right behind him.

I had collapsed to the floor seconds after Hatch left. I broke down into silent tears, my whole body shaking as I tried to not make a sound.

"Is this the right choice," I asked myself. "In saving my brother am I trading away my soul like in Hocus Pocus?"

I didn't have chance to debate it before the door reopened and Hatch walked back in.

"Are you ready to go my boy? The car is ready," He somehow said kindly.

I forced myself to calm down and wiped the tears from my eyes. I knew that I still looked like a mess, but I didn't care much.

Hatch didn't say anything as we walked to the garage. Right before we got into the car he grabbed my arm and said calmly, "Don't get any bright ideas. It will not end well. Understand?"

I nodded shakily.

"Good." As we got into the limo he handed me a handkerchief. "Clean yourself up. You look undignified."

Choking down a snarky comment about why, I cleaned myself up as much as I could while we pulled out of the 'academy.' Prison was and is more like it.

As we drove I occupied my time by looking out the window and trying to calm my nerves. I was about to commit mass murder in a name that a madman designed. Oh how different my life had become in a few short days.

Dr. Hatch didn't say anything as we drove which I was thankful for. I didn't want to listen to him go on and on about how this was all for the greater good. It was all, as Marcus said, BS(It took me a few years to figure out what that meant).

The ride felt a lot longer than it really was. To me it felt like I was back in the van with Nichelle as my jailer.

As we drove I couldn't help but wonder what happened to my family. I kept asking myself, "Are they ok? Are they at the academy? Do they know who and what I am?"

Finally we stopped at a grassy field a little ways off the road that had a clear view of the sky. My first thought as I slowly got out of the car was "Wow this place looks a lot like the area the takeoff took place. What a coincidence." Now I am pretty sure that Hatch did it on purpose.

The driver did not get out of the car, but Dr. Hatch walked around to where I am standing  and puts a hand on my shoulder. He did that a lot for some reason.

"You know, Tanner" he told me, "What you are doing is going to change the world as we know it. And that is a good thing."

For some reason, throughout the years those words always stuck with me. Maybe it is because at that moment I realized that he thought he was right or that there was no reasoning him. Either way those words became engraved into my mind for the rest of my life.

"Ok listen carefully Tanner," Hatch said. "A 747 is going to fly by and I want you to use that amazing power of yours to bring it down."

"I don't know how to use my power," I said softly.

He smiled easily at me like he won. "I am confident that it won't be an issue."

A rumbling draws my attention away from him and up to the sky. Automatically the strange power I felt days earlier was back once the plane entered my sight.

"Whenever you are ready Tanner."

Refusing to look at him I brought my hand up toward the plane. It was shaking so bad that my entire arm was bouncing.

"Just one itty bitty plane right. Just one in exchange for my families safety. Just one plane."

With those thoughts I stilled my hand as best as I could and released.

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So sorry it took forever to update. There are a lot of factors that went into it, but mainly I had severe writers block and zero motivation. I will try to get the next update up quicker and I think it will be the end of part one. See you guys hopefully soon!!! 😁