The Storm Inside

Chapter Fifteen: Memories

A/N: this chapter is gonna be... interesting

"Damira? Damira, can you hear me? Damira?!"

"I'm awake," I mumbled. "Stop yelling."

"Thank God," Sophia said. "I thought they killed you with that taser."

"Where are we?" I asked, struggling to open my eyes. "It's cold." It was freezing, wherever we were. I could feel hard ground under my back, concrete of some kind. I opened my eyes to darkness. "Where are we?" I asked. "What's going on?"

"Sub-sub-level basement," Sophia replied glumly. "We're in a cell. Are you gonna explain what's going on?"

"Give me a minute, I just got tased," I reminded her.

As my eyes adjusted slightly, I could see the outline of her, and behind her, metal bars reaching up the the low ceiling. It was like the holding cell Evianna and I had stayed in, but colder, dirtier, and darker.

"They did an ultrasound on me," I said. "While I was asleep."

I couldn't really see Sophia's expression in the darkness but I could tell she was shocked. "Why, are you pregnant? They didn't tase a pregnant person, did they? That's fucked up."

I shook my head. "I'm not pregnant, thank God. But they had plans to make me."

Sophia blinked in confusion. "Make you pregnant? How?"

"Artificial insemination or something like that, I didn't get very far in the file, but I doubt they were just gonna have someone rape me," I replied. "They wanted to... to breed me. For experimentation."

"I think I'm gonna throw up," she replied, her eyes blank. I figured she was in shock. I might be too.

"Please do it away from me," I mumbled, getting into a sitting position. I wrapped my arms around my legs, bringing my knees up to my chest. "How long was I out for?"

"I don't know," she replied. "They stuck a needle in my neck before I could go to you. I woke up twenty minutes ago."

"You've been here for five hours," a voice said.

We both looked around in shock, trying to locate who had spoken. It was so dark, but when I squinted, pressing my face against the bars, I saw there was a cell beside ours, and a figure was hunched over in the corner. "Who are you?" I asked. "How long have you been here?"

"Five months, maybe. It's hard to tell, down here." Their voice was hoarse and so quiet I could barely hear it, but it sounded predominantly female.

I looked over at Sophia, and she looked back at me, then at the figure. "Who are you?" she asked. Then: "Who's side are you on?"

The person, who I was now assuming was a woman, let out a short, wheezy laugh. "Side? There are no sides here, love. Everyone wants the same thing. To use the kids with powers."

"Do you want that?" I ask.

"I'm being locked up by the people who want that," she said, and moved her head up to face us.

She was pale, with light blonde hair dulled by imprisonment, and seemed to be in her thirties. There was something familiar about her, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was.

"Maybe we can escape together," Sophia said.

The woman sighed. "There's no escaping this place. I did, but then I ended up right back here." I thought there was an accent like Beatrix's in her voice but I couldn't quite tell, not when she was speaking so quietly.