Thunder and Storm

The Lie

SALLY.

The first thing I heard as my eyes opened was the steady beeping of the heart monitor. Then I took note of my surroundings. The last thing I remembered was being gassed in preparation for the pod. I wasn't in a pod, I was in the same hospital room I'd woken up in eight months ago.

Dr Reynolds looked down at me with a kind smile on his face. I mustered up a weak one of my own. I felt weary but I wasn't in pain anymore.

"Welcome back," he said.

I wasn't sure if it was good to be back. I was still stuck down here with no way to escape. I tried to get up but my limbs wouldn't work. They felt weighed down by lead.

"What's wrong with me?" I croaked.

"The weakness is normal. You were asleep for quite a while."

"How long have I been in that pod?" I asked, dreading the answer. Please don't let it be a year. The last time I'd been asleep for long, I had woken up six months later. Who knows how much time would have passed now.

"Two months, a week and two hours," he replied. "The good thing is I found a solution to your problem."

He reached into his coat pockets and brought out a pair of gloves. It was made with some kind of mesh. It looked like the kind of mesh you'd find in a knight's armour. He wore them for me. They felt like cotton.

"What is this?" I asked.

"These gloves are to retain your ability. I'm sure you're well aware of your ability."

I didn't understand what he was talking about but I had an idea. He was talking about what happened in the cafeteria with Margot. I swallowed.

He looked like he was about to deliver some bad news. The end of the world kind of bad news.

"Your ability is too strong for you to handle. You're like a parasite, you absorb the abilities of anyone you come in contact with. You are a ticking time bomb, the more you take, the more you want and the energy will build up in you till you can't take it anymore and you'll explode.” He pushed up his glasses. I've noticed it's a habit he did out of anxiety.

"For your safety and the ones around you, you must always keep this on and you must never again use your powers. It was hard to get the right components to heal you, there's only one vial left." He tapped his pocket.

My throat clogged with sadness. "You are saying I'm going to die?"

"Only if your ability gets out of control and only if you do not take this drug." He took it out from his pocket. It was a small vial with a pink coloured liquid in it. He put it back in his pocket.

"Not using my powers is going to be hard. I'm stuck down here and I have to use them during training," I muttered glumly.

He leaned down and whispered conspiratorially. "Don't worry, I'm working on something."

What did he mean by that? A ton of questions swirled in my mind. I opened my mouth to ask him one and he placed a finger on his lips in a shushing motion. He signalled to the CCTV  camera up ahead. Right, we were being watched.

"Do you know why I'm like this?" I asked instead.

His grey eyes became cloudy and he frowned. He fixed his glasses and shook his head. "No. I don't."

He was lying. I was no psychic but I knew he was lying. He knew the source of my powers. Why did he lie? A bitter feeling built in my chest and I clenched my jaw, I looked away. "I want to be alone now, please."

My tone was scathing. He winced but nodded and got up. He would rather I was caustic towards him than tell me the truth and I thought I could trust him. It just showed, no one could be trusted down here. He was almost at the door when I spoke up. "I'd like to see my friends."

"You are too weak to go walking around. You can't leave the room."

"I can't but they can come here, can't they?" I raised a brow.

"Very well." He nodded, "I'll see to it."

I gave him a nod and turned on my side, facing the wall. The door opened and shut. A tear escaped my eyes and I wiped it off. I looked down at the gloves on my hands and my lips wobbled.

You must always keep this on.

His voice echoed in my head. They turned me into this...this monster. I never asked for any of this. All I wanted was to go back home and be with my parents. I took off the gloves and flung them across the room. I wasn't going to wear that.

My anger faded and a deep sadness engulfed me. I laid back down on the bed and closed my eyes. I didn’t know how long I stayed that way with my eyes closed and just listening to the steady beeping of the heart monitor.
The door opened and Hakeem walked in. I caught the glimpse of two guards by the door before it slid closed again.

Immediately he saw me on the bed, he ran towards me and tried to hug me. “Thank God you are alive, Sally."

I jerked away from him before he could touch me. "Don't," I warned.

"It's okay, you can't hurt me.” He sat on the bed.

He hugged me and I hugged him back, tightly. I breathed a sigh of relief, he wasn't screaming in pain.

"How–" I started to ask and he cut me off.

"I can destabilise you, remember?" He smiled. "Even the great Level Five has a weakness."

I snorted. He looked different, he was more toned than before. He used to be lean but now he was growing a bit muscly. His hair was neatly shaved in a buzz cut. Looks like he just got a haircut. I wondered if I also looked different. All the months of training should have made me leaner. There were no mirrors here so I couldn't tell.

"I've missed you, Sally. Everything was so different without you.” His smile disappeared and a sad look took over his features.

I placed my hand on his. "I'm back now."

"Yeah.” He mustered a small smile. I could sense something else was wrong.

"What happened?" I asked.

His brown eyes looked even sadder than before. He opened his mouth and frowned, he shut it and looked down at his fingers on his laps, wringing them. I realized Margot wasn't here.

"Where's Margot?" I asked quietly. Was she mad about what happened in the cafeteria? She probably hated me and wanted nothing to do with me, that was why she wasn't here.

He shook his head, refusing to look at me. I asked again. "Where is Margot, Hakeem?"

He looked up and the expression on his face made my gut clench. His eyes were watery with unshed tears.

"She's....she's dead, Sally." He blinked and they fell. "Kowalski killed her."

"What?" I clenched my fingers, not believing my ears.

"After what happened in the cafeteria, her power suddenly stopped working. She tried to escape and he shot her."

You absorb the powers of anyone you come in contact with. The doctor's words echoed in my ears.

"Oh my God!" I gasped. "It was all my fault. I killed her."

He frowned. "No, Kowalski did."

"If I hadn't absorbed her power, she'd still be alive. You need to stay away from me." I moved back on the bed, putting a few inches between us. Tears fell down my face and I sobbed. I killed Margot. I killed my friend when all she had been trying to do was to help me.

"I told you, you can't hurt me." He tried to move closer to me.

"Don't touch me." I did the only thing I could do, I vanished. I got off the bed and moved to the corner of the room on wobbly legs. Due to Hakeem's presence in the room, I couldn't remain in this state. I became visible the moment I sat down on the floor.

He looked hurt that I'd pushed him away but he respected my wishes, he got up and left the room.

You're a bad person. A horrible friend.

All you do is destroy everything you touch.

The words echoed in my mind and I believed them. I was a monster. A parasite like Dr Reynolds had called me. I was no good to anyone. No wonder my parents didn't come for me. No wonder they left me here to rot. It was because they recognised the aberration I was.

I thought about Margot with her freckled cheeks and warm smile. Despite being trapped here because of me, she hadn't held it against me, instead, she had extended a hand of friendship towards me and what did I do? I stabbed her in the back and killed her. I could remember vividly how she had looked up at me in terror after I had taken her power. She had seen the evil in me and had regretted being friends with me.

She had been a dreamer, dreaming of being free from this hellhole one day but never being brave enough to do it herself. She had just wanted to go back to her family and I had taken that away from her. I got off the floor and went back to the bed.

All you do is take, take, take and take.

You're evil, Sally Jenkins.

A voice whispered in the air. My voice. My conscience. Even she knew what I was. I sniffed and looked up at the ceiling, the camera was off. The light on it was no longer on. The door opened and a pair of hungry eyes leered at me, sending a frisson of fear down my spine. Kowalski walked into the room and I sat up straight. The door closed behind him and he approached me with eyes gleaming with malice.

“I’ve been watching you, Sally,” he said and I moved closer to the wall. Something told me nothing good was going to come out of his visit tonight. “You seemed weak, always acting like you were such a weakling but you’ve got spark in you,” he lunged at me and I moved sideways, barely escaping his grasp by a hair’s breadth and fell off the bed.

I groaned as I pushed myself up and ran for the door. My legs felt wobbly and every step I took was like trying to move a mountain. I got to the door and tried to open it only to remember it could only be opened with a key card which was in Kowalski’s pocket.
I turned around knowing I was doomed and he grabbed my neck, squeezing tightly, I choked.

“Your time is up, princess. You’ve become a loose cannon and I’ve been told to get rid of you but first,” I scratched at his hand weakly in a desperate attempt to get out of his chokehold. He got mad and flung me across the room. I hit my back on the wall and fell to floor. Pain engulfed my whole body and I scrambled off the floor. My throat burned and I wheezed as I tried to suck in air, I coughed.

“First, I’m going to have my way with you, ravish you like I’ve imagined doing every night since I saw you dripping wet for me,” he said as he walked towards me slowly. He was taunting me, teasing me, building up the fear until I was shaking with it and it was working. He knew there was no way out and I was trapped.

“Please,” I begged. Tears smarted my eyes and I blinked, letting them fall. He smiled as he bent over me and pulled me up so we were at the same level. Blood trickled out of my nose and he wiped it away with his thumb and put it in his mouth, then sucked on it. He seemed pleased by the state he had put me in.

“Be a good girl for me and I promise it won’t be painful, you might even enjoy it,” he said and bent his head, seizing my mouth. I bit his bottom lip and he hissed as he pulled away. “You bitch!” he slapped me across the face, splitting my bottom lip.

He grabbed my hair, pulling my head back harshly and hit it against the wall. Pain exploded in my skull and he seized my lips again, shoving his tongue in my mouth. I protested the intrusion and tried to push him off me but his hand in my hair tightened and he pulled harder.

Suddenly, the lights went out and a minute later, the ground tremored. It threw him off and he let go of me, I took that opportunity and kicked him in the groin. He huffed, groaned and I scrambled off my feet. An alarm blared through the facility, the ground shook even more. Something was happening. Whatever it was gave me an advantage but I couldn’t see anything in the darkness. I had only made it a few meters away before Kowalski grabbed my leg and I fell down hard. He climbed on top of me and grabbed my neck again, squeezing even tighter.

“I told you to be a good girl. Why do you have to be so stubborn?”

I was starting to feel faint, my throat closed up and my eyes rolled to the back of my head. Suddenly, the doors slid open and a blinding light flashed. Dr Reynolds came into the room and shot him with a taser. He let go of me and fell to the floor in a fit of shocks. I grabbed my neck and wheezed, trying to drag in air.

Dr Reynolds pulled me upright and helped me out of the room. Alarms blared, a tremor shook the building as we walked down the hall. There was commotion all around, everyone was running away.

“You have to join them, Sally. The building is under attack. I need you to run as fast as you can till you make it out and don’t look back. Do not stop for anything,” he said as he pulled me along. I stopped, rested against the wall, and tried to catch my breath. My throat hurt and I winced, rubbing it to relieve the pain.

“Come with me, we can escape together,” I managed to croak out.

He shook his head. “No, I can’t leave. I still have unfinished business here. You have the chance to leave,” he cupped my face and smiled sadly, “You’re special, Sally and you still have a lot to do. You have to stop your–“ he didn’t finish his sentence, instead he placed a kiss on my forehead and pushed me away.
“Run and don’t stop running. He mustn’t find you.”

“Who mustn’t find me?” I asked but he was already running down the hall, back the way we came.