A Deal With God

Chapter 2: The Girl in the Mirror

Five ran as fast as her legs could carry her through the trees. No longer inhibited, this newfound freedom was intoxicating. The sensation of wind in her face as she cut through the air, the feel of her rapid steps on the ground. She was used to a treadmill in the Lab; it was nowhere near as satisfying as running freely in the wilderness, even this dark one. With power coursing through every part of her body, Five ran even faster.

Coming up in the distance, she spotted some houses and started to slow down.

No longer in a daze due to the chip and the sedatives she knows they kept her under back at the Lab, now was not the time to lose herself in jubilation. Her wound needs to be treated, she needs to find better clothing, and she needs a new weapon. This is hostile territory and if the creature she encountered is anything to go by, she needs to be well-prepared. If she stumbles on several at a time, she can't rely on her powers alone. It's been almost a year since she'd been cut off from them, after all.

Carefully, she made her way up the steps to the house that was closest. She looked through the window and tried the handle of the door, finding it unlocked. She pushed the door open, waiting to hear or see any movement from inside. After a moment, she quietly stepped in.

"Hello?" She called out, after closing the door. "Is anyone here?" She asked, listening for any sounds. She was met with silence. It was grey and dark inside too. The vines that covered the ground outside had found their way inside, snaking across the floor and up the walls. She applied the same strategy as she did outside, being careful to not step or touch one as she moved deeper into the house.

Five started turning a corner, hoping to reach the kitchen, but practically fell backwards when the sight of a figure came into her peripheral vision. Immediately, she summoned electricity in her left hand, ready to defend herself, only to find her opponent doing the exact same thing...

It was just a mirror. She let the energy dissipate into the air and walked up to it. She'd startled herself with her own reflection, except this wasn't a reflection she was familiar with. She lifted her left hand up to her head, hesitantly touching the hair that the reflection was showing her. It wasn't an illusion, her fingers made contact with full strands of hair. Hair that she most definitely did not have when the Lab sent her through the portal earlier that day. This wasn't just her buzz cut growing out a little, it was a full head of dark brown hair already reaching her ear lobes. How is this possible? She marvelled. Had the sudden release of her powers caused her body to have a growth spurt of some sort? She didn't feel any bigger, but she noticed that her finger nails had grown out too.

She forced herself to move away from the mirror. How foolish to focus on the changes in her appearance when she had more pressing matters to tend to. She made her way into the kitchen, finding a knife rack and pulling the biggest one out. A cleaver. She twirled it in her left hand, finding it unsatisfactory, but it would suffice while she was in the house. Perhaps she could find something better at one of the other houses.

Five made her way upstairs, quietly peeking into the different bedrooms. She rummaged through the various closets until she was satisfied with black pants, a black shirt with long sleeves, some bandanas and a tee shirt that she intended to turn into a makeshift sling for her arm. She popped into the upstair's bathrooms looking for first aid supplies, but couldn't locate anything of value. She brought the clothing and the cleaver back downstairs and went through every cupboard in the kitchen.

She found alcohol in an ornate cabinet in the living room and decided it would have to make do. She removed the sweatsuit she'd come through the portal in, twisted the cap off of the first bottle in her reach and let the liquid pour over her neck and shoulder, grimacing because of the burning sensation. Moving to stand in front of the mirror so she could see the extent of the damage better, she took a piece of the sheet she'd gone back upstairs for and then shredded into strips and started gently blotting at the open scratches.