Heart Attack

The Cloaks (THOMAS)

    I woke up cold in a darkened room. My body felt stiff and my eyes slowly adjusted to the shadows that surrounded me. In seconds I remembered the hazy events of what I could assume was last night and in a flash, sat up with my hand covering my stomach. I felt around, pulling the bloodied shirt off of me and tossing it into the wall beside me. There was nothing, not even a hint off a small bullet wound that I knew had been there before.
    I turned towards an unfamiliar door, barly cracked, it let in enough for me to see that it was morning outside. I effortlessly swung my feet off of the bed and slowly placed them one by one onto the carpeted ground. It felt like only seconds had passed before I was pinned back against the bed, a hand grasping my throat and another holding me down by the chest. It felt familiar.
    The creature took the form of a girl, hissing at me and my body reacted in response, hissing back.
    "Do not move," she commanded, and my body obeyed.
    I tried to move my hands but they would not fight back, almost as if I was forced to do as she said. She let go of my body and stepped back onto the floor slowly.
    "What is your name?"
    "Tommy," I blurted out.
    "Where do you live?"
    I struggled to hold back my answer, knowing that if she found out I would be putting Sarah in danger.
    "Tell me where you live!"
    The force that swayed me to answer was too strong to resist, "I live in apartment 2A," I vaguely responded.
    She put her hand on her face and sighed in annoyance, "I do not have time to deal with this nonsense."
"Where am I?" I struggled to breath out.
She paced back and forth silently, thinking.
"Please just let me go! I won't say anything, I promise."
She glared at me but continued pacing.
"Where is my sister!"
"I don't know," she finally caved. "You are going to help me find her," she threatened.
"Why? Please, just leave her alone." I tried to struggle against my own body, but failed once again.
"Do you think I wanted you two to get in my way? It would have been simpler if you had just run off like I had originally planned."
"You killed those men!"
"And now I am going to have to kill you! And your sister!" She turned to the door suspiciously, "Come in," she waved.
In came a man dressed in a black cloak, a hood covering his head, "The queen would like to see you."
She nodded in response and waved him to leave, but he stayed. "What is it Micheal?"
"She wants the boy to come too."
The woman quickly pinned the man against the wall, hand on throat, hissing, "How does she know about the boy?" She ripped the hood off to reveal a boy, barely a teenager.
He didn't react to the threatening position and cooly responded, "Caroline has pledged her utter allegiance to the Queen."
"Of course she has," she released the boy. She turned back to me, "Get up!"
I followed her command. In seconds she was gone and back again with a pair of two cloaks. She tossed one at me and I threw it on as she did the same. Embarrasingly, I still did not have a shirt on so I tried my best to cover myself with the entirety of the cloak.
"Follow me," the boy prompted, putting his hood back on his head.
"You will regret making any moves to escape, this place is a solidified fortress. When the queen speaks do not interupt her, if she asks you a question you must answer her." She spoke to me in a different tone than she had previosuly, more nervous than demanding.
The hallways we walked in were ancient looking, the walls were stone, the ground some fancy glossed granite, and the bright lights came from elegant chandeliers. My body felt weird and different, I looked down at my arms and they seemed stronger. My throat ached with an unknown burn, and my stomach felt sick. I looked at the boy in front of us, leading me to what could be my untimely death and the burn in my throat grew stronger. The strange girl beside me watched me carefully, keeping her head forward but her eyes glancing my way.
"Hold your breath," she eventually whispered.
I looked at her with confusion but again my body obeyed and I held my breath. It felt uncomfortable but after a few seconds I realized that I did not have to breath, that I could simply hold my breath for as long as I wanted.
"What's happening to me?"