The Experiments: Abomination

Chapter 7: Maia

Chapter 7: Maia

I try to hide the painful reaction on my face as I press a bag of frozen berries to my bruising cheek. I stare at my reflection in the mirror across the room to find that my face has turned odd shades of pink and dark purple. I'd got my ass kicked again. I haven't won a single match and it's been almost two weeks. It's difficult to picture myself having to go on like this for the next however many weeks until I get to leave this shitty place.

I've spent a lot of time of time avoiding Colton and sticking with Damian which is the complete opposite of what I had originally planned. However plans change and I have no control over it. Colton has been friendly every time we have spoken but each time I can sense a darkness growing inside of him. He is like an ocean in the way that it seems harmless at the beach but the deeper you try to go, the more dangerous and dark it gets.

As for Damian, the solum reason I even speak to him is because he's been useful to me in more ways than I can imagine. From information to training me, he has only helped and I honestly trust him though I know it's crazy for me to say so. I usually don't trust people who are the reason for the spilling of my blood but then again, I still trust Jet and he shot me. Twice.

My eyes tear away from the small mirror and land on something that, for the first time, I have an untamable urge to get my hands on. I nudge Damian who is laying flat on his belly while the rest of his body is sprawled over his bed spread. "What?" He groans and raises his eyes up from his tablet. "You're interrupting my studying."

I ignore his attitude and point to the glass bottle half filled with a brown but transparent liquid. Some type of alcohol that I desperately want to drink even though I know I shouldn't. "Nuh-uh." Damian says shaking his head.

"Why not?" I whine childishly.

"Well, because...fine. But this stuff is strong so don't complain to me if it burns like hell." Damian gets up from his spot on the bed and slowly pours the alcohol into two small glasses. "Here." He hands me mine and stares, waiting for me to drink. I don't waste a second by putting my lips on the glass and chugging it. My throat burns as soon as I swallow and I begin to cough. This was nothing like I had expected my first drink to be like. All I tasted was a mixture of red flames, sadness and bad decisions.

"What was that?" I shout at Damian as he downs his glass effortlessly. He begins to laugh at my pain and gives me an 'I told you so' look.

"Whisky. I told you it was strong." I roll my eyes, not wanting to admit that he was right, then put the bag of berries back on my face.

After an few minutes, I gather my bag and leave Damian's room, heading for my own. I mentally curse as I see Colton looking right at me from his spot on a chair in the common room. He smiles and walks towards me. I stiffen up as he squeezes on of my hands in a greeting gesture. "How are you doing? It looks like you've got a pretty rough beating tonight. For once, I'm glad I missed fight night. It would have killed me to see you get hurt." Colton tells me sympathetically.

Being with him is difficult because if I didn't know any better, I'd think every word that comes out of his mouth is genuine. But I do know better. I know that he's not the same person I was best friends with. Knowing this makes speaking with him harder each time.

"I'm fine. Just got pushed around a bit like usual. You know I'm not much of a fighter."

"Yeah but you're a telepath while seventy five percent of the people here don't even posses abilities. Start using that to your advantage." He acts like it's easy to hurt people.

"I'm working on it."

"Good, good. So I noticed that you've been spending a lot of time in Damian's room. What's up with that?" I want to tell him to mind his own business. That's what I would tell anyone but I'm supposed to pretend he's still my friend and this was a normal conversation for friends.