Shadows of Redemption

Chapter Eight

"The entire world has been trying to find you for ages. It seemed like we were looking in every crevice on earth. Almost everyone else had given up on you. They assumed whoever took you must've just used your powers against yourself." Natilee explained as my head began to throb.
I shake my head continuously. "No, no." I murmur. "My name is Bowie. Again, you have the wrong girl." My voice questioning every word I say.
"If we had the wrong girl, you wouldn't be alive." Her tone is gentle, but her eyes are serious. "You've lived a lie for most of your life. You were kidnapped sixteen years ago by an employee of your parents on your third birthday." I think I've stopped breathing. "Mallory Ruth is the woman wanted for your kidnapping–"
I gasp, my shaking hands cover my mouth. I can only stare at her with fear, and she seems to read me pretty well.
"You know her? Even after all these years?" Natilee sighs as she pulls out a chair and sits down on it, the back of the chair against her chest. "Fascinating... You have no idea how many people have prayed for your return, and now that you're back, you can heal the sick, help the wounded... You can save this world from collapsing in." Her smile is full of hope. "In The Facility, you'll be a great help."
"Ms. Carter!" A voice runs into the room. Our heads whip over to see who it is. It's Kiah. It feels like months since I last saw him. He still has his red mask over his mouth, but he's wearing a loose black hoodie with a jean jacket. My eyes scan him up and down for a reason as to why he is out of breath. "The main hall–" He inhales. "Haider lost it again."
"Right now?" Natilee sighed, standing up before looking down at me. "Follow me, don't leave my side." She demanded before walking out of the room.
My mind hurts from the amount of information I had just received. I stand up too quickly and my head feels like a cotton ball. It takes me a moment before stumbling out of the room. As I speed-walk with Natilee and Kiah, my mind levels out. I still have a million and one questions, but I'm assuming this is more important. It also gives me a chance to look around.
My bare feet walk over glossy floors, marbled with white and black. The walls were an ivory shade, the ceilings the same material as the floors. The hallway is extremely large and long, tons of rooms line both sides. The air smells like chemicals and there are about twelve other people walking– some running the same way we are. There are about four elevators at the end of this hall, and we walk into the second one. Kiah pressed a button that has the number 'one'. There's about two other people in here with us, which caused the elevator ride to be silent.
Once it opened up again, the sound of a crowd conversing filled my ears. I almost didn't realize Kiah and Natilee walking ahead of me, straight through the gigantic crowd of people. Everyone is wearing something different, some wearing pants, others wearing dresses or skirts. It's beyond interesting to see how many people want to see whatever is beyond this crowd.
I do my best walking between all of these people, trying to keep up with Natilee and Kiah. Eventually, I find myself grabbing onto the sleeve of Kiah's jean jacket to stop us from being separated. He glances at me before he grabs my forearm and drags me along.
We made it to a clearing, in the crowd. It's this moment where I realize how much larger this main hall is compared to the other one. The ceiling is higher than you could ever imagine, at least twelve large chandeliers are down the entire hall. The floor and walls are somewhat the same, the walls have intricate designs and there are pillars lining the walls. It's all ethereal.
There are three people standing in the clearing. There's one man trying to control the crowd by pushing people back and yelling for everyone to give them space. The two others are off to the side. They seem to be speaking softly together, well only one is. The other seems spaced out. It takes me a moment before I realize there's ripped up papers on the floor, with a bit of blood splattered on the glossy tiles and a little on the walls. At this point, it's unsettling to see blood that isn't mine.
"What exactly happened here?" Natilee's voice is loud against the volume of the crowd.
"Everything." Noelle walks through the crowd and over to us. Her eyes widen at the sight of me, but she shakes her head and continues. "Gene proposed something that Haider didn't approve of. So now Gene is getting patched up by one of your nurses." She explains to Natilee as she crosses her arms. She's wearing a purple turtleneck and jeans with a black belt.
"What did he propose?" Natilee's head tilts, her hands on her hips.
"Whatever it is, it doesn't give Mopey-Joe a reason to bash Gene's head in the wall." Kiah had already let go of my arm, but now he's gesturing angrily towards the two guys further away. "The guy already has heart problems, there's no need to give him anymore."
"Don't make Gene sound like an angel." Natilee held a finger up at Kiah. "You and I both know he can have pretty terrible ideas. I mean, he's proposed so many things that you've wanted to chop his head off for."
"But I never actually did it!" Kiah threw his hands up in the air. "There's something wrong in his head, man. Like, phycological." He pointed to his head.
"He proposed something about Haider's mom and he just went wild." Noelle cleared the air, specifically speaking with Natilee. "I don't think anyone knows exactly what it was, but Gene said it would be a weight off everyone's shoulders."
My eyes wander over towards the two men off to the side. They're both wearing suits. One in all white, the other wearing blue attire. They're both standing straight, looking elegant. The one wearing blue is shorter, yet seems to be disciplining the taller one. He has pure white hair and I can vaguely hear his voice from here. He sounds angry yet bored.
The  man is wearing a pure white suit, the brightest suit I've ever seen. His hair is golden and his skin is tanned, more tanned than the other man. He is standing tall with not an ounce of regret. He's staring at the ripped up paper with a look of rage. I'm assuming this is Haider. My stomach turns at the sight of him. His body structure is slim yet sculpted, and his hands are in fists. Just looking at him gives me a reason not to bother him.
"Well it looks like Forrest is taking care of it." Natilee is staring at them as well. "Does anyone know the status on Gene?" She gasps before shaking me out of my trance. "Maybe Gene can be your first patient!" Her squeals are enough to make half the crowd stop talking.
"Woah, what are you talking about? Aren't you supposed to give her to Forrest?" Kiah asked, pointing at me. "Isn't that what he's been so excited about?"
"Forrest? Excited? No." Natilee shook her head with a laugh. "The sooner we teach her how to project her power, the sooner Forrest will even be able to use her."
Terror overtook my face. "Use me–?"
"You are the reason his hair turned white." Noelle sighed.
"No way. That was all Haider." Kiah shook his head. "All that guy does is disrespect his father. He's an undisciplined child." he scoffed, looking over at the two. "Look, he's not listening to a word Forrest is telling him."
"Wait. Use me for what–?" Their conversation is beginning to irritate me.
"Speaking of Haider, did you hear if he's going to The Summit?" Noelle questioned with a tilt of her head.
Natilee shrugged. "No, nobody's gonna know until he actually goes–"
"We're not going to skim past the part where you say someone is gonna use me." My voice echoes as I look at the three of them. The entire crowd goes silent this time. I look around, suddenly embarrassed. My heart falls to my stomach when I see that Haider is staring daggers into me. I look to the ground and pretend I didn't notice him.
"You didn't tell her?" Kiah's voice is just a whisper.
"Yeah, why wouldn't you tell her?" Noelle joined Kiah, speaking to Natilee.
Natilee puts her hands up in defense. "I did! I told her about how she was gonna be healing people!" She spoke quickly.
The crowd began to whisper to themselves, pointing at me, making odd faces. Some laugh while some look worried. My heart begins to beat faster and faster while my face heats up. "You said I'd be helping people, not being used." My voice breaks as I try not to pay attention to the fact that everyone is staring at me.
"Well," Natilee cleared her throat. "Technically you're gonna be working here? If that's a better way of putting it?" Her face scrunched up like she wasn't sure she used the right words. "You're still here to help people, but you–"
"But I have no choice. Is that what you mean?" I raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna keep me here to help your people against my will?"
"Well, we need you right now. The world needs you." Noelle pitched in. "It's been sixteen years since you disappeared. You have a lot to fix."
I can just stare at the two women, my eyes wide. It's almost impossible to respond to something like that. Before I can get my thoughts together, I hear large boot-like footsteps coming my way. I step to the side to let the person walk through, instead I feel a large hand wrap around my arm. I look over and notice the man in the blue suit smiling at me. I'm taller than him, which isn't anything new. I'm taller than most of the crowd I've just walked through, as well as Kiah, Noelle, and Natilee.
"You've healed wonderfully." The man's voice is deep, a kind of tone I recognize before but I don't dwell on it. Seeing him up close makes me realize how white his hair truly is. It's almost blinding. "It's an honor to have your assistance." His grip on my arm is so tight it ought to leave a bruise.
"Let go of me." My voice is softer than I would have liked as I try to move away from him. "I'm not gonna assist you with anything."
"Oh?" The man is stone, not letting me out of his grasp. He looks over at Natilee, his face twisted in a manner I can't understand. "Have you not done what you were asked?" His breath is pungent, though his overall aroma stings my nose but in somewhat of a good way.
"Yes Forrest, I have. I just don't think she understands the severity of what we are dealing with." Natilee explains, adjusting her coat. "She was–"
"She will." The man with the white hair nodded towards Natilee before facing me again. "Please make yourself at home. Perhaps you'd like your own bedroom, yes?" He tilted his head.
"No. I want to go home." I shake my head, trying to peel his hand off of my arm. "Let go of me."
"Haider." Forrest's voice is loud and stern as his eyes are glued to my face. "Come here."
"Father." The voice is like silk, melting my ears. The man in the white suit I presume is Haider, walks over to his father's side. He is tall. So tall I have to actually lift my head to look at his face. My heart almost stops beating, he almost doesn't look real. His facial structure is sharp yet almost artistic. His skin looks smoother than anything I'd ever seen. The eyes, the color of a clear sky were so deep I could stare into them forever.  Though I force myself to look away from him, a tight pain in my chest appears when I look into his eyes.
"Haider, this is Althea," Forrest's free hand gestures towards me. "Take her to her bedroom. She's a bit underwhelmed to be here, so please take caution." He lets go of my arm, his eyes glued to mine.
"Yes sir." Haider's voice is toneless. His jaw tightens as he grabs my arm and begins to walk through the crowd, dragging me along with him.
I gasp as I trip over my feet, trying to keep up with his quick steps.The crowd moves out of the way immediately. "What are you doing? Let go of me!" I cry out, trying not to bump into anyone as I try to pull away from him. His hands are strong, wrapping around my arm with so much force. I turn around, hoping to see Natilee or anyone coming to help, but before I can see, he pulls me closer to him, his body stiff. I get a whiff of a strong cologne. It's not too overpowering, it even has a hint of floral.
"Keep walking." His voice is stern, his hand grabbing my arm even tighter. He didn't slow down one bit, he continued to walk through the halls while dragging me along. I had to practically run to barely keep up with him.
The rest of the walk to the elevators was silent. Once we made it into the elevators, he pressed a button and the doors closed. Once they did, he let go of my arm.
I quickly threw myself on the other side of the elevator and rubbed my sore arm. "You creep..." I mumbled, now facing away from him.
"Pardon?" Haider's echoed between these four small metal walls. "What could possibly give you any sort of idea that I am a creep?"
I turn to face him, my eyes round. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you not just grab my arm and refuse to let go of me until we got into a small room together?" I explained with my head tilted and my arms crossed.
"You believe I find pleasure in this?" He questioned me, leaning against the metal walls. "You are sorely mistaken." He's staring at me so intently, it's taking all I can to not look him in the eyes.
I groaned and rubbed my eyes. "At this point I don't care what I am. Just take me to whatever room you guys have."
Haider is silent for a moment before I hear a quiet beep. The elevator rises. That is the only thing I hear from him before the elevator door opens.
"Follow me." He demands as he walks out of the small room. His walk is smoothe, like he's somehow perfected walking.
It takes me a second to realize he wasn't going to grab my arm. I quickly rush out of the elevator doors before they close. I still have to run in order to keep up with him. "Slow down!" I'm basically gasping for air. I've never ran this much in my life, I've never had to.
Surprisingly, he stopped in the middle of the hall and waited for me to catch up. Once I did, he started walking again, but this time, more my pace. He didn't look at me whatsoever, and I was glad. Everyone in this place was getting on my last nerve. Nobody can tell me what's really going on. Everyone either hurts me or tells me I'm going to heal people and I still don't believe it.
Eventually, he stopped at a door that had the number 306 on it. "This is your bedroom. It has all of your necessities." He explained, putting his hands into the pockets of his dress pants. "You haven't slept in days, perhaps weeks. I'd recommend you work on that first."
I roll my eyes, I don't even want to know how he knows I haven't had a lick of sleep in ages. "What about food? Are you guys going to keep starving me?" I question him, standing in front of the door.
His eyebrows rose. "They were starving you?" His tone didn't seem worried, but his eyes were deep and serious.
"You can leave now if you're not gonna answer my questions." I sighed as I turned around and opened the room door. I walked inside and turned around to look him in the eyes. My chest felt the stabbing pain once again, and I tried to ignore it. "Your job is done. You can leave me alone." I said before trying to close the door. When it doesn't close completely, I look down and notice his shoe is in the doorway.
"Sugar, don't lock me out. I asked you an important question." He opened the door, towering over me like nobody had before.
I took a couple steps back. "I thought this was my room, not yours." I said with a huff. "You didn't answer any of my questions, so I won't answer yours."
"This is only your room because I allowed it to be yours." His voice is unhumorous. "Now tell me who didn't feed you while you were in recovery." Chills run down my spine at the tone he spoke in. He looked like he wanted to kill someone.
"I.. I don't know." I blurt out and turn away from him. The pain in my chest paired with the fear in my stomach isn't a good pairing. "Is that a good enough answer for you?"
"No. I need names, faces, everyone." I can feel his eyes burning into my skull. "Was it Natilee? Or Gene? Or someone on the medical–"
"I don't know! I was half dead most of the time when I was recovering, if you can even call it that! All you guys did was torture me until I passed out almost every day and you expect me to remember who gave me food and who didn't?" I snapped, turning to face him. "You and everyone else here are sick people!" Tears well up in my eyes, the pain in my chest returns when I look into his glossy eyes.
Haider looks away from me and thinks to himself. He doesn't say a moment before he shakes his head and mumbles under his breath. "Torture..." Before I knew it, he's walked out of my room and closed the door behind himself.
I sigh, thankful he finally left me alone. His scent still lingers in the room and I try not to make that irritate me further. I look around and notice that Forrest was right, it is a bedroom. I walk around, touring the place. The main bedroom section is simple with a plain white bed and light wooden bedside tables. There's a long body mirror on one of the walls next to a chiffarobe. There's a door on another, as I walked inside, the smell of chemicals infiltrated my nose, though it smelled a bit of citrus. I walked further inside and found a shower, bathe, and sink. I walk over to the sink and turn the faucet on. I gasp as the water quickly gushed out. I turned it off immediately. Living with Ruth, my only water source was a few buckets of rain water she would collect. We would have to save it for weeks in order to get a decent shower, but this bathroom? It's pure luxury. Everything from the folden towels and the shiny granite sink, it's extraordinary.
Standing in the bathroom, I think to myself for a moment, contemplating on what I should do. I decide to jauntily walk to my chiffarobe and open the doors. The aroma of perfume stings my nose in a kind manner. There's shirts and pants–like what Ruth wears–but also some skirts, dresses, and shoes too. It's almost overwhelming. As I go through all of the options, I settle on a matching dusty pink pajama set which looks and feels like velvet. I squeal as I run back into the bathroom. I close and lock the door before turning on the shower. My body may be clean of blood, but that doesn't take away from the fact thatc my hair hasnt been washed in months–and I can't remember the last time I– Oh! They have shampoo!