Super•Villainess

I: Lily

"One Thirty-Two, you're up," a disembodied voice filled the room from a speaker positioned over the only true exit I'd never explored, followed by the jarring buzz of someone unlocking the door. "Everyone else, step away."

I found One Thirty-Two - Maylene - a kindly-faced brunette fast approaching middle age, settled at a table between two older women towards the center of the recreation room. In the time before her capture, she told me she ran a nursery using her control over insects to protect and pollinate the plants, begetting her an almost leathery tan to her sun-damaged skin from days spent beneath the undiscriminating rays. Uncertainly, she rose, a nervous smile splitting her chapped lips as her eyes darted wildly around. A friend murmured something low into the silence that I didn't catch, which finally seemed to convince her to wade towards the door, a mix of desperate hope, like a held breath, and petrifying fear alighting her face.

Isn't anyone going to say anything?

Doubt had to plague her mind, just as they did the rest of us, but she seemed to want to believe the lie that when they took us through those double-doors they were letting us go back into society unscathed. It was a necessary fib on their part, meant to keep us compliant. After all, if they spoke the truth, why had no one heard tales of this place before being abducted? Surely someone would have talked and the world would have latched onto such a juicy scandal.

No, I had more nefarious things going on in mind.

"Wait," I said, shattering the hush. My hands planted flat on the table pushed me to my feet. "What day are you?"

"One Seventy, sit down," the intercom instructed.

A bare foot collided with my shin under the table, courtesy of Yazyk and I masked a wince, but neither sat down nor tore myself from One-Thirty-Two's gaze. "Well?"

"Eleven months and..." she struggled to think, "nineteen days?"

That was what I thought, based on her initial surprise. Here, everyone knew exactly when they supposedly were to "get released". After one year, like clockwork. Out with the old faces - the old DNA - in with the new. There were the occasional instances where they pulled someone early, but those were the trouble-makers, and Maylene stuck religiously to the straight and narrow.

My mind raced to make sense of her early departure. What did it mean for their research overall? Were they narrowing in on a breakthrough? And, more importantly, what did that mean for us?

Nothing good, I bet. Call me jaded, but my experiences being lied to and then attacked by the Guild left me skeptical of large, opaque organizations claiming virtuous intent - especially after this one quite literally kidnapped me. The foundation for trust, I reasoned, was shaky at best.

In retrospect, I wondered if my brother actually completely severed his curse of misfortune over me the way he claimed - not that I disbelieved him, per se. I had felt the curse break, but perhaps I carried it for too long to ever be completely rid of its effects. Perhaps it left an indelible stain. After all, what normal person found themselves kidnapped not once, not twice, nor even three times. Including the Guild's forced imprisonment, this long stint being held in this lab against my will made an improbable fourth abduction.

Frankly, it was getting ridiculous. If I ever found my way free, I'd be swallowing an Air Tag every morning with my breakfast as a precaution to prevent an unlucky fifth capture.

I was getting ahead of myself. I didn't have so much as a conditional escape plan yet. What I did have was a nice woman in front of me who was about to die.

When no one else voiced their concern, of which I was nearly bursting, I unclenched my teeth and blurted out, "Don't go near the doors."

I never considered myself much of a rabble-rouser. Was I a pessimist that questioned just about everything? That went without saying - mostly because I usually did not say anything. I was resigned in my disapproval. Now, in this place, I seemed unable to help myself from stirring the pot.