The Index Incident

Chapter 1: The Past

It felt like hours in the car. A never-ending road of turns, through forbidden fences and down dark, hidden alleyways. I had almost counted all the raindrops on my window.

"Are we nearly there yet?" I would ask 7 times in 15 minutes.

"Just a little longer" My father would reply.

My mother sat in a surprising silence, she would always have so much to say, always going on and on about the adventure we were going on. Maybe she didn't like this one very much, I did think it was odd we were going on an adventure in the rain. I'm sure she doesn't like the rain. That's all, right?

"We're here" My father announced, a bright smile on his face.

I couldn't wait to see where we were. When I stepped out of the car, I saw my mothers face for the first time the whole journey. Her eyes looked like they were raining. We entered the building and my father begun speaking to the person at the front desk. He had a name badge on, it read "Dr Jones". Oh no. Am I at the hospital? I hate the hospital, so invasive.

"Ella." My father called me over, "Tell this nice scientist your name."

"Oh" I sighed with relief looking up at him. "So, I'm not at the hospital?"

"Ella. Your name." He repeated.

"My name is Ella." I told the Dr Jones the scientist.

He typed something into his computer. "Ella.... what?" He asked.

"Ella Royce."

He typed some more into his computer. Him and my father begun to talk about money, how boring. My mother placed her hand on my shoulder, I turned around to look at her. Her eyes still looked like they were raining, but we were inside now. I didn't understand so I didn't ask, I've been told I don't understand a lot.

"Ella..." She begun, she choked on her words. The rain turned into waterfalls.

"It's done." My father said as he walked over to us.

"What's done?" I ask.

Dr Jones came out from behind the desk and grabbed my arm. "Don't worry, Ella, we are going to take great care of you."

He started to drag me away. I started screaming, punching, kicking, anything to try to get away from him. I looked back at my parents; my mother looked like her world had just come crashing down. She looked at my father like he was the one who caused it. As I got dragged into another room, I heard my father try to comfort my mother.

"We need this money. 5 million dollars. It will change our lives." He told her.

"Only at the cost of Ella's!" She yelled back at him.

It went silent. I didn't like silence. Sometimes my father would get very angry when he was silent, and my mother would get clumsy. She would get giant bruises all over because of her falling a lot in moments like this.

"Ella, we need you to put this uniform on" Dr Jones handed me some folded up white clothes. He seemed less friendly than before. I didn't like it. I did what I told.

Next thing I knew I was being escorted to my "new room". It was like a massive bed, there were white cushions all over the floor and walls. For once, the floor looked comfier than the bed.