Shape

Chapter 10: Screamer

"PUT ME DOWN!" My screams were loud enough for the whole hallway to hear.
"Nope, can't have you worsening your condition now can I?" He sounded so proud of himself.
I stopped kicking for a moment, with a question in mind that had been eating at me for a while.
"Is there a marked off room in the basement?" It was haunting my dreams.
"..What?" He hesitated before answering.
"A room with a sinkhole, I've dreamed of it."
"I'm sorry kid, but you're not ready to see it yet." So it was real.
"I'll take you there one day, I promise." He flashed me one of those fake smiles of his.
I stayed calm for the rest of the walk, and allowed him to carry me the rest of the way without causing more problems for myself. I didn't give up on the conversation though.
"You really don't understand why you're colorless?" He was mocking me.
"Of course I don't! Why would I?"
He let out a laugh "You're colorless because of your body not being fully developed."
"Fully developed?" Why was he so against context?
Before I could ask more about it, we reached my cell. "Here we are, no more questions for you today."
He placed me down onto my bed and turned to leave.
"Get some rest Shape, you have a lot to do tomorrow!" I couldn't stand that man, but he was right. I was to start training with lower three tomorrow, the most destructive of the group. Saying I was nervous about it was an understatement.
I woke up the next morning exhausted due to my nerves keeping me up a good portion of the night. "What time is it..?" My voice was groggy.
I was met with silence from Leto's cell, which was strange since he was always up before me.
"Helloo, is anyone there?" I was starting to get worried, that's when I heard the familiar footsteps. "Sorry Shape, Leto had to leave the hallway for a little while." He paused between words "He'll be back by tomorrow, I'm sure of it." Maybe he went out on a mission?
"So why are you down here?" I already knew why, I just wanted to confirm it.
He looked at me confused and pulled a key out of his pocket. "I'm walking you to your training obviously, now hurry and get ready, you look horrible." He looked me up and down before pointing towards a small mirror I had hanging on the wall.
I walked over to the mirror only to be jumpscared by my own reflection. I looked like I had been attacked by hungry wild animals.
As I was fixing my hair, I noticed a singular strand had started turning the same dark color as Mr. 2's. I stared at it for a minute before deciding to pluck it out, I didn't want to draw any unwanted attention.
"Sorry, I couldn't get my shirt over these stupid horns." A simple lie was all I needed.
"Took you that long because of a shirt? I'll have to request a bigger size for you." He laughed to himself while starting to walk down the hall. I followed a few steps behind out of habit.
"So what's number three like?" I wanted to be prepared.
"You're actually talking to me?" He overflowed with excitement. "Well since you asked, he's a total social butterfly, unlike you." Was I really that closed off?
I rolled my eyes at him and looked towards the hallway ahead of us, which was slowly turning into a path of broken up rocks and dust. I felt his hand grab a hold of my arm. "Change your legs, we don't want you getting injured before meeting number 3 now do we?" He was right, I could feel myself almost tripping after every step, I shifted my legs into ones that resembled a goat's for better balance.
"Well those don't look weird at all.." Like he had a right to comment about appearances.
The rocks below our feet slowly became smaller and smaller the further we walked up until we started seeing water puddles. That's when I noticed he had stopped walking.
"Why'd you stop?" I looked at him with confusion. "I can't do water, sorry kid." Can't do water?
He pointed a finger towards the hallway and encouraged me to keep walking, without explaining why he couldn't come too. I guess I was alone in this.
I shifted my legs back to normal once I reached the end of the hallway, which at this point had me ankle deep in water and looked up at the giant door in front of me.
I knocked on the door. "Hello?" My voice echoed through the giant hallway.
Not long after knocking someone was already on the side of the door slowly opening it, I backed up a bit so as to not get hit in the process.
"You're finally here! Sorry about the long walkway." It was him. Standing in front of me was the feared siren of destruction and yet, he looked so kind.
"Are you..?" He looked nothing like how people described him.
"The terrifying number 3?" His smile was contagious. "I don't really live up to the rumors do I?"
He was shorter than 4 and 5, yet he was still around average height, his bright purple eyes looked right into mine filled with curiosity. I could see him scanning me up and down, probably trying to figure out what I was. "Come in, we have so much to go over!" His voice was overflowing with enthusiasm.
I followed behind him into the room to see another person was in there standing on a small ledge-like platform just barely over the water. "Is this the person you were waiting for?" He looked at number 3 with the same thought of what he was looking at. "They look.. Smaller than I imagined." Ouch.
"Don't be rude, or I'm kicking you out." Number 3's voice was stern.
The man on the ledge apologized and revealed he was a member of the upper ranks. Just like Mr. 2. I don't think I could handle another one of him, at least not when I'm supposed to be training. Number 3 assured me he wouldn't interfere though.
"Okay! To make this a less stressful experience for you, I am Fish, and this is Jack. We're both ranked 3rd in our groups, so our names work just fine." Did he just say 'Fish'?
"I assume you know my name already, but you seem confused about something." I was tired of the looks.
"Well we just weren't told about how colorless you are, so it just threw us off is all." Oh.
I looked down at how my pale skin almost blended into my plain white clothing. I seemed to forget that fact about me more than anything, despite how obvious it is compared to others around me.
"So what are we going to do, does it have anything to do with the rocky buildings?" The entire room was made up of small mountain-like structures, even the ground was made of rock.
I looked at his bright and colorful features, his skin had splotches of beautiful green scales all over his body, they were nothing like my pale, sickly looking limbs that I try to keep unnoticed. I could tell he saw me looking, no. Scanning him up and down from the way his expression shifted from curiosity to pity. Like I was an injured animal in need of saving.
"I'm sorry Shape... I didn't think before I-"
"It's okay." I cut him off before he could finish. I didn't want him to pity me before we even started training. "So what are we doing?" I was actively trying to change the discussion, he could definitely tell.
"Screaming!" He was excited for me to start, maybe even more excited than I was supposed to be.
He turned around to face Jack, who I had forgotten was even there from him being so quiet, and motioned for him to make his way over to us.
"So I was thinking we would start small, and slowly make our way up to make sure you completely understand what to do." He had a slower pace than Sophie and Samuel, I liked it much better.
"Follow me!" He faced the collection of mountain-like structures in the distance, and proceeded to scream a hole into the center of one. "That my dear apprentice, is what we are trying to accomplish." I just stared at him in shock, a single scream from this person almost caused a near earthquake disaster. I was so caught up in the moment I hadn't even realized I was shaking.
"Shape, you okay..?" Jack had finally spoken up for the first time since I walked into the room, his voice was soft and unalarming, it gave the opposite effect of Fish's. "Yeah, just surprised!" I still couldn't stop shaking.
I was moved a couple steps back from where I was standing as a way to create more distance from the mountains and me; and with no details, was told to try and copy what Fish did.
I stood in my place waiting for Jack to move out of the way, and caught myself trying to copy how Fish posed just like I did back with Sophie and Samuel. It was an irritating habit of mine.
I snapped myself out of thought, repositioned myself into a pose that felt natural to me instead of trying to copy someone else's; and tried my best to get a scream out of me. I knew it was in there somewhere, I just had to find it.
"Shape?" Fish was standing right beside me now, how long was he there? Why did I not hear him?
"Don't think about it too much, just scream." He placed a hand on my shoulder.
I closed my eyes, and just like he said to do, screamed as loud as I could.
"Well that didn't do any-" I was cut off by the sound of crashing as a giant piece of mountain fell to the ground like it was cut with a knife. "NEVERMIND!" Fish bursted into laughter beside me.
"That wasn't bad! We just need to work on your aim." seems to be a common problem of mine.
As more time passed of me being taught how to properly destroy a mountain by screaming, I couldn't help but notice Jack showing similar traits of Mr. 2. They were both weary of water, both annoyingly unserious, and both of them were suspicious. I wanted to slowly ease my way into getting to know the reason for my suspicions but I was just too impatient for that. "Hey Jack?"
"Yes? Do you need something?" He looked weary of me. "I have a question about Mr. 2." My words were sharp, I had to contain myself. "Mr. Brandon? I'm not that close with him, so I might not be any help to you." He was lying to my face. "That's okay, do you know why he refuses to touch water?" I forced eye contact between us. "That's because he's-" Before he could finish his sentence, I was knocked out and crashed onto the water covered floor.
"Shape!? Shape, wake up!" When I woke up, I was propped up against the wall and was being yelled at by Fish. "Are you okay!? I was only gone for 5 minutes!" I glanced around the room only to find that Jack was nowhere to be seen. I figured he probably went to find Mr. 2.
"I'm okay, I didn't sleep well last night so I'm a bit dizzy." It wasn't a complete lie.
"Let's end training early today, I'll walk you back down the hall." He stood up and reached out a hand to help me. His hands were webbed with a strange coldness to them despite the room being severely warm.
We walked back down the long, wet hallway together in silence. It wasn't an awkward kind of silence, but the kind that felt peaceful to be in. I watched the ground as it slowly became a pathway again and thought about how Mr. 2 would react to me going unconscious yet again. I would most likely have to sit through another lecture about safety and how to properly control my emotions.
"There you are, I heard you freaked more people out!" I was too busy in thought to notice we had reached the end of the hallway. "C'mon kid, we have lots to discuss." His smile shifted from his normal unreadable one, to one that was clearly planning something that I had no choice but to participate in.
Fish handed me off and informed Mr. 2 of my progress, all while Jack was staring daggers into the back of my head. He obviously told him about our conversation, even if it was brief.
Once their conversation was over, Mr. 2 motioned for us to start walking wherever he had planned with that annoying smile plastered across his face.
"Are we not going back to the cage?" I looked up at him expecting an answer, but was met with nothing but silence. I didn't understand how he knew everything about me, yet I still didn't even know what his ability was even after 10 years of being around him.
"That cage of yours can wait a little longer, I have something important to show you." His words had a tone of seriousness I wasn't aware he could create. "Where are we going then?" Silence yet again.