Escape ~ S.Harrington

Bonus: Tales From the Lab

(These are some of Jenna's experiences at Hawkins Lab when she was a kid. The first part I wrote in my other book, Dysfunctional, and it made me think about her backstory and childhood more. Hope this explains some of the little things talked about previously. And before you ask, yes I changed Kali's age for the sake of this. Since Jenna is One, it only makes sense that the other experiments are her age or younger, minus Henry)

"Jenna?" Brenner walked into her room.
"What are we doing for training today?" The four-year-old tentatively asked.
"Oh, no training today, sweetie. I have a special surprise. Follow me."
Jenna stood up from her chair and followed Brenner into a strange room she'd never been in before.
"Take a seat," A weird man with a tattoo gun told her.
Jenna looked up at Brenner, completely and utterly scared out of her mind.
"Jenna," Brenner smiled, "This is Greg. He'll be giving you a very special mark on your arm today. It won't take too long. Afterwards, I promise you won't have any training. You can just play or color or whatever you'd like to do."
"I'm scared," She sniffled.
"Well, you need to get over your fears," He nudged her towards the chair.

Once seated, he strapped her wrists down and nodded at Greg, giving him the go ahead.
"Please stop," Jenna cried, "I don't like it. It hurts."
"Only a couple more minutes, One," Brenner told her, "And then you're all done."
Once Greg had finished up the two 0's and had gotten to the 1 on her arm, Jenna screamed and sent Greg flying into the wall, the tattoo gun falling to the ground with a loud thud; just like Greg's body.
"I'm sorry!" Jenna sobbed as she looked up at Brenner through blurry eyes, "I didn't mean to! I didn't want to hurt him! It- It was an accident!"
Brenner just stared in awe at his experiment. Up until that point, she hadn't shown much ability at all, and now here she was, killing a man and flinging him across the room.
"Jenna," He grabbed a handkerchief and dabbed the blood from below her nose, "It's okay. You did nothing wrong. Now, let's go color, okay? He finished your special mark before anything happened."

Jenna looked up at him, wide eyed. Even at the age of four she knew what she had done was wrong. She never wanted to hurt anyone: ever. She cried as Brenner led her down the hall to the rainbow room so she could color and forget what had happened. She'd only been in there once before, when he gave her and her mom a tour of the facility. He let all of the other kids play while she only got tested on. Once Brenner sat her down with some paper and crayons, she doodled her little heart out. That was until an older boy walked up and introduced himself.
"Hi," He made Jenna jump back slightly, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I see Papa made you get your mark today?"
When she didn't answer, he rolled up his own sleeve to show her his, "I'm One."
"Me too," Jenna showed him hers, which was more bloody and swollen, "But you can call me Jenna."
"Hi, Jenna," He gave her an eerie smile, "You can call me Henry. We'll make the best team, don't you think, twin?"

~

"How many more times do I have to do this?" Jenna looked up at Brenner, absolutely exhausted.
"As many times as it takes for you to show me your abilities again," He glanced down at his watch, "Or when you leave in three hours."
"I can't just make them appear."
"Well, that's why you're hooked up to this," He gestured to the electric chair she'd been hooked up to for two hours already.
It was her third day that week going through the same exercise. He normally switched it up so she could test other things out for his other numbers, but he was adamant to get her powers working.
"And you've electrocuted me over fifty times. I think the time a couple years ago was a fluke. I can't do anything- AHHHHHH!" He pressed the button again, sending another wave of electricity through her.
"We both know that's a lie, One. Try harder."
"I-" She blinked back tears, "I can't do this. Please...NOOOO!!!"