The Exception

Chapter 10

Crystal and Edward strolled through the forest for a while. Edward made no conversation, and rarely slowed for Crystal to catch up. He obviously knew where he was going, whereas Crystal did not. A lot of the time, Edward would pull a branch forward to walk through, and then let it go. This usually ended with Crystal getting thwacked in the face. After getting hit for the tenth time, she decided to walk on another path, as long as she kept Edward in sight. Before she knew it, she was lost.

"Of course," she thought, sitting down on a stump.

After about five minutes, she saw Edward come into view, and saw that he was walking toward her.

"I got lost," Crystal said.

"That's fine. We're almost there."

They kept walking for what seemed like forever. Finally they came to a house. The house was small, only one story. After running her hand along the brick walls of the outside, she stepped inside. She wasn't surprised when she found blueprints and spare parts all over the floor. To her right was a closed door, which, she assumed, was the door all the machines were in. There was a kitchen on the far side of the house, but it looked like it was used as more of a lab, with small beakers and other equipment lying everywhere.

Crystal couldn't wait, and blurted out, "How did you survive? They found your body? Also how long have you... And how..." She stopped, not able to spit out all her questions at once.

"I'll answer one at a time," Edward said.

"Uh," Crystal said, trying to think of a good question. "First, I want to know how long you've been living here."

"About the same time I "died", so a few months ago, almost a year."

"How'd you find it?"

"It was abandoned. I just fixed it up and decided to call it home."

"How did you survive? They found your body!" Crystal waited in anticipation, wanting to get the answer to this question more than anything.

"Let me show you." Edward smirked, walked towards the closed door and stepped inside.

Crystal followed, eagerly. As she stepped inside, she felt the mood of the room change compared to other parts of the house. The walls were a bright white, and the room seemed to take up half the space of the whole house. Just like Crystal had expected, it was covered in strange machines.

Edward led her to the back corner of the room, where a machine sat. It had a small, glass, container in the middle, with a computer and other parts hooked up to it.

"Step inside," he said, pointing to the glass container.

Crystal ignored all her worries of unsafe machines, and stepped inside the machine, closing the door behind her. Instantly, the noise around her seemed to stop completely as the door sealed. All she could hear was her own breathing, which she noticed, was very loud. She watched as Edward clicked buttons on the computer hooked up to the machine. He pressed the buttons and turned the knobs. Then, he pulled a lever.

The machine made a loud noise as it started up. Crystal sat in anticipation. Suddenly, her whole body started to tingle. It started at her fingertips, and slowly spread throughout the rest of her body, making her shiver. The tingling sensation continued, becoming more and more intense. After a while, it started to sting a little. The stinging built up until it burned. She decided that this was enough and knocked on the glass. Edward ignored her, refusing to look her in the eye. Trying to get his attention, she started to bang on it. Once she realized that he was ignoring her, she stopped trying to get his attention, and started trying to escape. She slammed her hands on the glass, still feeling her whole body burn and sting. The pain felt like her was boiling beneath her skin, so she was almost positive that was what was happening. She desperately clawed at her skin, trying to stop the pain. Suddenly, the whole machine made another loud noise, and all the pain seemed to flow out of her body. This sudden change made her stumble backwards, almost falling. She heard a click as the machine door opened.