The Animal Inside

Chapter Three: Tests and Torture

We walked to a building separate from the main part of the Academia. It looked kinda small and was made from white stone that had turned grey from old age. Jason walked in without knocking. I followed warily. Inside, the building was spacious, but filled with all kind of testing equipment. Treadmill, monitors, wires, computers, you name it. At first glance, it looked like a total mess, but after looking at it for a few moments I decided it was organised chaos. Everything seemed to have its own place. No one was in sight.

"Andrew?" Jason called. There was a bang, followed by a string of swear words. Jason followed the noise through the numerous gadgets until we happened upon some who I assumed was Andrew. He was rubbing his head, and I assumed the bang we heard was his head hitting the nearby desk.

I looked Andrew up and down. He seemed not much older than me, maybe 21 or so, with light hair and bronze eyes. His skin was pale, like he hadn't seen the sun in a while and he wore thick rim glasses.

"There you are Andrew. This is the girl I told you about. The one with the interesting abilities," he said.

"Hi. I'm Kefira." I said.

"Kefira. Meaning 'young lion' or 'lion cub'. My name is Andrew, but call me Drew. Everyone else does." He looked at Jason. "Well, almost everyone."

"How do you know what my name means?" I asked. Pretty much everyone says something along the lines of 'what a weird name'.

"Andrew's Power is called Lorem ipsum dolor, which translates to..." Jason started.

"Very smart." Drew interrupted, sounding very proud.

"Andrew, I am leaving Kefira in your more-than-capable hands. I need results ASAP. Understood?" Jason said.

"Understood. Kefira, would you follow me?" Jason left as I followed Drew. He led me to what looked like a doctor station.

"Sit," he said simply. I did.

"Now, I'm going to perform some physical tests to determine what your Power is. I'm going to do some basic tests. Blood tests, x-rays, stuff like that. Ok?"

"Ok," I replied.

For the next hour or so I was prodded, poked, injected, looked at and had samples of blood, hair, and skin taken from me. I had everything tested, including my eyes and ears. Every now and then, he would put something in some kind of machine. In the middle of the next test, the machine would ding, and Drew would go and survey the results.

Then I was taken to another section, where there was all manner of gym equipment. I had to run while hooked up to several monitors to test my endurance. I had to lift different weights, to test strength. I also had my reactions tested in all different ways. Sometime I would have to catch something when he threw it without warming. Other times he would throw something at me, and I would have to dodge it. Sometime, I would get confused, and catch something I was meant to dodge. All the time, he would write on his clipboard, which he carried everywhere. He only put it down to hook me up to another machine or monitor.

We didn't speak much; he would just give me instructions and I would follow them. He finally led me away from the gym area, and walked me towards a separate room. The building was mainly just one big room, some parts separated by dividers and others not separated at all. But there was this one room, with walls around it. I had thought it was a bathroom, but when we entered the room, I was certain that was not the case.

The room was lined with all sorts of weapons, and other torturous items. It sent shivers down my spine. There must have been a look of utter shock on my face, because Drew looked at me with upmost sympathy.