Monster

Chapter Twenty Two--Rose

The training workout in the last few weeks had been so vigorous that my muscles were actually sore. I pitied some of the weaker men; they could barely sit up and talk without a spasm or cramp. My eyes were sore from being awoken at the butt-crack of down every morning, but my bruises were mostly gone and my muscles were stronger and better than ever before.

In these two weeks, I had learned absolutely nothing. The shock bracelet kept me at bay--albeit I was going to get it off soon (without the knowledge of Mr. T), I hadn't yet. But today wasn't going to be a training day. We were going to have a meeting, and I presumed that out of the billions of questions I had, a few would be answered.

I also hadn't seen Alex since our last encounter. There was no word of him on the base--not even when I eavesdropped in on meetings or phone calls. It was mostly because they spoke a foreign language that sounded part French and part Latin--whatever it was, it was like all of the Romance-Languages combined into gibberish.

I lay in my cot, waiting for the alarm to go off and my door to fade back into the crystal clear glass instead of the dark tint it was now. On cue, the blare echoed through the hallways and I heard the shuffling and groaning of the people housed here. A guard came to my door and opened it--I had earned the privilege to walk around without handcuffs now.

Again, I felt the itching in my muscles to take this guy down and kill him, to let my Monster out all the way and escape here, and find Alex. But I held myself back--I would do that when the time was right. That time was coming, and I could feel it. So for now, I walked silently with a permanent glare etched into my crimson eyes.

When we finally made it to the cafeteria, there were already some men eating the disgusting slush that passed as oatmeal. I, of course, always got the last pick of things because I was an "animal," and therefore went after the best fruits had been picked off.

I snuck an apple into my pocket as we trudged passed the buffet and into another room, where the men I had been training with were waiting. I hadn't wanted to learn their names; but somehow I knew that the tallest one was named Hank, the one with red hair was Ed, and the rest had some weird, foreign names that I won't put here for fear of hurting your eyes.

Mr. T hadn't arrived yet, so I took out the apple and started crunching. The rest of the men hadn't eaten breakfast, and they stared in envy at the apple.

"Give the animal food, huh," one of them spat under his breath. I rolled my eyes.

"I stole it, asshole," I said with a small smirk. He adverted his eyes and looked at the other men. Most of them weren't comfortable with me talking yet--or just me period. Only the one named Ed with the red hair had talked to me. When I broke out of here, I'd make sure not to hurt him.

Mr. T finally walked in from some other door that no one had been in, wearing his usual suit and tie--two guards accompanied him...and behind them, with two shock bracelets and hand cuffs stood a little girl.

My heart stopped. My muscles tensed in anger. My eyes turned a shade darker and a growl escaped my cold lips.

The little girl had a head of strawberry blonde curls, with eyes a dark shade of amber and a bulky night gown. She looked scared out of her mind, trembling in her night-dress and whimpering a bit. I clenched my teeth and brought my glowing eyes up to Mr. T.

"What in the hell have you done?" I snarled, taking a few steps forward. I wanted to punch him, right here, in the face, until he lost all of his perfectly whitened teeth. Mr. T chuckled.

"This is Subject 51, or Rose, as I like to call her," he smirked, like he knew something we didn't. The little girl straightened up but kept her frown on.