The Touch

Chapter 34 - Institute

One of the guards brought in a food tray and placed it down on the chest of drawers beside my bed. Then one by one they exited the room closing the door behind them and locking it.

I sat down again and looked at what they had brought. It also looked like prison food. I had no appetite anyway as I was still exhausted and filled with anger.

I had to make a decision, fight or die here. Slade was gone and I didn't feel I had anything more to fight for, but then I remembered Melissa and her friends who could also be in this facility. Could I fight for them? Could I find the strength to want to live without Slade?

Thoughts swirled around in my mind and I cried myself to sleep, not because I was here but because I had lost the man I loved. Why had I pushed him away so many times when I should have listened to my heart and told him that I loved him. Why had he been so stupid running towards me when all they wanted was me? If he has listened to me then he would be alive now.

My mind was clouded, my body drained of all energy and my dreams that night were of the bullet hitting Slade. I saw his face, his eyes lifeless and the realisation that I couldn't bring him back. I wanted to scream, to tear my thought apart so I didn't have to wake up tomorrow knowing he was gone. But I couldn't and the nightmare of losing him would always be with me.

I woke in the morning to someone coming in my room with a breakfast tray. I looked and saw that it was a young girl who was not a Watcher. She looked like someone who might also be staying here. Her eyes had dark rims underneath them and I could see she was very underweight.

"What is your name?" I said as she lay the tray down and collected the other.

"Mirabelle" she answered.

"That is a pretty name. Do you have the Touch?"

She looked at me and then looked at the door. There was no one standing there so she turned back towards me.

"Yes" she replied "I have been trusted to give you your trays each day. The guards are a bit worried that you will touch them and stall them"

"Well why are they not worried that you will do the same? Surely anyone here with the touch could do that?".

Mirabelle looked down at the tray she was carrying and then placed it back down again. She then lay her hands palm up in front of me and I gasped. Her hands were covered in scaring and as I looked closer I could see that it was from burns.

"What did they do to you?" I said.

"They do it to everyone that has been here for a while and no longer needed for testing. The only ones that don't have it are the ones that are still being used for testing."

"But why do they do it in the first place?"

"Working people cost money and talk too much about what they see here. One time they had people turn up trying to get into this place to free everyone with the touch. That was because someone who had worked here hated what they were doing to us so they formed a group to come in and rescue us". Marabelle stopped briefly and looked down at her shoes. "They killed those people. It was then decided to find people that had no contact with the outside world."

"So they used the children with the Touch to work here?"

"Yes. They found that burning the fingerprints made the abilities not work well or sometimes not at all, so they decided to burn the whole hand and see what would happen. This caused our abilities to not work and the guards also felt safer. Now we do the work but do not get paid like the outside people did".

I looked at her hands and could not believe that any human being could be so barbaric.

Mirabelle looked at the door and saw the Watcher looking in at her. She quickly picked up the tray from last night as gave me one more glance before exiting from the room. The Watcher stepped aside lo let her through and then turned back to me.