The sleepers

Chapter 7: Mr Coal

Fenix p.o.v
I could still hear. I couldn't see, I couldn't smell, I couldn't feel, but I could still hear. I could hear lizzia crying and then her screams as I heard my body being moved away. I didn't want to be moved away.
The men who lifted me away were chatting. They were chatting about me.
"God they've been racking up quite a few bodies lately"
"Damn right they have. Dump this one round the back?"
"Uhhuh"
"The bodies have been disapearing in the morning too, I think those bloody outsiders have been stealing the bodies after we dump them"
"...Those buggers are hella creepy, who would want a dead body rare or no"
"I don't know man, but s'long as I get paid I'm a happy man"
The men's conversation turns to talk of their family and I think over what they said. I'm obviously meant to be dead, This is rather concerning because I'm not. This is what I get for avoiding religion, should've just made my bloody mind up.

They mentioned dumping me round the back, I'm guessing this is means they're going to leave my poor soul to rot round the back of the institute, the noise of the large gate surrounding the institute opening confirms my suspicions, and I hear the men count from 3. A thump noise frightens me, and if I could blush I would, as I realise it was my own body being brutally dropped onto the ground on the the side.
The feeling of having no feeling is the weirdest feeling of them all. I mean is it possible to feel stupid when you're dead? Because I feel very stupid.

***
I wonder how long I can be stuck here for... When will the outsiders come and take my not-so-dead body. I wish they would hurry up its, starting to get boring.
***
Is this what being dead actually is like? Cause this is stupid, like am I just going to be stuck like this forever?
***
What if -
I see.
It's a light.
The light is getting brighter.
YES IM NOT GOING TO DIE.
The light still grows.
Okay it's getting a little to bright.
Argh! Stop!
How fantastic I see again only to be blinded.
Then everything comes back.
Sight returns with the blinding light.
Smell returns with a putrid stink.
But the worst is the sense of feeling, everything in my body is on fire, I feel like a burning ember.
And then it's all over.
I'm lying down.
But I'm not me.
Instead my skin is no longer skin but... Rock? No, coal.
My body is made of fuckîng coal.

Groaning, I sit up and study my hands, everything feels normal, I can still move normally.... But I'm made of coal.
Least I can't hurt myself...but can I?
I slap my hand against my thigh, and I flail backwards in surprise as on contact sparks fly.
No way, this is awesome.
My movements aren't harder, everything seems normal.....ish.
Eyeing my body I clap my hands together as hard as I can, this time not only do sparks fly but they grow into flames that race across my body. I scream the most ungraceful scream possible and jump to my feet trying to pat myself down as the flames start to burn my clothes. I fall back to the ground and roll around on the dirt. The flames die down and I gasp in relief.
Looking back at myself my eyes widen, I'm me again, I'm human, with flesh. I sit there staring at myself in disbelief, I couldn't have dreamt that, could I? Then again it had happened all so quickly...
A high pitched giggle erupts from behind me, and I leap to my feet in surprise.
A rather lean girl with dark skin is standing about ten meters away.
"Don't worry" she chortles as if reading my thoughts "your not going crazy"
I stare at her trying to think of what to say, there is so much I want to ask her, but would she be able to awnser? Deciding to ask her without seeming too crazy, I raise my eyebrows at her "did you actually just stand there while I was on fire?"
Someone snorts and it isn't the tall girl, as the snort was unmistakably one of the male gender. The girls face turns red and turns 90 degrees, where the snort came from,
"don't laugh! You didn't do anything either!"
She's quick to become riled up, I make note of this. At first she is speaking to thin air, but slowly a stout boy with sandy blonde hair materialises. I would have been amazed at the fact that I couldn't see the boy only moments before, but all I could think of was how hilarious they looked standing next to each other, polar opposites. After a few moments of my awkward laughing I decided to rip the bandage off quickly,
"what's happening to me ?"
The two stop their argument and look at me, the boy is the first to reply and laughs a response
"you've become a superhero! A god! You've been blessed " he throws his arms in the air for emphasis
I stare blankly at him "What?"
The girl, more serious, slightly tips her head to the side "you were poisoned right?"
I shake my head trying to think back as far as I can "Uh I don't know, all I remember vas being stabbed"
She takes a moment to think before coming to a decision "most people are poisoned by a bullet but it's definitely possible the knife was covered with poison"
Was it the poison that killed me? I voice my thoughts; "So uh why did I uh.....presubly die?"
"Huh?"
"Um" I stop trying to think of the right English word "...presumably!, vhy was I presumed dead by za clones?"
The boy laughs even though it wasn't funny  "Because you DID die, you were STABBED, that can KILL people "
"Uh..." I take a quick look at myself "I think vwe have very different ideas of dead" I say dryly
The girl tuts "You were poisoned, I'm sure of it or else you wouldn't have.. uh you know"
"Turned into coal? became a living match?" I supply
"Yes well the poison only works on rares, and as far as we can tell when the institute tries to stop us from dying,  the poison, cure, and us, all mixes and we become..... Different"
At this point I am feeling very cynical "So you're saying zat I vwasn't dreaming, but I can actually turn into coal, and light myself on fire?"
"Well yeah"
"And you said the poison, "cure" and us mixes together? Vwhy would they use coal to cure me?"
The short boy speaks up "I KNOW!! I know this one. Coals a reallllllly good absorbent and they probably hoped it'd absorb the poison, I'm guessing they gave it to you as a liquid in a syringe"
I pause as I remember lizzia saying something of the sorts to me before, and how it has been used upon poisons before. Could what they're say maybe even possibly be true? "okay say I do believe you, but what about you guys, it seems you can turn invisible? Why?"
He grins up at me "they used light surgery on me trying to disconnect the poison particles, making them useless. AND I don't go invisible I can wrap light and shadows around me making it seem as if I'm just a blur in you vision"
"And you?" I point to the girl
"I can stick to walls"
I don't reply and she carries on
"I have glands on my hands and feet that produce sticky gloop and let me stick to walls, they tried to heal me with some stuff thats name I can't rem-"
"methacrylate" the boy interrupts "its the stuff they put in glue to make it sticky, they were hoping to clot the poison together and suck it out"
The girl nods her head in his direction as if agreeing "come with us, we can show you where more of us are and we can answer your questions better"
Even if they are telling the truth I don't know if I want to go with them, how would Lizzy find me? Plus I was alive now, why couldn't I just go back? Also there was the fact that everything they were saying sounded crazy.
"Um vwell you see...I think I'm going to go back and uh see my best friend because erm well for all I know you,...well don't take this the wrong way but uh you could be some flaky outsider " I make way slowly backwards as I say this.
The girl runs towards me "You can't go!"
I flick my head backwards sizing the couple of hundred meters between me and the institute "Um well I don't see vwhy not, it sounds kind of like a good idea and all, and I kinda wanna go see lizzia-"
"Lizzy sanders?"
I flinch in surprise, no outsider would know the name of a rare "Ja, you know of her?"
"Heard of her... I used to be In the institute too...anyway see I'm no mad outsider! " The boy snorts and she glares at him "we need you to come and meet the others"
Even though she could be a rare, Im wary of her, she DID leave the institute and even though it's morals are bad there, I would hate to leave it without something to bargain outsiders with, like a cure to stop people dying in their sleep.... I shake my head, one problem at a time "That's really nice of you, but I'm told not to talk with strangers and especially not to follow them back to their weird cult of the undead"
"You can't go back to the institute! They-they....you WILL die if you go back"
"I think I'm going to take my chances"
She obviously doesn't agree with me because she walks up to me hand stretched outwards. At first I don't get it and then I realise that her hand is reflecting the light. Her hands are covered in a colourless gluey concoction. She swiftly puts her hand to my shoulder, making it impossible to move free of of her grasp.

"Hey!" I shout "I'm pretty sure this is illegal" she doesn't reply "you know I have rights!"
This time she does reply
"pah" she spits "no one has rights anymore, especially not dead people"
"But I'm not dead!" I protest
"You were"
I stop and think about this as I'm pulled further away from the institute, "you know I'm most definitely stronger than you and I can probably drag YOU back to the institute"
She stops walking "so why don't you?"
All of a sudden the mood has changed, I stutter as I try to think of a reason why I'm not doing exactly that. I can come up with only one or two but if I was to say them aloud it would have sounded pathetic, so of course I do anyway "b-because you are really strong? And I don't want to fight a girl?"
She shakes her head slowly at me "no, no your scared that if you really do go we could be right and you might have another episode of turning into mr coal and you might not be accepted, you're afraid that you won't be able to accept this new you, you're afraid that lizzie won't accept you. Normally you wouldn't think twice, but you're pretty sure you just turned into coal, saw a boy materialise from thin air, and you're currently stuck to a girl that can make glue from her hands. All of these factors point towards the fact that we're right, which of course we are. The only reason you're not accepting it is because you're confused and a little freaked" the she pauses for a excruciating moment " you know you've handled this remarkably well, freakishly well, you act like this happens all the time. I've seen people scream, cry, fight, even actually get back to the institute"
" what happens when they get there?" I murmur
She hesitates before speaking "they're shot on site, mistaken for some crazy outsider."
I nod. It's logical.
"Hey" the boy places his hands on my shoulder "we've all been through this, and like louise said before you've done way better than all of us"
The girl, louise, releases her grip on my shoulder and the gloop disappears off her hand.
"You will see everyone again, just come with us and see if you like it? Okay?"
"Okay" I murmur and take my first step forward into a new world.

Lizzie p.o.v

I can't believe he's gone. Just like that and he's gone, they didn't even let me see him again. My last memory of felix will be a tear blurred image of him being dragged away.
Millice sits next to me. We're sitting on her bed with a box of tissues between us "I only just got back" I cry wiping the fresh tears away from my face
"He wouldn't want you to be sad" millice whispers
I give millice a sad smile "I was right there doing nothing milly, I did nothing at all"
"Hey" she scolds "don't you say that, he di-"
She's interrupted by the sound of her door swinging open. Standing in the frame of the door is a small girl, her eyes are almost as red as mine and she was sniffing back tears. Millice walks over to her and crouches down so she is the same height as the little girl "what's up sweetheart?"
The girl points at me "she was his best friend?" She says it uncertainly but millice nods at her, and the little girl becomes more confident and jumps up onto the bed next to me.
"H-how do you know Felix?" I ask
"More like how did she get into my locked room" millice say so quietly that I almost don't hear. What the little girl says next though, answers both our questions "I took lock picking classes w-with him, he was my partner"
For the first time in a while I smile "did you?"
"Yeah, a-a-and they said he-he was gone! But th-they wouldn't tell me w-where!"
My smile quickly disappeared
"Oh honey..."
"I think I have some chocolates in my cupboard, I'll go get them" millice gives my back a quick rub and walks out of the room
"Please tell me where he's gone!"
"Uh" her little eyes are wide and shining with tears
"P-please?"
" uh well...he's gone to the..the most beautiful place in the world"
Somehow her eyes go even wider "really?!"
"Mmhm a place where everything good you could dream of is there, a place where there is peace, and easy breathing for everyone!"
"Oooooh can I go?"
"You have to be very very very good to go"
"I promise I'll be good" she holds out her pinky towards me and I hook my own around hers "pinky promise" she swears. She hops off the bed and stops just before she walks out the door "he talked a lot about you" she smiles "I hope he's happy" she passes millice who is now standing in the doorway, and then she skips out of the room once again content.
"I hope he's happy to" I say

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I had fun writing this! I hope you enjoy it 😊
💕
-Helaena xx