After The Storm || ON HOLD

artificial freedom

(Through the eyes of Nyx Mitexi, the darkness child.)

Darkness
The darkness child has the ability to fill any space with darkness, and an aura of emptiness. She can create and manipulate mist at will. She is known to be very mysterious and charismatic, and is the rebel of the ten teens. Because of her notorious reputation, the darkness child is greatly dishonored by the scientists.

***

I woke up to the sound of screams. A high-pitched feminine voice, screeching helplessly. However, the door to my designated quarantine, the ninth one down the pristine, narrow corridor was locked so tightly, not allowing me to see what the current issue was. I wondered if someone had pushed a chair against the closed entrance, because even when I dug my fingernail into the keyhole and slowly spun it around, I didn't hear the satisfying creak telling me that I was successful. Just one faint click, and no luck.

I let my unnaturally small frame fall softly to the white-washed wooden floor, ignoring the sudden pain that shot straight through my spine and out of my head. Against the sterile flooring, I could feel the soreness from the severe burns that once crawled up my back. Though the wounds had healed, they still hurt like hell. Sitting up, I scanned over my bony knuckles--bruised and covered with fresh, tiny cuts from stray shards of glass. The affliction was the time I tried to take on a scientist twice my size, which was just several hours ago, and he, out of sheer frustration, shoved my incoming fist into a window. That window wasn't exactly one I could escape through, leading into an artificial forest that was enclosed in a see-through material so thick that even if an entire tree hit it, no damage would be done.

This laboratory was filled with things just like that forest. Fake escape routes. Hidden tunnels filled with little blue lights that I soon realized were surveillance cameras, after learning the hard way. Artificial freedom, things that make you think you've finally made it when really, there's hardly a chance that you ever will.

I stared blankly at the broken window, my dark eyes fighting the light and daytime air that poured into my room. A curtain of reddish-brown hair fell over my face, and I didn't bother to pull it back into the loose ponytail that it was previously tied into.

-

"Nyx?!" I heard, along with a scraping noise. The same girl who had been screaming earlier was the one who said my name. I could tell that it was the sunlight child, by the immaturity evident in her tone. Though she was older than me--well by a few days at least, she still hadn't really grown up mentally. Somehow, being inside the laboratory hadn't forced her to do so. Constantly, I worried about what might happen when reality sank into her mind. The fact that there was a slim chance of her dreams coming true.

"Please, Nyx... open the door! I got rid of the chair!" Lily, the sunlight child, cried.

"How did you get out?" I asked, confused. "Were you called for your experimental period or something?"

"Yeah. They said I could have some free time in the forest, but since Cara's being tested right now, I decided to take you there with me," she replied.

"Well, you better be quick about this, 'cause the cameras are watching us. And why can't you open the door, Lily? I know it's locked on both the inside and the outside, but it's not that hard. All you have to do is use your fingernail.. a clip.. or anything else that fits in the keyhole!"

I knew exactly why Lily was making me unlock the door. It was because she wanted me to get in trouble for trying to escape, rather than letting the scientists know that she was breaking me out. I reluctantly did it myself, walking out of my quarantine.