Synthetic

Chapter One

               Screaming. Shouting. Yelling. Cry? Warcry. Saige fell to one knee and raised one arm over her head. The surrender signal. Saige wasn't ready to turn to their side.
               Two men picked her up. She refused to open her eyes as the world fell from below her. She was dropped into a pile in front of the one they feared. Though Saige refused to fear him.

"Saige, stand," he commanded.

And she did. "I won't do it."

"Then show me," Ty ordered.

"No."

               Ty plunged a needle into her thigh. Saige focused on her feelings and tried to hold onto her real ones. Then she realized what had just been injected into her, and she smiled.
               Each new Facility thought she was small. Frail, perhaps. Maybe even fragile.

"Migraines? Really Ty?" she smiled.

"Not done with you yet. This is to get you vulnerable." He walked close to her. The tips of their shoes inches apart. "But don't worry honey, we have more than just Tarites. We are the Alcatraz of Facilities after all."

               The Facilities were created to break the broken ones. When they decided it was no longer about the people, they started to try to control them instead.
               They figured the easiest way to control them was the way they were already killing themselves. The diseases. Not the ones that killed your body, but the ones that ate away at your mind.
               Mental diseases.

"Do you take pride in making a girl like me vulnerable, Ty?" Saige smiled. "Didn't you read my file, Ty?"

"No. Do you know why?" Saige just stood, awaiting a response. "Because you're just another miracle, right? Tell me Saige, am I right?"

"Wrong."

Ty smiled. "Or maybe you're just a broken kid looking for someone to fix you. Am I getting closer?"

Saige straightened. "No."

"Or may-"

"NO!" Saige cut him off. "No matter what you guess, it won't be right. Do you know why? Because you don't have the real thing. God, I've felt anxiety. REAL anxiety; not your synthetic BS."

She didn't wait for his reply to continue on. "And it's much different. It's not just a lot of fear. It's every noise and every movement being a threat to your being. I've felt depression. Once again, none of your synthetic stuff."

               Then, before she could continue, Ty plunged another needle into her leg.

"Oh honey, you're so lucky, aren't you? Such a little... miracle."

               Saige stumbled slightly, and the room swirled around her. Strangling her body. Claustrophobia... but there was something else. What... was it?

               And with that, Saige slept.

               Saige shot up out of her bed and flung the covers off of her. She stood at the side of her bed with blankets lying by her feet. She jumped over the covers and darted for the door. Whenever she got close, she skid to a stop. Voices.

"She's not broken. We believe she has zero risk for Destruction and very little risk for any natural Tarites. She has them, but they aren't-" A woman. Whispering.

"Then why does she refuse to CONFORM?" A man with a rough voice interrupted her.

          Destruction wasn't an often visitor. Maybe every once in awhile she thought about what it's like to be like a Destructor. To take a life from your own hands. Your own life. Tarites, however