Experiment 21

6 ~ Sunny and the Saw

I was awoken to the sound of a door sliding open.

Oh no...not again. Spare me. I thought, paralyzed with fresh trepidation. I held my body close in an attempt to shield myself from the incoming blows.

But the person who stepped through wasn't large, and gruesome. He was tall, lanky and Asian with a remorseful yet frightened look on his delicate features. He looked at my arm pitifully, his eyes glazing over with water. He trembled a bit, and revealed a clip board which he had been hiding behind his back. I didn't recoil; I knew he was OK. He didn't have a malicious glint in his eyes, and besides, he looked just as frightful as I did.

He stepped forward hesitantly, his hand out as though not to scare me and a morose look on his round face.

"Oh. Oh dear. I'm so sorry 21, its failed again..." His face went from a pale white to a puke green in less than three seconds.

I shuffled a little closer, my curiosity getting the better of me. "What's failed?"

"The injection. It keeps going wrong, ending up in symptoms such as your own..." He gestured gingerly to my rancid arm. I nodded quietly.

Then, he withdrew his other arm from behind his back to reveal a rusty, serrated saw and a handful of pink and green pills.

Oh.

I frantically shrunk back and hid my arm behind my back as best as I could. "NO! please, you can't do this to me. You can't cut it off. Please." I screamed, my own sense of dread sending me into a spiral of panic. Oh god, I felt myself starting to black out again.

The Asian boy blinked, and a tear slid out of the corner of his eye. "I'm very sorry...what is your name?"

"G-g-grace," I replied shakily.

He handed me the pill. “It’s that or nothing. It will get infected further if I don't do anything. I'm so sorry…I tried to tell them not to try the injection but they hit me.” He said, weakly, gesturing to big black spot he had on his eye. I nodded, and flung out my arm before him, downing the pill.

"Just do it..."

There was a clatter as he dropped the clipboard beside me, and a tingle as he positioned the saw just above the area of the infection. My splintered wrist barely hurt anymore. The Asian offered me his shoulder for me to bury my head into, and I accepted it gratefully. I think I even chewed down on his skin.

The tingling spread and the sick feeling grew as I realized he was sawing my arm off. The wait seemed torturous, but finally, there was a fleshy thump and a fleshy dragging noise. I knew then the deed was done and I could look.

I peeled my eyes open, one by one. The sight was shocking.

The wound wasn't even messy, excepting a bit of blood. My arm was cut off just above the elbow, and sewed together neatly with stitches. Waving my arm in the space where my arm had been just a minute ago, the shock set in.

Asian boy pulled me into his arms as I started to cry great, heaving sobs. He let me cry all over his shirt, and it was a while before I realized he was sobbing too, although they were tinkly and childish. With a jolt, I understood that he was in the same situation as I was. Plus an arm, of course.

“I know. I know…” He whispered, stroking my straw like hair with his long spindly hands.

We sat like that for hours, me and the Asian boy. He stroked my hair while I held his hand with mine, sharing my thoughts and fears. He told me it was all going to be Okay, even though it wasn't. But it was a nice thought anyway. The point was, I soaked up the human company like a dying plant soaked up water.

Loud footsteps echoed down the corridor, and before we could jump apart, Tom was in the doorway. "Did you finish that little Bitch yet, Sunny?"

It was silent as I looked at Sunny, and he looked at Tom, and Tom couldn't decide who to look at more because he was darting between the two of us. We both jumped when he opened his mouth into a roar.

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING SUNNY? I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL TAKE YOU BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM. I WILL TAKE YOU BACK!" He bellowed, spit flying everywhere. Sunny cowered back, but not before Tom grabbed him by the neck and pinned him up against the wall.

“I’ll deal with you myself” He spat while Sunny dangled, turning blue and gasping for air. Tom let go and Sunny crumpled on impact with the floor.

“I really hope you were worth his pain, Missy." Tom hissed at me, before thrusting Sunny out of the room. I looked on as Tom closed the door, his laughs fading off until it finally clicked shut. I sunk back into the corner again with my head in my ‘hand’. Sunny was the first nice person I’d seen here. And I’d already gotten him hurt. Would they kill him? I didn’t know, but one thing was for sure, he hadn’t wanted to cut my arm off, and he certainly wasn’t in with this whole idea of torture.

I lay slumped against the wall, weak with starvation and dehydration.

I picked up the pen for the second time this week.

Day seven...

They visited me again, except they injected my arm with something. It wasn’t good. It poisoned my arm, turning it black like some kind of disease.

They sent a boy in to cut it off. Sunny, I think was his name. The first human contact I've had in five days. But they were going to punish him now. And it’s my fault.

I dropped the pen with a clink beside me, watching as it rolled into the shadows.

On impulse, I grabbed a handful of dirt that sat nearly. Stuffing it into my mouth, I shivered slightly which munching down on the dirt. I heard a crunch - a spider. Nice. The juiciness spread through my mouth, making it numb. That kind of scared me a little, which seemed stupid seeing how much I had been through these past few days.

A large crash sounded from outside my window, and I jumped. Nervously, I laughed but it wasn't because it was funny. Yellow forks and bright flashes meant only one thing; Thunder and lightening.

I was in for one long night.