DEVIANT [H.S.]

12 - Plans

I stay silent as Malachi leads me down the long corridor outside of my now old room, and takes me upstairs. We pass through the gym; Harry stops his violent assault on the punching bag and watches me follow Malachi.

"What's going on?" He mouths to me.

I shake my head, shoving off any answer I could possibly give to him. Harry will just have to find me in my new quarters for a good enough explanation.

"I thought my area wouldn't be ready for another two weeks," I mention out of the blue. Malachi doesn't flinch or look back to me as he responds.

"We finished quite early. Only a few more hours and the Retrieval should be ready for your use."

"How often will I be using it?" I wonder out loud.

"A lot," He says flatly. He pushes through a set of double doors after pressing in a keypad combination. Through these doors is the one place I feel most uncomfortable in.

We walk past eight windows. Eight windows that each have one person in them. One Deviant. A Deviant that is battling their symptom and have to be isolated in order to do so. The lab must be close to this place.

"We call this Isolation. You can see why," Malachi says, not bothering to look at the people who are so desperately fighting for a way out of their condition.

My eyes look over to a window, the same window I think Harry looked through. The same girl sits in the corner of the room, clutching her ears as if a piercing siren is ringing directly towards her.

I stop. Something about her looks familiar. Long maroon hair, grey eyes on the verge of popping out of their sockets.

"Who is this?" I ask Malachi, stopping him in his tracks. He turns. His eyes recognize the girl and his lips part before he explains.

Malachi walks towards me. "That is Mona, Aubrey's sister. She's been in Isolation for the past three weeks. We fear she may be in her last days."

"Aubrey doesn't speak of her," I comment.

"Some Deviants don't like to talk about their siblings here. They feel that if they do, they'll be seen as weak."

A certain Harry comes to mind, one that only spoke of his younger sister to me just last night.

"And Mona, have you tried anything to sedate the symptom? Medicine could be useful in drowning out some of the noise she is hearing," I ask, concern lacing each of my words.

Once I get situated in the lab, I want Mona to be the first I assist with Malachi's guidance.

"We're limited here, Serena. Not every solution can be found with the Retrieval, and we can't be freely roaming the outside," Malachi says, almost condescending in a way.

"Well, something has to help her-"

"Serena, please.. we know what we can do, and we're doing our best," Malachi interjects, turning on his heel to continue down the hall. I follow reluctantly.

If they knew what they were doing, Mona wouldn't be in her last days.

///

"I'll let you get settled now," Malachi says quietly, exiting my quarters promptly. He even showed me all around the lab next door, discussing how to use basic equipment and where key codes are stored.

Now I stand alone in my new room, surrounded by a new bed, wardrobe, bookshelf.. even a bathroom.

Why does this feel so out of the ordinary?

If I wanted to adapt to the way of living here, why didn't Malachi let me stay with Harry? Harry wasn't perfect, but he did show me what being a Deviant is. Even if I don't know him completely.