Miracle

Chapter 9: Unmasked

“Here we are!” Lucille presented the tall glass doors to me and she whispered something into the intercom linked to the inside of the room then flounced away “I’m going to head back now!” Probably to meet up with Rain I thought with a sigh. I waved a hand in front of the sensor and the glass doors slid open.

“That’s her?” sighed an old woman in a lab coat standing next to Eugene. Eugene grunted in response.

“Hi,” I gave Eugene the who-the-heck-is-this-old-women look and the old woman harrumphed.

“Children these days are so disrespectful,”

I clenched my jaw “Excuse me?”

She hobbled over and pinched my cheek “How do you expect to win with such little to work with?”

“We’ll deal,” Eugene said curtly.

“Oh, Eugene,” she sighed again “Come with me child, and no Eugene you cannot come or you will mess up the whole procedure.” She started to drag me out of the room.

“I thought I was here for paperwork?” I asked, trying to pull my hoodie’s sleeve from her iron grip.

“Blah, you can do that later,” the old woman pulled out a key. The master key.

“Now tell me what you know about your Aellyni parent?”

“My what?” I asked, cluelessly. I followed her through door after door. There was many passcodes that she had to enter that I marveled that she could remember all of them at her old age.

“Your “Extraterrestrial” parent,” she put finger quotes and I would have laughed at her sarcastic expression in any other situation.

I hesitated. “I don’t remember her, I’m an orphan remember?”

She saw through my lie right away. “Her?” Drats.

“I mean, I don’t know if my dad or my mom or-” she cut off my rambling.

“You’re hiding something,” she stated.

You’d think that living in Swyncrest would have made me a good liar. Nope. “My mom was an ET,” I sighed, giving away a tiny piece of information. I don’t think mother would mind.

“I see, sit down, I guess we will have to do this the longer way.” I surveyed my surroundings and found myself standing in a white room with machines and a chair in the middle. The chair gave off a menacing feel as if it had suffered in its existence. Not that a chair could have feelings. Nonetheless I inched my way towards the door. The glass door slid shut. There was no handle.

“Girl, it would be much less painful if you just sat down in the chair and removed your mask.”

I instinctually reached for my mask. Making sure it was still there. “No,” I shook my head and she groaned.

“Don’t blame me, you chose the hard way,” she nodded towards the camera on one end of the circular room and the door hissed open.

“Hi,” Little Jo greeted, walking in the room. The old woman pointed at me.

“Jo?” I said questioningly with a nervous laugh “What’s going on?”

“Sorry Mer, it’s won’t last long, it’s just for protocol.” He walked closer and I retreated backwards, my back bumping against the wall.

“Protocol?” I echoed, fear creeping into my voice.

“Yeah,” he said with a sad look on his face, as if he regretted having to do this.

“Hurry up, I don’t have all day,” the old crone tapped her cane impatiently.

Little Jo suddenly lunged towards me and grabbed my wrists, I faked a hook, twisted around and kneed him in the privates. He groaned and I felt a stab of regret. “Sorry Jo, just trying to stay alive,” he recovered remarkably quickly and reached towards me with a large fist. His punch grazed my cheek bone and I winced. He was strong, very strong.

But I was faster, I swung a kick towards his head and before he could recover I yanked my hands from his grip. When I looked up, a fist came smashing into my face. I think the jerk broke my nose, were my last thoughts as I blacked out.

“Wake up,” the old lady slapped me and I gasped, pain shooting up to my nose. Blood ran down my chin from my nostrils. I tilted my head and breathed through my mouth. I gave a long string of profanities at the pain and she rolled her eyes “Suck it up, it’s just a little nose break.”

I noticed little Jo stood behind her with a bandage around his head. He gave me a weak smile. I bared my teeth at him. I think there was blood in them because he winced.

“Now that Sleeping Beauty had finally woken up,” she said sarcastically “We can start the procedure.”

“What procedure?” I spat the blood that had gathered at the back of my throat at her but she didn’t even wince when her white pants were marred by the blood.

“You lied when I asked you a question.” She replied informationally, she then started locking the clamps around my wrists, I noticed that the clamps around my ankle were already fastened and I was sitting in the menacing chair. I tried pulling from the metal clamps but they were unyielding.

“I’m not going to answer any of your questions.” I hissed, blood dribbled down my chin, I felt a breeze on my cheekbones. The area of around my eyes was frighteningly light. Where was my mask?

I saw the corner of my black mask peeking out of her lab jacket and looked at the old woman with hatred burning in my unmasked eyes. Jo hadn’t winced at the blood in my teeth, he had winced at my face. My monster face.

“Oh, I’m not asking anymore questions,” she gave me a grandmotherly smile “You’re going to tell me, everything you know.” Then she pulled a lever and the machine started to move. I tried to look up but a clamp held my head in place. The sound of the gears got closer and I closed my eyes. For once in my life I was truly and utterly afraid.

Click.