Underground

10

Estelle
"Estelle, are you awake?" I hear Luca ask. 
I sit up, and look at him, then down at my perfectly clean hands. 
"Estelle, it's not real, whatever happened isn't real." Luca comforts. 

I blink a couple times, thankful mostly, but still really scared.
"Can you say something?" He asks. 
"Yeah." I breathe, looking at him. 
He smiles. "You look terrified, what happened in there?" 
"My friend got shot, and I pushed my sister off a building." I answer, shakily.
"The first is always the worst, they'll get more gory and realistic, but they get easier to handle." Luca says.
"Okay." I say, not really having enough strength to get anything else out.
"The girl that used to have that cell, her name was Daisy, her sims were exceptionally terrible, she went crazy pretty quickly." He says.
"Will I go crazy?" I ask, looking up at him.
Luca shakes his head. "You have to have somebody to hold you to reality, that person will be me."
"Thank you." I say, leaning against the cold cement wall. 
Luca does the same. "They're gonna collect people for experiments soon, and something tells me that they'll grab you, too." 
"What are they gonna do to me?" I ask, fear dripping from my words. 
He shrugs. "Whatever it is, you'll get through it, I doubt they'll kill the only Underground person ever recorded." 
"Underground person?" I scoff. "It's called Pangaean." 
He smirks. "Underground person has a nice ring to it." 
"So does Luca the Lizard." I say. 
"Shh." He says, going straight-faced. 
6 guys dressed in all black walk passed us, 2 stopping in front of my door. 
"Luca, I don't wanna go." I whisper, looking at him. 

He makes eye contact with me. "Stay strong, Estelle."
***
After about 10 minutes kicking agents and screaming, they push me into a completely white room, both Charles and Jameson standing opposite to the door. 
"What do you want?" I ask, adjusting my shirt. 
Jameson speaks up first. "Luca probably explained it to you, as you are both getting pretty buddy-buddy now." 
"He didn't, why am I here?" I ask. 
"We're going to test your lungs, which should've shriveled up up into grey matter as of now." Jameson answers. 
Charles claps and a metal chamber rises from the ground, with a large glass window at the back, so they could walk my reaction. 
Jameson, pops open the door. "In you go."
I sigh and walk in, staring towards the door, which closes automatically when I step in.
Jameson snaps his fingers, and the chamber starts filling up with water.
Panic rises to my throat, and the water quickly rises to my ankles.
I try to calm myself, take deep breaths, steady myself of the wall of the chamber, but nothing was working.
Soon enough, the water was to my shoulders and I was banging on the sides of the chamber, screaming.
Something inside of me was telling me to stay calm and try swimming upwards, so I did.
I pushed myself up, my legs no longer touching the ground. 
It wasn't long until the whole chamber filled with water, and the panic rose to my throat again. 
Pounding on the siding of the chamber, trying to get Charles or Jameson to open the chamber, but all they did was stand there taking notes, analyzing every movement I make. 
I felt my throat tighten after a few minutes, I could feel my face going a different color. 
Jameson looked at Charles and said something, which Charles nodded at. 
Then all the water started to drain, leaving behind sweet oxygen for me to breathe in and survive. 
Once all the water drained, the chamber door opened. 
"So you lost your breathing properties?" Charles asks?
I shrug. "I guess." 
"Are you even Estelle Zivari?" Charles asks. 
I nod. "I guess I can't breathe in water, like most things." I sass. 
"Give me your hand." Jameson orders.
I hold out my hand towards Jameson, who pulls a syringe out of his lab coat. 
He stabs it into the fleshy part of my hand, before pulling, and filling the syringe with my purple blood. 
"It could possibly be a hemoglobin deficiency." Charles says.
Jameson shakes his head. "This is the Underground girl, trust me."
I roll my eyes.
"Do you wish to go back to your cell?" Charles asks, looking somewhat sympathetic.
I scoff. "No I wish to go home to my friends."
"That can't happen, I'm sorry miss." Charles says, before beckoning some agents to guide me back to my cell.
***
"What the heck happened? Why are you so wet?" Luca asks.
"They tried to test out my lung capacity, and almost drowned me." I say, shivering.
Luca blinks. "Are you okay?"
"I'll be fine." I say, my throat choking up.
He looks at me wide-eyed. "Are you gonna cry?"
I shake my head. "No, I just miss my fake family."
"Don't we all?" Luca says. "Except mine was real, and I miss my mother a whole lot."
"Do you think she misses you?" I ask.
He nods. "She almost died keeping these scientists away from me, but ta da! They got me."
"I'm sorry." I say.
 He shrugs. "It's been a while, so I doubt she remembers me." 
"She's your mother, you're probably the only thing she thinks about." I say. 
He shrugs. "I bet your people are more worried about you." 
"I bet they are worried." I say. "Or scared." 
"From the little bits of information I've heard, they seemed to protect you a lot." Luca says. 
I nod. "I basically turned their lives around."
"Not everybody comes across a mysterious girl underground." Luca says. 
I smile. "And not everybody gets bitten by a lizard and gets scales." 
Luca sticks his tongue out at me. 
"Do you think you'll ever get out?" I ask. 
Luca shrugs. "I think I'll never get out, unless the government stops funding this mess." 
"Lu, I'm scared." I whisper. 
He gives a small sympathetic smile. "I was too, but you'll get used to it." 
"How?" I ask. 
"Give it time, and you'll make family here, and get used to the anxiety." Luca answers. 
"But I wanna go home." I say. 
"Don't worry, we're working on a plan." Luca mouths.