Playing with Fire

1

I wake up and I can only see darkness...

Darkness.

Yeah... That's what I can see around me, but below me is illuminated. Weakly, I stare around me but everything felt weird. As if it was... upside-down.

My head somehow pulsates as blood rushes towards my brain, my hair dangles below me and the only thing keeping me up is a cyan light-circle-thing by my feet. I can feel myself levitating from the floor. Sweat beads dribble down my forehead, onto the elevated platform which I am hanging above.

I bend up to see whether if there were any external pieces holding me up but what I could see: there were none.

"Hello?"

"Is anyone there?"

"HELLO?"

"Can anyone hear me?"

No one can.

I am stuck in a room by myself which is entirely filled with black and blue. Like the bruises on my arm.

Wait.

Bruises on my arm?

I lift my arm up to see big purple-ish splodges on them - most on the forearm - and same on the other.

Suddenly I hear a metal door open and I see a feminine silhouette and alongside her is a tall male one too.

"Um, can I have a little help?" I ask as she walks up to me.

As she stands by me, I can see what she looks like. She has blonde hair with a bob cut, glasses, blood-red lips, green eyes and she is wearing a white suit.

"Lawrence Holloway," she says. "Age: 19. Gender: Female. Date of birth: 31st March 2025."

She leans close to me and presses her index and middle finger together and places them onto my neck. Her fingers are stone cold. She holds her fingers there and removes them then writes down something. What is she doing?

I try to look at her notes but I can only see the dark ink scrawls on her paper.

"Okay. Her heart rate: 75. Normal." she stops and squats, staring into my eyes intensely. I stare at her. Now I know she is not going to help me. She is just keeping records of me.

I scowl at her.

"Steven, grab the syringe," she commands and a male who was wearing clad black passed her a needle and she held a flask which contained a liquid substance in it.

"What are you doing?" I question as she dips the needle in the flask and pulls back the plunger, letting the liquid flow into the barrel.

No response apart from concentration on the injection.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I yell at her.

He places her hand onto my neck, spreading her index finger away from the rest of them and placed it next to her thumb as if she was going to pull out an arrow from the target.

"Stay still," she whispers into my ear and I feel a sickly feeling as she places it into my neck. She removes it and places her hand onto my cheekbone. "That's a good girl."

I stiffen as she hisses her words at me.

"What did you inject into me?" I ask.

"Full of questions now, aren't you." she sniggers to herself. "You'll find out."

I feel the adrenaline flow through me, fear rushing in my bloodstream. Anger seizes me and my instincts take over:

I snarl at her and punch her in between her eyes, snapping her glasses into two uneven halves. She stumbles and falls onto the floor.

I see the used injection and I pick it up and threaten her. She stares at me, startled by my action. The tip of the needle glistens in the blue light, like a blade. The liquid oozes down the nib then falls onto the floor.

"Let. Me. Go. Then everything will be okay."

Steven stares down at her then his eyes trails behind her as she scrambles to the control panel and presses a few buttons and within a few seconds, the restraints from my leg disappear as if someone turned a light off.

I collapse into a heap. The syringe rolls out of my hand, fleeing from my grasp. I scramble to it but I also see the woman try to grab the weapon. It felt like a race to the finish line - however, the 'finish line' was the injection.

Lucky for me, I have more power in my legs and arms, so I manage to there first. I curl my nimble fingers around the cylinder, then the plunger.

I get up, still holding the syringe in front of me like it is a knife.

"You won't stop me," I corner them into the wall. "You won't call for backup. You'll pretend that nothing has happened."

They nod ferociously, bodies shaking with fear. I don't like the sight but it's my only option. To live or to die?

I step out of the door and I run out of the laboratory, risking my life.