captor ❀ daniel seavey [ON HOLD]

4 ; introductions

nothing, a bright light, and nothing again. i open my eyes once more, this time letting them adjust. my head hurts, and my memory is cloudy until i fully wake up and remember the events of the night prior.

"finally, you're awake," a voice calls, and i whip my head in their direction. i'm met with an unfamiliar face coming from another room similar to my own, one of the six cells in this small prison. a girl with strong, chiseled features and dark hair stands within the clear walls. "you've been out for two days. usually people wake up after one, but i guess you're sensitive to the gas. you'll toughen up and get used to it, trust me."

"two days? the gas?"

"there's gas and there's smoke - each have different effects. the gas knocks you out. for most people it lasts around a day, like i said, but you were out for two. this definitely won't be your last encounter with it, and eventually it won't affect you as severely."

"newbies are always sensitive - weak," the boy in the room to the left of mine mumbles, pushing a lock of curls behind his ear and flashing me oddly cold brown eyes.

"and the smoke?"

"truth is, we don't know much about the smoke. we know it makes you cooperative, but that psycho brings you out of your cell when he uses it on you and then brings you back hours later, and when the effects ware off, you don't remember what happened. anyway, i'm sure your head hurts, right?" i nod, trying to take in this information as best as possible. "the stream," she says, gesturing to a small river-like form that runs through the center of all the rooms and into the rock walls of the lab beyond our cages. "i'm going to pass some aspirin through." she slides a plastic bag under the wall that separates her room from zach's, who's either passed out or asleep. i glance at him, and my heart swells. i hope he's okay. i hope i'm okay.

"hey, newbie! don't miss the bag."

i grab the medicine, popping it into my mouth and using the stream to down it. "if you don't mind me asking, what the hell are we doing down here? what's going on?"

another girl makes herself known. "wish we could tell you, kid. we're just about as lost as you are, but i'll tell you what we do know." she stands, walking to the cot in her room, taking a seat as she pushes her bright pink hair behind her ear. "everyone who's been put in here so far is lucid. it's what links us all together and what we think psycho is testing us for, but we don't know specifically what he wants or why he wants it, and we don't know how far he'll go to get what he wants."

"lucid..." i mutter under my breath. "you all lucid dream?"

"each and every one of us. i assume you do too," the pink-haired girl sighs. "i'm coll, by the way. colleen."

"i'm katrina! you can call me kat." says the first girl, weakly smiling.

the boy with the curly hair speaks up. "jack."

"he's also a bit of a prick," kat says, "it's not unusual. don't be offended." jack glares at her.

i glance at the room between colleen and jack. there's no one in the room, but there's a jacket on the bed and flowers covering the ground. i begin to inquire, but before i get a chance, i make eye contact with coll. she had caught my stare and seemingly kept the conversation going to keep me from asking. "do you know the other kid? the new one next to you?" coll asks.

"yeah, i mean i do now. his name's zach, he flew in from washington with me and we rode here together."

kat lets out a small giggle. "he's kinda cute, eh?"

"oh yes, love me a mans who sleeps with his mouth wide open! definitely the most attractive trait possible, i'd say. especially when drool begins to run down their chin... nothing compares." coll sarcastically responds, cupping her face with her hands as i laugh lightly.

"who belongs in the empty room over there?" i ask, pointing to the room between jack and colleen, who looks at me with wide eyes that whisper 'i warned you.' everyone goes silent. "should i not have asked?"

jack speaks. "no, you shouldn't have. but you're just another airhead girl who doesn't think about what they're saying or if it could affect anyone."

i blink, processing what he just said and trying to understand why he was so hostile.

"jack," kat says quietly, "she didn't mean to, she doesn't know."

"you're right, she doesn't know, and she doesn't need to. she's sticking her nose where she doesn't belong."

we fall back into a silence, and i see kat mouth an 'i'm sorry' to me. i mouth back a 'what happened?' and she responds 'i'll explain someday.' i rub my head, trying to figure out why jack's so cold to me.

the silence is broken (not just through lip-syncs) by zach as he returns to consciousness. "w-where am i?" his deep, raspy voice coos.

"good morning, sleeping beauty," coll jokes, "wipe your chin."

kat gives him pills for his headache as she did me, and the group fills him in on what's going on. zach sounds like he's about to cry slightly more with every question he asks. his hands are shaky as he realizes the dismality of the situation. we all try to calm him down, but nothing seems to work. he sits, rocking in the corner of his room. my heart aches for him. he thought this was going to be heaven. he had full faith this experiment was going to fix him - to fix us all. his hopes were higher than anyone else's, and i can't imagine the state of shock he's in. obviously i'm shocked as well, but he imagined this experiment being his savior - i just had nothing else to do instead.

we attempt further to bring him back to sanity - or at least back to calm - and it once again fails. we decide to let him calm down himself. slowly but surely, he begins to shake less and soften his breathing. he begins to return to a normal state, but before he gets the chance, a white fog fills slowly begins to fill our rooms from vents in the top corners of them.

"it's smoke, get down!" kat yells over the sound of the smoke gushing through the vent. my heart pounds in my ears as my breath hitches.

"what?" i scream back, utterly confused at the situation.

"if you don't want to wake up with another pounding headache or get a concussion and never wake up again, i suggest you either sit or lie down," colleen shouts, taking a seat against the wall of her cell.

i take her advice and lie down face up, and the last thing i remember before my consciousness and memory is fogged is seeing daniel come towards my room, telling everyone else not to move.