Two

Chapter One

It's 3:37 am. The air I breathe is stale, and smells of decay and rot. The walls and ceiling are made of rock, and something drips from them- it has a red tinge to it, and it's source is unknown. It smells strongly of blood. I feel something- fear. It clutches my throat and tears out my stomach. And every second that I'm here, I feel myself sinking lower, and further into a hellish madness.

I breathe again.

The worst part about my situation, is the second I leave this place, someone dies. They're watching me. They're watching us. They're always watching. They don't think I know, but I do. Someone will die, and there's nothing I can do about it.

A creature watches me. It breathes when I breathe, it blinks when I blink, and it is the reason I am here. It's the reason I scream into the darkness where no one can help me, and is the reason why I can help no one. I am locked in this prison for the rest of my life, and it's all their fault.

This creature, is me, or at least, the part of me that won't leave, but torments and haunts my every waking moment.

I sit on the rocky bench in my cell and think. Think back to all the ones I could have saved, but didn't. To the thing inside me I tried to fight, but couldn't.

I think.

The thinking strengthens her.

I pull my knees into my chest and wrap my arms around them. I bury my head in my knees and listen to the sounds around me. I soon fall asleep.

I'm awoken by a sharp heavy breathing to my right.

I lift my head up and look in the direction of the noise. I see nothing, so I get up and walk towards it, or at least as far as these cell walls will let me go.

When I finally see where the source of the noise comes from, I'm mildly confused; there is someone in the cell next to me that wasn't there when I fell asleep. 

I can't see the person very well in the darkness, and I'm not sure they can see me at all; but when they finally turn, and we make eye contact, I see that they are like me- female.

We look at each other for a few seconds before I raise my right hand to wave at her- she scrambles away from me and peeks at me through the shadows. 

I'm puzzled. I don't even know this girl for five seconds, and already she hides from me? I decide to try again. I speak to her this time.

"It's alright." I say. "There's no need to be frightened."

She stays hidden, but I can see she's about the same old seventeen year old age as me.

She still doesn't move, so, once more, I try.

"It's okay, I promise I'm not going to hurt you. Will you please come out?" I ask calmly, but I do wonder why she thinks I can do anything past this cell.

She still doesn't budge, but to my surprise, she speaks.

"Where am I? When did I get here?" she asks, flustered and anxious.

"Well" I start. "I don't know when exactly you got here, I was asleep and then when I woke up you were here...but as far as to where you are, well, none of us know that either. Just know that if you're here, you're not normal, which makes you a threat, and here, all you are is a specimen to be studied." I say.

At first she says nothing, but looks around as if realizing suddenly that I am not the only one looking at her. I think I see her shudder.

She speaks again, this time pointing, and looking, at me.

"Well that's all fine and great, but who the hell are you?" she says now losing her scared tone of voice. She sounds terrified.

I don't like the way she asks the question; or at least she doesn't.

"I would bite my tongue and rephrase the question before I spoke again, miss." I say dangerously...but the voice isn't mine.

I compose myself. She stares.

"I apologize, I don't know what came over me." I say trying to lighten the mood in this dreary, and dark cave.

She looks at me, and finally steps out from the shadows. I look at her.

She has golden blonde hair, dark brown eyes, and a roundish face. She wears a T-shirt that has a movie reference on it, but I'm not sure which one- she looks back at me.

"I'm sorry I spoke to you like that. To e quite frank I'm terrified right now." she says looking around again.

Then she smiles. How can anyone smile in a place like this?

"My name is Bryce." she says.

I find it interesting that her name is Bryce, and apparently she can see the confusion on my face, because she starts to explain.

"My parents thought I was unique, so they gave me a "unique" name for a female I guess." she says smiling. Interesting.

"Oh, alright" I say. Even though I stop talking, she looks at me eagerly as if waiting for me to say more. I then realize that I have not yet told her my name. 

I look at her and say "Well, nice to meet you Bryce- my name is Tess."

She smiles at me again, and this time, I give her a crooked smile of my own.