Electric

Chapter 5: Library Fire

It's been a few days since Agent Riley gave me the news, and I've felt like the walking dead without Cy's warm smile. She completely ignores me now since I told her my decision, and I hate it. Not to mention I'm heartbroken at the thought of her leaving me even though I want to gain control of my powers for her safety and no one else's, not even my own.

Each time I go to bed, she's in her tube and ignores me when I bang on her window. I finally go to bed after an hour and sleep restlessly. Every morning I wake up she's already gone. No cute stumble, no secret thoughts. The silence is deafening, and lately I find myself listening to everyone else around me just to fill the gaps she has left. It would be creepy I suppose if anyone in the dusty library I hang out at knew I was listening.

"The food in here looks so good! Why can't our lunch ladies cook like Martha Stewart?"

Ha! I agree with you there. I mentally commentated to myself, trying to distract my mind from obsessing over my ex. The next thought floating by was a book enthusiast or something, because they always talk about books in a romantic way. It's a little weird, but who am I to judge? I'm the one sitting alone and staring at a wall while listening to a random person's thoughts.

"Mm I love the feel of old paper and a delicately crafted leather bound cover."

I jump as a loud thought pierces through a bit of commentary I was about to snark to myself.

"Wha- What the hell is that?!"

That got my attention, and I was up and out of the soft chair in the library to investigate. It had sounded like it came from the darkest part of the library, where most of the boring books were held.

'Maybe it was just a bug or something that scared her... A weird looking bug...' I hoped fervently, not really wanting monsters to be a problem on top of everything else going on in my life. I peer around the corner and realize I was only half right.

I couldn't tell you how it got in past the many layers of security and alarms, what it was for or why the girl chose to hit at it with a plastic tree fern, but I can tell you what it was. Vaguely so, at least. A very large robot spider, with dynamic cameras for eyes and sharp looking metal legs lined with sharp ridges, and it was the ugliest thing I had ever seen.

After several seconds of the frantic bookworm's fern getting ripped to shreds on the metal bug, it finally broke apart and her scream launched me into action. I didn't hesitate, though maybe I should have. I hit it with a bolt of lightning, and it fried instantly. But so did the stack of old dried books next to it, which made the girl scream more.

"You clutz, those were my favorite books!" I wince at her whining squeal and run into the aisle where an old fire extinguisher was and frantically pull at the rusty pin.

She continues to berate me while I struggle, and finally a jet of white foam covers the small pile of charred paper and metal scraps.

I drop the old tube with a sigh, suddenly exhausted from everything the past few days have thrown at me: Benny, Amanda, Cy, Facility One and now robot spiders for absolutely no reason...

Suddenly I find myself hunched over with my forehead to the ground and someone's hand on my back, and I can't stop sobbing for several minutes before I pass out to a distant sounding voice asking if I'm okay, which I can't answer. I might never be okay again.

...

Once again I wake up in a daze, electric fog clouding my thoughts in a dark tube. I stare in the darkness for several minutes, reluctant to open the tube in case I had been put in the Box again for destroying facility property, even though I was protecting another Unique.

I push open the tube to find I am in my own hallway and sigh in relief, resting my arms on the side while I soak in the recent events. Was it a dream? I wonder.

"C5119? How are you feeling?" The girl from earlier rose from the chair by my tube, and smiled softly at me. For the first time I notice her completely black eyes, they looked demonic with her pale skin and short black hair. She was actually strange when compared to the bright colors of everyone else, and it was in fact refreshing.

I look up and try and smile back, my dry lips failing to curl even halfway for any kind of believable reassurance. "I'll be okay I think, thank you." I reply without moving from my spot in the bed. 

She's about to say something else when a flash of blonde in a training suit darts into the hallway straight past her to me. "Syd?!" Cy's eye opens wide as she sees me sitting in the tube exhausted, my hair a mess and my body covered in a cold sweat. She turns from me to the girl, a flurry of questions that I can't even try to keep up with spill onto both of us, and the dark haired girl answers everything without hesitation.

"What happened? Is she okay? Was there really a fire? Why are you here?"

"It's a long story but she's okay. C5119 set a small fire in the library protecting me, and I wanted to make sure she was okay after she collapsed."

I stop listening to their conversation after that because every fiber of my body is focused on Cy. She looks upset and worried, just because of me. I wish I didn't cause her such grief, if only I had developed differently. Or not all...

I keeps my eyes locked on her beautiful face for several minutes before I hear her call my name again, finally pulling me out of my deep funk and back into reality.

"What?" I ask quietly, making her crack a half smile. "What were you doing in the library Syd? You never read books unless you absolutely have to." She asks again, her cute face studying my expression from answers.

"Uh..." I mumble, unsure what to say. I can't tell her the truth, that I went there to listen to random people's inner thoughts to fill the silence she left in my head. That would be sappy and freak out the bookworm, since it was her thoughts that brought me to that corner where I killed the bug. Most people don't like the idea of someone peeking into their head.

"I had to study." I lied lamely, and even though Cy could easily see through my fib she decided to leave it alone. The other Unique didn't seem to know any better, so she left with Cy after a little more empty chatter.

...

The next day I was in the middle of target practice, using my electricity to strike down metal disks flung into the air, when I saw the girl again. Her number is 45U00 I found out yesterday after Cy left, though she hasn't told me her real name if she even has one.

When I finished practice, she was waiting for me in the locker room. Her dark orbs drew my attention again, their dark voids an oddity but not unpleasant to see again. "Hi 45U00, it's good to see you."

She nods at me with a wave. "Hi C5119. I need to talk with you."

I nod and sit on the bench beside me, and 45U00 does the same. "Sure, what's up?"

I hear her inhale softly before averting her distracting eyes, the wall seemingly taking her interest as she tries to form the words she was looking for. "You are going to die."