Complicated

The First Time

Lily Ann Peterson had never had a problem being quiet. Growing up, her father had operated under the belief that children should be seen and not heard. Truly, it was barbaric, but that was how things were with her father. She had grown accustomed to it all too quickly.

As a young girl, her father would snap or yell at her if she spoke out of turn or did something she wasn't supposed to. She quickly learned to fear him. By her fifth birthday she had understood that to keep her father appeased, she was to stay by her mother's side, silent and not doing anything she wasn't supposed to.

At school, she was labeled as the shy, timid girl, but she had been trained and, even away from her father, she didn't dare do anything she wasn't supposed to. If it got her in trouble at school, she would be in worse trouble at home.

If she was quiet at school, then she was silent at home. To be loud was to be in trouble. She learned how to walk in a way that would make her steps silent. Her breaths came out as barely a whisper. She, sometimes, could not even hear her own breathing.

She had to be careful, though. Being so quiet could lead to scaring somebody. If there was somebody in the room she was going to, she would take a step too heavy or breathe a little to ragged or even clear her throat.

Like every other person in the world, Lily broke the rules. She had control over herself, but sometimes she just snapped and said or did something she wasn't supposed. She got in trouble, of course. However, no matter how many rules she broke, there was one rule she did not want to risk breaking.

"Don't go in the basement!"

Her father had snapped it at her when she was barely old enough to understand. She had cowered behind the counter and gave a quick nod.

When she was thirteen, however, her curiosity had overcome her. She had been walking past the basement door then froze. She turned her gaze to the door and her eyebrows furrowed. Her mind raced, and she tried to resist, she really did, but she couldn't.

She let out an almost silent sigh then reached out and opened the door. Her footsteps and breaths were silent. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyebrows rose, and her jaw dropped open to form a small "o". Her eyes moved across the room then she froze when she saw her father. He was standing at a desk and his sharp, cold eyes were on her.

"What are you doing down here?" He snapped.

Lily didn't say a word. What could she say that wouldn't get her into to trouble? But, she also knew that if she didn't say anything, she would get in trouble as well.

"I said, what are you doing down here?" Her father growled, stepping around the desk and towards her. Lily took a step back and turned her eyes to her feet.

"I'm...I'm sorry, father. My curiosity got the best of me," Lily murmured, her sweet voice almost too soft to hear. She turned to leave, knowing that was what her father would tell her to do.

"Did I say you could leave?" He snapped. Lily froze then turned back to him.

"I-i'm sorry?"

Her father moved back to the desk and pressed a few buttons. A wall slid to the side to expose a glass tube.

"Get in the tube, Lily Ann," her father commanded.

Lily looked at the tube then looked back to her father then looked back to the tube. She gave an almost imperceptible sigh and walked over to the tube. She stepped in and the door closed. She turned and looked back to her father.

Christopher Peterson was looking down at his desk and was pressing buttons. He pressed one last button then Lily felt a quick stabbing pain in the back of her neck then it was over.