The Labs

Sceia's arrival

I was three when I was captured. I count the days. Well, at least I did, before it became too much. I remember it clear as day. I had a giant thing thrown over my head. I can see no further into my past.

The leader of this place dumped me into a room. It was bland, the walls a dull greyish colour.

"What's your name, little girl?" asked the leader.

"Sceia." I answered immediately, too young to lie. "I'm three. I'm not like everyone else."

"Really?" said the person, sickly sweet. They were playing along, while truly they knew who I was, they knew my gift, they knew everything.

And I, a stupid three year old girl, showed them.

"Lab three." They said, once I'd come round. I was wearing some sort of uniform and was being carried down a corridor. "That's where you'll be. Room ten. I'm afraid spirits are still a little wild, this girl, Mia, disappeared yesterday."

He didn't use the word 'escaped'. That would have sounded too confining. He instead used 'disappeared.' It was a similar word with a completely different meaning. I then entered Lab 3 for the first time.

It was horrible. There was a stench of chemicals that made me want to throw up, and everything from the walls to the table in the middle of the room was a dull shade of grey. A girl of about seven was wandering around with a dragon head. However, everybody there had the same short simple haircut. The only things that differed us were the codes on each T-shirt. The dragon head girl had one reading 'L3R02'. I looked down at my own, and it read 'L3R10'.

"I see you are interested in the coding." Smiled the man. "The first two digits show which of the three labs you are housed in. The remaining three are your room numbers, from 1 to 14. As you may have noticed, you are room 10, and so anything with that number on it is yours."

I stared around at the blank white room. Could this really be simply a re-homing? I was to find out. A person walked up to me, followed by another. A girl and a boy, rooms four and five, about the same age.

"Would you like to join our party?" asked the girl.

"What for?" I asked, puzzled.

"Mia's escape! You've got her room, that kinda shows that she isn't here anymore."

"E-escape?" I asked, still confused.

"Yes! Normally nobody ever gets out of here. Mia was of a weapons branch, though. She could achieve anything. Oh, and by the way, my name's Flora."

"I'm Sceia." I said. "And it's nice to meet you."

After that first meeting, Flora made a whistling noise and everyone came out of their various rooms.

"Lab 3, meet Sceia!" she said. It was night time, but we started the party right away.

"Won't the scientists catch us?" asked one person. Flora laughed.

"NEVER! It's Crystal on duty! She's the nicest little thing..."

"I'm surprised she's still here in the first place, to be honest." Said the boy next to Flora.

"Fauna, don't be such a party pooper! Crystal's my friend!" sang Flora, making sure that everyone was out. Then she headed into the Lab beyond.

"This is the most risky part of the operation." Fauna explained to me. "We're summoning the other labs. Lab one and lab two."

When Flora came back, it was with a rabble. She closed the door, Crystal entered out of another, and the party began.

I was so tired, I didn't remember much of it. What I did remember was Flora lifting me up, shouting,

"This is Sceia, the new L3R10! Let her time here be the dawn of a new era!"

Somebody also sang a song, one I found difficult to stop humming afterwards.

"Once upon a time, in a blank white hall,

A little sharp girl took a terrible fall.

Though the scientists were hunting her there,

She vanished into thin air.

Once upon a time, in a small dark vent,

A little sharp girl through these she went,

Though her leg was throbbing from a wound,

She would be at the end soon.

Once upon a time, through an unexplored room

A little sharp girl weaved like thread on a loom,

Though the big achievement she would only just scrape,

This little black girl would escape.

Once upon a time, in the big wide world,

A little sharp girl through a doorway she hurled,

Something not seen today but then tonight,

She decided she would be all right."

Flora put me to bed sometime in the early hours of the morning.

"It's not always this fun, Sceia." She said, pushing my hair out of my eyes, "And I'll have to go in a few years. I don't know what they do, but they only test the children. I honestly don't know what Lab 3 will do without me and Fauna. We've Ben their sort of... leaders for years now." She pulled the blanket over me, brushed her delicate fingers over my cheek, got up, and closed the door.

I was alone, in room ten. Alone for my first night in the Labs.