The People with Useless Power

Chapter Twenty-nine

[A/N: Thanks to everyone still here and reading this sentence. And sorry for the portrait thing as the picture. I just didn't know how to get her appearance across otherwise.

Because I'm a bad writer. Whoops.]

The cleaning process was long and harsh.

Emily cried out in pain as one of the men in white stuffed a needle into her arm roughly. Tears clouded her eyes and she dropped to her knees.

The men pushed her into a chair and wiped her down, steam filling the room. Her dirty, stiff clothing was taken off and replaced with a loose, thin shirt and shorts. Her hair was washed, combed, and pulled up into a ponytail while she screamed from pain, and water was poured down her throat.

Her whole body felt like it was burning from the wax they layered on her.

The thick, gooey sensation of aloe ran up and down her arms and legs, and covered a gash on her rib cage. She let out a soft, ragged whimper, and another man in white frowned. "We're almost done, honey, with everything."

"She's extremely underweight, it's like she hasn't eaten in a month," a persistent man in white recalled to a bored-looking teenager. Emily had to blink a few times. She had two different colored eyes, one crimson like her eyebrows and one white like her hair.

"I don't care, she did what she was supposed to," the woman hissed, "and learned what she needed to."

"Elvira," the man stammered, "we can't just throw them in cages like animals-"

"I don't care if they're treated like animals!" Elvira stomped as the men in white hoisted Emily onto a gurney. They covered her in a thin, white sheet and started to roll her away. "We've gotten the job done, and all we really need is Mar-"

The door slammed shut and Emily finally relaxed, slowly falling asleep.

...

She watched from the corner as they finally rolled Emily in, carelessly slipping her out of the gurney and onto the floor. Mara brought her thin, almost-blue legs up to her chest and shivered.

Vincent shook Emily and lifted her up to lean against the wall. She looked paler and skinner than both of them, and her eyes were dewy and hazy as she finally opened them.

Emily was confused at first, but everything slowly came back to her. Mara slid over to her and hugged her until Lavender was brought in and until Vincent woke her up.

Lavender's head pressed against her tired body was the only thing keeping her in touch with reality. Emily looked around the room, her eyes barely open, and noticed a person, the same women with weird hair from before, standing in the middle of the room and talking.

Silently. She was talking silently.

The entire room was silent.

She opened her mouth and tried to speak. Nothing came out. Elvira turned to her and rolled her eyes. She turned to Mara, said something, and her black, dead eyes filled with fury.

Vira smiled at her and turned back to Emily, walking to her slowly. She grabbed her head and slammed it against the wall, and a sharp ringing pierced her ears before the sound of Vira's voice gave her a splitting headache.

"-you okay now? Should I break your face again?" She laughed a merciless laugh and backed away.

"Get her water," Mara ordered. "Now."

Vira glared at her and marched out.

"Who is she?" Emily croaked, and Mara frowned angrily.

"She's supposedly the mastermind behind everything. Like, the tests and whatever. I don't give a crap. She's obnoxious."

"You're becoming less formal by the minute," Vincent laughed weakly, and then looked down at his feet. Mara scowled at him darkly.

"Anything could happen to us. This isn't a time to make bad jokes. They washed me over and over again, but my skin is still crawling." Her voice was deep and harsh. "Lavender, get up."

Lav laid limp and still in Emily's arms, her eyes still closed, but her breathing had quickened.

"Lavender Array," Mara spat in a tone of malice and warning. She stood up slowly, infuriated, and Vincent sat up, his eyes widening. "Get away from Emily at once."

Mara let out a scream of frustration and raised her hand, thrusting Lavender into the other wall. Vincent looked from his sister to her attacker and sighed, shaking his head.

"You just made a bad decision," he muttered. With one flick of his wrist, Mara was on the ground, jittering and shrieking. "You're not the only one who's lost someone, Mara, don't take it out on other happy couples."

Mara let out a wail. "Y-y-you didn't l-lose Gr-Grayson! S-stop it! Y-you'll never kn-know this f-f-feeling!"

His face hardened and he sat down. Mara curled up into a ball, breathless, tears running down her pale, pain-stricken face.

"I thought you had no feelings," Vincent said lowly.

"I... thought that, also," she whispered, closing her eyes.

Vira slammed the door open again, marching in with a glass of water. She looked at the scene, her lips twitching, and crushed the styrofoam cup slowly, water spilling out of her white-knuckled fist.

She threw the cup on Mara and spat on her, turning and marching out, almost hitting the left side of the doorframe.

"I guess we weren't supposed to move," Lavender shrugged. Mara kept sobbing, her perfect hair sprawled across her face.

Vincent crawled to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Don't touch me!" she shrieked. He sucked in his breath and slid away.

The open door slammed and locked with a click, and with another whirr a camera swiveled out of the wall. It focused on Lavender, then Emily, then Vincent, but finally landed on Mara and stilled. Ten more cameras appeared and focused on her.

She looked up at them and wiped her tears, sitting up and fixing her hair. Mara leaned against the wall, letting out a sigh, and the cameras followed her.

"I hate you, Elvira," she sighed again. "I hate you so, so much."

...

It wasn't long until everyone was asleep.

Mara fell asleep with her head leaning against the wall, Vincent fell asleep curled up into a ball, and Lavender fell asleep curled up on Emily. Yet she was still wide awake, her heart beating rapidly and mind thinking over and over again about her family and her past life.

She killed one of her best friends. With her own two hands. Why hadn't she cared?

Sure, she cried. But she didn't think of it a lot.

Now with all the time to think...

"Emily?" Lavender groaned, her eyes only open a slit. Emily shushed her and kissed her forehead, and Lav smiled and closed her eyes again. "Don't think too hard," she muttered, "it's what they want you to do."

Emily frowned. "You're right," she whispered, but Lav was already asleep. She relaxed into her, comforted by the extra weight, and with one last kiss, Emily fell asleep.

...

The cage was dark and damp.

[A/N:

Hi everyone!

My cat's laying on me so it's sorta hard to write this, but whatever. I'm sorry for taking so long to update. Inspiration doesn't come easily to me, I guess.

The past few days have been crazy, crazy in a good way. Like... good crazy. I said that, didn't I? I don't care.

Oh, but I got my tooth taken out today and I've started to fear dentists. They have sharp tools....... near your neck.....

Shudder.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Like really. Thanks. So much. Thank you. Thank-

I'll stop.

~Personally, Personality~]