à la folie (To Insanity)

Prologue

     A loud scream pierces the air of room 14 in The Testing Centre, a small, rather scrawny girl strapped to the polished metal table. A mask of sorts covers her face, attached to a tube snaking out of an air tank. Inside the tank, an experimental form of airborne poison. Its targets, The Gifted. The girl in the room is one of many test subjects who possess The Gift. Her Test Giver, a tall man named Lenkov, presses the shut off button on the air tank, closing off the supply of the gas. He slowly removes the mask from her face, smiling as she gasps for air. 

     "You didn't expect that, did you?"

     He reaches over to the side table, his instruments lined up perfectly for her Operation. She shudders as he makes the first incision, cutting deep enough into her flesh to insert the first implant. Three left. With each cut of the blade, the girl suppresses any signs of any pain caused by it. She is suffering. Slowly. What other way is there to do this?

     Daily doses of experimental poisons, medicines, and torture techniques are administered. The girls life falls into a grisly pattern, each week moving like clockwork. She is given enough to sustain an unhealthy state, dropping ten pounds in her first few weeks. Sleep comes in short amounts, inturruped often by The Testing. Nothing was safe for her here, being a threat to the Government.

     She wakes lying on her stomach, still strapped to the cold metal table. Lenkov matrerializes in the doorway, wheeling in a machine. He pushes a series of needles under the skin on her back and arms, tubes connecting to the machine. She realizes his intent too late to struggle against this. He presses a button, instantly filling the tubes with her blood.

     "We need just a little bit from you, it will be of great use to your later Testing."

     He smiles at her discomfort, assuring her what came after the drawing would be much worse. The machine beeps loudly, cutting the tubes off. He pulls them out of her skin, not caring how rough his hands where. A box is pulled from the table next to him, containing a vial of serum and an injection needle. He drains the vial into it, preparing to give her a dose of whatever it contains. She watches him push the plunger down, the injection going straight to her bloodstream through her arm. Her mind goes blank, leaving her to helplessly watch him finish today's Testing. It ends quickly, she watches the door swing open, a boy supported by the two guards that enter. She can't move to save him, this boy. Neither one knew the other. He looks at her, a mix of panic and fury in his deep brown eyes. He shares a strong resemblance to her Tester. He utters a single word before Lenkov attacks her with another round of gas experimentation.

     "Please."

     She screams, shattering the momentary silence. The boy struggles against his guards, yelling something at Lenkov.

     "You promised! You said he was the last one! Leave this one alone Evan. Please."

     Everything goes blank from there, poison effectively making the girl blackout from pain.