The Cursed and The Blessed

Chapter 34- West

I feel disgusted as my eyes peel open, limp with an immense grogginess I haven't felt in years. Recognisable white walls appear around me and a metallic taste hangs in my throat as horror flows within the pit of my stomach.

Oh God.

There's a light, slow chatter in the background too and I crane my neck upright, coming face to face with a glass wall and a man sitting on a chair on the other side. My eyes widen, taking in too much light in at a time.

Now, the panic sears.

The man smiles and a snapshot of my surroundings flash before my eyes; my cuffed hands on the chair, the wires around me, my friends sitting beside me in the same positions and looking equally as petrified.

And at that moment, I know this is far from the Governor's House.

"You're finally awake," the man behind the glass wall says. His voice doesn't sound menacing, but like I'm swimming under water, and when I study his face, I don't recognise it as a face from Dynasty; olive skin but with a grey, lifeless undertone and dark, saucepan eyes with shoulder length black hair. Maybe around late twenties. The door behind him opens and the Attacker than injected me earlier walks in, his formless and old face looking slightly different to before.

A deep, crushing feeling befalls me and I look to both men again, the pit in my stomach darkening and darkening, like their pools of blackness of eyes that also skim over my face. And my teeth clench, arms fall weak, wondering if all this is even, remotely possible, or a dream, maybe a hallucination.

But no.

The murky, white walls continue to hang around me and my throat feels tight, remembering the feeling of utter fear and panic again from years ago.

"You're Ferals," I mutter to myself, feeling the clamminess of the leather between my palms. This isn't the monster I expected.

"And you're Chiya Attah."

"How does he-"

"He knows all our names," Noah says lowly.

"I know everything about Cynah." We flinch as the man's voice suddenly springs back to life and it's deep and drowsy. He relaxes into his seat, looking calculative at the four of us as my eyes once again scan the closed-off room.

Not even windows.

"But what do you want from us!?" Brynn screams, recklessly thrashing in her chair, and groaning when she makes no progress. "Why did you bring us here?"

"What are you?" Vienne cuts in sharply, but her hands betray her and quiver in fright.

"We're the owners of Cynah," the man says instantaneously, springing forward from his chair and peering at Vienna. "Ferals. We may be very alien to you, but you don't realise that we've had out plant whisked away from-"

"Listen," Brynn pleads. "My father is the-"

"I don't care who your father is," he idly curls his lips upwards, visually unbothered. "Mr Doyer may be vice president of Dynasty, but he will be powerless before us."

"Hey," I spit. "I don't know who you think you are, but we really have to get back to Dynasty."

"Oh really?" he turns to me and creeps up to the glass, holding his hand up to the man who's about to step towards him. As he gets closer, I try to stop myself but I shrink away out of horror at how striking their resemblance is to us humans to the point that I can't see a trace of the foreign, alien features that were drilled into my head for years. I don't know why I was never as creeped out as this with the boy in the barrier. And even after I knew, I guess I forced myself to brush it away.