The Awakening

Chapter Five

The girl lies asleep, looking strained. Her body is rigid, but she just lies there. We all take careful steps towards the sleeping girl, making no sound, trying not to wake her. When I reach her bed, I take a seat on the edge, and as soon as I am fully seated on the mattress she springs alive. Her bright blue eyes show everything from confusion, to fear, to surprise.
"Umm hi," I say, giving a little wave.
"Where am I? Who are you? What happened to me? Where are the people who hurt me? Are they coming back?" Her voice is scared but harsh. She grabs my arm, and looks me right in the eyes, searching for answers.
"Calm down newbie, one thing at a time. Who are you?" Jane asks, turning the conversation around.
"My name's Adriane," she responds, pushing my arm away, and coming to her senses. "Look, I don't know who you people are, but you better start explaining what's going on," Her voice turns cold, and she scowls at us, pointing her finger at Jane as she accused her of something.
"Well there are more of us that there are of you, so you tell us how you got here, and who you are, and we will think about telling you who we are," Jane responds, making her own voice cold, and scowling back at her. The other girls scowl as well, but I can't hide the concern on my face.
"Fine, but I could use a glass of water," she mumbles. I turn my head to the cupboards, and swish my fingers to the side, making one pop open. Then with the same two fingers, I motion for one of the glasses to come to me. It comes and places itself on the palm of my hand. I had been practicing this with Frost yesterday with a feather, but it seems easier to do it now, without him glaring at me. I hold the cup out to Sophie who fills it with a snap of her fingers. She gives the cup to Adriane, who sits up, and drinks in thirstily after looking at it like we positioned it or something.
"Now talk," Emma says when the girl doesn't say anything.
"My name is Adriane, the took me out of an assembly at school. I got into a car with four men, one was named Frost, he seemed all right. Kinda like he didn't really want to be here. We drove until I fell asleep, and when I woke up I had a burning sensation in my chest, and they electrocuted me three times before I woke up here," she finishes. I start to laugh. The girls give me puzzling looks.
"Welcome to the club," I answer her when I finish laughing. The other girls laugh a bit too, but Adriane just stares at us like we are crazy, and who knows, maybe we are.
"Come have a seat at the table, and we'll tell you all about," Kate says, making her way to the kitchen to find some cookies for us to snack on while we talk. When we all are sitting down, Emma finds her voice. That is when I realize there is another chair.
"The same thing that happened to you, happened to all of us too, except we were all friends before we got taken to this facility. After that, Ella over here got all mess up from electricity because she took two of our hits for us," she says, motioning to me.
"After that when she finally woke up, we stayed here for a couple of weeks before these white patches on our chests came off and revealed these suckers that gives us superpower kind of things," Sophie adds, sitting back in her chair.
"Yeah, then we started training to become weapons for the freaks that tortured us, and we were living happily ever after until you showed up, and threw in another plot twist to our fairy tale," Jane says, sarcastic as ever.
"Oh Jane," I huff, and she smiles at me, but I only return a smile of my own with an extra roll of my eyes.
"That's great and all, but I'm gonna go to bed," Adrian responds cooly, getting up from the table.
"Why don't you eat with us?" I insist, and she shrugs, taking a seat on the couch, and flipping through the video cameras.
"What do Y'all want to eat?" Emma asks, clasping her hands together, and ignoring Adriane's absence. "Was thinking burgers, any objections?"
"Yeah, make ours without meat," Kate says, motioning to herself, and Jane. Emma nods.
"Hey newbie, you eat meat?" She asks Adriane, shouting over the TV.
"Hell yeah," she responds. Her tone isn't as cold as it was before, but it's still cool.
"Do you know how to make burgers?" Emma whispers to me when we reach the kitchen, making me laugh.
"Yeah, don't worry," I whisper back, making us both laugh.
"Hey!" Jane shouts. "Less laughing, more mashing!"
"Jane, you don't mash burgers, you only mix the meat," I say, rolling my eyes at her.
"And does that rhyme with laughing? No, now stop judging me, and hurry up, I'm starving." Jane's comment only makes us laugh more, but we get to it. We don't have burger buns, but we do have sandwich buns, so we use those. It's kind of funny that we have Worcestershire sauce to put in the burgers, but no buns to put the finished product in. I also end up making Jane tell me how to make a meatless burger because I had no idea what I was doing. Adriane joins us at the table to eat but doesn't speak unless spoken to.
"So what do you think your element is?" I ask her, after telling her about the dreams that determined what our element was. It turns out she had one too.
"Seeing that my dream was full of darkness, skulls, and boulders, I'm gonna say it's death. That's what it felt like at least." She responds and then smirks at my shock.
"Huh, guess you two should not be teaming up too much," Kate says, laughing. She stops when she sees the hurt on my face.
"What do you mean?" Adriane asks, the coldness of her usual voice warming up a bit.
"Ella's element is aether, so she can control matter. She controls in between the particles, which is thought of to be dark matter. She pretty much has the power of darkness, but with a fancier name. It's very powerful and very dangerous. If yours is dead, you two would be a very lethal pair," Emma sighs. She gives me a half smile, which makes me feel a bit better, but not enough for me to give her a full smile. She must know I'm upset because the look on her face changes to a look of worry when I don't give her my normal, full teeth smile back. When we are done, I take my turn to the bathroom and lay on my bed. Jane and Sophie are doing the dishes while telling Adriane about our dorm rules. They tell her about the bathroom routine and decide that she should go before Jane, so routine stays somewhat the same. They also tell her about dishes, and how everyone helps out to keep the place clean. She agrees to our few rules and then sits on her bed until it is her turn to use the bathroom. She seems cold, and bitter on the outside, but I don't think that is really who she is. I think she is just trying to protect herself. We at least know each other, but she doesn't know anyone here. She was already taken from her home, and if she gets close to us, and that happens again, it could be heartbreaking. I don't blame her for being reserved from us, maybe I would be to, but I hope it doesn't last forever because I want to get to know the real her, especially if we all end up staying here forever.
"Hey cupcake," Emma says, climbing into my bed, and laying next to me. This gets a real smile out of me. "You all right?" She asks me, reaching for my hand.
"Yeah, just confused, and tired, like everyone else," I tell her, excluding the fact that I'm still terrified.
"Ella, don't sugar coat it. I am your best friend, I know when you're lying," she warns me. I take a deep breath before I answer her.
"Okay fine, I'm scared out of my mind, but not only for being turned into a weapon, or having to go back to that cold room where they tortured us," I pause, feeling my heart beat faster.
"Then what is it?" She asks, finally turning to look at me.
"I'm scared that something is going to happen to one of you, and I won't be able to do anything," I admit to her, but turning my head away, and Emma laughs. I look at her, puzzled.
"What are you laughing at?" I ask her, but a smile hits my face, instead of the scowl I was going for.
"It's you! You are always so worried about everyone else, you forget about yourself. You have to stop trying to protect us. You can't help us unless you can help yourself first," she says. She has given me good advice, but the chances of me taking it are slim, even though I know she is right. "Geez, if you had a weakness, that would be it, and we can't afford any weaknesses," she finishes, which gets me thinking. Yes, my friends are my weakness, but everyone has a weakness, right? Emma ends up falling asleep next to me, but I don't mind. It is nice to still have my sarcastic, best friend with me, as squishy as it is.