Tea Leaves and Diamond Bracelets

Sirena Mabon

Match Twenty-Four: Sirena Mabon:

-Russia-

This happened before the sixth Gate to the Apocalypse opened in Ikebukuro.

Ivan brought in twenty homeless protect for Project Drioma. Everything about this set-up felt eerily familiar. The white walls. The blinding lights. The lab coats. Somehow, he thought of Moscow in the 1950's. He could see himself sitting on his bed. They didn't restrain him last night. They had to cut him nails and his hair. He still had the urge to die. Anything to make the voice in his head shut up.

That's when the door opened. She's back again. What was she going to do him now? She pushed her tray in front of him. She started talking to him. He couldn't make out what she was saying. But then, she picked up the biggest needle on the tray.

"Ivan? Ivan?" he asked. The tall Russian man looked up. Alisa stood, looking up at him.

"You feeling okay?" she asked. Ivan blinked for a moment.

"Oh," he said. "Don't worry about it. Let's just start the experiment."

"Right..." Alisa said. She turned to the test subjects in the white room. The woman Ivan about ran over glared at him. In truth, they were only here for the free meals and lodging. Anything to get what they needed, right?

"Begin the experiment," Alisa said over the microphone.

"Copy that," Adrik said. He turned to the twenty men and women in the room. They all varied from ages fifteen to forty-one. No one would miss them. Putin wasn't going to say anything either. As far as he knew, this experiment doesn't exist.

First came the pills. They came three colors: white, red, and purple. The test subjects hare to take the white pill for three days. Three video cameras were placed in the room, set to record at all times. Karp and Adrik would be taking notes and observing. All twenty subjects would take that little white pill around 6:00 p.m. Their meals were kept light, mostly raw and cooked vegetables. The test subjects didn't complain. They were just happy to get food.

Ivan looked at one of the trays and began to think began to that mental hospital in the 1950's. It was winter, maybe Christmas in this memory. That nurse came back into his room. She was humming a happy little Christmas jingle that morning. This would be the first time he heard her voice loud and clear.

"Good morning!" she said in a cheerful tone. "How are you doing this morning, _?" He mumbled something to her, but his own voice didn't come out so clear. The nurse didn't pay much attention to his response.

"That's good," she said as she picked up a dish covered in a metal cover. This was the first time he could see her face.

All twenty test subjects cleared the first test. No signs of negative effects. The test subjects acted normal like they had before they started this experiment. Alisa walked around with a flashlight and flashed it into their eyes.

"Everyone is still conscious and breathing," she said. "We can initiate the next phase."

"Yes," Karp said.

Next were the red pills. Same routine as before. However, there were some minor changes. The red pills had to be taken first thing in the morning for five days. The test subjects were not allowed to have any meat or oils in their diets. Other than that, everything stayed the same.

"What is the point of this experiment?" the woman Ivan nearly ran over asked when they started having out the red pills.

"Don't worry about it," Alisa said. She stuffed the pill into the woman's mouth. Alisa decided that she would have to keep a close eye on that one. When she walked out of the room, she whispered something into Adrik's ear. He nodded once and handed her the recording from last night. The woman Ivan nearly ran over shivered after the pill started to activate in her body.