Storm-Boi

Chapter 7 - Exposed

Chapter 7

Exposed

I don’t want to listen to Stein gloating about what a success my best friend was. That will be too much. I just stare into space for about ten minutes, until Crow is sold and they turn their attention onto X. 

X isn’t really that special, he was the first of us to be created, so they didn’t go that overboard with all the special abilities. The only thing I think he can do is see through things, and it’s incredibly annoying.

But Stein is talking about how X could be the ultimate thief. Apparently being able to see through locks on a safe is handy in the criminal world. Isn’t that illegal? I think to myself, Does anyone here realise that what Stein is saying is just wrong? But no one seems to be thinking anything of the sort, and soon X is sold too. 

I run my hands through my hair, wondering what’s going to happen now. They can’t exactly put me on auction because I’ve already been sold. Are we finally going to be able to get out of here? This could be it, we might get a chance to escape anytime now.

Stein is still standing at the microphone, smiling out over the crowd. He takes a swig of water from the glass on the small table next to him and clears his throat.

“I have a treat for you all today,” he leers, “I would like to show you what these experiments could become.”

I’m instantly curious. What is he talking about? There aren’t any more of us, so what is he going to show them? 

I crane my neck to look around me, but I can’t see anything that remotely looks anything like a genetic experiment apart from the gang in their tubes. Stein appears to be pausing for effect, and is taking another sip of his water. The crowd is murmuring, more than they were before, curious about what is about to happen.

Crow is looking at Stein quizzically, and come to think of it, so are the rest of the gang. We all have no idea what he is on about.

Stein clears his throat again, and raises his eyebrows at the whispering crowd as it goes instantly silent.

“Our most successful experiment to date,” he says slowly, as if he is building up to a climax point, “who is right here in this room.”

Suddenly my world seems to light up, and I have to squint to see through the light. It’s only then that I realise I’m under the spotlight. Stein was talking about me.

I stand up abruptly, looking around me to see if I’m right. Stein is gesturing towards me so I suppose I am. Most successful experiment to date? I think, That’s... What...?

“Storm Boi.” Stein says grandly, as if I am a particularly expensive car that he is showing off to his friends. “Highly intelligent, this particular specimen was also born in a test tube. When it was about a month old, we hooked it up to a lightning rod during a particularly ferocious storm, as well as a computer connected to the internet. The result was tremendous.”

So that’s what I am. A thing that was just hooked up to a lightning rod and blasted with who nows how many watts of power.

“Of course,” continues Stein, “It wasn’t exactly a normal baby to begin with. We actually have no idea of the origin of the DNA we injected into it. Only that it was definitely not human, and it was definitely successful.”

The crowd murmurs again, getting louder and louder and sounding more exciting by the minute. What is going to happen now? What are they going to make me do? I am angry. This anger has been building over the past hour, as they picked apart my friends’ existences and bought them like they were objects.