The Anomalies

Chapter 6-Kelsey

Kelsey's POV

I shuffle papers, watching Steve through the corner of my eye. He is pacing, looking like someone just ran over his puppy or something.

"Steve, are you okay?" I ask in a quiet voice. He turns toward me and raises his eyebrows.

"What do you care?" he sneers. "And stop calling me that stupid name."

"Well, if you gave me your real name then-"

"I ain't giving you anything." he snarls. I sigh and roll my eyes. It has been three days since I got my job and he still isn’t talking. Time to pull out the big guns.

"Steve, who's Sophia?" I ask, raising my tone so he will take me seriously. Steve pauses for a second, his face pales, but continues to pace.

"How did you...Sophia? I don't know a Sophia." Steve says, but he says it like he isn’t sure of his answer. I roll my eyes.

"Steve," I soften up a bit, hoping to give that good cop kind of feeling, "I heard you talking in your sleep. Please, if you just tell me something, anything, like, is she in danger?"

It looks like I finally got through to him. He puts his back up against the wall and sinks down to the floor. He crumples into a ball and starts weeping. I look around unsure of what to do next.

"I don't know." he says in between each sob. He keeps repeating it over and over again like he’s trying to convince me that he’s telling the truth. I stand and walk out, seeing Mr.Agustis observing us again.

"Mr.Agustis-" I start, but he isn’t listening. That crazy look is back in his eyes as he calls two guards towards him. He whispers something to them, something I can’t hear. They march into the room and start to kick Steve and hurt him. Awful sounds of pain and torture were coming out of Steve's mouth.

"No!" I scream shrilly. I try to run in and help, but another guard comes and puts his arms around my entire upper body. I can’t move my arms. Mr.Agustis walks into the room, signals the guard to stop kicking him. He grabs Steve's hair and forces him to look at him. I turn away for Steve looks like he had taken a shower in blood.

"Now, who is Sophia?" Mr.Agustis says in that calm yet menacing voice of his. Steve moans and spits blood out of his mouth.

"I don't know." Steve moans. Wrong answer. Mr.Agustis slams his head down on the floor.

"Now, who is Sophia?" he asks again. Steve lay silent, unmoving. Tears prick my eyes, he has to be dead. A couple seconds drag by and Steve lets out a whimper. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad. Maybe they should've just ended his suffering right there.

"All...I...know," Steve wheezes, takes a breath, and continues, "She...was the person...I was sent...Ah!" He curls even more into a ball and bawls. No one deserves to be treated like that. Mr.Agustis kicks him like he was a filthy piece of debris.

"I...was..sent..here..to find her." Steve finishes. I bite my lip. Mr.Agustis is not finished with him.

"By who?"

 I never understood why I had thought Mr.Agustis looked so peaceful, so kind. I regret my decision of joining his company in the first place. Steve does not answer. And he doesn’t answer the next times that Mr.Agustis kicks him or tortures him.

"Send him to the snare pit. He is useless to me." Mr.Agustis says harshly. I don’t know what the snare pit is and I have a feeling I don’t want to know. I make the mistake of crying out. I kick at the knees of the guard who is restraining me. He finally lets me go, only when Mr.Agustis says so. I fall to my knees and can’t pick myself off the ground.

"Get up." he says sharply. I do as I’m told, black spots dotting my vision. I feel whoozy.

"You will take him to the snare pit. Maybe that will teach you the true meaning of Elise Corperations." he grins slyly, then his face turns dark, "And if you tell anyone about this, I will kill you. Understood?" I nod. A guard is assigned to come with me, carrying Steve's limp body in his arms. I still feel like a hover car just ran me over, and I know it has to be a hundred times worse for Steve.

We stop at a room, in the basement of the basement, marked "Danger" and walk in. We walk up iron steps, a material I had not seen in a while. We rely on mostly natural materials. We ascend the steps and come to a stop of what looks like a giant bowl. I look down and thousands of cords were wrapped around each other like giant snakes.

"That's it?" I ask the guard, trying to distract him while I look for a way to save Steve. The guard regards me but then flips a switch labeled "High Voltage". The vat comes alive as the cords turn into the blue color of electricity. Ouch. That has to be painful. I have to think of something quick. I see a red and white object by the door we had just come through.

"Does anyone else know about this room?" I ask casually, edging my way to the door, pretending to look around with awe. The guard shrugs. He isn’t much of a talker. I am close enough to snatch the red and white object, so I do.

It feels cold and steely like it hasn’t been used in ages. I wonder what it could be. I swing the object and it hits the guard in the head with a clunk.

He doesn’t even look a little bit dazed. I squeak as I realize that I cannot knock him out. He sets Steve's body on the ground and tries to push me into the pit. We grapple for a while, him always having the advantage. Somehow, I manage to get him on his knees. A resounding kick to his face is all it takes for him to spiral over the edge and into the snare pit. The screams that sound are the worst part.

I run to Steve and squat down beside him.

"Steve? Please tell me you're still alive." I shake him. Finally, he grumbles.

"My name is not Steve, its Hunter."