Young Writers Society

Basilisk

I grab the kid by the shoulder and spin her around to face me, quite smugly in reply for her question. "Young and naive, look kid, running your mouth around here will only get you killed. As for your question, yes, I am indeed familiar with alchemy, not personally, but one of my old... colleagues, is a cursed vampire. Perhaps not as extreme as your powers, but you, challenging me?" I laugh. "It's laughable. When you get a reputation like me, then I'll take you seriously". I shake my head and about, walking towards the visitor rooms; 3 o'clock I had a visitor.

I walked over to the guards and nodded, sighing with annoyance. They slapped a pair of extra-large diamond cuffs around my scaly wrists, anything less would be breakable. They marched me into the waiting room and summoned a middle-aged blonde man, humming a familiar tune to himself. "Sir, you aske to see this man" the one to my left asked.

"Ah, indeed" he smiled, snapping out of a oblivious trance. "To the interrogation room!" he laughed. His joke grabbed the attention of other visitors, looking at the guards (instead of me for once) with disgust. "Shall we?" the man known as Morph said, opening the double doors for me to enter the visitor room.

I storm off, angry, to my cell. How dare he say that! I swear under my breath and punch the wall, making sure to reign in my force so as not to break it. As i march through the complex, I see another inmate, Renny i think he was called, in his cell. The door was wide open so i step inside and lean against the doorway.
"Hey" I call to him. As he looks up, I see he is young, not much older than me.

Dr. Raithen

I leaned against the wall, slowly digesting the events of the last hour. The illusionist, whomsoever they were, was now gone, as was Basilisk. I knew nobody would be visiting me- most people I knew, I had already manipulated and left in jail or tested weapons on- so following the lizard would amount only to a beating from the guards, and perhaps a reprimand from the warden if he felt so inclined.
Instead, I decided to follow the girl who Basilisk and I had encountered. She had made a few leading comments, and although Basilisk had been unimpressed, I found myself curious. What could she do? Why was she here? And most importantly of all, how could I use her?
I set off down the corridor, a gleeful grin hidden behind my respirator.

I hear noise behid me and turn, automatically crouching into a defensive mode. I see Dr. Rathien and straighten up.
"What are you doing here?" I ask cautiously.

Dr. Raithen

"What are you doing here?" the girl asked, dropping into a defensive posture. I drew myself up, bearing down on her, physically asserting my dominance over the situation.
"I am here purely to observe. As a scientist, it is a part of my nature to do so. Your display was impressive; my colleague is a fearsome one, I would not wish to anger him as you did. You must have impressive power, to carry such confidence," I paused, tilting my head to make it clear I was examining her, "Or was it all a foolish bluster?"
"No, I have power." The girl replied, perhaps a little too defensive for my tastes. I shrugged my shoulders and turned away, pacing about the cell.
"Please, tell me more. Oh, and do introduce me to our company."

I hold up my hands, palms up, so he can see the markings there.
"I'm a chimera. The result of an Alchemy experiment." He looks surprised.

Basilisk

"Chris, it's been a while" I sigh, taking a seat at the dull, grey table.

"Indeed, it has been, but my absence from regular visits has fair excuse. People like you from all over Britain are emulating you and your endeavours. The RSUS is gone but not forgotten, so it seems," he sighed in return, his eyes examining me with disappointment. Years ago I would have called him my best friend, but when both of us became listed as 'supernatural' from freakish events, we went our seperate ways. 'Morph' as he so became known, swore to forgive the biggoted citizens of Britains and protect them from harm, joining SUCAF (Sociallty Unaccepted Civillian Aid Foundation). This harm was in form of the RSUS (The Reaper's Socially Unaccepted Society), who swore in the same manner to take revenge on the same biggoted men and women for what they did.

I chuckle. "Can you blame them?" I laugh.

Morph attempts to speak, but stops as the door behind me opens. A voice speaks.

"Jason Mason, visiting times over. You're coming with me".

Quartermaster

"Jason Mason, visiting times over. You're coming with me," I said.

"And what if I don't ?" Basilisk asked. I pulled out my pistol, unloaded it, took out a bullet and showed it to him.

"Then things for you are gonna get a little...tingly," I wisecracked, "I would also like to say, I know about your skin and about how it can deflect bullets-"

"So..."

"These are armour piercing rounds, they could go right through your skin, bones and clean out the other side. The best thing is that these little things were made specifically to kill you. Anyway, I've gone off topic. Follow me now."

I led Basilisk into interrogation room and he sat down on the only chair in the room. If he felt any fear, he didn't show it.

"I recently heard that you talked to someone called the illusionist, or someone along those lines. I also heard that he didn't talk to you in person, but instead used, as is name suggests, an illusion to carry his message or what not. I want to know what he told you, or you will find it excessively harder to walk," I said as I loaded my pistol with the AP rounds. "Now let the interrogation begin."

Basilisk

"Interrogation!" I laugh "As far as I can see this is little more than a teaparty. Ever been locked in a room witha guy named Pressure? No? That's interrogation". I would wave my hands, but they are still cuffed tightly around my wrists. "And as for your little popguns," I nodded towards his belt containing the pistols, "I couldn't give a damn how much damage they can do. I've shrugged off 50' cal' rounds in my sleep. So go ahead," I laugh "shoot me."

The man chuckles quietly. I hear him loading rounds into a chamber; he's serious.

"I know your scared of me, why else would these cuffs still be on, huh? You must be feeling real tough standing above me, thinking you're all high and mighty. Without those pansy weapons of your's, you are nothing".

"Keep dreamin'" he laughs.

Hmhmhmhmhmhm. Just you wait and see.

Quartermaster

"Keep dreaming," I laughed, struggling the urge to shoot Basilisk where he sat. It would be a good thing to kill him now, but the paperwork after... I dismissed the thought from my head.

"Sure I am nothing without these weapons, but what can I say, I like these weapons, they keep me safe, also everyone needs a hobby and mine just happens to shoot criminal scum like you," I told Basilisk, "but the shooting can be postponed for another day. Now what did the illusionist say to you?"

"You've got the high-tech equipment, you tell me," Basilisk replied smugly. I had second thoughts about shooting Basilisk, but that would accomplish nothing.

"If you won't tell me, maybe that Dr...Dr...Raithen will, in which case I may find out what I need anyway and after this business has concluded I might pay you a visit and shoot you myself. GUARDS!!" Two thuggish looking guards came into the room. "Take this scum away, and bring me prisoner 237, Dr. Raithen."

Dr. Raithen

I heard noises outside the cell and turned away from the Chimera. Her time would come, but for now it would seem as though there were more pressing matters to attend to.
"Prisoner 237?" An armed guard asked.
"Good day to you as well, officer."
"Can the talk, Doc. You're coming with us."
I do not approve of being spoken to in such a manner at the best of times, but I obliged the man, exiting the cell and following him through the building to the warden's office.
Before we entered the room, the guards insisted on slapping a pair of cuffs about my wrists. I don't know what reason they could have had to do so- I am a doctor, not a brute- but I obliged yet again.
Inside the office, a man stood gazing out of the small window at the room's far side, perhaps in an attempt to look wise or commanding. Tucking his shirt in would have been a better starting point.
"Dr. Raithen, greetings," the man said as I entered, "I am Quatermaster."
I chuckled. "An honour."
Quartermaster stiffened; clearly he had intellect enough to tell sarcasm from sincerity.
"Do you know why I summoned you here, Doctor?"
I shook my head, suppressing laughter at the endless posing the man felt the need to engage in. "Your grunts were less than forthcoming on the topic, but one can make an educated guess."
Quartermaster turned to face me at last. He did well to hide the shock from his face, but the tells were there.
"Does my mask frighten you, mighty Quartermaster? Do you fear a man who's eyes you cannot see?"
"Not at all." Quartermaster replied a little too hastily. Judging by the slight reddening of his cheeks, the pitch of his voice, I determined that he was lying. I did not press the matter.
"I summoned you here, Doctor, to ask you about the encounter you had with an illusion earlier today. You and Basilisk were caught on camera talking to someone, but where they should have been, the camera only captured static. I want to know what you saw."
I laughed in the man's face. "You want to know who it is you fear, Quartermaster. you want to bring them down to your level so you do not have to check over your shoulder as you walk."
"I fear no criminal scum."
"No, but you fear the criminal who thinks for himself, which, in turn, is why you fear me." I tossed him the cuffs. They had been an easy pair to pick.
"I will show myself out."

I watch the doctor leave and turn back to Renny.
"So, who are you?"

Rose

I huddle in the corner of my cell, curled up in a tight ball as I watched the people pass by. My vision was flashing with red, the voices screaming in my head.
"How dare they catch you! You were doing so well!"
I shuddered, my head pounding with his rage. I just sat there, rocking myself while listening to him banter on and on about how I had failed him. I never left my cell, not once after five months of being here.
He would never let me leave.