Change and Survival: The Experiments' Story- Chapter 6

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapters 2+3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

~Chapter 6~

She woke with a start. She had had nightmares, terrible nightmares, about what the Scientists could do to Faith. They could rip her apart. Cause her excruciating pain. They could shatter her memory, her past. Hope stopped, refusing to think about it anymore. She was in her room, on her bed. Faith’s bed was still cold and empty, across the room. Silver was standing over her anxiously.

“Hope! Are you okay?” Her face was filled with concern, concern for her friend and second in command.

“Silver.” She gasped. “They got Faith. She fell, and they took her away…” She squeezed her eyes shut with the realization that simply wishing couldn't get her best friend back. “She’s gone… They got her…”

“I know. You told me.” Silver tried to calm her down. “Are you okay? You fell and blacked out.”

“I’m fine. I got a little of the fluid from a dart, but I made it back.” She tries to clear her head. “Poor Faith…” Her sadness turned to rage. “If they hurt her, they will regret it…”

Faith woke with a start. She had been having a terrible nightmare…

There was a net around her. She gripped it; It was fine, close, and definitely real. She inhaled sharply. Unfortunately, not a nightmare. She was being dragged on the ground in the net. Her wings were pinched against her back in the fine mesh, making her practically incapable of movement. She sighed. They dropped her, and one cried out. “Look, it’s awake!” She recovered herself from being dropped. Uh oh, not good. Not good at all. She quick tried to thrust her wings out, but it only caused the net to pull tighter around her. One of the white-coats stepped on her wings, pinning them down. She looked up- he had a syringe filled with a clear liquid, with a long needle. She tried to scream, but because of the pressure on her back it came out more as a very high-pitched squeaky noise. She grit her teeth as she pushed against the ground, but the net would allow little movement. She tried to uproot his foot by pulling the netfrom under it, but his pressure remained constant. She glanced up again, only to see him smirking.

"Good night." Faith knew that smirk would never leave her. Even with her grasp on the situation, it was all she could do from passing out from sheer fear as he injected the fluid into her. She immediately lost all will to remain conscious, and, try as she might, the only thing she could do when the guy stepped off her was drag her wings back into a folded up position on her back before she was dragged in to the darkness again. As a last show of defiance, she flexed her fingers around the net and swore to herself that she would not have been caught in vain. She couldn't let that happen. She would survive.

For Hope.

Hope stood overlooking the clearing, where people were chatting and acting as if nothing had happened.

“I heard what happened.”

She almost started as Merlin appeared behind her. Almost.

“I’m really sorry.” He moved so he was right beside her.

“Don’t be. You couldn’t have done anything about it.” She tried to keep from snapping at him.

You don’t know that… He sighed. “If I was there, I would’ve tried to help. I know she was your best friend.”

“Was? Was? What’s all this was business?” She turned to face him. “She still is.”

Basically, she refuses to think that Faith’s dead. Good for her. Merlin stuck his hands into his pockets and just stared out across the clearing. Silence; until he broke it. “About the other day… I know what I said about Silver was… no, is wrong. But everything else is true. Your wings are a beautiful display of power when you fly.” He stopped and walked away before muttering under his breath almost unintelligibly, “And I… I…” He was caught by a breeze and drifted into the shadows of a tall oak tree. "I can't- not- ..." He glanced back to where Hope sat on the platform, her arms curled around her knees, wallowing in the silence of a living nightmare. He may never have the words to say, or the courage to use them.