Chapter:4
Two things struck me when I stepped out of my cell to meet Tina.
The first was the horrible stench in the air. The smell reminded me of the first time they moved me to this room: Rotten flesh, decapitated bodies halfway through their disintegration by earthworms and other disgusting creatures underground. I almost passed out twice during that brief journey where they dragged me, blinding my eyes so I wouldn’t see the way. I didn’t get why Tina gets to fly out occasionally and see the facility and I don’t.
The second thing was the awful headache that hit me like a giant’s club on my poor brain. Weird, I’ve never had a headache, as long as I can remember.
I asked Tina if she felt the same way I did. She just shook her head, which made me feel even worse. Why am I the only one to suffer here?
We left the guard unconscious inside Tina’s cell, after she had incapacitated him and used his fingerprints to get us both out. I didn’t want to know how she had hurt him without actually killing him, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
I grabbed her amazingly soft hand and willed us to be invisible, chanting the usual incantation, letting it sink in us, blend our forms with the surroundings, shielding as from view. Now we walk as quietly as our bare feet allowed us. I try to ignore the radiating pain in my skull and the nauseating smell filling my lungs. The facility looks exactly like Tina described it. Stairs, stairs and stairs. Hallways leading to rooms I lost count of. At first sight, it looks more like a post office and less like a mortuary. Scientists are walking alone, in pairs or in groups, discussing
I-don’t-know-what and heading towards the different rooms ,often carrying piles of papers and rarely equipments I didn’t know the use of. Is it my imagination, or do their movements seem repetitive? I could have sworn I saw the same man go back and forth at least twice between the same couple of rooms…
I decide to ignore my surroundings and focus on my ability instead. Also on how beautiful Tina looked when I first saw her, just a few minutes ago… Black long hair, as fine as silk, dreamy grey eyes, their colour as vivid and bright as the moon in my memories. The least pleasant part in her looks were the black demon wings and the fangs. If I didn’t know she was in my side, I would’ve been terrified of her.
She looked deadly beautiful, literally.
She smiled faintly at my sight. Her only answer to my astonished look was: you look even smaller than I imagined you, Penelope.
I didn’t know how to react to that, so I just laughed to reduce the awkwardness.
I didn’t have a mirror in my cell, but if I had, maybe I would know exactly how I look compared to Tina….
I am suddenly pulled hard into a corner, behind a wall so thick I wondered about its existence there, right in the middle of …wait, no, we’re not in the center of the main hall, we’re…we’re almost there! We’re almost going to reach the exit door! I’ve been too distracted to notice
anything, including the tall broad-shouldered scientist who was walking our way, merely a minute earlier. That’s why Tina pulled me so hard my wrist almost snapped. In the process, she knew that if she didn’t let go, she would hurt me, so she did. I’ve been so stupid…or have I? I suddenly remember that I am still invisible. Why had she hid me from sight when he couldn’t see us? I turn around to confide my thoughts to her, only to remember I couldn’t see her either… I wait for the man to leave us be, and he does. I’m about to whisper Tina’s name to make sure she’s beside me when I hear a moan, coming from one of the rooms on the first floor.
I freeze.
It’s a girl. Some poor girl is getting tortured, just like what they did to me and Tina, when they brought us here in chains. Despite the heat rising to my cheeks, I shiver, because she painfully reminds me of myself.
I don’t want to hear that sound, ever again. Yet, here it is, drowning my eardrums with its constant crescendo, echoing in my desperate mind, stabbing my already-broken heart over and over again, and it can do nothing but bleed. The fear that I’m back on their experimentation table hits me again, and I shudder violently.
Even though we took an oath to come back and rescue all the other children, it still hurts when I know I can’t save them now, with the strength I own at the moment.
I can’t, and it’s killing me.
As if to blame me for my selfishness, the girl’s moans grow even louder, the humanity in them vanishing altogether, leaving nothing but a dying animal begging for its life, or for its death.
Anything, anything to stop that pain.
I knew it only too well. They strip you of your sanity, rip out your soul like they own you, like they have every right to do whatever they want to you, like they were gods claiming their property back.
Slowly, the cries turn into… roars, then…nothing.
The whole facility lapses into silence. I stiffen. Tears come on their own, streaming down my hot cheeks, trying in vain to wash away the fear that grips my heart and the grief that menaces to destroy me. I put a hand on my mouth to prevent myself from emitting useless cries that could give us away.
Us, I remember.
Where is Tina? We should get out of here before it’s too late, we should run for our lives, we should —
“Penelope”
Her whisper sends a wave of relief down my spine. When she let me go, she must have whispered the sentence to match my powers, that’s why she was still invisible. It’s all I need to keep going.
I have to save her. I have to show her the sky in all its magnificence. Otherwise, if I ever survive, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
I reach for her hand. Amazingly, I find it. We lace our fingers around each other’s, making a silent vow never to let go again, and we move forward.
