Page 11

11

ARELLA

Two days ago, I woke up to Katie strolling into my prison room, carrying a food tray.

“Wakey wakey!” she said in her overly cheery voice. I wasn’t sure if she did that because she’s naturally cheerful or if she thinks it would make me less anxious about being held captive against my will. “I wasn’t sure what you’d want, so I grabbed one of everything.” She placed the tray onto the nightstand. It was covered with an assortment of baked breakfast goods and a glass of milk. Then she drew out a metal key from her pocket to uncuff my ankle from the bedframe.

Before going to sleep the night before, I had convinced Katie to cuff my ankle instead of my wrist. It was hard to sleep with my arm like that.

“Last night was a big night for you,” Katie said. “You made the first step to controlling your immunity. Victor’s so thrilled, he added four new meetings to your calendar to try it again.”

I hated how she said all that like I was an employee here. I sat up and rubbed the crust from my eyes. “Where’s Trey?”

Katie scooted her folding chair closer to the bed. Her energy, all anxious and apprehensive, wafted toward me. “He’s still in the infirmary.”

“Is he okay?”

“He’s not dead, if that’s what you’re wondering.” Between Katie’s uneasy emotions shooting at me and the troubled look on her face, I assumed Trey wasn’t doing too hot.

When Craig the Hulk shrunk him over and over, Trey threw up four times and coughed up blood. No matter how much I begged, Victor refused to let me hold him. That heartless man kept pinning me down and screaming at me to project my immunity onto Trey from across the battle box. Projecting onto Trey while he was in the tornado had felt like a one-off chance. I didn’t know how I had done it or how to do it again.

I cried hysterically while Victor kept shouting, “Focus! Focus!” into my ear. Because, you know, shouting at people like that is helpful. When Trey, the size of a cat, slumped onto the floor and didn’t look like he was breathing, I lost it.

I screamed at the ceiling, and somehow, I did something to make Trey return to his normal size. After that, no matter how hard Craig tried, he couldn’t shrink Trey again.

Then and only then did Victor call for someone to drag poor, unconscious Trey to the infirmary. In the meantime, Katie and Craig escorted me back to my prison room. With my ankle cuffed to the bed, I cried myself to sleep, wondering if I’d ever see Trey again.

Hearing that Trey was still alive gave me a tiny bit of relief—assuming Katie was telling the truth.

When I finished eating breakfast, Katie directed me to the shower and handed me a new set of clothes. I could already tell this outfit would fit me better.

“It’s from my own closet,” Katie said. “We’re about the same size, so I figured why not? Your current outfit was plucked from the lost and found. If you want your pajamas instead, they’re clean now.”

“I appreciate you sharing your clothes with me.”

Twenty minutes later, I stepped out of the bathroom, wearing a plain black V-neck and some gray leggings.

For the rest of the day, they kept me in the “battle box”—a fancy name for their torture station disguised as a boxing ring. I held hands with countless volunteers , as Victor called them, while Pixie and Ruby tormented each person with their powers. I tried everything I could to protect them but failed.

Around nightfall—not that I knew for sure, because I hadn’t seen a single window in this place—Katie dropped me off in a small lab room with a lady wearing a white lab coat.

Throughout the night, White Coat Lady performed a series of tests on me—Everything from checking my reflexes to drawing blood samples to taking my handprint. She examined every part of my mouth, eyes, ears, and vagina. I had never been so violated in my life, and that was saying a lot after spending three years with a man who used to force himself on me. What was she looking for?

White Coat Lady spent another eternity asking me health-related questions, some of which Katie had already asked me. Some of my answers made her ask follow-up questions. Other times, she just nodded and moved on.

Once the interrogation was over, the White Coat Lady secured me to a medical bed. The leather straps were so tight against my wrists and ankles, they pinched my skin.

“Shield yourself from the shock,” she said as a sizzling lightning ball appeared in her palms.

“No!”

The lady dropped the orb onto me. A surge of electricity rippled through my veins. I screamed out, and my body convulsed, tugging against the restraints.

“Picture something around your body.” Another sizzling ball appeared in her hand. “Armor, a box, a glass tank, anything that will protect you.”

The glowing ball landed on my chest again. I yelled toward the ceiling as brutal torture tore through my limbs.

She did it again.

And again.

And again.

Every time, I was unable to protect myself, no matter how badly I wanted to. From the content emotions I sensed from her, she didn’t feel bad for hurting me.

I heaved for air when the electrocution finally stopped. Is it over? Something pinched the side of my neck, then White Coat Lady placed a syringe onto a metal tray.

My words came out between short breaths. “What did you just do to me?”

“It’s a z-drug called perrizophine,” the lady said, like she drugged people all the time without their consent. She probably did. “This small dose will deactivate your immunity for a few hours. At least, we’re going to see if it does.”

I didn’t know if it deactivated my immunity, but it had definitely deactivated my baby’s ability to sense people. All of a sudden, I couldn’t sense White Coat Lady’s emotions anymore.

The door opened, then Victor sauntered in. The sight of him disgusted me. “Any progress?”

“Not much,” White Coat Lady said.

“Did you hit her with the perrizo yet?”

“Just did.”

“Great. Lemme take a look at her.”

White Coat Lady stepped back to give Victor some space. With both hands, he held my head still. As he stared into my eyes, I balled up some saliva in my mouth. The second a black cloud smoked up in his pupils, I spat at him.

Victor bounced back with a groan. “You nasty little bitch.”

I’d been called worse by my ex, so I didn’t care what he called me.

White Coat Lady held out a towel to Victor. “Sir.”

Victor wiped his face off, then tossed the towel behind him. “Got any duct tape?”

From a drawer, the lady pulled out a roll of silver tape and ripped off a piece. Victor took it from her. I squirmed as he tried to seal it over my mouth. Since I could only move so much, he won our battle. I panted through my nose as he ripped a second piece of tape off the roll.

“For good measure,” Victor said as he stuck it over my mouth.

Within seconds, that black cloud took over the whites of his eyes again. What was he trying to do? Burn a hole through my face? Read my mind? Or maybe—I internally gasped. Was it mind control? That was how all these people worked for him so willingly, wasn’t it? He was trying to turn me into one of his minions. Maybe it worked on the other people, but it wouldn’t work on me. Well, they weren’t people , exactly. They had to be aliens. Aliens who could take the form of humans.

If not that, maybe they were X-men. Katie claimed they were simply humans who were born with powers. Were X-men born with powers? I couldn’t remember. I’d only seen one X-men movie, and it was a long time ago.

With a huff, Victor stepped back, and his pupils returned to normal. “It’s no use. Not even the perrizo is lowering her immunity walls. I suppose since the z-drug didn’t work, we can rule out that she’s part Zordi and that immunity is her gift.”

White Coat Lady crinkled her face. “How could she be part Zordi? It’s impossible for us to reproduce with Ordis.”

Ahh. That explained why Trey said he was infertile. It wasn’t that he couldn’t make babies. He just couldn’t make babies with regular humans. It all made sense. Except, not. If it was “impossible” for these aliens to reproduce with humans, then how did I get pregnant?

Victor scoffed loudly. “It’s also impossible for someone to be immune to our powers, yet here she is. I’m not saying I had bets on her being part Zordi. That was just one of the many theories I came up with to explain this freak of nature.”

Me? A freak of nature? Of all people to be calling someone a freak of nature, why was it the man who could turn his eyeballs completely black?

The two of them continued talking, but I couldn’t make out their words anymore. Suddenly, my eyelids felt heavy...

* * *

Yesterday, I woke up from a nightmare, dripping with sweat. I gasped for air as I sprung upright.

Katie’s chair was empty. The only light was coming from the crack under the door. It was too dark to read the wall clock. It must have been early if Katie wasn’t around yet.

I had to use the bathroom, but I couldn’t get in there with my ankle handcuffed to the bed. As far as I knew, Katie was the only person with a key, and I had no way to contact her.

After a while of tossing and turning, I concluded that I couldn’t fall back asleep while my bladder was that full. The thought of wetting the bed was too embarrassing for me to consider. Maybe I could ask that guard to get Katie for me.

Wait... Where’s the guard? Normally, I could sense his presence out there, even if he was only feeling content. I didn’t sense anyone outside the door. I sat up again to see if I could spot his shadow through the bottom crack. No shadow.

Why would Victor leave me unguarded? Maybe something happened and everyone left. That terrified me. They wouldn’t ditch me here all alone, restrained to a bed, would they? Why was the idea of that worse than the idea of them taking me back to the battle box?

A while later, the door crept open, then Katie tiptoed in. She used the flashlight on her phone to see her way to her chair. Quietly, she sat and did something on her iPad as the sound of that dreaded chain lock slid into place.

So there is someone out there. Why couldn’t I sense them? Why couldn’t I sense Katie either? That drug the White Coat Lady injected into me had to have worn off by now.

Oh no. I glanced at my belly and gave it a rub. Please be okay.

Katie glanced up from her iPad and found me staring at her. She jolted back and slapped a hand over her chest. “Ah! You scared me.”

“Sorry.” I half meant it.

“I didn’t realize you were awake.” She stood to flip the light on.

I squinted from the brightness.

Katie returned to her chair, scooting it closer to me before settling back onto it. “How did you sleep?”

“I had a bad dream.”

“What was your dream about?”

Victor holding me back while those two women torture Trey until he takes his last breath. What else? “Um, I’ll just say that you people aren’t only scary in real life.”

“I’m sorry.” She offered me a sympathetic look. I couldn’t tell if she meant it or not. Her emotions weren’t coming to me. “What’s that like?”

“Being surrounded by scary people?”

“No, dreaming.”

I tilted my head to the side. “You’ve never had a dream?”

“Zordis don’t dream. For some reason, we can’t. There’s no study that explains why, but there are theories. The one I believe the most is that because we only need to sleep every two days, our brain completely shuts down during that time. Therefore, no dreams.”

“Weird.” But not as weird as how they could go two days without sleeping. That explained why Trey was up all night so often.

“Sooo,” Katie said, “what’s it like?”

“Um, I guess it’s like living real life, but it’s in your head and crazy things can happen.”

She nodded slowly with her mouth partly open, like she was trying really hard to understand the concept of a dream. “Fascinating. I’ve heard that sometimes it feels like a hallucination or like you’re watching a movie.”

“I guess so.”

“I’d like to experience a dream one day. It sounds fun.”

A long silence sat between us. It felt partly awkward and partly calming. Most of my time here had been chaotic. That was the most normal conversation I’d had since being kidnapped.

Katie cleared her throat. “He’s still in the infirmary, in case you’re wondering.”

I was wondering, so I was glad she told me without me having to ask. “Is he okay?”

“The nurse said his vitals look better than yesterday. He still hasn’t woken up though.”

“Like at all?”

“At all.”

The poor guy. Trey must have been in really bad shape if he couldn’t wake up. Wait... I narrowed my eyes at Katie. “How do I know he’s still alive? What if you people have already killed him, and you’re lying to me about it?”

“I guess you’ll just have to trust me. If you don’t, you can trust that Victor won’t get rid of the only person you’ve successfully projected your immunity onto. Anyway”—Katie slapped her thighs with her palms—“are ya hungry? Should I go get you some breakfast?”

“Actually, could you let me into the bathroom first? I’ve had to go for a while.”

“Sure thing.” She released my ankle, and I practically ran to the toilet.

After I did my business, I checked the water. Only yellow, no red. I leaned down to inspect it a little closer, just in case I missed a speck. Still no red. I was sure of it though. I’d been sure since the moment Katie walked into this room and I couldn’t sense her. Maybe I wasn’t bleeding now, but I would eventually.

I braced myself against the sink as the reality of what had happened sunk in. I was sad. Why was I so sad? It was an unplanned pregnancy with a man who turned out to be a mutant with superpowers. Two nights ago, I saw fire come out of his hand. His hand. Who knew what else he could do?

His baby had the power to sense other people’s emotions. If a Zordi fetus could do that from inside the womb, what else could it do? Would it have thrown fireballs inside me? Would I have had the power to make fire come out of my hands too? How insane! I should have been relieved that the baby was gone, but I wasn’t.

Before I was kidnapped, Trey and I talked over the phone about raising this child together. Stupidly, I believed with all my heart that it was something he wanted. Especially since he still wanted me after I lied about sleeping with “some guy from college.” I figured that once we had patched things up, I could confess that I’d lied and prove he was the father, then everything would be okay.

I didn’t realize how much I wanted to be a mother—until the opportunity was stolen from me. I collapsed to the tile floor and cried into my hands. It wasn’t a silent cry either. It was one of those ugly cries with my mouth fully open as I wailed.

The bathroom door jerked open and hit me. Katie popped her head in. “You okay?”

I shook my head, unable to answer with words.

She gestured for me to move over. I did, scooting closer to the toilet so she could get in. Once she was through the door, she clicked it shut.

Katie sat on the floor with me and rubbed a tender hand over my shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

I didn’t have it in me to explain. The only thing I had the strength for was to cry. Katie didn’t force me to speak. She simply circled her arms around me and hugged me tight. I let her because something about her made me feel at ease. Plus, I was willing to take any form of comfort.

We stayed like that until my sobbing subsided. I wasn’t sure how long it was.

Through hiccups, I asked, “What happens to you people when you die?”

She pressed her eyebrows together. “What do you mean?”

“Like what happens to your bodies?”

“Um, we just... die. Obviously, we lose our powers, and everything about our bodies become like Ordinaries. Well, except for Shifters. If they die in another form, whether it’s an animal, an object, or another person, they’ll stay that way.”

Shifters? Apparently, that wasn’t just a thing in books and movies. “Does anything special happen when a Zordi dies before they’re born?”

At first, Katie’s face scrunched together, then her eyes went wide and she whispered, “Are you pregnant?”

“Was.” That single word almost made me burst into tears again.

Still hushed, she said, “Are you saying you were pregnant with... a Zordi?”

I nodded.

That mousey voice of hers disappeared as she continued whispering, “That can’t be. Our biological makeups are too different for fertilization to happen. The Ordinary egg isn’t strong enough to hold the nature of a Zordi sperm.”

I stared at the bathroom floor. “Maybe whatever makes me immune to your powers also makes me immune to all that.”

Katie thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Nope. It’s impossible. Your immunity has nothing to do with your reproductive organs. For you to have conceived a child with a Zordi, you’d have to be a Zordi with Zordi eggs in your ovaries. It’s impossible for you to be one of us because you don’t have any gifts. And if immunity was your gift, it would have been turned off by the perrizophine. Last night, your body was affected by only the sedative part of the perrizo, and you took to it faster than the average Zordi, which further confirms that you’re an Ordi. Also, our zense doesn’t activate around you.”

“Zense? What’s that?”

“It’s a little tingle we get in our chests whenever we’re within an arm’s length of each other.”

“Interesting.” By the look on Katie’s face, I could tell she was about to ask, so I beat her to it. “No, my chest doesn’t tingle around you guys.”

“Immune and a Mind Reader. You really are something special.” She leaned in to me again, lowering her voice. “How are you so sure you were pregnant with a Zordi baby?”

“I’ve only slept with one man recently. And for the last few days, up until last night, I was sensing everyone’s emotions.”

Katie gasped, then lowered her voice so much, I could barely hear her. “Your baby was an Empath. You must have been at least seven or eight weeks along. That’s when our mind powers begin developing in the womb.”

That timing was right. “Mind powers?”

“All Zordis are born with three gifts. Our mind power is the most powerful because it begins developing the earliest. Our body and elemental powers are determined before birth, but those don’t develop until we’re about a year old. Then, it’s not until puberty when our powers become fully developed.”

It was nice to know that my baby couldn’t have thrown fireballs or made tornados inside my uterus.

Katie went back to whispering. “Does he know?”

I match her tone. “Does who know what?”

“The father. Trey.” She points at my stomach with her eyes. “Does he know?”

“Yeah, I told him.”

“He didn’t think the baby was his, did he?”

I shook my head as a single tear rolled down my cheek. “No, he didn’t.”

“I wouldn’t have believed you either. Even now, knowing that your baby was sensing emotions in the womb, it’s still hard to believe.” Katie leaned in to my ear, then said softly yet firmly, “Victor cannot find out about this.”

I whisper back. “Why?”

“Think about it. He’s already doing whatever he can to find out the source of your immunity and to get you to control it. Imagine what he’d do if he knew you could carry a Zordi child.”

I pictured myself restrained to a bed as a bunch of Zordi men violated me while Victor sat on the sidelines, taking notes. It would go on for months to years before I was pregnant again. Assuming it was possible for me to carry a half-human, half-wizard baby to term, Victor would have his hands on the world’s first half-and-half baby. I didn’t even want to think about what he’d do with that child.

Katie stood and offered me her hand. “Come on. We’ve gotta get outta here before they find it suspicious that I’m in the bathroom with you for this long.”

Sighing, I took her hand and allowed her to help me off the floor.