Haunting of Superior

Chapter 2

The fan on the ceiling whirred as it spun, sending cooling air down onto Jamie and Jack's faces. After the stifling heat of the cramped test room, it was a relief to finally be in clean, open air. Still, did they really want to be here? They sat on a soft, plush couch, amazed at how clean this office was in comparison to where they had been kept previously. Perpendicular to them was a desk with an empty chair. The desk was covered in papers, filled with weird science stuff that they couldn't understand. This room was cleaner, and it smelled like vanilla air freshener.

Jamie's legs bounced as she worried about what would happen to her and her brother now. Would the nasty people kill them for being unaffected by their formula? Her heart was beating loudly enough for her to hear, and she wiped her sweaty palms on her ripped old jeans. Jack was tightly hugging a pillow, muttering about the friends left behind to a worse death. Or would they suffer the worse death?

The shiny black door was pushed open, and the man who was clearly the boss of all the scary people walked in. He towered over them sitting on the couch, though he wasn't actually that tall. It was their minds tricking them. Jamie forced herself to stay still, refusing to show weakness in front of this man who had stolen them from their parents.

"I am amazed," the man said. "I never thought someone would be immune. This substantially lowers your use."

Jamie shifted closer to Jack and took his hand, bracing herself for a death sentence.

"Such a pity it failed." The man looked them straight in the eyes. His eyes were cold, showing no care for their fates. To him, they were just disposable. They wouldn't be any use after the man found out why they were immune to his creation. The man stood straight again. "Follow me." He walked out of the room without looking back at them.

Jamie helped Jack off the couch, noticing with a pang of concern how unhealthy he looked in the brighter light. He had taken their kidnapping far worse than she had, both mentally and physically. Jamie couldn't afford to be weak for the sake of her little brother. It was the only thing keeping her sane. She headed out the door and stopped herself from looking at any curious employees watching. Her legs hurt after having not been used for so much walking in days. The corridors seemed to last forever.

Finally the man opened the door to another room. It was empty, as most rooms were in this building. It was to save space... and to hide evidence. They had been filled once. Then someone found the secret projects the man had been working on, and he was forced to hide his work. Jamie would learn all this information later after she started her own secret project.

She and her brother were shoved inside. The man shut the door without another word, not even turning the lights on for them. Jamie felt around the wall and found the light switch. The lights flickered on, revealing they were stuck inside what was basically the size of a small closet.

"Are they going to kill us?" Jack whispered fearfully. He was still shaking, and Jamie cpuld see sweat running down his forehead.

"We should go to sleep." She avoided the question. "We've had a scary day, and we should conserve our energy for tomorrow."

"What if we die overnight? What if-"

Jamie cut him off with a hug. "Don't think like that," she whispered fiercely into his ear. "I have a plan to run away, but I'm going to need you to stay quiet. I need to think."

Her brother fell silent. Jamie leaned against the wall, going over every detail she had seen in the halls. There was no chance they would be able to run out of here without getting caught. Their only solution was to hide and make sure they were not found. They could sneak out if they avoided the cameras. She had taken notice of their blind spots, and she wondered if there were any objects around they could use to sneak around. Maybe that was a bit too unrealistic.

The lights shining through the small space between the door and the floor turned off. The scary people must be going home. Despite knowing it was not going to do anything, Jamie wiggled the doorknob to see if it was unlocked. As predicted, it was not. How not surprising.

Turning away from the door, Jamie put her arm around Jack and whispered her plans and ideas, very glad this closet didn't have cameras.

***

The next morning they were taken to a lab. They didn't know why. They were not told. They were just forced through the halls, to be studied. How they were going to be studied was the thing they didn't know. They were still barefoot, and Jamie shivered as her feet grew cold from the freezing tile. She hadn't slept well, having had nightmares about her brother dying in front of her. She looked at the man in charge of everything walking in the front. She wondered what his goals were and what he was trying to achieve with his weird formula. Did he just enjoy injecting people with stuff and watching them die? It sounded like something he'd enjoy.

Once inside the lab, the man had them strapped into chairs. It was completely unnecessary since Jamie and Jack knew by now that struggling was incredibly stupid and would only make them die faster.

The man put on gloves and pulled out a needle and a blood bag. He sat down next to Jamie and took her arm. "Don't move," he ordered. "It will only make it harder." He plunged the needle into the vein on her elbow.

Jamie's stomach lurched, and she closed her eyes, not wanting to see her blood get drained out of her. After a minute or so, she felt him take it out. Daring to open her eyes, she saw him put the bag, now filled with her blood, on a tray. He then did the same with Jack. Jack, who was scared of needles due to them being the bearers of death in this place, turned the palest shade Jamie had ever seen on him.

The man handed the tray with both bags to another person. "Put this in my office," he ordered.

"Yes, Antonio," the person said, backing out of the room.

Antonio sat in silence for a moment, looking at Jamie and Jack curiously. "I'm sure you are wondering what is going on with your friends," he said at last.

To the kids' credit, they didn't flinch or move, just stared at the ceiling.

Antonio chuckled in amusement and leaned back onto a table. "They're dead," he said, still sounding amused. "I had them all tested to see if anyone else was immune to the current version of the formula. It seems no one else, besides you two, is, so they all unfortunately died." He paused, taking a stray towel in his fingers and twisting it around. "I must admit it was a waste, but I needed to know before I moved forward."

Jack and Jamie still didn't say anything. They were extremely horrified, yes, but they were scared of showing any sort of emotion around this terrible man.

Antonio straightened and headed to the door. "Don't get too comfortable," he said as he opened the door. "We'll have a new version of the formula to test on you two soon."

The door closed with a thud. The room grew colder without another person's body heat, but they were glad he was no longer inside with them. His heartlessness frightened them, and they were scared of what he would do to them if they proved immune to anything he made.

After a bit of time passed, a group of people came into the room and took the straps of Jamie and Jack. They were escorted back to the closet and locked up once again. Jack sighed and curled up on the ground, tired and sad. Jamie had noticed and was disappointed that they would have to put off her escape plan to another day. Although she could tidy up her original plan, she was worried about her brother and wanted to get out as soon as possible. She didn't want him to suffer any longer. For now, she sat beside him and closed her eyes, hoping that nothing worse would happen.