"Get up."

I was abruptly awoken by the bitter guard who had bought me water.

"I don't think that's an option right now."

I was only being honest. I could barely feel my feet, never-mind move them.

But my heart started beating out of my chest when I saw the expression on his face.

I could only guess what he was going to do next. So naturally; I tried.

I shuffled around but didn't make it far from the ground.

Malvin soon came to my aid and grabbed my hand. Eventually he got me to a standing position.

"You'd do good to show this girl some common courtesy."

Malvin raised his voice to provoke the guard. He moved closer so that I could lean my weight onto him.

"It's not a girl. It's a monster." The guard hissed.

I was then viciously grabbed by the hair and thrown out of Malvin's grasp. I moaned in pain and quickly tried to grab his hand as it ferociously clung to the remaining strands.

Malvin was already in attack mode and quickly threw a punch at the guard.

He easily dodged it.

"Not so strong anymore, are you?" He asked bitterly.

When I saw Malvin preparing to throw another swing, I held out my hand.

"Stop Malvin." I instructed. "I'll be fine."

He watched me carefully and then relaxed.

The guard chuckled. "Taking orders from a girl now?"

Malvin remained silent with his eyes on me, as if the self-control was slowly killing him. The guard paused for a moment to take in his success. Soon after, he hauled me painfully outside.

This was the first time I'd left the dungeon and I was pleased to see it was a lot brighter outside.

It had the same familiar white walls that coated the entire building and there was little detail to be noticed. Especially since my hair was pushed down to the floor preventing me from seeing a clear path.

"What's your name?" I started conversation in order to distract myself. 

"I wouldn't tell it to the likes of you."

"Fine, I'll just tell you mine. I'm Pacem-"

"Everyone already knows your name, girl." The hatred in his voice sent chills down my spine.

"I thought I wasn't a girl?"

He tugged onto my hair a little harder but I made an effort not to show him how much it hurt.

I was then forced down the hall into a large room filled with equipment. My efforts to resist being pushed failed miserably because he was a lot stronger than me.

Once I was in he slammed the door behind me.

The first thing you should know about 'Fitness' is that it's basically fancy lingo for 'gym'.

There was a treadmill that hung in the air and looked a lot more advanced than the ones that I was used to.

Whenever I tried to stop, I was simply forced back on by a little stick in the guard's pocket. It pretty much  served the same function as a tazer.

So I kept running.

I spent a lot of time staring at the scientists and their gadgets. They lingered behind a glass wall and watched me. I made an effort to pick up on conversation by the people in the lab.

I heard the phrase 'weak for a Karnoi' and 'not a threat'. Malvin had called me weak before but I'd always considered myself fairly capable. 'Karnoi' was a new phrase but it was obviously what they classified me as.

Malvin would brief me on a new section of the building daily. It had eventually occurred to me that they were watching us in the dungeon. When I'd mentioned to Malvin he'd just screamed at the top of his lungs,

"Let them!"

I did, however, notice that he never told me when exactly when we were going to escape and he never gave me an exact route to go on. He was literally just teaching me the lay of the land, and I had a feeling it would be up to me from there.

'Psychological training' was a little more complicated than just therapy.

I was led (or rather pushed up the stairs) into an office. Somehow I knew that I was about to be introduced to the person responsible for all of this.

"Hello Pacem," a husky female voice called out to me.

I forced myself to look up.

An older woman was examining me from her expensive looking desk. Her hair just reached to her shoulders in curls. Although it was blonde, something told me it was fake judging from the wrinkles developing on her face. Her smile was filled with plasticity and I could tell that she was a raging bitch waiting to come out.

I've always sixth-sense when it came to bitches.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Alluna." She got up from her desk, abandoning her papers to extend a hand and help me up.

I ignored it and shuffled to my feet on my own.

"I trust Malvin has told you all about the project. He's always had a habit of waffling on."

I didn't respond and instead walked over to a leather chair on the other side of her desk. I studied it and then sat down. The huge room only confirmed her position. Although it was the same white as everywhere else, there was a book cabinet to the left, a desk holding coffee and even a liquor cabinet.

"What am I doing here?" I got to the point.

"You're here for psychological training, Miss Creed. You and your kind are different in the worst way possible. It's not your fault. Your kind are simply an experiment gone wrong and all we want to do is fix you."

Malvin might actually look sane next to this woman. I folded my arms hunching into the uncomfortable leather chair.

"By 'my kind' you mean 'Karnoi'?"

She smiled wickedly "You and your kind are a danger to my community. You will remain here and help us find a way to downscale the problem."

I raised my head. No way in hell was that going to happen.
Not over my dead body.

"What exactly is this 'problem' you keep talking about? I'd like to say there's something special about me but I've always been perfectly normal."

"I wish that were true." She gave me a wicked grin. "Now let's get started."

A hole in the ceiling suddenly opened from above and a helmet started to descend from the roof. My first instinct was to get the hell out of that seat but two cuffs emerged from the chair. I was pinned down before I had a chance to react.

"What's going on?" I asked slightly panicked.

"Don't worry. It won't be painful." She assured me. "I just want to pick your brain for a minute."

Before I knew it, the helmet had landed comfortably on my head. Suddenly I wasn't in the creepy villain's office anymore but instead standing next to my friends in the line waiting to get tested for the mysterious virus everyone had been talking about.

"Are you okay, Pacem?" Ella, my best friend, asked from beside me.

Ella had always been stunning in looks. I'd never admit it but she'd always made me feel slightly insecure. Her beautiful black locks and her kind eyes had always outmatched my  plain blonde hair and chubby figure.

"I... I'm fine." I responded hesitantly. "What's going on?"

"Well, Mrs Dickson forced us into this line even though class is finished and she's wasting our time while we could be going over to Dylan's."

It felt like I hadn't heard these names in years.

Ella. Dylan. Mrs Dickson. It was all so... distant.

"Ella I can't wait in this line." I stepped backwards but she pulled me by the arm.

"Of course you can. It'll probably only take us a half hour. I was just being dramatic. It's not worth detention."

"No Ella, you don't understand-"

I stopped mid-sentence because I wasn't speaking to Ella anymore. I was speaking to a man in a while coat, holding a needle inside the nurse's office.

"Name please."

"Um...Pacem Creed."

"Age?"

"18."

"Would you consider yourself stronger than your other classmates, Miss Creed?"

"Not at all," I assured him.

"Have you ever had to go to therapy? Any disease? Bipolar disorder? Anorexia? Bulimia?"

"No."

"Okay Miss Creed, from what we've examined, you seem to be clear. I just have to do one more test. I'm going to inject you with a serum that is the closest we have to a vaccine at the moment. I promise it won't hurt more than a pin prick."

"Okay..." I said hesitantly.

The doctor knelt down beside me and carefully stuck the needle into my arm. I felt the juices entering my system and my eyes widened. Suddenly I couldn't breathe.

The doctor frowned at me and spoke down to his watch saying "there's an emergency".

More people came into the room and tried to calm me down. They were dressed like 'Men in Black'. Eventually my head fell limply to the side and in a glimpse of the mirror I saw my eyes. They were unmistakably red.

The eyes of an animal.

After a moment of darkness I felt a huge amount of pressure leave my head. When I started to see a blurred seated figure, I realised that the helmet had been taken off.

I was back in Crazy-Lady's office.

None of it had been real.

"What did you do to me?" I asked panting.

"Technology has improved drastically since you last remember, Pacem. I tapped into your memories. The helmet is designed to allow you to walk within the past."

"I-" I paused decided how to phrase my words. "That wasn't real."

"Some of the memories were altered by recent responses but for the most part everything was accurate."

"My eyes..."

"Were red? Yes I did notice that. It's a peculiar colour for your kind."

I shook my head and anger bubbled up inside of me.

"Here's something you should know about me, Alluna. I never give up and I always win."

She had a wicked smile on her face and eventually she placed her hand flat on her desk, brushing off the subject.

The evil guard from before entered and I was shocked to see how well he maintained his military posture in front of Alluna.

Obviously he had missed out on a promising future in acting because for a moment it almost looked like he had a tiny sense of decorum.

"Ma'am." He said and looked straight past me.

"Take Miss Creed back to the dungeon."

"Yes Ma'am." He walked forward and pulled me up by the arm and I tried to resist his attempt to drag me abruptly to the door.

Alluna's eerie voice stopped us both in our tracks before we were out,

"Miss Creed."

I turned around to look at her. "Yip."

"It seems we're at an impasse. You see, where I come from, I'm the one who always wins ."

I flashed a smile as cynically as her own, "I guess you've never been up against me then."

Alluna continued to pick my brain for what felt like months. Each day was a new memory with no connection to each other. Some were about my family and others about my rebellious shoplifting stage.

I couldn't figure out how she chose which ones to go through exactly but I did notice that some made her jollier than others.

One day I saw a boy.

It wasn't a memory I had any recollection of. It reminded me more of a dream or perhaps a nightmare. I couldn't figure out how it had tied to me at all but he was there trapped in my thoughts.

I was in a dodgy area that I was sure I'd never travelled to. Not if my parents had anything to say about it. The streets were filled with litter and the night was eerie and dark. Crowds cheered as they focused on the pit below them. Inside were two people, a grown man and a boy who appeared to be fighting.

I watched the man charged forward at the boy in order to attack and closed my eyes, unable to witness what I thought was about to happen.

How could anyone have the conscience to place a man with muscles larger than Thor in the same fight with an innocent, scrawny looking boy who couldn't have been older than five?

The crowd roared in approval and I slowly took a peek at the scene below me. I stepped forward to get a better look because I couldn't believe what had happened. The Goliath had fallen to his knees in defeat and the boy held his fist in the air to declare victory.
In the glance of the moonlight, I saw his eyes gleam bright yellow as he met my gaze.

And then I woke up.

I tried to ask Alluna what that had all been about, but she had merrily ignored me and sent me straight to fitness minus the chat. After that, I found myself thinking about the boy a lot.

There were a couple of nights when I'd even dreamed about him.

When I got back to my dark dungeon one day, I noticed that Malvin had a peculiar look on his face. Usually he had what I liked to call his 'looney tunes' face with wild and expressive eyes. Today his face was blank, staring at me harshly with a monologue of silence.

We were leaving today.

                                                                                         I hope you like what you've read so far! Don't be shy! Comment and vote if you liked it :)