Kaitlyn- 13 years ago

     When I wake up, I'm still in pain, but it isn't nearly as bad as before. I know I have to open my eyes, but I don't want to. I'm too scared to face what happens next.

     "Uhhhhh" I groan and roll over.

     "Oh look Bea, she's waking up!" A voice somewhere behind me says, startling me.

     "Shush Rosalie, you're scaring the poor thing" another voice says.

     I open my eyes and see two women staring at me. I try to stand up but my legs are still weak and I immediately fall down on my back. When I land, it feels like there's something coming out of my back, and I cry out in pain.

"Owwww!" I scream and roll back over onto my stomach.

"Oh you poor thing! Come here so I can look at your back, I promise I won't hurt you" The woman who spoke first tells me. I start to try to go to her, and I realize now that I can really see her, she has horns growing out of her head. They're black and go straight up only curving slightly towards each other in the middle.

"What are those and who are you people?" I ask her.

"I'm Rosalie, and that's Beatrice. The things growing out of my head are horns. When you arrive here, they inject you with something that gives you an enhancement, as you can see I have horns, and Beatrice can fly. I promise we'll explain everything, but please come here so I can try to help you." She says, slowly approaching me.

I stand on shaky legs and walk the rest of the way to her. She crouches down to my height and gently turns me around to examine my back. While she does this, I take the time to examine my new surroundings. I'm in a small cell with four gray walls. In the back corner there's a toilet. In the opposite corner in the front is a large metal door with a small window on it with metal bars covering the glass. I can see three "beds" by the wall but really each one is just two thin blankets and a pillow on the floor.

Suddenly, Rosalie runs her hand over the two bumps forming on my back and I wince in pain.

"Oh no, Bea come here, look at her back" Rosalie says urgently.

Beatrice runs over to us and crouches down to see what Rosalie is looking at and gasps. "Oh dear, this isn't good. Perhaps it isn't what we think it is though. After all, she is still standing and talking instead of being in excruciating pain. Maybe they gave her a new enhancement we haven't seen yet." She says worriedly.

"You know there's only one thing this could be. It doesn't make sense though, they said they wouldn't try again unless they were sure it would work." Rosalie tells Beatrice.

"What's going on? What's happening?" I ask.

"Why don't you tell us your name then we can explain everything, ok?" Beatrice kindly tells me.

"I'm Kaitlyn" I tell them.

"Ok Kaitlyn, how about we go sit down on the beds then we'll tell you everything." Rosalie says, already guiding me over to the pile of blankets that are meant to be beds.

Once we all get settled, I look up at the two women. They're both beautiful. Rosalie with her long black hair with her tall horns coming out of it and dark brown eyes. And Beatrice, with her short brown hair, and gentle green eyes. They're both on the older side. You can see the age in the slight wrinkles in Rosalie's face and the bits of gray in Beatrice's hair.

Rosalie takes a breath, then begins her story. "I suppose I should start with where you are. Though there is no official name for this place, we've all taken to calling it The Lab. Veronica is in charge and Thomas is second in command. They created this place after their experiments on humans got terminated for being inhumane. They hope if they can show the world the super humans they have created, they will be able to redeem themselves in the scientific community and continue their experiments uninhibited."

"Why don't they call themselves doctor something like in the movies?" I ask.

"Veronica is paranoid about someone ratting them out to the authorities so everyone that works here only uses first names, but we're still not sure if even the names they give us are their true names." Beatrice explains.

"When you first arrive, you're taken to a testing room where you are injected with one of their serums to give you an enhancement." Rosalie continues. "After that, you're put in a cell while you adjust to your new features. Then, the tests begin. What exactly they comprise of depends on what they gave you. If you get strong enough, they might give you another enhancement to see what happens then they test you some more. Over and over and over" Rosalie explains to me.

"But what happens when they finish testing you? Do you get to go home?" I ask curiously, clinging to the hope that I'll get to go home one day.

"No Kaitlyn, I'm afraid not. You'll stay here the rest of your life and they'll continue testing you until the day you die" Beatrice kindly explains.

     "I don't want to be here. I want to go home!" I yell.

     Rosalie pulls me into her lap and gives me a hug. "I'm sorry that you're here Kaitlyn, but it'll be okay I promise. You have to be brave though, okay?"

     "I'll try" I tell her. "What enhancement do you think I have?"

     "We think they gave you wings" Beatrice tells me.

     I want to be excited because having wings means I can fly, but I see the look on their faces and remember how they acted earlier. So I ask why they look so worried.

     "Well," Beatrice begins. "You aren't the first  one they've tried this on. Unfortunately the others didn't make it"

     "Am I gonna die? Jace said that when you die you're gone forever and I don't wanna be gone forever!" I exclaim, then gasp suddenly remembering I hadn't asked about Jace. "And Jace, where is he? I want to see him!" At this point, I'm shaking and tears are running down my face.

     Rosalie just hugs me tighter rubbing my back comfortingly, and Beatrice joins us, hugging me from the other side. We stay like that for awhile until I quit shaking and my tears stop flowing.

     Eventually, I pull myself out of their arms and Rosalie says, "You're not going to die Kaitlyn. I don't know how, but somehow it seems your body has accepted the wings and now they just have to grow. Now, why don't you tell us who Jace is"

"He was my friend. He was beside me on the truck when I woke up. He was taken here too. When will I get to see him?" I ask.

Beatrice explains, "Never, I'm afraid. They keep the boys and girls in separate parts of The Lab and we don't interact. I guess they're afraid of what might happen if we made little hybrid babies in a closet or something"

Rosalie lightly slaps Beatrice on her arm. "She's a toddler! You can't say things like that."

"I got her to laugh though, didn't I?"

And sure enough, I realize for the first time since I got here, I'm actually smiling and laughing. I wish I wasn't here, but since I am, I'm glad I'm with Rosalie and Beatrice. I hope we'll be together forever.

That night, I scoot my bed over next to theirs and we spend the night huddled together with me in between the two women.

Soon, the night turns into day, and then the day turns into a week and the week becomes a month. Each day my wings grow a little and before I know it, the little buds have turned into full wings. They're blue and rough with slight points on the ends. I now realize why Veronica had said they'd found their dragon on that first horrible morning. My wings looked exactly like what I imagine dragon wings would look like, but smaller. I wonder if that means they gave Jace phoenix wings.

I think about what happened to Jace constantly. It seems like it's the only thing I have to do. Even though it's been a month, I still haven't left this cell. Unlike Rosalie and Beatrice, I don't get to go to the cafeteria for meals. The guards bring mine to the cell three times a day when they go to escort the other two to the cafeteria.

It's starting to get pretty lonely. It feels like whenever Rosalie and Beatrice aren't gone to eat, they're gone for testing. The only time we really get together is at night. Our sleeping arrangement hasn't changed since that first night. Our beds stay pushed together and I sleep cuddled between the two women.

About a week after it felt like my wings had fully formed, a guard comes into the cell and I don't get out of bed, assuming they're there for Beatrice and Rosalie.

"Hey dragon girl! Get up, Veronica wants to see you" the guard yells at me.

I scramble out from under the blanket and hurry to go to the door, not wanting the guard to grab me like the ones who took me in here did. Even though I've been waiting for this moment for a month, I'm terrified. What will happen to me if I'm not what they were expecting? What are they going to do to me during the tests?

The guard leads me down a long hallway and I see a ton of doors to other cells like mine and wonder how many people are here.

Eventually, after going through many hallways and taking so many turns that I lost track of how to get back, we reach a door with a plaque in the middle that says Veronica. The guard knocks on the door and I can here the sound of footsteps approaching.

"I'll take it from here. You are dismissed" Veronica says as she answers the door, grabbing my hand and pulling me in.

I look around and I can see we're in an office. On one side of the room there's a desk covered in papers with a large chair behind it and a smaller chair on the other side of it. On the opposite side of the room is a large windowless metal door. Directly in front of me is a door with a large window in it that look like it leads to some sort of yard.

     The door I came through slams open and Thomas walks in looking infuriated.

     "Veronica! I thought we agreed we would do her initial testing together. So why, tell me, did I have to find out from one of the guards that you had taken her here alone?"

     "Oh relax. I was going to radio you before I took her outside. Besides, I'm the one in charge around here, not you. If I want to test her myself then I will. Now come along, both of you." She says, leading us through the other door in the room.

     Inside, it looks similar to the room I was brought into when I first arrived. There's a tall metal table in the middle of the room. Fortunately this one has a green drape over it so I won't be sitting on the cold metal. On the cart beside, there's a measuring tape and two clipboards.

Veronica shuts the door behind us then lifts me onto the table and tells me to sit still. She and Thomas then measure and examine every inch of my wings for what feels like hours, but in reality is probably only ten minutes. After they both finish writing, Veronica tells me to follow her and she leads us outside to the yard I saw earlier.

     It's a huge open grassy area surrounded by four tall walls. At the top of the walls, there's barbed wire that goes up and connects at the top to make a dome. I assume they made this so I couldn't fly away.

"Now, Kaitlyn, I want you to try to flap your wings slowly. Do NOT fly until I tell you to." Veronica says.

I try to flap my wings, but they barely move, because I don't know how to use them, and I haven't tried moving them yet since I've been scared to.

"Anytime now would be great." Thomas remarks.

Finally I manage to gain a little control of my wings and I manage to lift them up and bring them together then spread them out.

"Finally, it took you long enough. Thomas go grab the tape measure. Kaitlyn, spread your wings as far as they go and hold it like that." Veronica instructs me.

I don't want to make them mad, so I try my best to hold my wings spread, but after a while it starts to hurt. Finally, they measure my wingspan and I'm free to let them down.

     For the next few hours, they try to get me to fly, but I can't. No matter how many times they yell at me to flap my wings harder, it's too hard. The most I can manage is some slow, weak flapping.

     "Well, it looks like someone wants to go to bed without dinner, doesn't it?" Thomas says.

     "Please don't take away my food, I promise I'll try harder" I plead.

     "What are you doing, you idiot? If we take away her food, she'll be even more weak and pathetic then she is now." Veronica reprimands him.

     They continue to make make me try to fly for another hour before finally letting me go back to my cell. I was hoping tonight I would finally be allowed to eat dinner in the cafeteria, but when the guard collects Beatrice and Rosalie, he has my tray of food like always and I eat another lonely meal in bed.

     The next morning though, I'm finally taken to the cafeteria with the other two. It's huge and filled with people. There has to be hundreds of women. The space is filled with tables that seat anywhere from two to twelve people. Up front I can see a long line of people grabbing trays and going through what looks like a long buffet. I know that Beatrice assured me that the food here was like what I had in the cell, but I'd still doubted her.

     When she sees me looking at the food with an amazed expression, Beatrice chuckles and says, "I told you the one good thing about this place was the food, didn't I? While the rest of this place is torturous, mealtimes are amazing since they feed us well because they don't want us getting weak."

     We move through the line and I pile my tray full of eggs, potatoes, and bread. At the end of the buffet is a giant fridge and I grab a bottle of orange juice.

     I follow Beatrice and Rosalie to a table with three chairs and we begin to eat. I can see what Beatrice meant about mealtimes being amazing. The rest of the day still sucks, but at least I have this to look forward to.

     The months seem to fly by as I fall into a routine. Breakfast, getting tested by the people in the black scrubs, who I've learned are called helpers, lunch, flying with Veronica and Thomas, dinner, tell Bea and Rosa about my day, then lights out and sleep.

     As much as I despise the hours I spend getting poked and prodded by the helpers and having to just sit on that cold metal table and let them do it, it makes it worth it when I get to go to the yard.

     I've improved a lot since that first attempt all those months ago. I can actually fly now. I love the feeling of the wind beneath my wings, the rush of soaring through the sky. Once I'm finally able to fly high enough to see over the wall, I can see that there's another identical yard on the other side. I wonder what it's for, but whenever I ask no one answers.

    Most people at The Lab don't spend the entire time between lunch and dinner doing tests or practicing their abilities, but since I'm the only one who uses the yard, I'm allowed to be out here all the way from lunch until dinner as long as Veronica or Thomas is watching me.

     One day I asked Bea why she doesn't go to the yard since she can fly too and she told me that they don't take her out since her version of flying is more like levitating since she doesn't have wings and she can't go very high, so she just flys inside.

     One night, I finish my time in the yard, get my food, and go to sit at our normal table. When I get there though, I only see Rosalie and she looks like she's crying.

     "What's wrong Rosa, where Bea?" I ask

     "She's had a tiring day so she's resting in the cell. I'll explain later, okay?" She says.

     We eat the rest of our meal in a heavy silence.
Normally meals seem like they go quickly but today it seems to drag on endlessly as I wonder what happened to Beatrice.

     Finally, a helper shouts out that dinner is over and everybody goes back to their cells.

     When we get back, I'm horrified by what I see. Beatrice is laying down and groaning in pain. She's extremely pale and looks miserable.

     "Bea!" I scream rushing to her side. "What's wrong?"

     "It'll be fine Kaitlyn, my body's just not accepting the new enhancement like they thought it would. It'll be over soon."

     "Why did they do this? What were they trying to do?" I ask.

     "They tried to make me telekinetic, but it seems like it didn't quite work." She says weakly.

     "We have to tell them! They have to fix you!" I tell her.

     "It's no use dear, they can't and won't do anything." Rosalie tells me, "Come on Kaitlyn let's lay down for the night and let her rest."

     I don't sleep in the middle like normal. We both want to be close to Beatrice so Rosalie and I each lay on either side of her.

     The next day, I'm outside practicing flying, when I finally snap. I know Rosalie said they wouldn't do anything but I have to try to save Beatrice.

     "You need to save Beatrice!" I tell Veronica and Thomas, coming out of the air and landing. "If you don't, I won't fly ever again!"

     "Well if you're not going to fly, then I guess I we don't have any reason to let you out anymore, now do we?" Veronica says coldly.

     "I don't care if you lock me in my cell for the rest of my life! You have to save her or I'm never doing anything you say ever again." I tell her.

"No, I won't be saving your little friend, but you will continue to submit to our tests. Tonight though, I think it's about time to be done. I'll have a guard escort you back to your room." She says, already walking back in, Thomas on her heels.

"What about dinner?" I ask.

"If you think your getting dinner after that little stunt you pulled, you're sorely mistaken. It's time you learn some actions come with consequences. "

When I get back to the cell, Beatrice is even worse. It's reached the point where she's too weak to even talk. Rosalie refuses to go eat, choosing to stay with Beatrice. We all sit there and Rosalie and I hold her hands until she falls asleep.

She never wakes back up.

Rosalie and I hold onto each other tightly and sob together through the night. The next morning she looks at me with a sad face and says, "Kaitlyn I need you to promise me something, ok?"

"Anything." I tell her.

"I want you to do everything that they tell you to do to plus some. You need to gain their trust. Make it seem like you're on their side. When the time is right, use their trust against them and get yourself out of here."

"But how will I know when the time is right?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to figure that out on your own."

"But can't you help me?"

She looks at me sadly. "Kaitlyn, I've been here since they took me thirty-three years ago when I was twenty. It's time for me to be free. When they come to take Bea away, I need you to stay in the corner and not move, no matter what happens. Ok?"

"No!" I scream. "I already lost her, you can't leave me too Rosa!"

"Please Kaitlyn, I'm begging you, stay away and let me do what I need to. Just be brave and you can get through this, I know you can. Don't just do it for me. Do it for Beatrice."

"Fine, I'll do it. All of it. Gaining their trust and staying where you tell me to."

A little while later, two helpers backed by three guards come to take Beatrice away. As soon as the door opens, Rosa leans her head down and jabs her horns into a helper's stomach.

I cover my eyes and hug my legs, not wanting to see what's happening as I hear the guards fill Rosalie with bullets.

When I open my eyes again, Rosalie is on the floor bleeding from many wounds and I crawl over to her and grab her hand.

"Remember, Kaitlyn," She begins, blood leaking out the corner of her mouth. "Be brave."

"I will Rosa, I will, I promise. I'll do it for you and Bea and everyone else trapped here." I promise her as she takes her last breaths.

I lay over her body sobbing for what feels like forever. Eventually her body is moved out from under me but I just lay there unmoving on the cold floor.

I'll give myself today to grieve and sob. Then tomorrow, I'll let it all go. I have to, because I'm going to be brave.

I'm going to do it. I'm getting out.

For myself, for Bea, for Rosa, for Jace, for every person that's still trapped here, and for every person that's had to die in this cruel unforgiving place.