The Energy Room (The Elementum Trilogy) Page 3

  “What?” I asked, trying to sound sincere.

  “Don’t do that. You know what. Why they would they bring in someone like that.” For some reason, this kindled a fire somewhere inside my guts.

  “Someone like what, exactly?” I questioned, squinting a bit as if it would clear up the meaning for me.

  The look Eric gave me was beyond heartbreaking. It was almost as if my utter naivety had shattered his lifelong infatuation with me, like any hope he’d ever had was irrevocably snatched away from him. Pain, Realization… Betrayal? What seemed like a combination of all three emanated from his watery, mossy-green eyes. I considered the consequences of trying to get into his head, but his next words eliminated any need to risk electrocution.

  “Someone to fall in love with.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Adolescent Rascality

  I wasn’t at all sure what to say to Eric. Part of me wanted to slap him in the face, another part of me wanted to hug him. Some small part of me desperately wanted to start singing show tunes, but I was usually able to suppress those feelings. I ended up making what was probably one of the worst decisions I had ever made by that point in my life.

  “Well… If that’s their plan, they’re going to be pretty disappointed,” I said, sitting on the bed next to him.

  “Why is that?” Eric mumbled.

  It was odd to see someone who was nearly an adult act this way, but for some people, growing up in The Facility made you age slower. Others aged three times as fast.

  “Because I already love someone so much, there just isn’t any more room in my heart to love someone else,” I said. I had never lied to Eric before. I guess it wasn’t technically a lie… it just wasn’t Eric who I was talking about.

  Eric raised his head, eyebrows lowered a little. He was obviously analyzing what I had said. His tears were replaced by something much more disturbing; Hope. I smiled at him, wiped the few remaining tears from his cheeks, and took his hand. I hid my panic the best I could as he started to lean in for a kiss.

  KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

  ‘Oh, thank god.’ I thought to myself.

  “Eric, are you okay?” Emmy called from outside the door.

  Eric catapulted off the bed, startled.

  “Fine, mom!” he yelled in frustration.

  I stood up calmly, putting my hands on his shoulders.

  “Let’s go back downstairs, okay?” I smiled, trying my best to sound comforting.

  Eric returned the smile, and nodded. I opened the door to a slightly worried-looking Emmy, giving her a reassuring glance. She stared around me to Eric, whose eyes were still puffy, and shook her head exasperatedly before walking away. I held my hand out to the boy I had just sort of lied to, and he took it happily. We walked back downstairs into the sitting room, still holding hands, and sat next to each other on the sofa. Emmy cocked her head as she observed us, obviously confused. Al didn’t seem to notice, and just smiled politely.

  “Where were we?” I asked, picking up my coffee with my free hand.

  “Something about airborne anti-psychotics, I believe,” Al stated with a smirk.

  Even after our discussion, Eric looked at Al with a bit of disdain. I discreetly nudged him in the side with my elbow, at which point he sat up a bit straighter and shifted his glance.

  “Right.” I forced a snicker.

  We all sat in awkward silence for what was probably only a brief moment, but felt like hours. Each of us intermittently sipped on our coffees, twiddled our thumbs and wiggled our feet.

  “Should you be getting back to the lab, dear?” Emmy asked me, breaking up the excruciating quiet.

  “Oh yeah, probably.” I nodded, releasing Eric’s crushing grip on my hand as I stood up. “Al?”

  “It was very nice to meet you both, I hope to see more of you,” Al said politely, shaking Emmy’s hand, and then Eric’s.

  Eric hesitated, but apparently decided not to be a jerk for just a moment.

  Emmy’s eyes looked to Al with sympathy for a fraction of a second.

  “Yes, well… If you decide to take the job, you should come over with Angie for dinner tonight,” she said kindly.

  “That sounds great, thank you,” Al said as we made our way to the front door.

  “Angie…” Eric called after me. I stopped. “Er… I’ll see you later.”

  I gave Eric a warm smile as his eyes pierced mine, before I walked out the door.

  Al and I walked in silence toward the elevator at the other end of the street. Past kids playing, and dogs pooping. Past women gardening, and men riding lawnmowers. Past what truly seemed like normal, ideal lives.

  “So… your file didn’t mention that you have a boyfriend.” Al sneered as I pushed the up button for the elevator.

  “Yeah… well… it probably didn’t mention that I have a birthmark shaped like Ohio on my left butt cheek, either,” I remarked, walking through the open lift doors.

  “No… it did,” Al said blankly as the doors closed behind us.

  Our short elevator ride back to the lab was silent and uncomfortable, but the tension eased as soon as the doors opened to Eddie’s grinning face. I jumped slightly, almost running directly into him. It wasn’t typical for people to stand millimeters from the elevator doors when it was arriving.

  “What is that look for?” I questioned cautiously.

  “I just had an interesting conversation with Emmy,” he replied, rocking on his heels. I rolled my eyes, shoving past him.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” I said plainly. Eddie turned to follow me, while Al trailed behind. I was in no mood to discuss my new ‘relationship’, with the father of my new ‘boyfriend’.

  “Awwww, but why not?” Eddie mocked, swiping his ID card at the glass door to allow us back into the room with the giant water tank.

  “What are we doing today?” I asked, completely ignoring Eddie’s question.

  “Angie—” Eddie began, but quickly rethought his sentence when he saw the look of utter irritation on my face, “we’re doing ice.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks on my path to the walkway overtop the tank.

  “Ice? Is that a good idea… er… today?” I questioned, looking nervously from Eddie to Al.

  “As good a day as any, wouldn’t you say?” Eddie’s eyes twinkled with a type of adolescent rascality.

  At that point, I was unsure what Eddie’s intentions were. As he glanced at Al, I thought perhaps he was just going for the largest shock value we had to offer.

  “Excuse me, what exactly do you mean ‘doing ice’?” Al queried, eyebrows lowered as his eyes shifted from me to Eddie.

  “Oh, Angie here is going to make ice for us.” Eddie beamed innocently.

  “Can I ask what the purpose of that is?” Al asked, entirely confused.

  “So we can all have slushies later,” I joked dryly. It was an anxiety reflex.

  Eddie snorted for a moment in laughter, then straightened himself out as he realized Al didn’t find any humor in my words. The ginger-haired doctor cleared his throat awkwardly, as Al eyed him with curiosity.

  “Best to let you see for yourself, I think,” Eddie stated.

  Al was still clearly confused, but stood back as Eddie walked around to different computer stations, giving orders to various new workers whose names I would probably never take the time to learn.

  A plump, quiet woman placed sensors on my head and chest before I made my way up the walkway to stand directly over the center of the water tank. They had turned the heating element on for the metal, making it quite toasty against my pale feet. I kept my eyes trained on Eddie as he followed his invisible path around the room, observing, directing, and correcting the employees. Finally, he stopped and turned to face me, eyes beaming.

  “Emergency systems on standby,” Eddie called to nobody in particular.

  “Ready,” a faceless employee called back to him from somewhere across the room.

  “Medics on standby,” Eddie c
alled again, aimlessly.

  I glanced over at two men who had large first aid kits at their feet, and a dusty defibrillator behind them. It had only ever been used once, in an unfortunate scenario involving an elderly doctor with a heart condition, and an unexpected, stray fireball.

  “Ready,” one of the medics replied lazily.

  “Security?” Eddie asked.

  I directed my view to a team of men in black suits who were, no doubt, carrying guns. They had a very secret-service-esque look about them, and were deemed necessary at all lab runs, since that one time when I tried to break out. That had been a particularly frustrating day. The cafeteria had been out of pancakes that morning.

  “We are ready, sir,” one of the burly men said in a stern and monotonous voice.

  “Electro-Cuffs on standby,” Eddie demanded politely.

  I looked down at the cold shackles on my wrists. The small, green lights suddenly turned red, confirming that I wouldn’t be shocked into next year anytime soon. I had always found it somewhat amusing that the lights on the Electro-Cuffs had different meanings for me than for everyone else in The Facility. Green, the color of freedom, progress, Go!… To them, it meant that they were safe; I couldn’t cause any trouble. To me, it meant that I was a restricted animal. Red, on the other hand, meant danger to them. The animal was on the loose, and there was no sure way of knowing what it might do. For me, red meant nothing more than freedom… progress… GO!

  “Whenever you are ready, Angie,” Eddie said calmly, eyes full of a fatherly-looking hope.

  I did my best to issue him a reassuring smile, before my eyes fell momentarily on Al. I had almost forgotten he was there. I had almost forgotten we were probably about to knock his socks off—metaphorically or literally, there was no real way of knowing. His face showed no sign of emotion, not even slight curiosity. He looked more rigid than the security guards who were more than prepared to shoot me in the head, if need be. I looked down to the water below my feet, placed my hands on the railings next to my sides, and closed my eyes.

  The first image that crossed my mind was the middle of a midnight ocean, littered with icebergs, which were totally ready to give you a bad time. I shivered as a chill started from the nape of my neck and ran all the way to the soles of my feet. I opened my eyes just long enough to see a fog of breath leave my mouth. I closed my eyes again to picture an infinite glacier, creeping across the Earth at speeds even a snail would scoff at. I could feel my fingers and toes turning blue, even against the warm metal of the walkway. I opened my eyes once more, only to be met by the arctic stare of Al from across the room. I had expected to feel uncomfortable, but I felt completely at home and assured of what I was doing. Suddenly, a wave of energy expanded outward in all directions from my body, the water below me quaking rapidly. My body was so cold, I felt that if I were to fall, I could shatter into tiny pieces. Icy spider webs began to crawl from my hands down the metal railing, until icicles were dangling beneath my feet, just an inch or so above the water.

  A sharp pain pierced through my head. I cried out in agony, prying my frosty hand from the railing to paw at my face. Though there was no wound, I was convinced that I had been shot right between the eyes; a bullet released by an anxious security guard, perhaps.

  “Vital report?” I heard Eddie call nervously.

  “Blood pressure is rising fast, sir. Brainwave patterns are off the charts. I don’t know what she’s doing, but it isn’t anything she has ever done before,” a faceless voice responded from somewhere behind me.

  “Angie… Angela, can you hear me?” Eddie questioned from the end of the walkway.

  I forced my eyelids open, only to find my vision severely blurred by ice crystals, which had formed on my eyelashes. My hand still covered the invisible bullet-hole in my forehead.

  “Calm yourself and focus, Angela,” Eddie said in the most soothing voice he could manage, though his words were shaky with paternal worry.

  I was having extreme difficulty focusing on anything other than the horrible pain pulsing between my eyes.

  “I can’t,” I choked through a throat full of sharp, frozen vocal chords.

  “Yes you can. You know you can. I know you can,” Eddie reassured me. I felt the walkway shudder slightly as he apparently stepped toward me.

  I forced my eyes open again. Through the blurred vision and stabs of pain, I managed to identify the outline of Eddie at the end of the walkway, struggling with his feet. I blinked rapidly, my tears freezing over as fast as they came out. My gaze landed on the icy, blue eyes across the room, connecting to them instantly. There was no shock in them, no amazement, no confusion. The only thing that found its home in those eyes was pride, an unwavering sense of definiteness, and an unbreakable bond that could only be found in someone like—

  The pain that had been building behind my eyes erupted into streams of blue light toward the ceiling. The water in the tank below me began to jet skyward into frozen, shimmering towers. Even through my blurred and painful confusion, I was in awe of the glittering magnificence I was creating around myself; a vertical landscape of icy awesomeness. Slowly, the amazing view began to dim, until my vision faded entirely; the sounds of crackling ice falling to a deathly silence. I felt the back of my head hit the metal walkway, just before I passed out completely.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Infinite Whiteness

  Infinite whiteness was all that surrounded me, but it lacked the feeling of constraint associated with the walls of The Facility. It was warm and welcoming, almost shielding in nature. I was home.

  My entire being was engulfed by the comfort of an over-sized blue chair. If I could do nothing but stay in that one spot for the rest of my life, I would have been content. Stemming out from me in a circle were five other chairs, each one a different color of the rainbow. All of the others were empty, except for the yellow one two seats to my right. A pair of fiery, copper eyes gazed at me from behind a thick book, locks of straight, dark hair falling around them.

  “What are you doing here?” Nadia asked nervously, setting her book on her lap. I looked around for a moment, trying to steady myself.

  “I passed out,” I said, cradling my head in my hands. It was so comforting to see my bare wrists without any sign of hindering shackles.

  “Are you… are you okay?” Nadia asked, placing her book in her chair as she stood to move closer to me.

  Nadia was a beautiful girl, and her voice had the unique ability to turn your innards into gooey mush. Her flawless, dusky skin made her eyes seem as though they might burst out of her face and engulf the room in flames. She was truly one of my oldest friends, and one of my only connections to the outside world. Unfortunately, she had been in a coma since she was very young, which was why she was in the Room during the middle of the day; she was always in the Room.

  The Energy Room was where our minds went when we were unconscious, at least that’s how we understood it. There were six of us, and we had been going to the Room for as long as any of us could remember. It was our true home, and our true family. The Room gave us everything we needed when we were there, everything we were deprived of on the outside.

  After being together every night of our lives for nearly eighteen years, we knew all there was to know about each other, yet we knew very little of ourselves. We were all born on the same day of the same year; we were all adopted; and we were all able to do things that normal people shouldn’t have been able to do. While the Room was able to provide us with the knowledge of nearly any subject we could ever crave to learn, it was unable to tell us anything of who we were. That, or we simply hadn’t been asking the correct questions.

  All of the information The Facility had been after for the last seventeen years existed in a room that they could never access. If William ever found out that the secrets he desired were so close, yet so far… he would be more furious than a particularly disgruntled cat in an ugly holiday sweater.

  “I’m fine,” I said quietly, rubbing my
eyes as I remembered the stabbing pain that had riddled them just moments before. I checked frantically, finding no apparent wound anywhere on my head. With a sigh of relief, I found that I hadn’t been shot. What had caused the pain, then? I didn’t know enough about medical stuff to be sure, but the hypochondria in me suggested that I had developed a brain tumor or, even more likely, there was a parasite living in my head.

  Nadia reached her hand out to me questioningly. I nodded, and met her hand with mine. I watched calmly as her coppery eyes clouded over, allowing her to experience the recent events that had led to my unexpected visit to the Room.

  There was only silence for a moment, as Nadia’s eyes cleared and she withdrew her hand. We stared at each other, both pondering the happenings of my day.

  “Is he—” she began reluctantly.

  “I don’t know.” I cut her off, already knowing she would ask about Al.

  “What would that mean?” Nadia questioned, retreating to her yellow chair, “If he was?”

  I gazed blankly at the beautiful girl a couple seats away from me. The girl who, as far as any of us had been concerned, was one of only six of our kind. We had all been so sure that we were the only ones.

  “Nothing,” I said softly. “It wouldn’t mean anything, because he’s not.”

  Nadia sighed with frustration. When she was four years old, she had been in the car accident that resulted in her coma. Since then, she had spent nearly every moment of her life in the Room. There had been a few instances when she faded back into reality, each time only long enough to see her adoptive mother sitting by her side. We assumed that her body was still showing brain activity, and that was why nobody had pulled the plug on her. While our room was comforting, and provided us with nearly anything we could ever hope for, Nadia was stuck, like someone who had gotten onto the wrong side of the mafia and ended up at the bottom of a river, feet hopelessly secured in concrete blocks. Her only human connections fading in and out on a daily basis was far more agonizing than any test or procedure that had been performed on me at The Facility. We all felt alone on the outside, but Nadia was truly isolated. Proof of others like us in the outside world would have given her some faith that she wouldn’t spend the rest of her life confined to the unending canvas of the Room.