Experimentation
Chapter 23

It has been a day since Katrina died but it feels like only a minute, I’m unable to shake the image of her body dropping to the ground. The life fading from her eyes, the warmth leaving her body, the color fading from her skin. The feeling of her blood grazing my body never leaves my mind, how I let her die. Her body burnt on a medical table, behind a door that is difficult to discover. The thought of her being dead caused tears months back but I cry a stream as she died in my arms, how ironic? The love of my life got shot because of my corrupt DNA and I didn’t help her. I couldn’t help, she didn’t want to lose me therefore she lost her life. Poetic to the end for my love, to the very end.

The blood smell begins to disrupt my thoughts, I couldn’t leave the room due to the fact that Edwin’s ‘nurses’ are patrolling the hall for the slights glance of my presents. They believe since the killed the ‘mastermind’ of this little escape that I would crumbly to pieces and willing return to Edwin with his Torturous ways. Those imbeciles, incapable of feeling true emotion. They believe that because my love is gone that I have nothing else to live for but they know nothing, this only makes me want to escape more. I have to make it out for her, my family, and for Cade. Even though he hates me for what I did to myself, I can never truly leave him alone in this world to fight the battles of life.

I can’t understand what’s special about me compared to the others that have been mutated with Edwin’s sickening experiments. I look the same, my senses maybe increase but what’s the side effects from the experiment? I only have control of my powers because of Katrina, she was the one who told me to embrace them and they’re the reason she died. For that, I can never forgive myself.

I am jolted out of my semi peaceful mind state when the fire alarm goes off, of all the events that could’ve happened this had to be it? The blaring noise causes pain to erupted in my head, everything noise taking over my eardrums. My heightened senses are not a pleasurable thing at this time, they are a blessing and a curse. I slowly begin to move my way into a standing position but my mind kept drifting to the alarm, what set it off? My head erupting in pain from the ringing, my eyes filled with glaze as the pain magnifies. I try to balance the pain by grounding my feet to the ground but the pain only increases, my feet slowly stumble to the side with my head pulsing out pain. Why does this need to happen now? Why can’t I grieve in peace? The noise stops allowing my head to relax but my body stays alert, what’s going on?

I move my body out into the hallway stealthy, trying to avoid the men that are hunting me. The hall is eerily silent letting my heart speed up with anxiety flowing through my veins. My foot hovers over the ground as my eyes look down at them, the blood dripping down off my clothes and settling on the floor below me. I begin to move slowly down the hallway, letting the blood trail behind me. If they replace me, they are in for a slow painful death. My feet shuffle below keeping my body upright, hugging the wall closely. I manage to make my way to the staircase but once I arrived there I knew the rest of the way won’t be as easy.

The stairs were guard by two nurses, dressed in the regular ‘work attire’ but if you ever become like me you can notice things like no other. Both of the guys have guns tucked in their shoes, there is also a taser on the table. I have to distract them. I quickly turn to look behind me, looking if someone has caught onto the trail. I spot no one, thank god. The nurse’s quarter is two doors down but the look of this hallway makes it seem that it could make unwanted noise. I manage to make my way back through the blood without slipping, and make it to the door. My hand grasps lightly on the handle and I begin to turn it. “What do you think you’re doing?” My whole body freezes up as those words come from down the hall. I gradually turn my head in the direction of the voice but am greeted with a empty hall. “The taser is not a toy, put it down.” The voice spoke again but now I know it wasn’t directed towards me. This is my chance, they are distracted. I rapidly twist the door open and step inside swiftly but delicately shut the door behind me.

The room around me is a locker room, blue lockers line the wall, benches in front of the lockers. The room smells of rose air freshener, like how Tina always smelled before she was fired. My body goes into autopilot and I start to ravage through the lockers for clothes that fit me, in the second locker I found a pair of black converses’ that were my size, 7. I didn’t replace any clothing until I check the 25th locker, a pair of black yoga pants that were a size 8 and a black leather jacket. Digging my hands into the pockets I found 15 bucks and a ring, just what I needed, Uselessjunk. I dug through all the remain lockers only to replace a black beanie and a blue sleeveless tank top. Once my eyes fell on the tank top tears begin to fill my eyes, Trina’s eyes were blue. The deepest of oceans couldn’t compare to her eyes, and now she is gone from this world, forever. I wipe my tears and stand up, I need to be strong and live for her. My tears begin to stop but the feeling remains, I walk into the bathroom that is connected in this room. My feet move on their own as my mind tries to focus on the task at hand. Katrina, I will never forget you.

My mind remains distracted until I feel water touch my back, stinging the cuts on my back. My vision just watches Trina’s blood go down the drain, the smell hits my nose in a intense manner. Iron, my tears kept falling down my face but I make no noise. I let the water fall down on my skin, washing the blood off. I don’t know how long I’ve been in the shower but the water begins to turn cold. The shower helps me regain strength that I lost over the last 24 hours, my legs no longer shake, I can hold myself up. I finally exit the shower and put on the clothes that I’m ‘borrowing’ for the night. The mirror is foggy but I am able to see my reflection minorly. My eyes look lifeless with red veins popping out and bags as black as coal. My face pale from shock of what happened, with a slight cut on my cheek from the nail that I hit when getting down stairs. Death has changed me for the worst, taking a part of me that was happy. Will I ever be happy again?

Walking into the hallway I’m expecting to see the blood trail being investigating. My heart starts to speed up slightly, my nerves of getting caught start to surface. I raise my hands slightly and let out a shield of electricity allowing it to crack around me, giving me a feeling of security. I reach my hand out and gently grasp the door handle, pulling the door open slowly and peaking my head out. The hallway is silent, I look down at the ground swiftly and see that the blood is gone. Why did I clean it up? Stepping out of the room with caution in case this is a trap, I won’t go down without a fight. I decided not to close the door because it may make noise. I pull the beanie over my forehead close to my eyes, I figure it would help keep my black hair from getting in my month and make me look less like I want to murder half the people in here. My feet make minimum sound, much to my delight, allowing me to keep to the walls and glance over the corner to see that the men that were there are both sound asleep. Why did Edwin hire them?

After that ‘really difficult’ passing of two guards, I finally managed to make it to the ground floor’s door. I push softly but the door doesn’t budge, I shove it harshly and fast but it stays in its place. What the hell? A noise can be heard on the other side but I knew Edwin would have this floor secure in case I was going to try and walk out the front door, I need a new plan. The door below me opens in a bang, the guards are awake. My anxiety kicks in allowing the electricity to spark fully, I place my hands on the stairs step crouching down to the guard’s knee level. I force all the energy to form in the palms of my hands and slam my fist onto the ground, the energy shoots up and creates an electric barrier between the metals that are in front of the first floor stairs entrance. Didn’t know I could do that, that is actually cool. The two men barge up the stairs seeing me from the other side of the electricity wall, is the wall going to hold? Both men charge towards the wall but before they were able to cross, the wall sends a bolt at them shooting them down the stairs and hopefully knocking them out.

Standing up straight was the hardest part because my back has been hunched over the last two days, I place my hands at the bottom of the stairs tilting my head slightly to the side trying to grasp at the sounds on the floor above me. Slight thudding can be heard moving from this door towards the east side of the building, but nothing much after that. I place my hands on the bar over my head grasping them around the bar pulling myself up slowly. I know its a dramatic measure but I don’t want to be making any sound, less sound means the less likely of a chance to catch someone’s attention. I pull my body over the bar landing on the platform, placing my feet softly on the ground, moving in front of the door.

I can’t believe I’m doing this, the quietness of this floor gives me time to think about what I’m actually doing. I’m escaping from a mental facility to show people evidence that my doctor is the crazy one and has turned me and other people into these mutant creatures with abilities that should only be found in comic books and movies. I have photographs of medical records and pictures that show Edwin’s practice. I don’t want to have these people, who are like me, to have to live in fear of him. The pain he must have caused all of these innocent victims, all of those people who helped him. They are just as much of a monster as him, they follow his every action as a pack of dogs. The difference between the two is that dogs don’t know what morals are, what is right and what is wrong in the world.

I skid through the kitchen double door, remembering the loose panel that Trina mentioned. I force my body down to the floor, trying to keep my body out of sight from the glass windows. Keep your head down, move with careful patterns. I begin approaching the window as a voice booms behind me. “I wouldn’t try that Irisa.” I pull my body off the floor, bracing my hands in a fighting motion. “Don’t try to stop me Edwin, I know what you did.” Edwin smiles at me, his perfect teeth reflecting every ounce of fear in my body. “Oh Irisa, I don’t care that you know of Katrina’s death. She was reported as a suicide to her family this morning. I knew she would become dead weight shortly, she just happened to meet that end by my hands.” Sparks shoot off my skin, how dare he talk about her like that?! “She wasn’t dead weight, she was the only thing rooting me back to reality. You took her from me, because she wanted to help her brother? I could never fault her for that.”

Edwin starts pushing forward towards me, rushing closer. I raise my hand, allowing a sharp spark to fly from my fingers, knocking over a large container of grease. Edwin skids to a stop as the grease slowly floods the floor around us. “Grease? Really? That’s a fire hazard in a wooden old building like this.” His face begins to twist, a crooked smile begins forming on his face.

An eerie wave of quiet fills the room, soft thumping could be heard of doctors and nurses running amuck. “Thank you Irisa, for showing me the best ways to treat one of my creations. You would have been everything I’ve dreamt of if that little bitch didn’t go rogue.” Edwin reaches into his pocket, pulling out his lucky metal lighter. “Time for the end game.” He drops his lighter on the floor and the room is engulfed into flames.

The fire begins to erupt behind me, the screams of those who had been stuck inside were heart crushing. The shield has begun to fade away as my mind catches up with my body, the kitchen’s flames begin to spread around the room. What did I do? The smoke fills the air and a siren begins blaring in my ears. My eyes still blurry from the tears caused by Edwin’s words. The fire rises up the walls following the grease trail that I spilt, what did I do?

Taking little time to think, I start to climb on top of the fridge. Getting to the open window, I begin pulling the metal panel off of the window. I have to get out, I can’t save these people. Edwin attempts to escape from the door behind him, only to be met by more flames. “No!” He shouts as he attempts to follow me up to the window. “I will not be the one dying today!” He rushes towards me as I finally get the panel open, throwing myself out the window before looking back. He manages to get on top of the fridge and all I can do is smile at him. I raise my hand towards him and shot a bolt from my fingertips sending him flying back.

Alarms are blaring louder as some people are filtering outside. Not many, mostly doctors. They’re gonna let the patients burn. Shifting my body to the left, I climb out with slight burns covering my legs. I lean against the wall, keeping low and out of sight from the nurses waiting outside. Once I knew no one was looking, I was off towards the woods, hoping for the best.