SEVEN(BOOK ONE)
A girl wakes up in a white room and can't remember anything except that she has a brother. She's nameless, her memories gone, the only ones she can remember being the ones the men want her to, and she is forced to put her trust in the same people that brought her to the lab. The mysterious men tell her the her name is 007. Seven. They tell her that they are saving her from the "bad people", despite giving no other explanation, despite her not remembering or knowing anyone. She is surrounded by kids just like her, all given labels and names from 001 to 021. Seven decides to give in, believe what they tell her, but when bits and pieces of strange memories come back to her, she and the others plan their escape from their captors. But escaping is the easy part.
Last Updated
11/11/21
Chapters
4
Reads
673
ONE
Chapter 1
White.
It surrounds me.
My eyes flutter open and I'm practically blinded by the brightness that overwhelms me. The cold floor that I'm laying on feels like the inside of a freezer, and it sends chills through my body. I look around, my mind completely blank as my eyes scan the stark white room. It's only then that I look down at myself and my clothes. I'm in white capris, and a shirt the same color that's a few sizes too big.
Everything is silent except for the buzzing of the lights above me, and I force my self to stand up, despite my entire body saying no. I don't know why I feel so heavy, like weights are pilled on my back, but my legs almost give in as I get to my feet. Another shiver overcomes me as my bare feet make contact with the cold floor. From my room, there's a small bathroom stall and a sink in one corner, while a white twin sized bed is to my left in the other corner. The sheets look clean and perfectly new, and neat.
Almost...too neat. Too perfect. Couldn't they have put me on the bed?
But as I recall my thought, it dawns on me that I don't even know who they is. I'm standing here, alone, in a room with nothing but a sink and a bed. How'd I even get here? Still, surprisingly, I don't feel any fear, just pure confusion. I push the thought away, assuming that I'm just in shock, or maybe this is a dream and I'll wake up in my real bed. I...I have a real bed, right?
There's a large white door and I walk up to it. From what I see, there's no handle, and it seems to be locked. Okay, think...think...I just have to study my surroundings. I see two windows; one is near my bed, while the other is directly across from it on the other wall. I walk up to the one on my right and look through it.
I see another room, identical to mine.
Exactly the same.
Finally, a bit of fear flows through me, and I flinch at the faint sound of banging. Turning to the other window, the sound is coming from a girl, who's vigorously banging on her room door. I lightly tap on the window, and the young girl turns her head in my direction, her eyes wide with fear, the faintest hint of confusion here too. She slowly walks up to the window, allowing me to get a better look at her. Her eyes are a light grey, with fleck of blue, and her hair is so blonde it's almost white. Her skin is a ghostly pale, light freckles scattered along her cheeks and nose, and she's wearing the same white clothes as me.
The girl puts her hand on the window and then speaks, "Hi." Her voice is soft, quiet, and scared. She clearly can't be any older than 11 or 12.
I pause for a moment, expecting to hear more than just...'hi', but then quickly respond. "Do you know where we are?" I try to get straight to the point, but then began to feel bad as the light in the girl's eyes dims. Perhaps I should've said hello first.
The girl shakes her head, "No."
I blink a few times and then ask another question, hoping for more than a one word answer. "Do you know how we got here?"
The girl pauses for a while, then speaks, "No....no I don't. I....I can't...remember. I just woke up, on the floor. Can you remember?" Her eyes widen in fear again and she glances back at the door.
She can't remember? Well, that's odd. I wanted to scoff at such a stupid question, and I concentrate on what I can remember past waking up. But my mind goes blank. Completely blank like I've hit a steel wall and can't break through. I know there's something behind that wall, but I can't get past it. Only one single memory pops up in my mind. A memory that seems odd to me, alien, almost.
"I have a brother," I say. "That's all I can remember." His name. What's my brother's name? What does he look like? I blink a few times as a wave of unanswered questions pop in my head. "What's your name?"
The girl pauses for a long time. She narrows her eyes and seems to be in deep thought, her grey eyes radiating her confusion, which quickly turns into fear. "I....can't remember! Why can't I remember?!"
"What do you mean you, 'can't remember'? You don't know your name?" I reply quickly, starting to get annoyed. Maybe not at her, but at myself.
"Well, you try to remember your name then!"
I think long and hard, but I go back to that steel wall again. That fear stars boiling up inside of me again, though this time, it's much stronger. My heart begins to race, and my mind is everywhere as I try to answer my own questions, relive memories but get nowhere. "I don't know my name.....I-I don't know my name." I feel like I'm about to pass out, my vision going in and out every few moments, almost as if it hurts to try and recall empty memories.
The girl looks at the door, then back at me, "The doors. They don't have handles. I think we're being kept in here for something." There was silence before she added, "I have a bad feeling about this place."
"No shit," I mumble harshly under my breath, letting out a long, drawn out sigh. "Sorry, didn't mean to swear." As I run a hand through my hair, I wince as my fingers hit a few tangles. Great. I can't remember my name, I'm in some mysterious room, and my hair is tangled. I turn around and see a boy, a few years older than me, banging on the window to my room. A part of me is in no room to talk, but I force myself to walk over to the window anyway.
The boy looks around my age, fifteen or sixteen. His eyes are a dark chestnut brown, and his skin is a bit darker than mine, a shade of oak brown. Not surprisingly he's wearing the same clothes as me and his room is exactly the same.
He doesn't take long to speak, "I'm going to take a wild guess, and say you two can't remember anything either." He nods in the blonde girl's direction.
I shake my head in response, "No. None of us can remember anything. Not even our names. All I can remember is that I've got a brother. I...don't know his name, though." Shit, should I have said hello then, too? "Hi, by the way." I mutter under my breath.
"Hey..." He replied slowly before looking around. "What the fuck is this place?!"
"I don't know. All I know is that whoever put us here doesn't have good intentions."
"There are more of us," He says, "More kids."
"More of us? What?" A bit of hope rises in my chest, and my heart races again. If there are more kids, maybe there's enough of use to attack whoever put us here?
"I had a little chat with the girl in the other room, and she said there are others. She doesn't know how many though." He said, and let out a breath, shaking his head in frustration. We both jump as we hear the sound of a door open and I turn around to see that the door to the blonde girls room is open. I run over to the window to get a better look. Five men in lab coats walk in the room as the girl backs up against the wall. One of the men pulls out some kind of handcuffs, but they don't look like the ones police officers use, much more high-tech. Suddenly, without the girl even touching them, the men are blown backwards into the wall. It makes a slight dent in the wall.
I stare, bewildered, as with a flick of the girl's hand, one of the men grabs his neck, as if he's being choked. Telekinesis. It has to be. I think to myself, and suddenly I wondered why it didn't surprise me that she was so powerful.
The young girl screams out in pain and drops to the floor, holding the back of her neck as he chest heaves up and down. I jump back and my heart begins to race as watch everything play out. All that can be heard is the girl's heavy breathing as she rubs the back of her neck, and the door abruptly opens, a man walking inside the room.
His skin is the color of ebony and he looks around in his late 50's to early 60's. His tight curls are a mixture of black and silver hairs and his beard is thick. I notice that in his hand, he's holding some kind of remote, the silver object glistening in the light. His fingers menacingly hover over the button and the girl screams again, her body falling as she thrashes and kicks.
"Stop...." I order, though it comes out as a weak plead as the girl's screams ring in my ears. I want to speak, to yell, but my breath hitches in my throat for a moment before I have the strength to speak. "Stop!" I yell harshly. I don't know if they could hear me, but the man in the stark white suit releases the button, and the girl's body falls limp.
I don know what to feel as the men in lab coats drag the young girl out of the room. I don't know what to remember or how to act as the old man in the white suit stares at me, his odd dark eyes just...glaring, then he walks out the room.
As the door slams shut and I hear the loud click of the lock, millions of thoughts race through my mind. I begin to feel dizzy and nauseous, so I grab the bedpost as my breathing becomes shorter and faster. I'm hyperventilating. Am I hyperventilating? I know nothing about that girl they just tortured and dragged out the room, yet her scream still ring in my ear.
Out of nowhere, surge of electricity flows through my body which creates a spark of electric blue around my body. This causes a new memory to suddenly pop into my mind as I fall to the ground and try to compose myself. When I'm nervous, scared, or in pain, my powers tend to take over and surge through my body. My powers. My powers which I didn't remember till now and am...calm about it?
I feel no confusion, no fear, as if I knew I had them all along but just wasn't thinking about it. As if that memory wasn't behind that steel wall all those moments ago. But, it does make sense, seeing that I wasn't surprised watching that girl knock a man out without even touching him.
I try to remember something else, anything else, but nothing comes to my mind. Deciding to give up on recalling lost memories, I lay on the bed and stare at the white wall above me, just listening to the silence and the buzzing light. I think about my brother and if he's ok. Is he in here? Does he have powers like me and the other girl? Is he older than me? Why can't I remember his name? Why can't I remember my own name? I sigh and walk to the window were the boy is, tired of doing nothing.
He looks at me with wide eyes. "What the hell happened? Where's the girl?"
"They took her. These men.....lab coats.....remote.....she screamed and then.....took her.....more men..." My heart starts racing again and I get the feeling like I'm about to throw up.
"Hey, breathe. Slow down. Just tell me what happened." He replied calmly. A part of me was a little agitated that he wasn't as scared as I was.
"They took her." I finally managed to rasp out. "These men in white lab coats took her. She fought them back without even touching them, but they still managed to take her. This man in a white suit came in and he had some remote. When he pressed it the girl screamed and then they took her. I don't know where."
"Shit. You ok?"
I stare at him. "Yeah. Why?" Maybe if I hid the fact that I was on the verge of passing out, he wouldn't ask any more questions.
"I saw that little electricity thing you had goin' on there."
I blink a few times, then narrow my eyes. "You don't sound surprised."
"Should I be?" He raises his hand and pauses, as if he's contemplating whether what he's about to show me is a good idea before flames of red and orange dance around his fingertips. "I just assumed everyone here was like me, especially after seeing that thing going on with you. What can you do? You know, other than have electrical seizures?"
I was about to say that I didn't remember, when another memory resurfaced and the words came out my mouth automatically. "Manipulate energy, control electricity, and control technology. The last ability is limited..." I pause for a moment. "I really need to think for a moment, ok?"
The boy nods and we both head to our beds. I honestly was tired as fuck from thinking, but I desperately wanted out of questions. How come I could remember what power I had, what family I had, but nothing else?
I lay back on my bed, my mind completely blank again, other than the three memories I do still have. I sigh as I roll on my side and stare at the wall. I think about the girl that those men took, and can't help shiver as the scene replays in my head.
These kids are all like me, and I'm pretty sure that's one of the many reasons we're here. The question is, how many kids are there?
My right arm begins to itch, so I scratch it. When I look down at my arm, however, I notice a tattoo on my arm. It has the number 007 on it. 007? What could that mean? Instead of black ink, the ink is a bright almost electric blue. I try to rub it off, but it doesn't even smudge, and I tryr harder, only stopping when my skin starts to sting. For some reason, the ink doesn't look like it was drawn on by an ink master. Instead, it looks like it was branded on my forearm.
Branded.
The sight of it makes my heart stop.
I get nauseous again.
Branded. Like...animals.
My heart starts pounding so hard I can feel it in my head, and I curl up in a ball as I turn away from the door. Now, I only have one thought. What if I'm some kind of experiment? What if we all are some kind of crazy experiment? And what if there's no way out?