Activity

Marian straightened on the couch. Rubbing her eyes. news was off, and Stumpy was yell-meowing. She got up, rubbing her sore neck. She’d found it was easier to fall asleep lately, but the sleep she got wasn’t restful.

She shrugged on a fresh set of clothes, took a brush and smoothed out her messy hair, cringing as she realized she needed to cut her hair again.

Instead of breakfast, she downed an energy drink then shrugged on a hoodie, heading toward the gymnasium after dumping some food into Stumpy’s bowl.
<p style=”text-align: center;”>***</p>
After Jake had woken up in a cell that hadn’t been the one he’d been put in, they’d removed his broken bionic leg. Then he’d changed into a uniform quickly, and was restrained and dragged down the hall, even though there was no possibility he could fight back.

They threw him onto the floor after unbinding him. Jake just managed to catch himself before he faceplanted, glaring at the guards as they slammed the door behind him.

He managed to climb onto the bed, cringing at the hardness of the mattress. He laid on his back, staring at the ceiling. For how rich Paris was, he’d guessed that the Institute would have better cells.

The next morning, a bowl of unappetizing stew lay cold by the door.

Jake lifted his head to look at it, the motion like moving through water. He saw his face in the mirror – a gaunt, ghost-like thing with five-o-clock shadow. He blinked, watching the red-rimmed eyes in the mirror copying him.

A light flickered overhead, and he straightened, able to reach the bowl from where he sat. He tasted the meal and retched. He set the bowl down and took in his surroundings, a bare room, mostly grey, a toilet, sink, and a shelf by a hatch near the door. The door itself was solid metal, only a small window enabled him to see into the hall.

Judging by the sounds, A couple of guards strode down the hall, barging into a cell. Jake pulled himself up to look out the window. They dragged out a struggling entek, he punched one of them in the jaw as a guard pressed a button on a small remote and the entek cried out and collapsed, clutching a collar around his neck.

Jake rubbed his neck as laid on his bed, noticing scratch marks on the walls. He glanced at his uniform, reading the numbers 278 on the sleeve – He blinked and reread the number, 223. Jake felt his heart rate increase.

He wondered why it hadn’t clicked at first. He was at the Institute, of course, but for some reason, he’d assumed that his mother would just keep him here. But Paris would want to squeeze every last drop of life out of him as possible.

The light flickered overhead, and faint screams echoed in the distance. Jake hugged his chest, forcing himself to breathe deeply as he grew cold.
<p style=”text-align: center;”>***</p>
The sporadic waking from dreamless sleep then falling back into unconsciousness was confusing. He didn’t know where he was and while he enjoyed the sleep, he just wanted the bizarre dream to end at this point. Or was he dead and this was what the afterlife was like – constant swaying between darkness and light, an unpleasant in-between for all eternity? He was disappointed.

Mercifully, a light stung his eyes. As he raised his hand to block it, he was met with a scaly blue arm. He frowned, observing before he realized that was how his arm looked now. He would’ve thought that after several months waking up to his new body, that he’d be more adjusted.

“Good morning.”

Looking past his arm, a face came into focus. Fabian growled and sat up, rubbing his forehead. As the blood drained from his head and his vision blotted, He growled again, “W-what do ya want?”

“You.”

Fabian blinked away his blurring vision, and it became clear, but it was still off, the movement of her red lips stood out better than her actual face. He began to rely on his sense of smell, her perfume more powerful than his eyesight, “Mom?”

Vigga smiled, tears filling her eyes, she threw her arms around his neck.