Haunting of Superior

Chapter 4

Voices echoed through the room, the sound waves bouncing off tile and metal walls. A ringing noise cut through the clamor, sharp and piercing. Something banged in the distance, and a smoky smell filled the air. It stung the nostrils and caused the eyes to burn. Tears filled Jamie's eyes even though they were not open. Her mind was covered in fog, and she struggled to pull herself out of it and regain focus. She could hear things, she knew she was awake, but she couldn't open her eyes. She felt too tired to put in the effort. There was another bang, and high pitched screaming echoed around the room. A girl. In pain. The sound sparked Jamie's nerves, and her eyes finally flew open.

Groggily she sat up up the plush red chair she sat on. The wetness in her eyes was too much, and she wiped it away. Her vision cleared. She realized she had fallen asleep in the chair. She hadn't slept the night before- too busy trying to comfort sobbing children-, and it had crept back up to bite her. She rubbed her forehead, wincing as another scream rang around the room. It hurt her soul, and she gritted her teeth in an attempt to ignore it. Shakily getting to her feet, she walked over to a small desk littered with thick stacks of paper. She picked up a couple and skimmed through them, dismayed to see that they were experiment reports. She hated those. Hers was taped on the wall above the desk, an ever present reminder that she was never safe.

The door on the other side of the room opened, and a person stepped inside. He pulled off his plastic gloves and threw them into the trash. Whistling, he walked over to Jamie and snatched one of the papers out of her hands.

"That's not blank," Jamie told him, annoyed at his lack of matters.

The person stopped whistling and tossed the paper onto the floor with a huff. He stepped on it, crinkling the paper and getting dirt smudged on it. Kicking it away, he watched in amusement as Jamie scrambled to pick it up.

"Aren't you going to get me a new one?" he asked innocently, smirking.

Jamie didn't reply. She knew it would be useless and might just get her injured. She was still limping from when she "accidentally" burned an entire basket of the new version of the formula in a fireplace. That had happened in the first week after she and Jack had been caught trying to escape. Her shoulder had to get stitched up after someone shot her with a bullet. It had only been two weeks since that, but to Jamie it had felt like a year. She had never felt so exhausted in her life. Moving seemed to take too much energy.

The paper had a big crease in the middle where the shoe had pressed down on it. Jamie lifted it off the ground and carried it over to the desk. She set it down and opened a drawer, where stacks of paper rested. She took one and handed it to the man, avoiding his eyes. The man ripped it out of her hand; the sheet tore from how hard he tugged. Anger burned inside Jamie. She bit her lip to stop herself from screaming as the man gasped in fake horror.

"Oh, no! How tragic! Guess you'll have to get another one!"

Jamie half-considered refusing. Then she looked down, and the large dark bruise on her leg reminded her that there was no point. Fighting a sigh, she quickly stuffed a paper into the man's hand.

The man smiled widely, faking any gratitude. "Thank you." He turned toward the door then stopped. "Might want to remake that form," he sing-songed. Then he left, leaving a furious Jamie behind him.

Angrily she sat down heavily in the much more uncomfortable chair at the desk. She pressed her hands against her eyes, determined to not break. It had only been two weeks. Two weeks. Fourteen days. Fourteen days spent basically being a slave to these monsters in this hell-hole. Sniffing, she wiped her eyes with the dirty sleeve of her shirt and pulled out a pen. Might as well fill out that stupid report. She worked on it, trying to fight the vomit wanting to come back up as she read it. Why did this stupid thing have to describe in detail how the person died? It was so disturbing Jamie wanted to cry into a pillow and never come up. It said the subject had begun to change from the formula but then something had gone wrong, and the person died falling apart.

A crackling noise sounded from the ceiling, and the speakers came on. A robotic voice spoke, calm and collected.

"All personnel, come to the meeting room immediately. All personnel, come to the meeting room immediately." The speakers crackles off.

Jamie perked up at the announcement. With no one around to stop her, she could go see her brother. Eagerly getting off the chair, she hurried out of the room, randomly picking up a paper to take with her. If anyone caught her, she could say she was taking it to Antonio. Hopefully, though, all the scientists would be in the meeting room. Jamie actually didn't know where that was. After all, why would they tell her? She was was as much value as a rat to them. She took a particularly hard step on the floor and winced as pain shot up her leg. The bruise still hurt. Gulping, she continued more gently.

She had learned her way around the building very well by now, even though it had been two weeks. Most of the space was dedicated to labs, as almost all their work involved making different forms of a formula. Apparently this substance Antonio was trying to recreate was really hard to copy. She had figured out very quickly from looking through numerous documents that the substance Antonio kept in a secret place was made up of stuff not found on the planet. She had deduced this because a giant plastic poster of the periodic table had ended up on her desk. There were many questions going through Jamie's head that day.

Finally, she arrived at her destination. She opened the door and found her brother with his face buried in his pillow. He was much thinner than usual, and his skin was way too pale. He looked up as Jamie entered; he cried in relief as he rushed over and hugged her tightly.

"Have they hurt you today?" Jamie asked immediately.

"No, I've just been in here today," Jack muttered.

Jamie ran her fingers through his hair. It was thin, and the curls weren't as bouncy as they usually were. It was also very greasy, so greasy it wasn't even light brown anymore. Jamie reminded herself that her hair wasn't much better. They weren't allowed to shower. Was there even a shower in this place?

"What have they been making you do today?" Jack looked up into Jamie's eyes. There were dark shadows under his, and his eyes looked sunken.

"Same thing as usual. Looking at their science experiment results."

Jack laughed, but it was weak and didn't have a lot of emotion in it. Jamie's heart ached. She didn't want him to be so hurt, so scarred on the inside. An idea suddenly popped into her head.

"Think we can find some food?" she suggested.

"They gave me oatmeal," Jack said, letting go and gesturing to Jamie's "bed". An empty bowl sat on it. "They left some for you, too."

Jamie winced. "Was I gone all morning?" she murmured.

"It's okay," Jack reassured her. "You've been way too tired lately. You need to sleep."

Jamie's stomach growled. "Did you save the oatmeal?" she asked.

Jack nodded and went to the small drawer next to his sleeping place. He opened it and pulled out a covered bowl. He handed it to Jamie.

As she started to eat, he asked, "Have you come up with anymore plans to escape?"

Jamie paused. "We can't escape. You know that. They'll kill us."

Jack sat down on his mattress. He lay down and rested his head on the pillow. As he closed his eyes, the door creaked open. Jack squeaked in fear and pushed Jamie towards a fallen refridgerator. As she crouched down behind it, she held her breath in fear as footsteps sounded around the room. A smell filled the room, something flavored with enticing scents. The footsteps began again and faded away. Whoever had brought food had left. Jamie came out from the behind the fridge, looking around for Jack. He was not present. He had probably hidden somewhere. The smell grew stronger now that she was out in the open. Jamie spotted two bowls of soup sitting on the table they used to eat. Jamie sat down on one of the chairs and stared down in amazement at the steaming, hot bowl of fresh soup. Fresh soup. They were usually given cold, canned or badly cooked stuff! Had someone taken pity on them and made them soup? Jamie then noticed two spoons sitting next to the bowls and almost recoiled in astonishment. They never got utensils, either! She looked at the bed.

"Jack?" she called. "We've got food! Fresh food!"

A shuffling sound came out from under the bed as Jack climbed out. His eyes lit up at the sight of the steaming soup, and he eagerly rushed over to sit in the chair. He picked up the spoon, ready to dip it in, but Jamie stopped him.

"If you eat it now, you'll burn your tongue," she told him.

Jack, disappointed, set the spoon down and began to blow on his soup. Jamie understood the hurry he was in to eat; her stomach felt like an empty hole, dissatisfied with the slimy canned food and the fact that Jamie slept through breakfast. She fanned her soup, still wondering why their dinner's quality was much higher than usual. She sniffed the soup, excitement running through her. It smelled soooo good. She blew the soup, desperately wanting to cool it down.

After an agonizingly long period of blowing and waiting, the soup stopped steaming, and it was safe to eat without them burning their tongues. Jack picked up the bowl and started to slurp it, but Jamie tsked at him.

"If you eat it too fast, you might get sick," she said. "Mom always told us that, remember?"

Jack, embarrassed, set the bowl down and used his spoon instead. Jamie took a spoonful of her soup and put it into her mouth. It was flavorful, with delicious herbs that made it taste like heaven. It was the best thing she had tasted in months. She hoped that they got more food like this. This was good quality food. Then a chill ran down her spine. If their captors were giving them good food, then they must be planning to use them in ways that required them to be healthy. Or maybe that want the case and Jamie was just being paranoid. She shrugged off the sudden fears and continued to eat this blessed, yummy food.

The siblings didn't even bother trying to make conversation as they ate; they were too hungry, too starved. All that mattered to them was the food presented to them. They were just so, so happy to finally have a good meal. They never even thought why.

Jamie finished long before Jack, as her appetite was bigger due to being older. She scraped the sides of the bowl with her spoon, trying to get more of the liquid sticking to the sides. Jack was brushing his sleeve against his mouth. It wasn't a great napkin to use, but it would do. Jack drank the last of his soup and put his bowl down with a contented sigh.

"That was so good," he breathed out, wiping his mouth again.

Jamie made a noise to show that she agreed. She was sleepy from the food and being full. Her eyelids drooped, and all she wanted to do was lie down and sleep. This was the best she'd felt in a long time. She rested her head on her hands, content to just fall asleep and forget all of her problems. It would be so good... to leave this place... to see the world again... to smell the air... to...

She was sitting on the couch, watching her little brother play with his trains. He was a toddler, squealing in joy as he waved the small plastic train in his chubby hands. His eyes were lit up, and his smile was so wide it could break through his face. He never smiled like that anymore, a voice whispered in the back of her mind, but it was a small, unheard subconscious thought.

Jamie kicked her legs against the couch. The feeling was great. The sound was strangely satisfying, and she smiled in pleasure. She felt happy and relaxed like there was nothing wrong with her life. She was safe, her brother was safe... yes, there was nothing wrong at all with their life. They were in no danger.

Sliding off the couch, Jamie wandered over to the bookshelf sitting across the room. She brushed her hand against the spines, amazed at the titles. She tugged at a particularly thick book, shocked at its weight. It was above her head, and she had to stand on her toes to reach the top of the book. As she struggled, a hand suddenly brushed her hair. She twisted her head and saw her mother standing behind her, staring at her in loving amusement.

"Do you want to look at that book?" she asked.

Jamie nodded. "But I can't reach it," she complained.

Her mother smiled. "Here you go." She pulled out the book and set it on the floor. Excited, Jamie flipped it open to the first page and stared in amazement at the compressed words.

"Why's it so tiny?" she asked, indicating the tiny print.

"It's a long story," her mother replied. "They had to write small, or the book would be too long. So long that nobody could handle it."

"What's it about?" Jamie asked, trying to read. The sentences were too complicated; the vocabulary was too advanced. She couldn't understand it for the life of her.

"It's about a family torn apart by an evil lord," her mother explained, taking the book from Jamie. "There are too many details to properly explain, but basically the family has to reunite to save their town. It's quite an interesting story."

"You'll always be with me, right?" Jamie asked, looking up at her mother with wide eyes.

Her mother laughed. "Of course I will, sweetie. Nothing will tear this family apart."