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At the sound of footsteps, I pushed myself back against the bars of my cage. I kept my eyes trained on the floor as they approached, a childish hope that if I couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see me. How stupid.
My cage was lifted off the floor and still I didn’t raise my head. I started moving, though it was so smooth I figured they must have put me on a cart. My eyes, though my head didn’t move, darted from side to side, trying to figure out where they were taking me this time. It wasn’t easy. All the hallways were the same blank, sterile white. I huddled down in my cage, trying to make myself as small as possible. I pressed my face against my knees, trying not to hear the snippets of conversation from the people transporting me.
“…It has excellent sense.”
“…Amazing sense of hearing…”
“…Studying it’s sight today?...”
I shuddered at the words of the last speaker. Studying. That never brought good things. I squashed the memories of the last time they had “studied” me. I didn’t need to scare myself more, and this time couldn’t be any worse the any other time.
I never knew a person could be so wrong.
When I stopped moving, I hesitantly lifted my head and looked around. We were still in a blank hallway, but in front of a door. I didn’t have to be able to read to know what it lead to. I pressed myself back even more, until the bars were digging painfully into my spine as the door opened and the cart moved through the doorway.
I didn’t dare look around. I knew what I would see, and I didn’t want to give them more cause to notice me. Like that would help.
The cart halted again. A quick glance out of the corner of my eye showed me we had stopped next to a couple of high tables. I couldn’t see the tops, but when I heard a click I really didn’t care.
My eyes snapped forward as one of the them—a woman wearing the same white, stiff coat as the rest of them—carefully opened the door of my cage. She moved slowly and cautiously, as though expecting me to attack her. I only whimpered and shook my head, pleading with my eyes for her to please, please leave me just this one time.
“It’s not coming out,” She informed the others.
“It never does,” A male snapped. “Just pull it out and lets get started.”
I shook my head again as she turned her attention back to me. She reached for me and I shrunk back. It didn’t help, of course. Her rough hands grabbed my arm and dragged me out. My fingers scrabbled at the smooth floor of my cage, trying to find something to hold onto, to make it harder for her. But I hadn’t eaten enough to fill me in months, so I’m sure I didn’t weigh enough to present her with a problem. Nor did I have enough strength to fight her, though I certainly tried.
“Here, you take it.” The woman shoved me at a white-coated man. He took me from her, pinning my arms to my sides so I couldn’t get to him. He looked disgusted, and I don’t think it was because I was so thin he could fit his hands around my waist and still have his fingers overlapping.
With the help of another man, they strapped me down to the white operating table. I was shaking now, but not crying. Never crying, not for these people.
They clicked on a bright light and moved it above my face, making me blink and squint.
“Alright,” The first man nodded to someone I couldn’t see. I turned my head just in time to see the second man grab my arm so tightly I could feel the circulation being cut off. I winced and tilted my head up a bit to see the woman preparing a needle that couldn’t hold good news.
I was right, of course. She purposely marched over to me, holding the needle that was looking more sinister by the minute. I started squirming, but the man who was holding my arm just tightened his grip.
I clenched my eyes shut as the needle pierced my skin, and let out a low his through my teeth. A moment later, the needle was pulled out, but I could already feel the anesthesia spreading through my blood stream. It was getting harder to hold onto one thought, and my eyes slowly drooped shut…
I woke up later in darkness. For a split-second, I panicked. It was so dark, I couldn’t even guess at my surroundings. In that moment of panic, I couldn’t hear anything, so focused I was on trying to see something. But when I calmed down, I could hear footsteps and soft voices not too far away.
“…Pity about it’s eyes,” A male murmured.
“I know,” Another, a female, sighed. “And there was such promise for it.”
“Don’t write it off as a failure just yet,” Another female warned. “Think of all the research opportunities this has opened up.”
“That it true,” The male again, sounding more optimistic now. “We could study how it reacts. And there’s a chance its magic will react and try to compensate for its lack of sight. Also…”
Their voices faded with their footsteps, leaving me shocked and frightened. It didn’t take me long to figure out what they had been talking about. Something must have gone wrong when they were “studying” my eyes. That would explain why it was so dark. Desperate to disprove this truth, I stretched my hand out in front me. Nothing. Just darkness.
Tears started to roll down my cheeks as I curled up in a ball. I felt a ridiculous sense of relief at my tears. At least I could still cry.
So I sobbed my heart out onto my knees. Not at the fact that they had sentenced me to a life of darkness, but because they wouldn’t just get rid of me and free me from this living Hell.
 Faith-Hoping-Love · Thu Jan 01, 2009 @ 02:09am · 1 Comments |
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