Dying For You

Chapter 3

I've been here a while. Whatever weird test this is hasn't stopped. People are pretending to talk, the man and woman are crying and watching me. The blue woman and other man in white come in often to start poking me with things and messing with things. They've looked inside my nose, my ears, and even in my mouth. What are they looking for? Nobody has said a word to me, though. Nobody will tell me what this test is or what I'm supposed to do. Whenever I try to stand to return to my space, they keep me down. I don't understand.

But now the blue woman is taking the tubes out of me. That's good. I don't like being attached to tubes. I wish they would tell me what they want. I don't know how long I've been here, but it's felt like forever. I don't mean to, but I keep falling asleep. I'm really tired. But every time I wake up, the man or woman, sometimes both, try to talk to me or interact with me. They just cry a lot, and I can't figure out why.

The man in white and blue woman steps back. He motions for me, waving his hand like he wants me to stand up. I hesitantly lean forward; they haven't let me do more than that the entire time I've been here. He continues to wave his hand like he wants me to do more. I swing my legs over the side of the bed, looking at him. He looks like he wants me to get up more. The woman in blue walks over next to me. I expect her to push me down like she has been doing, but instead, she lifts me, putting my feet on the floor.

She slowly walks me around the room a few times. My legs are so stiff. My legs felt strange when I started walking around, but not more odd than usual when I don't go to the Above for a while. After some movement, they begin to feel normal again. The blue woman lets me go slowly. I don't know if she wants me to keep walking for the test, so I just stand still.

The others in the room start moving their mouths and pretending to talk, but no sounds come out. The crying man and woman move closer to me. The woman cries and puts her arms around me, squeezing me. She's not hurting me. I don't know what she is doing. She finally lets me go and gently touches my cheek, then moves her mouth again as she looks down at me. The man then puts his arms around me, squeezing me, like the crying woman did, before letting go of me.

The crying woman hooks her elbow around mine. The crying woman starts walking slowly, leading me out of the room. Yes! Finally! I can go back to my space and get this stupid test over with. I breathe a sigh of relief. I can finally be done with this. This is the longest test I remember then doing in a while, and I'm exhausted.

The crying woman leads me through many halls that I don't recognize. Where am I? I've never been to this part of the facility before. It's so bright it must be new.

The bright white halls lead to a door. The man walks in front of us, opening the door for us to walk through. The hallway turns from a bright white to a warm brown. It's calming; everything looks like it's made of the same material that the spikes are made out of… what is it called? Wood! Everything looks like it's made of wood.

The crying woman leads me to a place with a very uneven floor that goes up. She steps up them one at a time, pulling me up with her. Why don't they have someone fix that floor? I look over my shoulder at the weird floor as the crying woman leads me down another hall. She stops in front of a wooden door and silently pretends to talk while looking at me. I don't understand. I'm tired of being at the Above. I want to go back to my space now.

She opens the door leading me inside to a room with many things around. She points at things as we walk through. She leads me to another room, a big room that has a couple of things throughout. I've never seen anything like what's in here, so I don't know what anything is. The crying woman and man walk around the room, motioning as they pretend to talk. Just talk. What is going on?!?!

The man walks to two other doors within the room. The woman waves her hands some as she continues to cry. The man wraps his arms around her, I think, to keep her still more than anything. The man reaches out, putting his hand on my cheek gently. It doesn't hurt. I don't know what he wants, so I lean away.

After looking at me for a minute, the man and crying woman leave the room, leaving me alone for the first time in a long time. But why? Where do they want me to go? What do they want me to do? Are they going to try to surprise attack me?

I quickly search the room, looking for people hiding, ready to jump out and fight me. I'm too tired to have them test my strength right now. I've got none left. Attached to this room is a weird room; it's got a lot of things that I've never seen before and one pretty much empty room. It's got a few clothes hanging, but they're really small. I go into that room with the clothes and sit down with my back against the far wall; that way, nobody can sneak up on me.

I stretch my legs out in front of me. Why are they not taking me back to my space? I'm so tired, and it's so bright in here. This ground is more comfortable than the ground in my space. This ground is soft and fuzzy, not hard and cold. I lean my head against the wall and close my eyes. I'm not going to sleep; I just need to rest for a second.

~~~~

I feel a hand on my knee. My eyes shoot open to see the crying woman standing over me, holding something near my face. I instinctively hit it away as she backs up, dropping whatever it is on the floor. I'm tired of this experiment! I want it over; I want to go back! I kick at the woman who stumbles backward out of the room with clothes into the larger room. She landed on the ground. I look at the thing I hit away from her on the ground and see a plate upside down with some bread visible over the side.

I dive towards the food, taking some bread before she can take it away from me. I shove it in my mouth, eating it as fast as I can. The woman stands up, showing me both of her empty hands. She slowly walks towards the food on the floor. When she gets close, I kick at her again. She dodges me. She eyes me as she bends down and picks up the plate and the food off the ground. I reach for her, fighting her for more food. She wrestles me off of her and quickly takes the food away.

I sit back up, glaring at the door she disappeared behind. I didn't mean to fall asleep, but apparently I did.

After a little while, the woman comes back with another plate of food. She hesitantly walks into the room and holds out the plate of food to me.

I hesitantly lean forward and take it from her. She then pulls a water bottle out of somewhere and holds it out to me. I hesitantly take it from her. She backs away from me and sits down in the other room, just watching me. I don't know how much time she will give me with this plate of food, so I start digging in, trying to eat as much as I can as fast as I can.

She just sits and watches me eat. I watch her watch me eat, trying to figure out what she wants from me. I am glad she gave me food, but why?

After I finish eating, the woman waves at me. I tilt my head, preparing for her to attack me. She starts moving her mouth and points to her ear. She points to me and then to her ear again. I put my hand on my ear and then look at my hand. Is there something on my ear? I put my hand back on my ear.

The woman stands up, comes closer, and points at me. I pull my knees to my chest, preparing for her attack. I fought her not long ago; she would want to punish me. What was I thinking fighting her? I wasn't thinking; I'm just so tired of this experiment. I'm so tired of it all. I don't have any more fight left in me.

She points to the plate in my hand and then waves toward herself. I hold out the empty plate, and she takes it and then walks away. Ok?

She returns not long after, taking a seat on the floor in the other room where I can see her in the doorway. She has something in her hand. It looks like it's for writing. So she is taking notes for whatever experiment this is.

She opens a marker and starts writing. I was right; she's taking notes. I rest my head against the wall and watch her. I wish she would leave so I could sleep. She turns what she is writing on around, showing me what she wrote. I squint and lean forward, trying to see what she has written.

'Can you read?'

I look at her and nod. She nods and smiles, turning the thing back over and continuing to write.

'Can you hear?'

I nod again. Of course, I can hear; they're the ones being weird and pretending to talk. She c***s an eyebrow but continues to write.

'Are you sure you can hear? I'm speaking out loud right now. Can you hear me?'

I look at the woman and see her mouthing words again. Silently. I shake my head. What did they do to me? The woman bites her lip and starts writing again.

'Can you speak?'

I nod. I can speak- or at least I think I can. I don't know anymore. I don't know what they did to me. "Yes," I answer out loud- or at least I think it's out loud. I can't even hear myself talk. The woman smiles and nods, then starts writing again.

'Do you know who I am?'

"No. Are you new here? I've never seen you before." I say out loud.

Her eyes start to water, and she writes. She is shaking. What's wrong with her? I yawn as she continues to write. The man walks into view, glancing at me with a sad smile and kneeling next to the woman. They're obviously having a conversation that I can't hear. I hope that I get my hearing back soon. I want to know what they did to me and why they won't let me go back to my space so I can rest.

I watch as the man rubs the woman's back before standing up and looking at me again. He waves at me and then walks away. The woman takes a deep breath and continues to write for a moment before turning it, so I can see.

'I'm your mother.'