Drowning in secrets, p.5
Drowning In Secrets, page 5
I ran faster. My legs pushed harder. My lungs burned. Tears streamed down my face, blurring my vision. I knew exactly where I was going. Exactly where I was going to end it all.
I couldn’t live like this anymore. I just couldn’t. I would be better off gone. There was no way to escape any of this, other than to completely get myself out of it. I didn’t stop running until the cool, refreshing water touched my legs. The ocean.
My mom took me here a few times when I was younger. There was a long pier that I used to run under, but it was forbidden to swim out too deep. I spotted an empty rowboat that had some rope and an anchor keeping it in the shallow water. I untethered the rope, pulling the anchor out of the water. I tied the rope around my waist and hugged the anchor to my chest and sobbed.
I walked out into the ocean until I had to swim. I used one arm and my legs to swim out as far as I could until I could not hold the anchor anymore. I let go of the anchor and it sank down and I sank with it. I just closed my eyes and prayed for nothingness. Prayed for the peace that only found me in my sleep. It wasn’t long before I would lose consciousness and I was swept into oblivion.
As I was fading, I faintly felt something latch on to my ankle, dragging me further down, and down and down. Away from everything terrible that lurked on the shore.
Good.
*****
I awoke to bright lights and the sound of quiet murmuring. For a moment, I feared I was back in the dentist’s office, and I sat up quickly not being able to hold in my gasp. But as soon as I breathed in, I started coughing, and I recognized that I was soaking wet. My clothes stuck to me as I gasped for air and tried to look around to see where I was.
I saw three people in the room with me. A man, who had an air of authority about him, stared at me silently with his arms crossed. His hair was black but slightly graying in different areas. He seemed to be about fifty and was wearing a black t-shirt tucked into black pants. His nose looked as if it had been broken one too many times.
Next to him a boy not much older than me, was whispering to the older man. The boy looked at me once and flashed a smile. I sucked in a sharp breath because he was almost the spitting image of Dewy. He looked like what I thought Dewy would look like twelve years from now. He had blonde hair and one dimple on each cheek. He was also wearing only black clothing, but he had bright blue sneakers. He tilted his head to the side and studied me before returning to whatever he was saying to the older man.
The last person in the room was a girl. She looked a little younger than me. She had brown hair that was braided over one side of her shoulder. Her nails were painted a pale pink that matched the natural flush of her cheeks. Unlike the boys, she was wearing purple, but it was so dark it could have been mistaken for black. She lifted a hand to my forehead, nodded her head, and then turned around and left the room. But not before shooting a quick look to the older man.
The boy followed her out and shut the door silently. I tucked a piece of my dripping hair behind my ear.
“Who are you? What am I doing here?” I asked.
I looked around the room again at the machines beeping. As soon as I recognized I was in a doctor’s office the beeping started to get faster.
“Whoa, whoa. Calm down,” the man said to me in a surprisingly soothing voice. “Everything is ok. My name is Frank. What is your name?”
“Rainy,” I replied, my voice cracking. “Where am I?”
“You are in the U.P.,” he told me calmly.
“The U.P.?” I asked. This guy wasn't making any sense. I should be dead.
“It stands for Unlocking Powers,” he said, and then pulled a chair up next to the cot I was resting on.
“What powers? I don’t understand. Where are we?” I asked frantically.
“You will understand in time. Right now, we are in the U.P.’s underwater facility.”
“Underwater? We are underwater? But how? We can breathe?”
I must be dreaming. That was it. Those drugs were doing weird things to me.
He smiled down at me, “Yes. This facility was carefully built. So, we are very safe and very protected. We are also separate from the outside world and the country, Euphoria.”
“What do you mean we are separate? No one is separate from Euphoria unless you are their enemy. Is that what this is? Am I in Bellicus’s base? Oh my god!” I started to jump up off the cot, but he pushed me back down effortlessly.
“No, no. We are not with any country. We rule ourselves. Those countries go against everything we stand for. You do not need to be afraid.”
I flinched at the word, afraid, out of habit. “Kind of hard not to be when you stuck me in a room full of these machines! How did you even get to me anyway?”
“I saw you,” he said.
“What do you mean you saw me?” I asked with attitude.
“Here,” he said handing me a towel. “Let’s get you to more comfortable quarters first.” He stood and then reached out to help me do the same.
He didn’t really give me much of a choice, and I was desperate for answers as to what the heck was going on. I tried to dry off my hair as he typed in a passcode on the wall, and then a door whooshed open, sending in a rush of cold air. Shivers ran up and down my arms. We stepped outside, and it was something I never expected to see.
There were hundreds of people all huddled together. But upon closer inspection, they seemed to be in different rooms made of glass. Some rooms were tinted, and I couldn’t see inside. I looked back and noticed that the room I was in was also made of glass but was tinted so no one could see in or out. I gently reached out and touched the glass, and instantly it turned clear. I turned to see Frank was watching me and quickly touched the glass again to put it back to how it was.
I looked around and observed the other rooms and the people within them. Some people were working on state-of-the-art computers and electronics in a room full of screens that went from the floor to the ceiling. My eyes hurt just thinking about looking at so many screens. Other people were in a fitness area that was as large as the town hall in Euphoria. The space was filled with treadmills, weight machines, medicine balls, bands, ropes, rock walls, and so much more. The ceiling was high, and I could see that there was more than one floor, but you could see through the floor from below and above. In another room, which I believed to be their cafeteria, I saw groups of people eating together, laughing, and talking.
I could tell, even from a distance, that there was something different about these people; something I was not seeing.
“I sent some of my men out to go find you. They brought you back here. You should thank me. You know, I saved your life,” Frank said, drawing my attention back to him.
“I didn’t want to be saved.”
“And that right there is exactly the reason why you are here. Let me show you to your room.” He started walking away, and I quickly followed him.
What on Earth was he talking about? And what was this place? I had never seen anything like it!
I rubbed my palms against my eyes to make sure I was seeing correctly.
The boy from earlier walked by and was staring at me. He smiled again, and I smiled back. He must have gotten distracted because he walked straight into one of the vending machines perched outside the cafeteria full of sodas and different drinks. The machine fell over, and a few of the soda cans exploded, leaving a rainbow of liquid on the glass.
“Sorry,” the boy said, while scratching the back of his head. “Sometimes I forget my own strength.”
“Trip!” Frank reprimanded him. “What did I tell you about doing stuff like that? Out of everyone here, you must be the most careful. Go get Terry to fix this mess,” Frank huffed, and continued on like nothing strange had happened.
But that kid, Trip, just knocked over a vending machine that was about ten times his weight. With his body! People don’t just do that! I looked again at the machine and saw there was also a big dent in the side of it that was in the shape of Trip’s body. How hard did he hit it? He didn’t seem that powerful to me? So how the heck did he do that?
Frank noticed I wasn’t following him and looked behind at me. He motioned his hand for me to follow, and I did so cautiously.
What the heck is going on?
“How did he do that?” I asked frantically when I caught up to Frank.
He let out a sigh and then turned the corner ignoring my question. We entered a room with a ceiling so high it could have been three stories up, but that wasn’t why it was so amazing. The walls, ceiling, and floors were all clear glass, allowing me a view of the ocean. I saw colorful fish swimming by and some creepy looking things as well. One of them was gray and had razor-sharp teeth. The sight of the creature made my blood run cold. What was that thing?
I ran a little, hoping to get away from it as fast as possible. I felt like it looked at me like I was dinner. I guessed Frank really wasn’t lying about being underwater.
“As I said, we are an organization called Unlocking Powers. Trip’s power is strength, that is how he demolished the machine so easily. He is one of our new recruits. We are still working on control with him, but the kid has a lot of potential.”
“So, he has super strength?” I asked, unable to believe it.
“Yes. Don’t look that shocked. You lived in a world where machines have tracked everything you have ever done or said.”
“That’s not true, they just track our emotions,” I informed him.
He stopped in front of a door and raised his eyebrows at me. “Really? Well, then I guess you don’t know about the computer chip they install in everyone when they are born. You had one, which we removed for you. It was in your left forearm.”
I looked down, and sure enough there was a faint pink scar on my forearm. But it was so faded, it looked as if it had been cut days ago.
“You cut into my arm?” I asked shocked and brushed over the scar with my fingers.
“It was for the greater good. It was either take it out or have you lead them straight to us.”
“How long was I asleep?”
“A couple of hours.” Frank shrugged.
“What? But if you cut me open, then how am I healed?”
“That would be Randi, the girl that was in the room earlier with you. She has the power of healing. She has been the one taking care of you since you got here, and your lungs were filled to the brim with water.”
“Healed me? How is that even possible?”
“You may have the potential to heal too. It is just how your body chemistry is made up.”
“Do you have any...powers?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “I have visions of the future.”
“Like a psychic? I have only read about those in books, and they were debunked for how fake they were.”
“Similar to a psychic.” He paused for a moment “I get glimpses into the future. I can see various possible futures, but I never know which one will actually play out. The futures I see are infinite. It took a while for me to get out of my own head when I first got my power. I would be stuck watching many futures and ninety-nine-point-ninety-nine percent of them would not even come to fruition. Sometimes I still lose a little control and visions assault me, but now it is mostly voluntary, and I see things how I wish to see them.”
He opened a door to a room. There were four bunk-beds covered in different fluffy pillows and colored blankets. The walls were fully decorated, and it was obvious the room was lived in. It wasn’t chaotic, and everything seemed to go together in one way or another. The bottom bed on the right side was covered in white sheets, and obviously empty. It was missing the splash of color and warmth that the others had. I was guessing that bed would be for me. I don’t think I would ever stay here, though. These people were crazy, and I didn’t trust any of them.
“How do you get your powers?” I asked him as we stepped inside, and he made his way over to the white bed.
“Here, take a seat. It is quite a long explanation,” he said motioning for me to sit.
I sat and found the bed to be comfortable, and I wanted to sink right into it.
“Where do I begin? Well, first let’s start with why you ended up in the ocean in the first place. I am guessing you had the intention of killing yourself?”
Too ashamed to say anything I just nodded.
“I see. And I also assume that it had something to do with anxiety, did it not?”
“It did,” I said as I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I have had terrible anxiety since I was a little girl, and although I take the medication for it, it still is there always lingering. It takes a big toll on me.”
Frank stayed silent, and just continued to listen to me.
“I was assigned the job of a dentist a few months ago. Since then, things have been hard. I already had a hard enough time getting through every day of school without facing a panic attack, and then I got assigned to something I am not comfortable at all doing. I am already at the maximum medication dose and was just put on a new one. I am terrified to be sent away to The Facility. I have heard how they treat people there, and I never wanted that to be me. Anyway, I had an episode a few weeks back and then it was career day. I just couldn’t do it anymore.” Tears welled in my eyes. “I didn’t want to be sick with anxiety every single day for the rest of my life. I just wanted peace, and to get out of my own head. I was trapped.”
The tears flowed freely down my face, and I quickly wiped them away. “I don’t see how that has anything to do with powers though,” I croaked.
I am not sure why I told him as much as I did, but it was out there now. And saying it, explaining my situation, brought me little relief.
“So, here’s the thing,” he started. “Anxiety is actually the root of the powers.”
Chapter 8
His words shocked me. “What? What are you talking about?”
He took a deep breath then explained. “Let’s say that someone is not on any medication for anxiety whatsoever, and this person has bad anxiety. They feel uncomfortable and scared all the time.”
I flinched at his words.
“Eventually, if that person keeps experiencing anxiety, it might lead to their breaking point. The breaking point is where you are at your absolute limit on what your mind can take. You feel like you are going crazy. Your thoughts spiral and spiral, and it feels like there is no hope; that you are stuck in this state forever. All you want is for the agony to stop, the pain to stop. Then suddenly,” he snapped his fingers making me jump, “a switch flips. Your brain rids you of those horrible feelings and transfers that energy into the source of your power. You develop abilities that your body would have never had the potential to reach if it were not for the anxiety. The anxiety activates a specific part of your brain that would never have awakened without the intense experience.”
“So, you are saying that you guys all got powers from having an extreme panic attack?” I asked, my knuckles white as they gripped the blanket beneath me.
“Like I said, it depends on your brain chemistry. But yes, it is something like that. Not everyone was born with the ability to access those powers, and typically those are the people who rarely experience anxiety. Without any medication, everyone experiences anxiety; it is a normal occurrence, healthy even. Back when we were cavemen, anxiety was what alerted people to run away from the big lion instead of running up and petting it. As time evolved, anxiety became a nuisance; a false alarm that goes off to try and keep us alive in situations where we don’t need it. Anxiety is activated when you are feeling scared and nervous. It activates all your physical symptoms to give you the best chance of survival possible. Anxiety itself is not bad, it keeps you alive. But too much of anything can become a bad thing.”
“So how have I not had access to these… these powers? I have had quite a few major panic attacks.”
“Exactly! Wouldn’t one out of every ten people be experiencing this at some point in their life? There is after all the chance that a person’s anxiety becomes a mental illness. However, the medication that the government is so keen on handing out to you blocks those receptors. So, you may still experience anxiety, and you will never have access to those powers unless you stop taking the medication.”
“Are you saying the government is trying to stop people from experiencing this?”
“That is exactly what I am saying. Although, I am sure quite a few people in those high government positions probably have powers themselves, they will not allow ordinary citizens of the population to tap into them or else they could lose control of their power to rule. That is why those who show the most extreme amount of anxiety are sent away to The Facility. Everyone else is mainly just medicated as a precaution because, like I said, it is only a select few who have access to these abilities.”
“That is why they send people away?” I asked, still a little lost with everything he was telling me.
“Yes. Usually, by the beginning of adulthood they have identified the amount of anxiety you have experienced, and either keep you medicated in society or send you away. The sad part is those who are sent away are still being medicated even though the rumor is that the government abandons all treatment on them. The medication never fully works to cure their anxiety, but the medication does work to block the power receptors. Therefore, they are in a constant state of agony within their own mind, and that they never find relief from. Some would consider it worse than torture.”
“So why haven’t you rescued them, or helped any of them escape? You are just letting them sit there and suffer. That can’t be much better than what you claim the government is doing.”
He sighed. “Here is the thing, Rainy. No one knows that we exist. I am sure there might be some speculation among those in power, but nothing has been confirmed. Once we attempt to rescue anyone, our organization will be known, and we will become enemy number one. We are biding our time, building our resources, and creating a flawless plan to rescue all of those in The Facility. Believe me, I feel horrible knowing that there are people in need of our help. But at the moment there is simply nothing we can do. We, however, have implanted people to these operations to try to gather as much information as we can. We have people inside The Facility, making sure the patients are being watched out for. It is a hard job having to stand on the sidelines and watch over these people and not be able to do much.”
