G I G I

I was in the asylum again.

It had been some time since someone had come into my cell to feed me. I hadn't seen the light of day since they'd put me here with a bag over my head. I wasn't supposed to be here. It was a horrible mistake. I didn't mean to kill the boy. It was an accident.

I'd been sitting, chained on the ground for ages. Days, weeks, years, it was all the same now. It was impossible to know how long. And they weren't going to let me out any time soon. Though they should. I wanted out so badly I might just burn the entire place down.

Julia.

It was my mother again. My only companion in this cold darkness in which they imprisoned me.

Do not lose hope. Your time will come.

I was happy to hear her but skeptical of her words. "I've done what you asked but nothing has changed. I'll be in here until I die."

You will not die. You have not fulfilled your mission yet. My murderer still lives.

"I can only kill Delphinium when I'm out of here. I promised Benny that I'd get him out of here, but I can't. My promise was empty."

There are other forces at work. You will see the light of day again.

"Soon?"

Soon. Simply wait. Once you're out, the Shires boy will obey you. He's seen your power. It's no match for his own.

"Then I'll make her pay, mother. They'll all pay."

Good girl. Honor me. Kill her in my name.

"I've already promised I would. I've thought of nothing else."

You'll be on the other side soon.

What did that mean? She didn't understand; there was no way for me to escape. I'd tried many times. Hunt had ensured that I'd be here for a long while.

I couldn't fail her. I refused to. I had to honor her memory and if that was through killing the assassin, then I'd gladly do it. I'd do anything. Anything. Anything. It was the same thing I'd said to Benny.

But waiting? I didn't know how much longer I could sit here in chains, day in and day out, with only my dark thoughts for company. My mother came and went. I wasn't sure where she returned back to when she was finished speaking with me.

I jumped and scrambled backward the best I could when there was a small booming noise toward where the locked door was. It almost sounded like...an explosion? I could smell a sharp burning scent.

Someone came in with swift footsteps. Hunt? The ONNT soldiers?

The bag on my head was ripped off and I finally breathed the cool air again. The overhead lights were blinding compared to the darkness I'd been living in recently, so bright that my eyes hurt when I tried to recognize my rescuer.

"Mother?" I asked, squinting at the person's chestnut skin and tall form as they worked the locks binding me to the ground. She had told me that other forces were at work here...

"Do I look like your mother?" The girl turned to look me in the face after she uttered the sharp words. She did not; she looked only a few years older than me and had dark clothing on—the suits that ONNT soldiers wore, I noticed.

I watched her unlock the chains on my wrists. "When you're free, you must follow me," she said. "We don't have much time; I only stalled the soldiers for a few minutes, at best." I could feel her pounding heartbeat. It was beneath my booted foot. I could crush it. But I didn't. Not yet.

"What do you want with me?"

"My master sent me here to help free you. This has taken long to plan and execute, I barely thought it would work, but...it will be worth it when it does. He knows that once you're out of these chains, you can do the rest." Her master?

My wrists were free and I shot to my feet, not caring to try to figure out what the girl had meant. I had a job to do. I'd promised my mother I'd do it.

My rescuer handed me a bow and a quiver of arrows. I didn't question where she'd gotten them or how she'd snuck them in here. I didn't care. I only cared about its familiar weight in the palm of my hands the the feeling of the arrow's shaft between my fingers.

The girl ran ahead of me down the hallway and I followed, though at a somewhat slower pace. My legs were still weak from underuse but I didn't care. Nothing mattered except for if I got there or not. And I would. If any soldiers crossed my path, they were already dead. Bodies piled up in my path.

She led me to Benny's door. ONNT soldiers were flooding the hallways now. Blaring alarms sounded but I barely heard them. I took care of the men as she worked on breaking through the cell. Hearts burst in my hands as they clawed at the air. Bloodstreams stopped. Bones snapped as my steel-tipped arrows pierced through them. I reveled in the sound. It was music to my ears.

"Stand back," the girl yelled from behind me. I barely had time to push the incoming soldiers back before smoke billowed outward and the walls shook.

Even before the dust had completely cleared, I ran through the hole she'd made in the wall, screaming to her, "Kill them all!" With that, I marched over the fallen door and across the platform that led to the glass cage.

"Finally, Henderson." Benny's tone was light but I saw the dark glimmer in his eyes. He was as ready to be out of this prison as I was.

Not caring enough to exchange pleasantries, I nocked an arrow and aimed it at the center of the glass wall. Fired it. It bounced off the glass, leaving behind only a small dent before falling harmlessly to the ground.

I fired another. Another. Another. The glass began to spiderweb with cracks. Outside the room, chaos ensued. The girl who'd freed me was out there now, holding the soldiers off as long as possible. But she only had to wait until I'd cut Benny out of his straitjacket. Then we'd have three trained soldiers to fight our way out of this place.

My quiver was emptying. The glass was cracking more than ever. I reached backward for another arrow and my hand only brushed one. One last arrow. One last shot.

I raised my arm and nocked my final arrow, noting that it was an exploding one that I'd specifically placed inside for a last resort. Back straight in the proper stance, my eye was level with the string. I let it fly directly into the center of the glass breakage. Watching triumphantly, I saw the arrow fly straight into the breaking glass and bury itself there. When it exploded, it shattered a large hole. Glass blew everywhere. It hit my skin and dug in but I didn't feel it.

Having no time to waste, I ran for the broken cell. Benny was waiting. As I got closer, I noticed the nasty blisters that covered his unusually pale skin. He felt very close to death.

Frowning, I asked, "What happened to you?"

"Jake Evans," was the only answer he gave and I immediately understood. Jake gave Benny frostbite and left him to die a slow death in this cell. With a wave of my hand, I lessened the severity of his injuries. The blisters sunk back in until all that was left was smooth, normal skin. The great power I exerted left a weak feeling in my limbs, but I ignored it. I would push myself as far as necessary.

Using one of the fallen arrows, I began to slice through the straitjacket he wore. The steel tip cut through the fabric like paper.

Both of us looked up as the other agent ran back into the room, her eyes frantically searching for us. "I was able to block the doorway temporarily, but they're going to be inside any-"

Her warning was cut off by a large explosion that rocked the massive cell. Dust billowed out a second time from the direction of the door. Soldiers poured out of the entrance, carrying machine guns and tasers. A man in a lab coat ran in behind them, brandishing a needle. "Sedate them!" someone screamed to him. But I refused to be sedated, put down like an animal. Not anymore.

They were too late. With one last swipe, Benny was cut out of the straitjacket. It slipped off of his arms as he stood. Everyone in the room seemed to be holding their breath as they watched on in sudden silence.

Then they began to fire their guns at his limbs, trying to incapacitate him. I healed every bullet hole that appeared on his body, ensuring that he could resume in his short path toward the soldiers. The strength was draining from my own body, but it didn't matter. They weren't shooting at me yet, as I wasn't as present a threat as the other two.

The assassin girl and Benny reached the frantic soldiers and began to fight their way out of the cell. When they stopped shooting their guns at Benny and changed to physical combat, I refocused my remaining power onto destroying their internal organs. Men and woman alike dropped to the floor, dead. Between my mental power and the two agents' almost inhuman physical strength, we were winning the fight. Hunt's normal soldiers were no match for the three of us combined.

I saw the doctor with the sedative coming towards me. He'd probably decided that I was the one who most needed the drug. But it wouldn't fill my veins. Never again.

The closer the doctor got, the more my rage mounted. He thought I was a monster that needed to be controlled, a lunatic that was out of control. They all wanted me under their thumb, only treating me like a person when they needed something from me. I thought I'd gotten out of the asylum but now here I was, right back in it. I could nearly smell the antiseptic.

I wasn't a monster. My hands—palms up—curled into claws. I wasn't a monster. I felt the familiar hum of energy deep in my chest as I mentally gripped the doctor's skull and squeezed. I wasn't a monster, I told myself as thick blood poured from the doctor's ears and nose, as his bloodshot eyes rolled back. He was going to take me back to the asylum. I would never go back. They didn't know me or what had happened to me there. I wasn't a monster.

I couldn't go back. I couldn't go back. I couldn't go back. It was a chant inside my brain as I stepped over the the bodies that had piled up. After all, I was just protecting myself from these people. The real monsters.

All the soldiers that had arrived in the first wave were dead, but I knew there would be more coming in mere minutes. So, leaving behind red footprints from all the blood I'd walked through, I followed the two agents out of the destroyed cell. Freedom was so close I could taste it. But first, we had to get out of this prison. I would destroy everyone in my path if it meant I could resume my mission.

My mother spoke. Good work, I knew you had it in you. You know what you must do now.

I smiled. Of course I did.