Chapter Eighteen: Lexa

Chapter Eighteen
~ Lexa ~
I couldn’t breathe. The pain was coursing through my body and there could be no relief. Tonight’s serum was worse than this morning’s. I could tell S hadn’t given me all of it, and that probably had something to do with it. I closed my eyes and tried to focus.
“Miss. Lexa,” Mr. Oakley’s harsh voice shouted from across the gym. “You need to pull it together or our deal is off!”
I wanted to tell him that I was trying. I wanted to tell him that the pain was unbearable. I wanted to tell him I needed a break. But that wasn’t an option. Mr. Oakley was an incredibly intense and powerful man. I could tell he had far more secrets than he had told S, and that was terrifying.
I told them that my gift was that I never missed a target. I was a pro at throwing knives, and that really wasn’t a power, but they didn’t need to know that the trees in my backyard had been training me to never miss since I was a child. The truth was, if I was going to miss, say my hand position was wrong or something, I could redirect the energy to realign it back on target. But they didn’t need to know that. They just needed to know that I could never miss.
“AGAIN!” He shouted, after my last knife hit the bullseye for the hundredth time.
I reached for the next knife of the set. I was surprised they trusted me with knives. But I guess the truth was if I tried anything, I would be as dead as my opponent.
“Can you freeze the knife in the air this time?” He questioned as he studied the target full of knives.
The truth was I probably could. I had learned how to manipulate the energy to stop an object flying at me a long time ago, but I didn’t quite know how to do it, nor would I actually try in front of him.
I threw the knife and cocked my head to the side and half thought, ‘stop’.
The knife did indeed stop to my surprise, but instead of staying in the air, it fell to the ground as I also crumbled to the ground as well.
I let out a surprise gasp. I hadn’t expected anything to happen, and I didn’t expect to crash to the ground. More pain surged through me.
“Incredible!” Mr. Oakley exclaimed excitedly, “Write it down, she barely put any effort into it. It wasn’t what I asked, but we’ll get there. This was a very good breakthrough.”
“Sir,” Someone called out. “Here’s a message for you.”
Mr. Oakley met the guy in the middle, and I tried to steady myself and my breathing. Something was slightly different now. I could see the energies instead of just feeling them. There was color in everything.
I squeezed my eyes shut. It was all too bright for my eyes.
The next time I opened them, Mr. O was standing over top of me with rage all over his face.
“Do you think I am dumb, Miss. Lexa?” He said in his most dangerous voice I had heard him use so far.
I blinked. His color was a blinding red.
“No,” I responded breathlessly. “I think you are a selfish, worthless, sad excuse for a human being, but I don’t think your dumb.”
He shook his head and kicked me in the stomach.
“My daughter is missing. Do you know where she might be?”
I smiled. Good for Aspen.
“No sir.” I replied. “But maybe she’s out there following the footsteps of her old man. Or maybe, she’s sick of this bullshit, and she wants to treat people like human beings, finally seeing in between lies.”
He kicked me again, and a small groan escaped my lips. The world was too bright with colors. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t focus as he began to yell and scream. For the first time I felt truly scared. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t protect myself. I couldn’t even breathe.
“She’s crashing!” Someone shouted.
And everything went dark, and all my thoughts went quiet.


I awoke to the sound of beeping, but there was no one around. I was in the restraints in the chair and a ton of wires were hooked up to my body. I tried not to panic, but I was wasting time being tied up here. With S gone, there were no little protections left. I hadn’t found more of us, but I did know what it was they were trying to do, and I had nearly died more than enough times, so it was time to get a move on, with phase 3 of this plan. It was time to go home.
I slowly pulled the energy from the surrounding air and used it to undo the wires and tubes. When that was done, I tried to undo the restraints on my hands and feet. But the best I could do was unattach myself from the bed. I was then able to get the ones off my feet without powers. The ones on my hands were there to stay till I could get some help.
I moved slowly. My body hurt in the worst way. But this had to work. And I had to keep moving. I looked around as I moved. There were security cameras everywhere. I wondered how S had moved anywhere under her dad’s nose at all.
I closed my eyes and forced the cameras to explode. There would be hell to pay for them. I knew what they did. I wanted them to pay for what they did to everyone before me. And they would pay, but it would never be equivalent to what they had done.
I shattered everything I could. The rage I had been suppressing for so long now came out. Glass shattered from every direction, yet not a piece touched me. I felt a fire within my soul burning to get out. All the pain transferred to energy. I was ready to take the whole place down.
I walked to the lab and broke every single glass of serum I could find. I found the notes and notes that the scientists had written, and I froze only when I saw one with Will’s name, and the one below it with my name. I wanted so badly to take them with me. I wanted to see the things that had been written about us, but there was no time. Soon there would be people here trying to take me down, and my rage would only last so long, so I just turned on one of the gas burned and threw the notebooks on them in hope they would burn. I then walked out of the ‘lab’ section of the building and was extremely glad that their swipe cards used magnets, so I could easily manipulate the energy. I walked almost all the way to the front doors, when I heard a siren begin to go off.
“Shit,” I mumbled to myself. I was so close to escaping right out the front door.
I turned and ran to the back doors. In an attempt to make the building look modern, this wall was all windows. I redirected the energy from the air and shattered the windows with a scream. I could feel my adrenaline pulsing through me, feeding my powers. I was close, but I had to run now. I could hear people running toward the building in all directions, but no one was looking at me.
I could hear the guards calling to one another. They had waited too long to call for help. I was free and I wasn’t stopping till I was home.
That plan only worked for only a short time. I made it to the woods. I was barely inside when I stopped running. I couldn’t breathe. My lungs burned from running or a side effect of the serum, I wasn’t sure. My body was giving out again. So few people would know I was gone yet. They would be more concerned about the building, instead of the prisoner. They would wonder what happened to it; why was there glass everywhere? And I hoped it would keep them occupied. I hoped that by the time they noticed, I would be hidden away safely.
I couldn’t breathe though. My adrenaline had stopped. The pain was real, and I couldn’t block the colors of the energy. I stumbled over a tree root and a small squeal escaped my lips.
I groaned as I tried to get up, but when I looked around the woods I had spent years running through in every direction, I felt lost before I let myself fall back to the ground.
I closed my eyes and tried to push away the pain. It was no use. I couldn’t remember how to get home. And even if I could remember. The pain had caught up to me. It was no use. I was stuck, and I was certain my fate was death. No one wishes they had slept more when they face death, but I was glad that death meant rest for an eternity: I was tired.