Chapter 7 – Chap 7

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“Wh- who are you?” I manage, gasping for air as pain pulses from the back of my head.

I hear a click and my chair is suddenly titled back. I am spun around to face the door and I start to move. She’s- she’s wheeling me toward it. What… no! Please – stop!

“You are going to experience something unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before, Emily,” the woman speaks as she continues to move me toward the door. The clack of her heels against the ground below sound in a rhythm, a dark chorus.

“What are you going to do to me?” I stammer, “Wh-where’s my sister?”

Her soft voice somehow cuts through the air clearer than it should, “your sister is not of importance at this moment. Tonight, we will be focusing on you.”

“On me?”

We reach the door; the chair stops with a jolt as it is lowered back to all fours.

“Yes, Emily. On you. Now, it is very important that you listen to me. Is that clear?”

Before I can answer, the woman spins the chair around to face her. She is tall, slender. She wears a blood-red dress; a beautiful, long gown. Her skin is white, her hair blonde. Bright blue eyes sit above an upturned nose, they look straight into mine. The woman is stunning. Her hands are covered by silky white gloves; they firmly grip my shoulders as she quickly but quietly speaks.

“Emily. They might be watching. I am your ally. Do not trust anyone except me. Do not trust your uncle, your sister. Don’t even trust yourself. I am your ally.”

In a swift motion, she pulls a small pocket knife from within her left glove. I gasp as she quickly flicks it open. My eyes squeeze shut and my head shoots back as I brace for the pain.

But it does not come.

I open my eyes and see the woman pulling up the bottom of her dress to just above her knees. As one hand holds the dress, the other readjusts the knife into a tight grip. She pushes the knife into the skin atop her knee. She grimaces as it pierces her; dark red blood drips down her shin. Then, just as quickly as she had drawn it, she flicks the knife shut and slides it back into her glove. The dress drops back down to cover her legs and she turns her attention to me once more, grabbing my shoulders.

“You see that? Blood. I’m human. I’m real. And – and my nails,” she pulls off one of her gloves and points to her fingernails, “you see? They’re normal. That’s how you’ll know.”

“I don’t know what you’re-”, I begin.

“Emily, quiet. You need to listen. We can’t let them hear you. Listen to me. In this place people go missing. It’s your uncle who does this – well, not him. He – he figured out a way to recreate people. His tests – they went wrong and they took over his life – they took over my life. They… they aren’t who they pretend to be. But he couldn’t quite recreate their nails. The creatures they – they don’t have them.”

She’s talking fast, tripping over her words. Sweat trickles down her forehead.

“And they don’t bleed. The things – they don’t bleed. That’s how you know.”

The hatch door clangs open; bright light shines down. The woman before me stands up straight and quickly spins me around to face the door once more. My head rushes with the quick motion.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Someone climbs down the ladder.

I recognise my uncle’s voice, “Why isn’t she in a cage yet?”

Orianne responds, “I was answering her questions, sir.”

“Her questions? I heard you moving her ages ago,” my uncle growls.

“She was asking about her sister, and about you. I told her she doesn’t need to worry. I told her that she just needs to focus on herself.”

“Hmph,” my uncle grunts, “right. Well, move her to the cage. Her flesh is rotten. She needs changed.”

“Right away, sir.”

“And Orianne?” My uncle snarls, “Knock her out again. She’ll put up less of a fight when we begin to extract.”

“As you wish.”

THUMP

–

I lie face down on a cold metal surface.

I groan as I spin to lie on my back. My whole head spins, my whole body aches. Pain shoots through it from the top of my scalp to the bottom of my toes.

My toes. They feel different.

I sit up. I know where I am but it takes me a second to gather my bearings. I’m alone in the room of cages, one of which holds me. They’d been cleaned since I last came down here; not as dusty, and the skeletons – they’re gone. As I readjust myself, I come to a horrible realisation.

My hand flings to my head and runs along my exposed scalp. My hair is gone.

The prickles of what remains is all I feel. My heart drops.

My toes…

I pull my knees into my chest to go to inspect them. A lump in my throat grows as I squint through the dark air and untie the laces of my shoes.

However, as I do so, I notice my fingernails.

They’re wrapped in red-stained tissues. Carefully, I unwrap one on my index finger. A hot pain sears, surging through my body as I reach the last few layers.

They’re gone… My nail – it’s gone.

Dark red holes occupy the ends of my finger, filled with a gooey mix of blood and what looks like water. Dried, crusted blood rests around the edges of the hole which starts to leak; clear liquid creeps from its edges and down my forearm and I begin to shake.

I quickly unwrap my middle finger. Then the index on my other hand. Then my thumb.

It’s all the same. They’re all gone.

I pull off my shoes. My sock is pulled down with ease until it reaches the end of my foot where it sticks to something beneath it.

The pain is immense as I slowly peel the sock fully off my foot and reveal the mixture of blood, cotton and tissue where my big toenail had once been. The other toes are all tied with the same tissues as on my hand, but this one had obviously come loose. I pick what I can of the cotton from the fleshy mess where my toenail once was, and lie down to silently cry.

–

An hour passes, maybe two. Maybe more.

The door clinks. I snap out of my semi-sleepy daze and scurry to the back of the cage as Uncle Curtis and Orianne walk into the room.

My eyes dart from my uncle – if he even is my uncle, to the woman who called herself my ally – do I believe her?

“Emily! Now,” Uncle Curtis excitedly exclaims, “I’m sure you have a hundred questions. But I’m only going to answer one. So, Emily. What’ll it be? What do you want to know?”