Gen One- Chapter Forty

Sensitive topic manner addressed this chapter

Consciousness returned to me both slowly and suddenly. There was a long stretch of time where I understood I was aware of myself and my position on some bed but could not do anything about it, and then one distant noise jolted my thoughts to recall the events that had transpired. My mind woke up faster than my body did. I had already replayed the whole horrifying event before I was even able to open my eyes. Whatever drug had been used on me, it was vile. The taste lingered on my lips, the smell assaulted my nose, and my lungs ached in disgust at the last wisps of it that lingered within.

My sight wasn't that much better. I thought I was opposite-blind at first. All I could see was a glow of pure white for a minute or two until blurry shapes morphed into existence. I believed forcing myself to sit would help, and I suppose I was technically correct. Sitting cleared my sight greatly, but I wasn't sure if the stinging pain that wracked my whole body was worth it. Genuinely believing I was about to vomit, I sat incredibly still as I instinctively followed the breathing patterns I had learned in my many stays in the hospital to help calm my stomach. The sickening sensation blessedly departed after much work, and the pain subsided enough to let me actually take in my surroundings properly. The cream colored room looked at first glance to be a bare-bones apartment. However, I knew better than to think I was somewhere else other than a Company building. My old room had been much nicer than this after all, and a prison it still had been.

I collapsed right to the ground the first time I tried to stand. My body did not like whatever that drug had been. Honestly, I was unsure for a moment if my legs were listening to what my brain was telling them at all. The effort I went through to yank myself back up onto the bed was ridiculous. I had to forget my frustration at the situation to focus on the frustration at my body while I retaught my legs how to work. I was sitting up and down like a child desperately having to use the restroom as I got them used to my weight. Ten or so minutes later, I was competent enough to wonder about.

Not that there was much to find. There were only two things in the room I was curious about. The first was a tiny room in the front corner. Appearing at first to be a closet, I opened the door to find it was the smallest bathroom I had ever seen. It was a strange combination of toilet and shower. There was a small glass in there that allowed me to take a drink of water from the sink though, and my body rewarded me with a much welcome surge of energy that gave me the strength to do what I did next. The other object of my curiosity was the door. With there being no handle, I could only fathom that it opened by sliding. I clenched and pried at the cracks, but, naturally, the thing did not open. Desperate to use my momentary solitude before any Company members showed up, I even took to shoving at it with my shoulder and giving it several good kicks. Both efforts were futile.

It didn't take long before my kicks to get out transformed into kicks to release my growing, swirling, aching emotions. As I felt more and more like myself, the weight of what was going on sunk in with a vengeance. Somehow, I had been found. The Company hadn't just discovered that I was in Berrybrook. Then had also known that I was hiding out at Amaranth's place. However, as alarming as those realizations were, they were nothing compared to my worry for the ones who had kept me hidden. What had happened to Amaranth? He had been doing a remarkable job against one adult with a gun, but how had he held up against two? The echoes of the gunshots haunted me, and I wasn't sure if the eerie silence after the last had been because of my passing out or if because the struggle had no longer needed to continue. The idea that Blaze could have come back to find his nephew cold on the ground with blood pooling around him drove me to tears. And what if one of the men had waited there? What if they had shot Blaze the second he returned. What if Eden had come along as well? Could all three of them be dead? What if The Company had even found where Eden, Blaze, and their friends were while they were trying to out them? Could everyone who had been helping me now be dead?

I smacked my cheeks as hard as I possibly could. No. I had to get a grip. The second I started thinking like that, the second I became a victim again. I wasn't a helpless, ignorant child anymore. I was almost nineteen-years-old, and I had enough information crammed in my brain to make at least a little of it useful in this situation. Even if it didn't set me free, I was going to go down swinging. I would not accept what The Company for my life without putting up a fight. Perhaps something had happened to Amaranth. Perhaps something had happened to Eden and Blaze. I refused to believe though that, even if that was currently the case, that I no longer had anyone on my side. Some ally would still be looking for me. They had to find me eventually. I would have to make The Company's life hell until then. I would be more like Eden too. I would hope. Hope that everyone I cared about was alright.

I sucked in a deep breath. Voices, faint at first, grew louder as they moved in my direction. The Company workers knew probably everything about the drug that had been used on me. They had to be figuring that I would just be waking up about now or that the remnants of it would have me immobile like I had been. I bet the last thing they were expecting was for me to be in such a fighting mood. Staring at the door with a glare, I prepped myself to take the initiative.

The voices approached the door. Whoever was there, they were definitely coming for me. My heart was racing a million miles per hour in both terror and adrenaline fueled excitement, but my body tensing for the pounce was calm. Truthfully, I doubted I would get away. There were at least three people out there. On the off chance I could avoid them, I still had to navigate a way out when surrounded by enemies. No, my primary goal was to get intellect. I could plan easier if I understood my surroundings better.

There was a beep. The door rapidly slid open, and I leapt with mad fury. I barreled so fast and so powerfully into the person right outside that I had no opportunity to remark at her uniquely colorful appearance. She shrieked and tumbled to the floor as I bolted right. It was the only way to go as my room was at the end of an absurdly long hallway with nothing other than more sliding doors and a turn around the corner in distant sight. My chest went somewhat hollow. There was little to gain from what I could see, but I was relieved I was at least running away.

For the fifteen feet or so I managed to cover, anyway. The two men with the woman shouted in surprise, but they were not as easily stunned as her. Lightning fast footsteps followed me, and before I could reach the second door down the hallway I was caught around the waist, forcefully carried back to my room, and dropped onto the floor with a loud thud before I could make a proper protest. Winded, and now more terrified than fearless, I shook slightly and sat up slowly as I glanced up at my captors. True dread overtook me as I stared at the face of the man glaring down. Green skinned, gray haired, and with purple eyes, he was the one who had been fighting Amaranth first. And, if he was here unharmed, what did that mean for my boyfriend?

     "Watch yourself, bitch," the man spat at me, giving my leg a solid, merciless kick, "The bosses might want you alive and in working condition, but that doesn't mean you can't be hurt if you piss me off."

My stare shifted to being firmly set on the wall. Glaring at him defiantly or becoming timid and weak- I didn't know which was the best option. That's why I avoided his gaze and remained as impassive as possible, despite the burning sting now spreading across my calf from the abuse.

     "Don't get riled up so easily now, Stratus," the other man rebuked gently, "It was a given she would try to get away once at the very minimum, and you can't fault her for that."

As the all brown man stepped around his companion, I realized that he had been the one who had drugged me. The scent lingered on him, and it made me cringe with disgust.

     "Here," he said, offering his hand and apparently reading my mind, "You've got lots of energy, but the drug is still in you system. Even me smelling it from a distance has it affecting me as well."

His tone remained soft. It was almost sympathetic. My adrenaline wearing off, every inch of me felt like it weighed a hundred pounds again. Accepting his help was the logical thing to do, but I tossed away logic to harshly slap his hand away. I stood up on my own, although my legs briefly giving out on me again burned my cheeks with embarrassment. The brown man was unfazed, and looked my way with a simple gaze as he had before. There was tense silence in the room until the woman took her chance to speak.

     "Alrightie then. Now that our visitor has had her little outburst, why don't you two boys give us girls a moment alone? Go wait out in the hall while we have our discussion." she said with fake cheer.

The one called Stratus gave me another glare and didn't want to seem to move, but the brown man grabbed his collar and tugged him outside. I wrapped my arm around me, withdrew into myself, and watched from under lowered lashes the woman approach me. I couldn't quite make out what kind of threat she was. I doubted she would be a physical threat. I wondered if it was even possible for me to make her my hostage, but I quickly understood the two goonies outside be able to get her away from me before I could make any sort of use out of my advantage. Unfortunately, I had to play it safe for the moment.

     "Visitor." I scoffed at the woman as she went to say something.
     "Pardon?" she asked, her voice reminding me of Purity's annoying "sweet" voice.
     "You said I am your visitor. I think you meant prisoner." I grumbled bitterly.
     "Ah, well, it won't do you any good to dwell on the particularities. In fact, if you cooperate I think you'll find that your situation could turn out rather...acceptable in the end."
     "Acceptable," I repeated with a snap, "You want to keep me locked up from everything and everyone I care about. You want to use my body as nothing other than a factory, so you can sell my children like collectable toys in order to fill your fancy house with fancy things. You're going to trap more innocent, little girls within massive white walls devoid of love or freedom or anything that makes life worth living."
     "Like I said," the woman after a moment of pause, her tone growing harsh somehow despite it remaining gentle, "You shouldn't focus on the particularities. You need to cooperate. My cousin was a bit too rough on you a moment ago, but if you continue holding on to rebellious thoughts and actions, then he'll have to be even rougher. You might get lucky if Rusty stops him, but you can't always count on him."

Her words were an undeniable warning. The remnants of Stratus' actions against me still stinging me, I was forced to cave for the moment. The woman recognized my silence as subordination.

     "Good. You're clear on how things will work. We can start our real discussion then. Now, when was your last period?"

I flinched, not liking the start of the "discussion." If it was going where I thought it was going...

     "T-two weeks ago..." I mumbled, understanding it was better not to lie.
     "Oh," the woman said in excitement, "That's good. Are your cycles regular? What's their length?"
     "Yes, and twenty-nine days..." I whispered.
     "Excellent. Truly excellent. It's too late to do any fertility treatments, but you're at the perfect moment to do the most important step."

My breathing became shaky. My heartbeat was sent racing again, and my body tingled from a strange warmth caused by terror. I had had numerous sex ed classes. I knew exactly what I was at the perfect moment for, and I feared that The Company was more than prepared for that moment. Coralie, the woman eventually introduced herself as, asked me several more questions ranging from my period symptoms to whether I had ever taken birth control to whether I had ever had sex. Her light interrogation lasted no more than two minutes, and when she called the men back in to escort me to where "the process could begin" I panicked. I understood they were going to have to act fast to capitalize on their fortuitous timing, but I hadn't expected they would act immediately.

I fought back. Cooperation be damned, I went kicking and screaming. Stratus, impatient and grumbling, soon tossed me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing. He ignored me as I hit his back and kicked at him. I cursed myself for having cut my nails short and neat for graduation, for I couldn't even scratch him hard enough for it to do anything. The only success I had was when I purposely leaned forward so my arms had more reach. If the situation had been any different, me grabbing the waistline of both his pants and boxers and yanking them down as far as I could to expose a good portion of him he didn't plan on having exposed to the air would have been downright comedic. Sadly for me, it made my situation that much worse. Half out of rage and half due to stumbling to make himself proper, Stratus practically flung me into the wall. Bouncing against it like a person should never do, I was useless when he pulled his arm back for a punch that surely would have broken some part of me had Rusty not held him back.

Stratus' fury was contained while I was made to walk with Rusty's grip on my upper arm. Then we reached a room that looked like it had been stolen right out of a hospital, and I learned what true hatred was. The negative emotions Purity had made me feel were nothing compared to the utter loathing that emerged for the sadistic bastard called Stratus. I would have rather relived one right after the other every bad thing Purity ever did to me than go through what I did then. I wouldn't say that it scarred me for life, but saying it traumatized me for the next several weeks is accurate. Rusty pinned me while Coralie took off my shoes before sliding off my pants and underwear to expose everything. As if that wasn't horrifying enough, I was strapped to a chair like I had seen in movie once where a woman undergoing artificial insemination could have her legs open comfortably. My experience, however, was not comfortable in the slightest. Both my wrists and ankles were bound so I couldn't move. Rusty departed, and Coralie went off to prepare whatever she had to prepare. Stratus saw his opportunity to take revenge. He pulled up a chair, sat down directly across from me with folded arms, and stared. Stared with a smug smile as I could do nothing but try desperately not to cry from having my naked lower half spread wide open as a despicable man enjoyed the view.

There was no clock. I had no idea how long Coralie was gone, but it might as well have been a lifetime. Sadly, it all only got worse from there. She didn't make Stratus leave. He brought his chair right next to hers when she settled herself in front of my own to prep me for the procedure. His head was lowered down close to where she would be working as if he had no idea what he was looking at. I forced back a pitiful whimper of humiliation when he took a sniff. There was no stopping a few of them from escaping as he began to poke when he asked Coralie about what all the various parts were. The smug smile that never disappeared proved he already knew everything about what he was asking. My face flushing with embarrassed agony and the small sounds I was making weren't enough for him. The poking evolved into short bursts of rubbing. I lost it when his fingers lingered too close to where they never should have been. I knew that any second his finger was going to "accidentally" slip in. Tears burst out to cascade over my burning cheeks. Lightheadedness overtook me as my breathing turned ragged. That was when Coralie took pity on me. She ushered Stratus out of the room, telling him he had had his fun and to leave me alone now when he protested. My hands were unbound after he was gone, for both of us knew I was in no state to try another escape attempt. I was so shaken up that I was hardly aware of the process Coralie did or of the heavy reality of what she put inside me.

Coralie walked me back to my room by herself, and I will never have any idea how I made it that long distance. The second I was locked back inside, the second my legs gave out. Pathetic, shuffling crawling was how I made it over to the couch. I shook as if the deepest chill was inside my chest. I thought I had cried a good cry before, but few of my tears ever ended up being as intense as they were at that point in time. I had read so many descriptions of uncontrollable sobbing in books, and I finally understood what they were getting at. The gasping inhales of air that sounded like a beginner drama student trying too hard to fake cry were genuine. I couldn't control how my lungs took in and expelled air. There was no stopping how my lips quivered as I whispered desperate plea after desperate plea. I was begging. Eden, Blaze, Amaranth, Allium, Ms. Charm, Frost, Sap, Sunset, Mr. Glory, Sunflower, and even Purity- I must have called out to every person I knew at least twice for help. I promised to do anything for them if they would only just come rescue me. There were points where my fit build up to the point where my breathing, my crying, my shaking all stopped at their peak due to the sheer amount of weight they buried me under. I would battle for some semblance of control only to begin the cycle over again.

I was on the floor crying for at least a half hour. There was no way for me to tell what time it was, and in some ways that was a blessing. It allowed me to pretend that time wasn't moving at all- that everything back in the outside world would be frozen in the perfect state I wanted it to be in until I got back. For a good portion of that thirty minutes I wasn't sure how I would ever survive even the next couple days, but my crying fit did eventually cease. I started to climb out of the pit of despair to find that I didn't have to stay down there for eternity like it felt like I did. The humiliation gave way to other emotions and necessities. My body ached in protest at having been down on the wooden floor for so long. Thirst tickled my throat again, and my stomach was beginning to desire food. I needed to use the toilet as well. Able to take care of the problems save for my hunger, a rush of forced complacency swept over me the more the minutes passed. I took a nap, read a book from the bookshelf, and did whatever else I could to stave off boredom.

Multiple hours passed, and I decided to accept my traumatic event as nothing more than a bad dream for the moment. Doing that to cope made me feel even more like myself. And, with the bizarre thing that happened next, I needed a clear mindset to work with what was going on. More people were heading my way. Tensing up thinking it might be Stratus, I relaxed when I didn't recognize either voice. That was what I thought at first anyway. My mouth dropped open when the sounds grew louder. I did know one of those voices. I knew it very well. I had been listening to it for years. Yet, there was no way it was him. It couldn't be! It didn't make any sense for him to be here, especially talking so casually as he was. I stilled my breath and listened harder. God, I seriously believed it was him. It took until the person was right outside the door for the deep inflection that proved it was someone else to be noticeable.

I couldn't help but freeze when the door opened and one of the two others stepped inside while the second departed back down the hallway. It was severely annoying to have to be so scared and paranoid of everyone who approached me now. However, there was something about the man in front of me that was different. I felt as if I knew him. As if I had seen him before, even though I had never looked upon him before in my life. The way he stood, the dim sparkle behind his gaze, the tilt of his head- everything about him was familiar. I think I had already started to put the truth together before he opened his mouth again to speak with that voice that sounded almost perfectly identical to his.

     "Hello." he spoke gently.

There was something in his tone that showed he felt just as awkward as I did. I made that worse when I continuously backed up as he slowly approached when I refused to answer.

     "You don't have to be afraid of me." he tried again when I bumped into the desk, the furthest back I could go.

Thankfully, he was considerate enough to keep his distance by standing halfway across the room.

     "Are you here to let me go back home?" I questioned with a bitter air.
     "Well, no. That was not my intention coming in here."
     "Then I have to be afraid of you," I explained angrily, "If you're in here, then you know why I'm here. You're involved in my situation, and, at the end of the day, you're just going to be another reason why I'll continue to be a prisoner."

The man sighed lightly; so lightly, I don't think he intended me to hear it. My glare at him faltered when sadness lurked beneath his gaze. The unmistakable swirling of familiarity bubbled to life in my chest again. I had seen that expression before. The one tinted with regret. The one that would lead him to glance to his right before he turned his attention to me with a pleading smile. When the man before me did just that, the silent idea in the back of my mind grew more powerful until the assumption was all I could think of. Such an idea I would normally mark as ridiculous and as something that should be thrown away, but in that rare case the idea made perfect sense. It aligned perfectly with the information I had gathered over the years. The more seconds that ticked by, the more confident I became. And if I could just find some way to prove it...

I could gain a wholly unanticipated ally.

For some reason, it felt like the right thing to do to sit myself on top of the desk. Perhaps it was because I was closer to the wall that I felt safer. Perhaps it was because it allowed me to stand up and body slam the man should the necessity arise. He said nothing about my peculiar action, and he appeared almost guilty when I chose to lock eye contact with him.

     "Why did you come in here?" I questioned.
     "Checking up on you mostly. I wanted to see how you were doing, and perhaps talk to you if you would permit it."
     "Are you sure you don't mean 'interrogate'?" I prodded suspiciously, "You didn't come in here to try and find out how I was hidden for so long? To discover who was helping me?"
     "To tell you the truth, we know enough ourselves that makes questioning you about the matter useless," he shrugged, "No, I merely wanted to chat."
     "About what then?"
     "I suppose I had not given that much consideration. I didn't believe you would be up for a conversation with someone like me." the man admitted.

I hid my smile. He was giving me the perfect opportunity, and he had no clue it would be his undoing.

     "Okay, well, let me choose what we talk about. I'll tell you all about me if you tell me about you first. What was your life like growing up? What's your home now like? How big is your family?" I tossed out the questions, hoping one of them would give me good material to work with.
     "I don't talk about the details of my life so openly," the man expectedly rejected most of my curiosity, "But I don't live with any family. I have a permanent address at an apartment, but my works keeps me away from there often."
     "I see..."

At the very least, he gave me one thing that helped solidify my suspicion. I was clearly going to have to be more proactive though.

     "I'm sure you actually know a great deal about me already. My life was created through a cold, loveless process, and I was carried and delivered by a woman I've never met and who I don't know the name of."

The guilty expression the man tried to hide danced behind his eyes. I relaxed. He had been right when he said I didn't have to fear him. I was already wrapping him around my finger.

     "I was kept boxed up in a pretty prison," I continued, "For my first ten years, I grew up only being loved by one person. I had no friends. I wasn't even given enough of an education to let me know how write my own name. It wasn't until Eden stole me away that I got to see the color purple."

The man gave me a sympathetic look then. I quickly pressed on.

     "Life got better after that. I was given a new identity. Living as Meadow, I got to experience all sorts of things. Eden bought me a puppy I named Button for my eleventh birthday. I met a ghost named Snowbell. I got super sick and nearly died once, but I lived on to experience the wonder that is the public school system. There I made my very own enemy. I took vacations, saw wonders, got into fights, cried, laughed, and just generally lived my life as any normal person would. Probably the most important thing is that I made so many friends. First off, there's Amaranth. He is my boyfriend. Although, I don't know if I should be saying he was my boyfriend. Thanks to your co-workers, I'm not quite sure of the status of his life right now."
     "I have not been kept up to date of the events occurring outside this building." the man replied- honestly, unfortunately.
     "Fair enough," I accepted, not eager to dwell on that topic for long, "Well, there's also Frost. He could be what you consider the whole package. He's got the brains. He's got the body and the athleticism. He's got the personality that has him getting along with everyone. He's currently dating Sunflower, another of my friends. The two of them are such a cute couple that it makes my other friend, Sunset, jealous. She hasn't been able to get a boyfriend yet, you see. Oh, and who else is there? There's Sap. We had a brief thing once, but we decided to be just friends. He's one of a set of triplets. Bud and Pistachio are his younger sisters. There's Cocoa too. She dated Amaranth before me. The two unfortunately had a disastrous break-up, but I like her well enough. Let me see, I can't forget Purity either. She was the enemy I mentioned earlier, but we've been able to get along pretty well the past year or so. She's white like me, although naturally she never knew it."

I paused. The man was letting me ramble on, but he clearly was wondering what point I was trying to make. I didn't see a reason to extend his confusion.

     "There's one more guy too. I can't possibly leave him out of the list. He was the first person I met who had some purple on him. He has purple hair and purple eyes. They're quite a similar shade to yours, if not exactly the same. His skin is a nice pink though. He got that from his mother."

I had to pause again. Part of me expected that he would see what I was doing just from that, but he wasn't quite there yet. I had to give him his props though. How he tensed, the glint of suspicious recognition in his eyes, and the holding of his breath was done so subtly and quickly that I would have never noticed it had I not been looking for it. He had a pretty good poker face, considering what I was throwing at him.

 
I bit the inside of my lip to keep my smile from showing as I tossed even more at him.

     "The guy is a card, that Allium."

And there it was. The man before me tensed up so intensely and his expression grew so distraught before he scrambled to put his impassive mask back on that it left not a single doubt in my mind. I pretended I hadn't noticed his panic.

     "I call him Charming though. It's based off his last name, Charm, as well as that he believes himself to be quite the 'adorable stud muffin', as he likes to put it. Allium and I actually dated for a long while. Over two years. Interestingly, it's kind of The Company's fault we broke up. Allium unfortunately has some abandonment issues. His deadbeat dad up and left him and his mom when he was a baby, and he clearly doesn't care about them since he's never shown up since. I told Allium a little of what was going on with me, and when he found out that I could disappear forever he got so scared of being hurt again that he had to break things off. I dread to think how he's going to react when he finds out I've now gone missing..."

I trailed off to feel a bit guilty. The expression on the man's face was not pleasant. He was having a much harder time keeping his mask on, and, in a way, he looked like he wanted to cry. There was one more thing I had to do though. A lie I had to tell to push him enough to ensure he would be honest with me when I came clean.

     "I hope he handles the situation alright. We remained super close even after the break up, and it turns out that it was probably for the best that we did break up because now we're going to be related in a way. You know, I only found out recently that Eden and I are actually related. You know what I also found out several months ago? Apparently, Eden and Allium's mom, Rose, have been having a thing. I was shocked because Ms. Charm has been waiting a long time thinking her fiance will return, but she finally gave up on him. Anyway, now she's pregnant. Allium will be getting a baby brother or sister, and I will be getting a niece or nephew." I finished with a shrug.

The silence in the air was palpable. I had no clue how to describe the emotions flashing across the man's face anymore. I half-expected him to refuse to come over when I motioned him closer, but he did walk over to the desk.

     "You never gave me your name." I pointed out.
     "It's Jac." he replied coolly.

I smiled wide. If he was the same Jac Eden had told me about, which I anticipated he was, then I had really gotten lucky.

     "I think you mean Jacaranda Blossom." I clarified slowly and confidently.

There was no choice for me but to burst out with loud laughter. I only wish I could have captured the way his face moved when I said that! I swear I had never seen someone's eyes grow so big or have their expression be so shocked. He stared at me, mouth slightly open, with utter awe and disbelief. It took me several moments to calm my laughs to speak properly again.

     "There's a lot of things Allium doesn't know about his father. What he looks like for one. He does, however, at least know his name- Jacaranda Blossom. Jac for short, according to Ms. Charm."

My smile grew impossibly big.

     "And that's who you are, aren't you? Jacaranda Blossom. Allium's dad."