The Institute (17 page)

“What the hell
just happened?” I ask Ty as his feet touch down on the ground
again.

“I have no
idea, are you okay?” It’s the first time Ty has shown any kind of
concern for me. He bends down to try and help me up but my ankle is
already visibly swollen. “We better take you up to the hospital –
get it treated, maybe x-rayed.” Ty walks off, I assume to go get
someone to help me. I look around the room and all I see is shocked
faces and awkward glances; I suddenly feel like I am back in the
halls of school the day Ebbodine disappeared. I put my head down
and look at my ankle, which is already bruised and aching more by
the minute.

‘
What just
happened?’
I hear Tate ask.

I have no idea,
all I did was touch him, I wanted him to let me go and suddenly we
were up in the air. I thought you said he could only hover a few
feet off the ground? It felt a lot higher than that!

‘
It was a
lot higher.’

And I know this
might sound crazy, but for a minute there, I thought I was doing it
myself, I was levitating. Until he let me go anyway.

Ty comes back
with another guard, they pick me up on either side and start
walking me towards the stairs. I can’t put any weight on my foot at
all, it’s too painful.

‘
Allira,
don’t tell them what you just told me, I think I may know what you
can do and if I’m correct and they find out, there is no telling
what they will do to you. Just don’t mention to them that you feel
like you were levitating with him – he did it all himself, do you
understand?’

I don’t
understand, but I trust you. I won’t tell them anything. Hopefully
I will be back soon.

The guards
eventually get me up the stairs and take me down new hallways I
haven’t seen before. When I’m not focusing on the pain, I’m
thinking about what Tate just warned me about. Has he figured me
out? Has he figured out why I am telepathic only when I am down
here? The voices always seem to disappear when I reach the top of
the stairs, it makes no sense.

I finally
recognise where I am when they bring me into the hospital wing of
the Institute. I’ve been here before, on those stupid yearly tours,
only the halls are much busier than what they are when we visit.
I’m taken to a nurses’ station where there is two people on
computers.

“We’ve got an
injured ankle,” Ty tells one of them. She looks up at us, annoyed
that we have disrupted whatever she was doing.

She huffs and
pulls a clipboard out from the desk and studies it, “Bed four is
free, take her there. It’s just down the hall, room on the right.”
She looks back down and returns to her work.

The guards
start carrying me down the hallway, my foot is still unable to bear
any weight. There’s a person in a white lab coat at the end of the
corridor. From here it looks like my Aunt Kenna.

I must be going
crazy. I shake the thought from my mind; it can’t be her. I go to
look back at her again but she is gone. It couldn’t be Aunt Kenna
anyway, she works in the city and at night. I just ate breakfast so
it can’t be her. She doesn’t work for the Institute, she wouldn’t.
I dismiss the thought, I’m just missing home life, seeing her and
Dad, seeing Shilah. I wish I could find out if he is okay, where he
is, and what they are doing to him.

It’s got to
just be my brain playing tricks on me, if I saw someone who had the
same build as Dad I’m sure I would swear it was him too. I’m taken
to the room and the guards help me up onto the bed.

“Someone will
come check you soon,” Ty says and they walk out.

I look around
the room, the accommodations are much nicer in here, a big
comfortable hospital bed with a remote to move it up or down and
options to sit it up or lay it flat. The room is spacious, bigger
than my own bedroom back home and easily three times the size of my
cell. There’s no windows though, I can’t remember the last time I
saw the sun. There is that solvent cleaner smell that reminds me of
the day my blood test was taken and I suddenly remember that that
blood test is the reason I am here.

I try and push
it from my mind and take this opportunity to get some much needed
sleep. It seems to be that all I want to do here is sleep but I
guess it’s not like I’m actually getting much though. I’m feeling
the exhaustion of sleep deprivation, even my mental faculties and
cognitive function are suffering. I feel like I have only just
closed my eyes when the doctor walks in. I can immediately see why
I accidentally mistook her for my Aunt; her mahogany coloured hair,
her build, even the way she carries herself reminds me of Aunt
Kenna.

“I’m sorry for
keeping you waiting,” she says. I didn’t realise I had been waiting
at all, maybe I did actually fall asleep. She walks over to me with
a clipboard in her hand. “So you had a nasty fall did you?”

Well that’s one
way of putting it, I suppose. I nod, “Yes.”

She looks at my
ankle, pokes at it, prods it and asks me where it hurts, then
proceeds to push on the spots where I tell her I’m sore. I can tell
she is trying to be delicate and not press too hard but I still
flinch every time she applies any pressure to my foot.

“It’s not
broken,” she states. “It’s just a little bruised and should be fine
in a couple of days. We might have to keep you here until you’re
better.” I swear the look she is giving me is trying to tell me
something, I try to use my new ability, but I have no idea what she
is thinking – I hear nothing. “I’ll leave you to get some rest, but
first I’ll give you something for the pain.” She reaches into her
pocket and pulls out two pills, I recognise them; they are the same
pills Tate gave me the night he visited me. I take them without
question, they were good at knocking me out last time. The doctor
leaves the room and I relax back into the bed, hopeful for more
sleep.

“You’ve made
friends quickly,” Drew’s voice makes my skin crawl. “Moved on
pretty quickly too from what I hear.” He’s standing in the doorway
to my room, leaning up against the door frame. His usually casual,
shaggy brown hair is styled with gel and his green eyes are still
as piercing as ever. I scowl at the sight of him, I haven’t seen
him since my first interrogation but I haven’t stopped thinking
about him since then. I can’t even try to rationalise what he has
done.

“Is that what
you’re here to talk to me about? Or are you here to hit me too,
like you did Shilah?”

“I just don’t
understand how you can be angry about it all. It’s obvious that
your feelings for me were less than genuine, since you already have
another guy in your bed?”

“Are you
seriously in here saying this to me right now? Really?” I can’t
believe what I am hearing. “What do you care? Your feelings were
made quite clear when you were interrogating me.”

“Well I didn’t
think you would turn around and sleep with the first guy you
met.”

“What are you
even talking about?” I assume he is talking about Tate and me, but
no one is meant to know about that, I’m not meant to have any
interaction with anyone down there except for my guards.

“Oh, just a
midnight visitor to your cell. Don’t think for a minute that I
don’t know what goes on down there,” he menaces.

I hope the
guard who let Tate in didn’t get punished.

“What, you want
me to save myself for you, the guy who investigated me, arrested me
and even lied about his own name? Huh, Agent Jacobs?”

I know I could
easily fix this by telling Drew that nothing happened between Tate
and me, but he probably wouldn’t believe me anyway. And why should
I explain myself to him, he’s the reason I’m here! He’s the reason
Shilah is here, somewhere, beaten and bruised like I am. I don’t
even understand why he is in here acting like he is jealous, if he
truly had feelings for me, he never would have turned us in.

“Did you get my
note?” His tone is now calm and almost boyish, like he has just
been told off by his mother for doing something naughty. He’s
probably sensing my desire to punch him in the throat.

“Yeah, nice
apology. Was that meant to make me understand why you did it? Am I
meant to forgive you because you scribbled two measly sentences on
a piece of paper?”

“You don’t
understand what I have been through Allira, if you just let me
explain—“

“I don’t want
any explanations, I want you to leave me alone.” I can tell that he
truly is remorseful for what he has done, but I’m not going to
trust my instincts when it comes to Drew. I’ve learnt that lesson
and I won’t do it again. For all I know, it might be part of his
ability, sucking people into believing him. I can’t trust him, I
won’t let myself. I can’t believe anything he says.

“You have to
understand that when you go into a job like this at the age of
fifteen, by the time you get to twenty-one you don’t know what’s
right and what’s wrong anymore. The defining line gets blurry, but
you brought me out of that confusing haze, you reminded me of what
it is like to have a normal life, you reminded me of why I started
this job to begin with and what I was fighting to save: my
family.”

“Hang on, you
lied about your age as well? Was anything you told me true? Your
name, your age, when you found out you are Defective, what else did
you hide from me? I wish I could believe what you are trying to
sell but I’m not going to let you fool me again and if what you’re
saying is true, what was with the attitude during my questioning?
Where was Mr. Sensitivity then? All I could see was a snide,
conniving, full of himself w—“

“I know, I
know,” he interrupts. “I deserve to be called every name under the
sun. I wish I had a decent excuse for my behaviour but I don’t. I
have a reputation here for being the best. First Jax made me for
who I am and then I failed to bring you in on my own. I was getting
ridiculed by everyone here. I needed them to know that I hadn’t
failed, that I didn’t let you get into my head. They would have
known that I lost focus if I hadn’t acted the way I did during the
interrogation. I’ve never screwed up in the six years I’ve worked
here, so I panicked. I was worried about what they would do, how
they would punish me. I feel terrible for letting my ego get the
best of me, but it was just an act because you did get into my
head, and I do feel terrible for what I have done to you and your
family. I can’t apologise enough.”

“Exactly, you
can’t apologise enough, so you don’t need to be in here.”

Drew hangs his
head, “Actually, I do. I didn’t come up here to get into a fight
with you Allira,” he says defeatedly. “I was sent here to find out
what happened down there. How did you hurt your ankle?”

“I thought you
knew everything that happens down there?” I retort.

“Well we know
that you somehow levitated in the air about ten feet off the
ground, how about you start with that and then work your way to the
ankle.”

I sigh, “I
don’t know what happened. Ty … the guard on duty was trying to take
me back to my cell, he was getting impatient and I hadn’t finished
eating yet. I fought to break free from his grip and the next thing
I knew I was in the air. As soon as he let go, I fell to the
ground. That’s what happened.”

Drew thinks for
a moment, “So you didn’t have anything to do with it? Ty did it all
on his own?”

“I didn’t do
anything. Not that I expect you to believe me, none of you people
have so far.”

Drew gets up
and starts to leave, but he turns just before walking out. “Shilah
is fine by the way, he’s upstairs in a more comfortable
environment. You should consider telling them what you can do; they
treat you a lot better if you actually co-operate.” His words are
soft words of advice, not a demand. For a moment I see the Drew I
know but no, I can’t fall for that act again.

“Thanks but I’m
not going to let them use me just so I can be in a more
‘comfortable environment’.”

“If you want to
rot in that jail cell for the rest of your life, that’s your choice
but you have the option of having a better life than that Allira, a
relatively normal life, that’s not something everyone here gets.
Just don’t write it off, just think about it.” Drew leaves and I am
beginning to understand why Tate hasn’t told the staff here what he
can do. I don’t want to tear families apart like mine has been,
just so I can live a ‘relatively’ normal life. What does that even
mean anyway?

***

Hurting my
ankle has been a blessing in disguise. Staying at the hospital has
made me more rested and relaxed than I have felt in days, probably
even weeks. I do wonder if Tate has been told where I am, I doubt
it but I’m hoping one of the lenient guards has let him know. I
told him I would be back soon, I didn’t think I would be in here
for days. It has still been difficult to get a decent sleep with a
nurse coming in every four hours to check my blood pressure and
stats; I have a sprained ankle, I don’t know what my blood pressure
has to do with it. With nothing else to do other than rest and eat,
I’ve been able to catch up on my sleep. The food has been an
improvement too, still not as good as the food on the farm but a
lot better than the stuff they were feeding me when I was down in
the cells. I know this isn’t going to last though.

My foot is
still sore but I can put weight on it a little, so I’m only limping
now instead of needing to be carried. My doctor has come to check
on me every day, I think she is the reason I haven’t gone back to
my cell yet; she keeps insisting it’s still not getting better. In
a weird way, it feels like I have a piece of Aunt Kenna with me
when I am around her. I know it doesn’t make any sense because I
know it’s not her but she just reminds me of Aunt Kenna to the
point that it doesn’t hurt to miss her as much. I think she knows
my foot is getting better but wants to keep me up here for as long
as she can. She knows what happens in “the Crypt” – that’s the term
she used for where I was being held – and she is trying to buy me
as much time away from it as possible. I wonder if she is Defective
too, and that is why she is being so nice.