Chapter 6: GUARDIAN IV: Day 1
"GUARDIAN IV"
----DAY 1----
...
"It's dark"
...
"It's always dark"
...
Let me introduce myself, my name is Hope. No last name given
...at least not anymore
When I was born, I was a very frail kid. I get sick often sometimes almost to the point of dying. I have a long black hair covering my part of my face with a skinny body. My parents tried their best to take care of me. They said I was something different to them. They told me I was "Special". But as time passed by, it became evident that they were in financial crisis because of my health condition
They were a lovely couple but not great parents. They left me the first 8 years of my childhood locked inside a room with only a hospital bed, an old TV set and a closet. I know they didn't love me, they treated me like an object they need to care instead of a daughter. I wasn't lonely, I don't know any people except for my parents. I don't even believe in hope. I knew someday I would die, I can feel it. It would be best if don't believe in such foolish thought
Kind of ironic right? My name doesn't fit well to me
-H-H-H-
I thought I was going to die here in my little room, until one day...
"Hope? Hope?" I open my eyes and saw my mother waking me up
"Hi mother" I replied softly
"Good, I thought you really died back there" my mother sighed in relief
"It's time for your medicine, Hope" she handed me a couple of pills
I drank them... It's useless
"Honey? Where are you?" my father called my mother
My mother left my side and went to talk to my father in the other room
As soon my mother left me, I used all my strength to get up my bed and sat at my wheelchair beside my bed
I got off my bed and went into my closet. I opened it and grabbed a cone-shaped object. I went to the other side of the room and placed the cone-shaped object against the wall
I put my ear to the cone. I hear them talking
"We have to get rid of the kid"
"You know we can't do that, our reputation is at stake! Our families will get suspicious! They already know we have a daughter!"
"I know, so I found a way"
"Really? What is it?"
"I met a shady guy, a researcher of sorts. He said he wanted children at the age of her. We can give Hope to him and pretend our daughter was kidnapped then we can be free from that brat"
"Finally! I was getting tired acting too nice to that little bitch!"
I see...
Even my parents didn't even have hope in me. They're getting rid of me
...
...
...
...
...
It's fine
...
...
...
I'm not sad
I'm not lonely
...
But...
...
*Sob* *Sob*
"Why am I crying?" I asked myself as tears rolled down my cheeks
-H-H-H-
Later that night...
I was pretending to sleep at my bed, knowing this the night they will "kidnap me"
I hear my door creak open and 2 dark figures entered my room
I briefly open my eyes
"Mother, Fath-" I tried to say before they pull a bag over my head
They put me at the back of their car as they drove somewhere
As they swerved their car around the road as I tumbled inside the back trunk. I'm pretty sure I would have bruises later
In the end, they finally reached their destination
They dragged me outside the car like they were taking out the trash... How fitting
I started squirming inside the bag to at least to try to escape
"Shit! She's starting to wake up!" Mother panicked
"Knock her out!" Father ordered Mother
THUD!!
A felt a swift kick in the jaw before I fell unconscious
...
...
...
...
...
...
"Hey! Wake up!" I opened my eyes and noticed I was in a dark room
"Good" I looked at the person who woke me up
It was a boy with short blond hair staring at me, he was the same age as me
I placed my hand over my jaw to cover my bruise. Damn, I never thought Mother can kick that hard
"Where are we?" I simply asked
My eyes traveled across the room
They are 4 children like me inside here
There's one black haired boy wearing a white T-shirt kicking the door angrily "LET US OUT!" as he continued to kick the locked door
In the corner of the room, a brown-haired girl with a dirty purple dress was crying her eyes out "I wanna go home!" she continued to cry
There still one red-haired boy still sleeping on the floor. His clothes look expensive
And lastly, the blond-haired boy that woke me up is wearing a school uniform
"We don't know. All we know that someone kidnapped us and we later woke up inside of this room" the blonde boy said
"I see" I simply responded I already knew that
"You didn't tell me your name" he smiled
I didn't reply to his question and glared at him coldly
"Not much of a talker? Okay, I can respect that" he reassured
"My name is Harry, nice to meet ya!" he said cheerfully
Harry? I don't care about his name. We're all going die anyway
"And what are your names guys?" Harry asked the other trapped children
"It's Brad, now shut up" as the black haired boy continued to kick the door
"G-Gina" brown haired girl shyly said
"Nice to meet all of you!" Harry said
"How can you be so optimistic about this kind of place?" I asked him
"The skinny girl is right, are you too much of an idiot to tell we're in a serious situation here?" Brad exclaimed at Harry
"Hey, I was just asking names. I wasn't doing anything bad, right?" Harry defended
"Why don't you make yourself useful and help find us a way out of here!" Brad grabbed Harry's collar
"G-Guys! Stop fighting!" Gina weakly said
Idiots
Suddenly, the sleeping boy woke up "Where am I?" the redhead answered
Harry immediately greeted him "Hi! My name is Harry, what's yours?" he smiled
"Who are you people? What did you do to me?!" the boy started to freak out
"Woah, calm down there buddy. We're just stuck as you are" Harry tried to calm down the boy
"Get away me! I need to get out of here!" the boy panicked as he banged to metal door pleading it to open
"I can't, I can't deal with this! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!" the boy banged at the door more violently causing his hands to bleed
"Woah! Calm down! Brad, help me hold him still!" Harry grabbed the boy to prevent the boy from hurting himself. Brad also joined him to keep the boy from his nervous breakdown
The boy panicked even more until he started to gasp for breath as he can't breathe normally. The boy held his neck as his lungs failed to cooperate
"He's having a panic attack!" Harry shouted as he tried to help the gasping boy
"Hey calm down! You're starting turn blue" Brad tried to calm down the panicked boy
Gina even tried to help the boy as I watch the chaos occur
Idiots, at this rate he's going to die from suffocation. Might as well to leave him to die for good. Lesser people, lesser problems...
"What do we do?! He's not going last much longer!" Gina exclaimed as they tried best to stop the boy's panic attack
...but
I sighed and I stood up, still weakened but enough to walk towards the group of troubled kids
"Alright, give him some space. He needs air" I commanded the group
"Huh?! And why should we do that?!" Brad snapped at me
I brushed my long hair off my face and stared at them "Because I'm the only one who can help him properly" I glared at them with fatigued eyes
The group looked at me with surprise as they obeyed and let me through
I kneeled in front of the panicked boy "Okay, you need to listen to me if you want to live. Breathe in slowly then exhale slowly, breathe in slowly then exhale slowly. Repeat it until you calmed down" I instructed
The boy started to follow my instructions as he slowly regains control of his breathing. "Thanks" the boy thanked me as he calmed down
"How did you know that'll work?" Gina asked
"I always get sick. One of my doctors instructed me what to do when I have panic attacks" I replied to them
"That's amazing, skinny!" Harry praised me
"I guess you're not useless, skinny" Brad said
"Hope"
"What?" they all said
"That's my name, Hope" I said
"Well nice to meet you Hope!" Harry greeted me
"Just don't use it too often, I hate people calling my name" I said in cold tone before I returned to my corner
-H-H-H-
After that whole ordeal, most of us just sat in silence for at least for an hour. Brad is still finding a way to pry the door open and Harry is talking with Gina to calm her down earlier
As for the boy earlier, he approached me slowly but runs away whenever I had eye contact with him. It's started to get annoying
"What do you want?" I finally snapped
"Um, it's just your hair is kind of creepy" the boy commented
"Wow, of all the things you could have said to a girl you chose that?" I'm starting to get angry
"You can't blame him, your hair is too long. You look like the ghost who came out of the TV. Have ever heard of a haircut?" Brad said
"I can't go outside my hospital, I've never been to a barbershop" I replied
"Well, in that case" Harry walked towards me as fished something in his pocket
He held out 2 rubber bands and used them to tie my long black hair into 2 long pigtails
"Now, you look cute!" Harry said
I'm not used to tying my hair and I like my hair covering the part of my face, it just feels unnatural
"Wow, you're actually pretty when you show your face" Gina complemented me. The boy agreed
"Thanks, I guess" I said in return as I faced towards the boy earlier
"Is this okay now?" I said
"Oh, it's just I want to say sorry to what I did earlier. Freaking out as crazy" the boy said. The others turned their attention to him
"My name is Rudy. I'm the son of a famous CEO" he said
"So we have a rich boy here? What? Are you going to spit at us lowly commoners? Can't handle to be stuck in the same room with us?" Brad remarked as he noticed Rudy's luxurious clothes
"No! I won't do anything like that!" Rudy said
"Then why did you freak out earlier?" Gina asked
"It's because I going to spend time with family" Rudy simply said
"What?" I said
"I came from a wealthy family, both of my parents as extremely busy. I don't even know my mother's face" Rudy smiled sadly
"I got spoiled by my parents often with gifts, fame, and money basically everything that a kid would ever want. But all I wanted is to spend at least one day with them as a family, not a business partner" Rudy continued as he stared the floor
"That day was today"
"Damn, now that's heavy, dude" Brad said
"It's okay Rudy. You can still meet them when we get out here" Gina said
"Have hope Rudy!" Harry tried to cheer up the red-headed boy
"Am I right, Hope?" Harry turned towards me
"You should give up" I said with a straight face
"What?!" They all exclaimed. Rudy was shocked at my answer
"Hearing from your story, it seems your parents treated you like a pet instead of a son. Why would they ever meet you today? I bet they canceled your family meeting and left you alone like always" I said coldly
"Hey, what's your problem? Skinny! He had at least a chance to meet with his parents" Brad shouted at me
"Holding on to a chance like hope is stupid" I spat back
"Why you little-" Brad charged at me but Harry held him, preventing from hurting me
"Hope, why would you say something mean like that?" Gina asked
Harry faced Rudy "Rudy, don't worry! I'm pretty sure Hope is joking around" he tried to cheer up the rich boy
Rudy just smiled at us with a bright grin "Its fine, Hope is probably right. But..."
"I can't help to have at least a little hope in my wish" Rudy said with a smile
Brad calmed down to the words of Rudy as the other 2 was stunned at the boy's response
"You're going to hurt yourself if they don't show up" I commented
"Well if they show up, I promise to bring you guys with me and meet them personally" Rudy said
"Woah, really? Thanks Rudy!" Harry said
"I guess that would be cool" Brad commented
"That would lovely, Rudy" Gina said
I was repulsed to the actions of the other children. Easily believing in hope like that. I'm definitely not going associate myself to them
"Fine, do what you want" I sneered at Rudy as he smiled at me
Then suddenly, we heard the metal door open. Light filled the dim room blinding us for a second
"Hello children, welcome to your new home" a black haired researcher wearing a glasses said to us
"Who the hell are you?" Brad yelled at him
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Garroth Veil but you call me Dr. Veil" he smiled at us. But unlike Rudy's calming smile his smile threatening, insane and distorted. His voice sends shivers to my spine
"Let us out of here you bastard or I'll tell everything to the police" Brad threaten the man
"Police? Like law is going to find you here" the doctor laughed
"Please let us go mister" Gina said
"No can do sweetie. This is your home now" the doctor said
"What is this place?" Harry asked
"I'm glad you asked boy! This place is a wonderful place full of wonders! We do experiments that could benefit mankind itself!" the doctor said with happiness to the point that it was creepy
"But the government said it was dangerous and illegal. What idiocy! How can mankind progress without any sacrifices! They tried to stop me and destroyed my wonderful toys!" He yelled and pulled his own hair in madness
"But now I have the 5 of you to play with me!" the doctor smiled at us insanely. We all stared at him with fear
"So I guess we're the sacrifices?" I said
"Ding! Ding! Ding! Correct! Girly!" he exclaimed at me right in front of my face
"Now that's over, who wants to go first? I know! We should decide this with a game!" the doctor spun himself to circles with his eyes closed
Then stopped spinning and pointed at someone "I choose you!" he said
We stared at where the doctor's finger pointing at
Rudy
"What? Me?" he said
"Hooray! You're the lucky winner! You're going to play with me all day!" The doctor cheered
"Like we would let you take him!" Brad shielded the boy
Harry and Gina were going to join Brad but I'm planning to stay in my corner
"Guards, shoot a non-lethal shot to Subject 02's leg" Dr. Veil suddenly said as a security guard shot at Brad with their gun, leaving a hole in Brad's leg
"AAARRRGGGHHH!!!" Brad shouted in pain as he collapsed to the floor
"BRAD!" Harry and Gina yelled as they went over the bleeding boy
More guards entered the room and tried to take Rudy, "Get off me!" the boy resisted the guard's grasp
"Harry. Gina" I tried to call out to alert the 2 idiots. Harry noticed Rudy's position
Harry tried to save the boy only to be punched in the gut as the guards took the boy
"Well, that all for today. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show" Dr. Veil smiled at us as he closed the metal door leaving the room in dim lights again
I went over to the bleeding boy. Gina looked at me "Hope! Do you anything about healing a wound?" she asked
I sighed as I ripped a part of my hospital dress and used it to bandaged Brad's wound
"Wow, you really are useful, skinny" Brad said in pain
Brad started to cry "Damn it! If I could just punch that bastard in the face then we would be out of here!" Brad exclaimed
"Stay still. You're going to make your wound open again" I said
"Harry, are you fine?" I said in a monotone voice
"Yup, just a little hurt" Harry stood up and went over to Brad as well
"Um, guys? Why did the doctor say enjoy the show?" Gina asked
And as soon Gina said that, a monitor screen popped out in one of the room's walls
"Hello everyone! Welcome to the first show of DR.VEIL'S FUN EXPERIMENTS WITH KIDS!" Dr.Veil exclaimed like a demented TV host
"What the hell?" Brad said as we watched the doctor on the screen
"Today, we're going to experiment with Rudy!" the doctor presented the boy tried up to some kind of table
"LET ME GO!" Rudy struggled as he tried to escape the cuffs attached to his wrist
"Rudy!" We all yelled
"Okay! Let's start the fun! Test Omega - A, inject 500cc of the experimental particle" the doctor said
Suddenly, a giant injection appeared beside Rudy and stabbed him right in the chest
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Rudy screamed in agony as the sharp metal slowly pierced his chest
"Oh my god, what are they doing with him?!" Gina said in fear
The machine started to inject with white glowing substance directly at Rudy insides. Rudy screamed even more as tears started to stream his face
Gina covered her ears as she cries as the others watched one of their friends was being tortured
"Oh? Something interesting is happening" the mad doctor noticed as red flames formed in Rudy's hands
"00:47 seconds, displaying signs of hidden abilities. Dosage noted" Dr. Veil wrote all the details in his clipboard
"I think we'll call these abilities, GIFTS" Dr. Veil smiled
Suddenly, Rudy screamed as the red flames in his hands started to spread to his arms
"What's happening to Rudy?" Harry noticed the flames started to get bigger and engulf Rudy's body. I had a bad feeling about this
"Oh my, looks like we have a problem" Dr. Veil said
Rudy screamed as he felt the flames burn his entire body. His skin started to melt as his flesh was burnt to crisp. Rudy's screams became quieter and quieter until he died. The flames turned his body to ash
"Rudy..." They watched as the poor boy died in one of the most horrible death you could experience
"It seems that the subject developed some kind of 'Fire Wielding GIFT'. But the subject's body is not fireproof, thus the fire continued to spread throughout his body until the subject is burnt alive" Dr. Veil documented
"Interesting. Very Interesting. I hope you enjoyed that, children!" the doctor smiled at the camera
Harry puked at the floor as the camera shown a close up to Rudy's burnt corpse. Brad kept yelling at himself for being not strong enough to save him, Gina is still crying, her cries turned hysterical. I just stared in horror as I witnessed the whole horrible experience
"Well, that's all for now! Tune in next time in DR.VEIL'S FUN EXPERIMENTS WITH KIDS!" he continued his maddened act
The monitor turned off as the whole room panicked
"THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO US!" Gina yelled as she cried even more
"Screw this! I'm going to escape this no matter what!" Brad yelled as he tried to stand up but fell down to the floor again after his leg throb in pain
"Brad, you're still injured. You can't even stand right now" I reminded him
"Don't panic! We can still get out of this place!" Harry tried to calm down the 2 panicking kids
I fainted after Harry tried to speak with me. My absolutely weak body can't handle any more of this
This was just the start of my experience in this horrible place. A place without hope. Here, stuck for 5 days
---DAY 1 END---
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone