Embers & Ice (Rouge)

by Isabella Modra

  Hunter’s stomach squirmed. She remembered the warning given to her by the guard with the tattoos. She couldn’t afford to say anything, not when she didn’t know what the punishment might be.

  “So?” he pressed. “Is that how you got here? Or did things just get steamy with your boyfriend?”

  Hunter’s heart jolted in her chest, the words hinting that he knew exactly what her power was. But how? They’d never met before. In a mix of fear and anger at his words, the fire roared up inside her as if lit with gasoline. Hunter stood so fast that the table shook and her plate of goo toppled over. The fire raged, emotionally unstable and eager for a fight.

  So, it seemed, was Jet.

  “Oh, I hit a nerve did I?”

  “Jet,” Mikayla warned. “Don’t start-”

  “Shut up.”

  Hunter wanted more than anything in the world to sock Jet in the face, but she needed to be smarter than that. As much as it killed her, Hunter unclenched her fists and stepped out of the bench.

  “Speak to me again,” she growled threateningly, “and I’ll introduce your head to the floor.”

  Benji, Zac, Mikayla, Chantal and Jet’s brother Marcus were all gaping, open mouthed. Jet was thoroughly enjoying himself, but Hunter had had enough. She made to walk away when his words stopped her dead.

  “I bet he likes it,” Jet sneered. “I bet it’s warm down there. What does it taste like, Hunter? Cherries? Or how about-”

  Jet didn’t get to finish his sentence, because Hunter spun and threw her clenched fist at his face. The sick crunch was louder than Mikayla’s scream as blood spurted from his nose onto their trays of breakfast. Jet staggered back and Hunter went to jump on him, to keep smashing in his stupid, grinning face, but the Men in White caught her just in time. One of them snatched her arms and pulled them so tightly behind her back that she was afraid he was going to rip them off. The other threw his hand across her cheek in a slap that left her vision dancing for at least five seconds. But the sight of Jet’s face dripping with blood was well worth it.

  And it started something in her.

  Suddenly, Hunter couldn’t control herself. Her mind switched off and she started to go mad. All she wanted was more of Jet’s blood on her hands, to cause someone else pain and not herself. She wanted to stop feeling so sick and so lost and start feeling the heat of an angry flame again.

  With hidden strength, Hunter wrenched her arms from the guard that tried to pull her away and managed to grasp Jet’s collar. His face went white as she drew him closer, her fingers closing around his throat, squeezing as he gasped.

  But before Hunter could go any further, a sharp pain burst inside her hip. She knew that pain; it was the last thing she remembered the night the Agents collected her. Jet slipped from her grasp and before she knew it, her body was limp.

  Then Hunter fell instantly into an empty sleep.

  SIX

  The strong smell of antibacterial ointment crept into Hunter’s mind as she slept, and suddenly she was waking up shivering and clammy.

  She lay on an adjustable bed covered in plastic, slick with her own sweat. Her hands and feet were strapped to the bed like a mental patient in an asylum. She began to panic. A bright light beamed down on her. The rest of the room was dimly lit and lined with cupboards and tools and machinery.

  There was a man standing beside her. Hunter had never seen someone so unearthly and sick-looking in all her life. It appeared as though he’d been on a long journey battling Leukemia. His cheekbones were hollow and his eyes glinted like slimy oysters. His bald head shone brighter than the florescent lights around her, dotted with age spots. Blood splattered his coat and he wore black gloves over his hands. When his eyes fell upon her, they brightened instantly and Hunter was hit with déjà vu.

  Oh God. I know him from somewhere.

  “Hunter Harrison,” he said with a grin as though she was someone he hadn’t seen in a long time. “I am so delighted to have you here.”

  Too afraid and uncomfortable to move, Hunter stared at him with her lips pursed shut. She knew she had made a huge mistake when she attacked Jet. Her moment of satisfaction would surely not be worth the punishment, not after all she’d heard that morning.

  “I apologize,” said the doctor, “that I could not meet with you sooner. I have a morning appointment that I hate to miss, and I wanted you to have something to eat before we were introduced. Though I didn’t expect it until later in the morning, and was quite disappointed to hear of the attack in the breakfast hall.”

  Hunter’s throat went suddenly dry. She wanted to defend herself, but the very presence of the doctor made the fire cower so deep inside her, she could feel no warmth whatsoever. Beads of sweat dripped down the side of her head and she squirmed uncomfortably on the table, clenching her fists.

  “Never mind that for now,” he continued and pushed himself away from the desk, walking closer to her. “I suppose you’re wondering who I am?”

  Hunter managed to nod.

  He rolled back on his heels and clasped his hands behind his back. “My name is Dr. Winston Elroy Wolfe. I was born in the wonderful countryside of Northern Ireland, just outside of Belfast. I moved to England when I was a lad and travelled around with my father and three brothers. I studied well at the University of Oxford, surrounded by great writers and minds and dreamt of becoming a chief surgeon at a hospital in America. When I graduated with an Advanced Diploma in Surgical Anatomy and Medical Science, I worked for many companies but mostly hospitals and laboratories. I soon stumbled upon unique DNA and genetics in a very select few, and set about researching them. I became aware that I needed a place to study their biology in private, where no other doctor or scientist would be able to discover what I was doing. This institution was my starting point. From the very bottom, I built it up until it became this, what it is now-” He spread his arms out, gesturing to ICE as a figurative whole. “I have done many great things for this company, and my research into genetics such as yours has opened a door to a world no one knew existed. I plan to document the life and genetics of every mutated being in this institution, and those who are still trapped in the wild. For you, my dear, are the future of science. Does that answer your question?”

  Hunter’s mouth hung agape. This man was possibly more insane than Joshua. Dr. Wolfe talked about experimentation and imprisonment as though he were explaining the itinerary of his next vacation.

  “I presume your answer is yes,” he said. “Now. I’ve reviewed the information we had on you here in our system, and Joshua’s files as well, and it seems-”

  “Wait,” she croaked, finally finding her voice. “What files? How did you get information on us?”

  Dr. Wolfe had his back to hers and she could hear him fiddling with instruments on a tray. “He never told you? Well, I suppose you were only young.”

  “Told me what?” she pushed, pulling on the restraints.

  Dr. Wolfe’s face was shadowed from the lamp when he turned to smile wickedly at her.

  “Why, you’ve been here before Hunter,” he said. “You and Joshua.”

  SEVEN

  It suddenly felt as if the small surgery room Hunter lay in was shrinking around her. Hunter gazed up at the doctor with the knowing smile and felt like laughing and crying at once. It couldn’t be true. Even at a young age, she would remember being in such a horrific place. Joshua always warned her about institutions like this, but never did he confess that she’d actually been imprisoned in one.

  “Allow me to explain.” Dr. Wolfe started to circle the bed she lay on. “It was a long time ago, but I still remember it clearly. Joshua Harrison was young and somewhat naïve, though he was clever enough to create a formula for your powers. Joshua miscalculated and… well you know what happened next, right?”

  “He gave himself the power to manipulate ice rather than fire,” she said.

  “Ah, so he has told you? What a shock that must have been.”

  “You have no idea.”
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  “After your birth,” the doctor continued, “he was sloppy in covering his tracks. We were soon aware of his gifts and asked if he might let us study him, and you as well. He refused.”

  “Well it’s not exactly a picnic in the park here,” said Hunter bitterly.

  Dr. Wolfe chuckled as he rolled up the sleeves of his white coat.

  “You were only a few years old, Hunter, when you were brought here. I can’t imagine you remember anything. Joshua certainly did. It’s a shame, because he could have been one of the greatest scientists we’ve ever employed. But he refused to cooperate. All he wanted to do was protect you. So he took you and escaped.”

  Hunter’s heart dropped and she felt the cold steel beneath the plastic cover grow colder. Even that long ago, Joshua still put her safety before his own. All along she thought his obsessive nature was just a figment of his schizophrenic imagination, but he had been the same since her birth. He had always put her life above his own, and she never truly appreciated that.

  Was he really crazy, or did he kill Eli to protect her? For love?

  Hunter didn’t want to feel anything for the man who took away her best friend, but against her will a small amount of guilt leaked from her heart.

  “Yes, Joshua was a true man of courage, but he was always an unstable soul,” said the doctor as he removed his gloves and sat down on the swivel stool beside her bed. “I’m sure you’ve experienced the possessive nature of your powers already. Joshua certainly struggled with it for many years. Tell me; when you first discovered the truth about your powers, was it difficult for you to keep control of them?”

  Pursing her lips, Hunter didn’t answer.

  Dr. Wolfe clicked his tongue in disappointment and his bony, icy hand closed around her wrist where the bracelet was bound. “You will need to cooperate Hunter, or I will gather what information I need through other means. And those means will be far more painful than harmless chatter.”

  The very tone of his voice made fear bubble up inside her. She’d never before been so afraid in her life, and when she was afraid, she would turn to Joshua. But Joshua was miles away, alone and broken, just like she was.

  “I’m not afraid of you,” she blurted out. But her tone was lying, and Dr. Wolfe knew it.

  He released her wrist. “You might want to talk to some of the other subjects, if you’re so confident. They will have some thrilling stories about me I’m sure.”

  As Dr. Wolfe turned away and busied himself with clinking metal tools, Hunter took deep breaths to get her confidence back. The fire argued with her, telling her it was pointless to be brave when she was strapped to a medical bed about to be operated on by a mad scientist. But she needed to distract herself.

  “Why are you doing this to us?” she whispered.

  Dr. Wolfe looked down upon her and his bushy eyebrows furrowed. “I just want to understand how you work. I’m doing this for science, Hunter. For the future. Do you know what this world will come to if children like them, like you, are allowed to roam the earth? Can you imagine the chaos, the domination, the wars? Not only are we discovering incredible genetic information in our research here, but we are protecting the public from menaces like you. And we’re protecting you from the judgment the public will rain down upon you if your secret gets out.”

  “You’re imprisoning us against our will.”

  “So you don’t disagree that you’re dangerous? Tell me, have you ever killed a man Hunter?”

  She sucked in a breath.

  “Just as I suspected. You couldn’t control the raw power within you any more than Joshua could.”

  Wrong, she thought. He might have been right about her power in the beginning, but Hunter had stood the ultimate test. As much as she wished she could strangle Joshua, she had his life in her hands and she walked away in that warehouse. She said no to the flames, and they listened.

  “But that is irrelevant now. I have some follow up questions I’d like to ask you.” He sat down once more and faced her. “The formula for your ability is one of a kind. Where exactly did its ingredients originate?”

  Hunter frowned up at him. “You don’t know?”

  For the first time, there was the smallest of sneers on the doctor’s pompous expression.

  “Wow,” she smiled, the fire flaring up in triumph, finding its confidence again. “The all-knowing Dr. Wolfe doesn’t have all the answers.”

  Dr. Wolfe smirked, and although it was definitely a grimace, it was still threatening. “You don’t want me as your enemy, Miss Harrison. Joshua made that mistake when he wouldn’t give up the location of the formula, and I won’t let you slip out of here as quickly as he did. We have far more security now and I have all the time in the world to wheedle it out of you.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, and instantly wished she hadn’t.

  “Oh you’ll find out very soon, unless you tell me what I want to know. Now-” Dr. Wolfe wheeled the tray of glimmering silver instruments over to her bed, placing them right by her shoulder in plain sight. “-Are you going to cooperate, or will things be getting messy?”

  Hunter swallowed hard, but did not break eye contact with Dr. Wolfe. As much as he frightened her, as much as her entire body shook in fear, the fire still blazed through her blood. It was protective and it didn’t want this maniac to break her. Hunter thought of the boy from the breakfast hall dragged in by the guards, of his drained body and anguished, fierce eyes. Had Dr. Wolfe tortured him to get information as well? Was that the purpose of this institution, or was it to experiment on the weak like Fearne, who was barely sane?

  Hunter had never hated anyone as much as the man leering down at her. Even Joshua couldn’t compare, and he set the standards pretty high when he killed the love of her life. For the first time in… well, ever, Hunter knew without a shadow of a doubt that if she didn’t have the bracelet on her wrist, the fire would have burnt Dr. Wolfe to crispy black bones, and she wouldn’t have suffered a shred of guilt over it.

  Which was why Hunter didn’t give in to his threats. If Joshua could resist his torture, she certainly could as well.

  “I’ll cooperate,” she replied. “If you take that tray of utensils and stick them up your ass.”

  Dr. Wolfe sighed deeply. “I thought it might come to that. Well, Miss Harrison, I gave you a choice but you wouldn’t listen. No matter.” Dr. Wolfe pulled a clean pair of rubber gloves out of the drawer and slowly slipped them over his hands, releasing the elastic with a sharp thwack. “Tomorrow,” he said, “we will begin your check in procedures; things like genetics tests and DNA sampling. Tonight we will monitor your sleep so we have all your updated details on file. If the sleeping pattern is anything like what I just witnessed before you woke up, I’d say you’ve been through a very terrible ordeal recently, which will certainly have an effect on your testing.”

  “And what is this appointment for?” Hunter muttered, ashamed at the panic in her tone.

  The light from above cast shadows across the doctor’s dented cheeks, making him look like a skeleton whose skin was melting away. He gently pushed Hunter’s stray curls away from her eyes, lifted a strap that hung down beside her head and secured it tightly across her forehead so she couldn’t even look away. “Oh, I am always the first to evaluate a new – or in your case, old – patient. Rules are rules, and here we follow rules adamantly.” He bent down so that his face was just inches from hers. Hunter managed to move her head just an inch back. The stench of his breath was enough to make her throw up, but her stomach was empty. “And I was so looking forward to seeing you again. Let’s begin.”

  Hunter tried not to regret her decision to keep quiet. You’re tough, Hunter, said the voice of her mother or the fire, she wasn’t sure which. You can resist. If not to protect the secret of the stone, then at least do it to make this bastard squirm.

  But Dr. Wolfe wasn’t the one strapped to a table with a mad scientist bending over him, holding a syringe in one hand and a metal rod in the othe
r.

  Nope, she thought. That unfortunate sucker is me.

  EIGHT

  God please, Jenny prayed as she sat inside the freezing laboratory after possibly the worst day of her entire life. Make him stop talking.

  She had swallowed a total of five cups of the strongest coffee Joshua could handle making – apparently he can’t touch things that are hot, the freak – so she was running purely on an insane amount of caffeine. And still, she was falling asleep.

  “I just don’t get it,” Joshua moaned, rubbing his forehead for the thirtieth time as he paced the lab. “How did she do it?”

  Jenny sighed loudly, hoping this strange human being would find the answer soon, or she might literally go bananas. But he was oblivious. He had finished telling her everything she needed to know – even a little more than she wanted to about Hunter’s mother and the fact that Joshua hadn’t ever been with a woman, which didn’t become obvious until she went to comfort him and he fell backwards in fright – and now he was trying to figure out Hunter’s secret with figures and hypothesis.

  He’s got this all wrong, she thought. Does this man have any humanity, or is he some sort of alien?

  “Maybe the secret lies in the mountains,” Joshua whispered, his pale eyes wide. He was clicking his fingers as if he could summon the thoughts that way like a dog. “I’ve never even come close to figuring out where Ravenadium came from-” He tapped the glass tank and she peered at it from her chair. “It’s not even from Earth, it’s-”

  “Alien, yeah, I know.” Jenny dragged herself to her feet and over to the tank. “You mentioned it several times already. All these years and you’ve never tracked down its origin?”

  “Of course I have, I lived beside the mountain for over a year.”

  “No, I mean its original origin.”

  Joshua snorted sarcastically. “Yes, as a matter of fact I talked to the alien king on Skype last night.”