Part 4- Darius’s perspective

Im not mental. Im not mental. This isn’t who I am. Did I make it clear?! My eyes twitch in the dark. I can’t sleep again, insomnia is too much, but also the least of my problems. It must be about 5 in the morning and I’m counting the squares on the roof. Every day I get a different number and it drives me insane- I mean no it doesn’t!

“Darius ya gotta chill out bro” Roger tells me from the other side of the room. Curse his night vision! Leave me be, I want to shout. My mind is scattered with other thoughts and I’m not sure if I can take it all in. Kate still isn’t back yet and the auction is in a few hours. Who will want me? I’m just some boy they stole from a mental hospital. I bump the skull of a rat across my cage.

“AAARRRGH!!” I yell, snatching the head and throwing at Roger. My hands hurt and I so badly want to escape again. I’d done it before, made it to the back gates of the lab. However, they caught me and I had gotten in big trouble.

“Ok Darius, you wanna- hfff- play pass?” Roger says interrupted by tics. I have had it with him. He’s crossed the invisible mental line I’ve put down in my head.

“WHY DO YOU TREAT ME LIKE IM INSANE??!” My angry- no, infuriated voice roars. With my sudden mood swing, Kate falls from her sleep.

“Darius what’s wrong?” She says wiping sleep from her eyes. Abby is up to now, and I can see her face angled in my direction. I hate the attention! I hate being mad!! WHY.

With a loud click, the metal doors open and guards with guns come inside.

“Time to get up! Auction is in 6 hours and we need to get you looking fine! No ones gonna buy a child looking like a hurricane wreckage.” They walk over to Ella’s cage. She gets out on her own, a knot of wires following. I hate her right now. She’s programmed to listen to what’s being told. Pushover Ella.

“Eww she’s ugly, should’ve given her extra hours! She’ll need more time to get half as pretty as the others!” The guards laugh at her and rudely poke at her belly. Ella looks at the ground in shame and a guard escorts her out. They take Allysa by her stumped hand and Abby while she’s pushing and screaming. Suddenly, a gal dressed in black points a tranq gun at me and pulls the trigger. Dang, that- that…kinda… hurt…..

“One hour! Auction in one hour!” I bitterly wake up for the first time in ages and shake my arms. I’m dressed in a hideous dark blue velvet coat and grey dress pants. What the actual living heck.

“13 richies in here now” Allysa says squinting her eyes through a crack in the curtain. Oh great, lucky number 13. I am startled to find I’m in a large cage with Allysa and Kate. Kate? She’s back!

“I thought you’d be out forever Darius,” she joked. Her red hair was curled nicely and she had a tight red dress to match. It was honestly the prettiest Darius had ever seen her.

“Kate got a new power-“ Alyssa began before she was cut off by Dr. Burt walking in.

“If any one of you wrecks this, I will kill you. I’m looking at you Mr. Quick Temper,” he says to Roger. He tells every superhuman what to do in seemingly panned out- descriptive actions, and breezes past non important Darius. “You just stand there and look smart since hyper-intelligence is your only power.” Darius wanted to shove his fist into Dr. Burts ugly bulging face as he walked out.

“Umm, Allysa?” Ella calls from the second cage. Allysa looks over at her friend. “Ching is in the bidding crowd…” Alyssa’s whole face lights up.

“Who’s Ching?” Abby asks. Alyssa pauses as her tears fall down her fake army suit.

“He is my military commander-“ Alyssa strains to look out the curtain. “He’s here to save me!”