The Inadequate Experiments by Sian Webster (read after .TXT) 📕

I didn’t know what to say; he had a point. We may have beaten the Scientists when we escaped, by there was no way we could beat them again if we told everyone what happened to us in the Compound. Even Calliope wouldn’t be able to bribe her way out of that one. Speaking of Calliope…

“Calliope was looking for you earlier.” I told him. “Did she find you.”

His face fell, but he nodded.

“What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

“She… she thought she found a way to get rid of the seed in my mind. To make me normal again. Or, at least, as normal as I was before.” He said quietly.

I raised my eyebrows. “She did look overly excited when she burst in here before.”

“I don’t imagine she looks excited anymore.” He muttered. “It didn’t work. She’s freaking out over her pages upon pages of algorithms and equations right now, going through huge piles of books… I kind of hope she’d stop looking.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “Why?”

“I’m upset a lot of the time, now. I know how shit it is.” He told me. “She tries and tries and pushes herself to the limit, getting her hopes up insanely high when she thinks she’s found a way to fix me. Then she discovers she can’t, and her hopes drop even lower than before. I don’t want her to end up like me.”

Once again, I didn’t know what to say.

“I know why she’s so determined to help me, though.” He admitted.

“You do?”

He nodded. “The only time she’s ever failed at something like this was… was when Libby died. She feels responsible for Libby’s death. I guess, to a point, yeah she is, but the blame is equally on the rest of our shoulders for not noticing that Libby was down there with her that night until dinner. But anyway, now she feels responsible for this happening to me. She couldn’t help Libby, but she can help me. Or, so she believes.”

“We’ll help you get better, Oliver.” I mumbled.

A faint smile played around his lips. “Just before you were saying you were like a machine. In Calliope’s mind, I am too. I’m a machine she can’t fix, and you’re a machine she wants desperately to understand.” One corner of his mouth turned up, his eyes sparkling. “They sort of go hand in hand, don’t you think?”

I felt a smile slowly spread itself across my face. “I guess you’re right, but aren’t we all machines in Calliope’s eyes?”

“I suppose so, yes,” he agreed, “but when it comes down to it, we’re the broken ones. We’re the ones she will pay the most attention to.”

It felt like my Watch was still counting down all over again. Or, it would have, if I hadn’t been walking hand-in-hand with Oliver down the school hallways. Everyone was staring. Actually, gawking was a more accurate word. Most people weren’t trying to conceal the fact that they were staring at Oliver and I as we entered St Elizabeth’s for the first time after getting lost on the wilderness camp where we were found by the Scientists and taken into the Compound.

That was almost two months ago.

I was almost certain there had been at least one rumour spreading through the school that Oliver, Tia, Derek and I had died somehow out in the wilderness, maybe even died in one of the multitude of ways Tia suggested at the time. That would explain everyone’s shock at seeing us alive and walking around school.

“This makes me feel so uncomfortable.” I told Oliver softly. “They’re always staring at me. First it was my Mum. Then my Watch. Then you. And now cause chances are they all thought we had died.”

“You’ll get used to it eventually.” Oliver promised.

I bumped his shoulder with my own. “Are you used to it?”

He smirked. “Of course not. That’s just something everyone tells you to make you feel a little more comfortable with everyone constantly gawking at you.”

“I just wish they would stop it.” I grumbled, eyeing my peers wearily. “It’s not like we died.”

I felt him stiffen beside me. “We were close.”

“Hey,” I stopped walking and squeezed his hand. “But we didn’t. They have no power over us anymore.”

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut tightly, looking almost as if her were in pain. “They have so much more control over me now, Sera.” He said gravely. “So much more control.”

“We’ll fix you, Oliver.” I promised for the hundredth time. “I swear to god, we will.”

He fell into my arms, folding himself over so we were almost the same height. He nodded against my chest. The message in his actions was clear; he was thanking me. With everything going on, he knew I was still confused about my feelings towards him. There was a chance that he didn’t even think I would try to help him.

“Come on,” I said quietly, running my hand softly up and down the length of his spine. “We should get going. Mrs Skylard needs her Elizabeth and Darcy.”

Once again, he nodded against my chest. He stayed in the small circle of my arms a moment longer, before gathering up the courage to let go, rising up to his normal height once more. He even managed to flash me a smile as he laced his fingers through mine.

We came to the wide set of stairs leading from the English faculty rooms to the Drama Hall and the administration. Two months before, Tia had tackled me down these stairs. I knew for a fact that that Sera wouldn’t want to help Oliver. In all honesty, she would probably discover his situation and jump for joy.

I suddenly understood Oliver’s gratitude towards me.

“Do you really think they’ll leave us alone like Calliope asked?” I asked him softly. Thinking back to the conversations Calliope had shown me between Dr Mangan and Dr Williams, I already knew the answer. They would either separate me from Calliope, or they would bring… the… the third Untouchable to us. My mind switched to my sister. My twin. I wondered where she was, if she would be able to help. But I knew bringing her into the situation would only put her in immense danger, so I shook the thought away.

Beside me, Oliver shrugged. “I think they’ll do whatever it takes to get they want. Somehow I don’t imagine they’re really going to listen to the request of a fifteen-year-old girl.”

“She gave them a pretty big threat.” I pointed out.

Oliver sighed. “Look, I know you want to believe they won’t bother us again, but to be completely honest with you, Sera, if they wanted Calliope out of their way, she would be dead by now.”

I looked down, watching the linoleum pass under my feet. “I guess you’re right.”

 We were just about to round the corner to walk past the information desk in the administration sector of St Elizabeth’s as I bounded into Oliver’s arm and was flung back around the corner. He twirled around and pushed me against the wall, pressing his hand against my mouth. I felt my eyes widen, and I gripped his hand, trying to pull it away from my face.

“Don’t talk now,” he said quietly, so only I could hear, “but there are two Scientists around the corner. Dr Williams and some other woman I’ve never seen before.” Hesitantly, he stuck his head around the corner. “I think they’re asking for you.”

I stopped breathing, begging him with my eyes to get me out of there. He held his finger to his lips, telling me to be quiet. Telling me to listen.

“It is very important that we talk the principal about Miss Grey.” Dr Williams was saying. “We need to further discuss her situation. She hasn’t been very stable since the death of her mother, and we fear she is getting worse.”

I could almost imagine the Android at the desk nodding. “Oh, yes, I heard about the poor girl’s mother. What a pity. She was a lovely woman. Just let me find out where she was last period. If you’re quick, you could bump into her at her locker.”

“No, no, it would probably be best if she weren’t there.” Said a third voice. My heart stopped. Dr Mangan was there. She was the second Scientist.

“Actually,” the Android said, “I could always call her up to the administration. I can put you in a meeting room. It would save you two from searching for her.”

The two Scientists muttered agreements of how much better that would be, and I managed to tear Oliver’s hand away from my mouth. “You need to get me out of here.” I whispered desperately. “Now.”

Eyes wide, he nodded. His eyes scanned the hallway we were in, landing on a door across the hallway. I followed his eyes, and read store room on a bronze-coloured sign on the door.

I raised my eyebrows. “Seriously?” I whispered. “Could you get any more cliché?”

He, on the other hand, looked panicked. “Do you see any better options? Come on, before they come around this corner and arrest you or something on the spot.”

I sighed almost exasperatedly and followed him as he scrambled across the hallway and opened the door quietly before closing it behind me, slow but panicked. We were both breathing heavily, our backs against the door as we tried in earnest to hear what was occurring on the other side. When I couldn’t hear, I turned my head, pressing my ear against the cold, painted wood. Oliver did the same, our noses touching very slightly. In the dim light, I saw his eyelids flutter closed for a fraction of a second at the contact. We heard no voices, but instead three sets of footsteps walk around the corner before passing the store room. I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I was holding and turned around, reaching out to open the door, when someone opened it for me.

“Seriously?” They said, exasperatedly. “Out of all the good hiding places, you choose a store room?”

My eyes adjusted to the bright whiteness of the school hall, revealing a brunette as tall as me with sparkling blue eyes and a scar that travelled down the right half of her body. “Calliope!” I snapped. “You scared the crap out of me!”

She grabbed my wrist and pulled me from the store room before doing the same to Oliver. Unprepared for her strength, I was flung into David, who was standing a little to the side of the door. Unfortunately, David wasn’t one for strength, and we tumbled to the floor in a tangle of limbs. The poor boy was almost so lanky that he couldn’t function like a normal human being.

“Oh, well done.” Calliope rolled her eyes, yet helped the two of us up from the ground. “Hiding in a store room though, seriously? No way, guys, that’s not how it works. We need a better hiding place.”

“We?!” Oliver asked exasperatedly.

“Yeah. Follow me.”

Calliope lead us through the halls of St Elizabeth’s as if she were following a route the rest of us couldn’t see; her eyes were trained to the ground, and she didn’t look up once until she reached a door. She lead us inside the room, before stopping at a