EXPERIMENT 101

Chapter 25: Voice

Splash.

The sudden choking of water almost drowns her, waking her from her slumber. She coughs hard, trying to intake air but it only makes things worst. A drop of tear drip from the corner of her eyes. And her face turns red from too much coughing and inhaling.

When she opens her eyes, she is blinded by the light, slitting her eyes and closing them again because her eyes feel sour, but what makes things worst is that splitting headache. She tries to wipes her face with her hand but she couldn't move it, as of her hand being stuck on something. She moves down her head, but something is stopping it, not only that, even her feet feel stuck, and her back and ass hurt.

When her breathing turns to normal, the smell of chemicals and metals penetrates her nose. When her eyes open,  the bright light almost blinded her. And when it becomes clearer the first thing her sight sees is No.608 holding a pale with green liquid still dripping on the ground. It seems that is the thing that has been poured on her just now. Behind him is a mirror-like window.

Her mind still loading when the memories of what happens before she loses consciousness burst into her mind. Her friend, Jenievib.

She roams her eyes in the hope to see her, but only the small speaker, gray-metal walling, and No.608 are around.

Her heart was shaken. "It can't be..." She stares at the mirror wall that seems like a window. "Where is Jenievib?!---"

She looks down at her body. Her whole hand is inside the capsule-like an object, and her head couldn't move. She sees her reflection in the mirror. She looks haggard. No beauty can be seen in her face, her hair is scattered on her face, her eyes have eyebags on them, her lips are dry, her face is oily. On the top of her head has an egg metal object, making her unable to bow nor shakes.

Her hands and feet are inside a capsule-like object, no wonder she has been feeling the heaviness on her hand and feet.

She is sitting on a porcelain-like chair, and dress up in the same attire she has before she lost consciousness. She tries to move her finger but it couldn't even flinch, it has been stay put since the very beginning. No wonder her hands and feet feel so numb and heavy.

"Jenievib?"

Her attention goes to the speaker. That voice... 

"Timeus!" 

"Miss Gonzaga, do you know why you are in such a situation?" Timeus on the other side asks. He is along with Rajveer and 3 people who are in front of the glass panel, showing Asharika.

Timeus gestures them to makes the panel clear so that Asharika can view them. The staff did so, making them visible with the naked eyes.

"Timeus... Where's Jenievib?! She is... She is your sister! She is your older sister Dianna!" She stares at him her eyes red.

Timeus's heart becomes icy. "Is that what that monster told you?"

"Jenievib is not a monster!"

Timeus clenches his fist behind him, and in his eyes shows coldness and indifference. It as if those eyes penetrates her heart as if looking at her not as a human but as a monster. "Miss Gonzaga, that monster is not my sister."

"How could you say that?! She is your older sister!"

"I don't know such a disgusting monster."

"How could you call your sister disgusting?! After what happened between the two of you... you... You two were been kidn*pped and she sacrifices herself for just you! How could you say such?!"

"kidn*pped? Sacrificing?" Timeus chuckles in sarcasm, in his eyes shown disdain. "Miss Gonzaga, my sister was not kidnaped. She died because she had a weak body constitution, and died during her brain operation."

Asharika's body goes cold. That's not how it was...

"That's... impossible..." She has experienced the whole thing that occurs. She does believe her friend is not a liar, and her face and body change are the same as the one in the painting. 

"I don't know how that monster made you believe its lies."

"Jenievib is not a liar!"

"Then you think I am a liar?"

Her voice pause. She doesn't know how to reply in such. She does believe that her friend is not a liar, but who could prove... Their parents...

"Your parents-"

"They were killed by those monsters, just like that Jenievib."

Her eyes shrink, as her mind waver. No words can get out of her mouth. She has no idea... 

Then she remembers what Rajveer once told her; Timeus is an orphan, but she doesn't know that the reason for it was that his parents died at the hands of humex. No wonder his hatred for humex is great, but Jenievib is not like them. She is her friend so she knows that she is not such cold-blooded. She has once saved her along with Rot...

Wait... Jenievib.

"Where is Jenievib?"

"You mean that monster humex? We already have killed her." comes from the mouth of Timeus, and each word is like being pierced in her heart, deeper and deeper.

Her eyes turn blank, staring at Timeus. "Jenievib is..."

"We already killed that monster," confirms Timeus, shattering Asharika's heart.

her friend is dead. And the one who killed her is her own beloved brother. She opens her mouth but no words come out, and the once clear glass turns to mirror once more. She wants to yell at Timeus, she wants to insist that Jenievib is Dianne, but her voice is hinder. She couldn't be heard. No, there is no one who wishes to hear her out. All she can do is weep in silence.

Cry for her innocent friend who died just because she becomes a humex. A monster. Not being heard, no one wishes to listen, and no one will dare to believe.