***
The first part of the testing was painless, save the numerous pokes in her arms required for the blood samples. Natalie was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnelโbut maybe that was because of the limited sedationโuntil Dr. Thorn came back into the room with another woman beside her, her eyes honing in on her with a wicked smile.
"The medication we've been giving you has an incredibly short half-life and, once stopped, will leave you with full control of your powers. But, heed my warning, Ms. Rhodes. I need your
full
cooperation."
Natalie bit her lower lip. It was becoming raw. Rarely had she tried to manipulate her powers at will, most times being a chance occurrence fueled by rage or equally strong emotions. If she couldn't perform, she feared Dr. Thorn would carry out her threat on Jude. "Okay."
Dr. Thorn took a folding chair out from behind the curtain, dragged it across the floor until it was in front of the stretcher, and gave Natalie a nod. Glancing at the worker beside Natalie's bed, she said, "Stop the medication completely."
The man beside her clamped the plastic IV tube but left it connected to Natalie's arm. "Now," Dr. Thorn said, "Move the chair."
After only a few moments of the medication being stopped, the light fog cleared in her mind, allowing her to focus on the chair. It was an ordinary, fold away beach chair, the type one would find at the shore rather than in a hospital, or wherever Natalie was, white strips lacing the seat of it.
Her eyes squinted on the plastic bands that made up the backing, willing it to move. She sighed in irritation, the movement not coming. The last time she'd tried to use her ability on command was when she was a teenager. Natalie wanted to prove to her cousin, Jamie that she could do what she claimed she could. They were sitting outside beneath an oak tree in Jamie's backyard, shielded from the summer sun and a light breeze fluttering the thick leaves overhead. "Do it," Jamie had said.
Natalie had stared at the little twig in Jamie's palms and tried her best to move it but, after five minutes, Jamie had become restless. "I knew you were lying."
"I'm not lying!" Natalie had protested, crossing her arms over her chest.
Jamie's eyes narrowed. "Prove it or it's not real." The tone of her voice made Natalie mad and the twig flew from Jamie's hands.
If only she could provoke the same response to shove the chair. She closed her eyes, begging her subconscious to do the job. Was it her subconscious that was in control of it or something deeper within herself? Natalie shook her head, chewing on her lip. Her mind was still muddled from the drugs Dr. Thorn used to keep her power contained and she tried to push the confusion and distracting thoughts aside.
"Ms. Rhodes." She opened her eyes to find Dr. Thorn staring at her with unveiled perturbation.
"Sorry. I'm trying, I swear," she admitted, her voice cracking with emotion. It wasn't for lack of trying but Natalie couldn't harness the energy she had the day prior when she threw Dr. Thorn to the wall. Natalie repositioned herself the best she could given that her hands were still restrained.
With a deep breath, Natalie tried to expel the doubt and brought her attention to the chair again, thinking of Jude. Her smile. Her laugh. The undeniable affection in her eyes when she looked at Natalie, drowning her in ardor. She was in trouble, because of Natalie.
Natalie's eyes began to water as she refused to blink, hoping that would help her case. Finally, the chair slid two inches to the right.
"Do the blood draw, now," Dr. Thorn voiced to one of her workers. Natalie kept her eyes trailed on the chair as the sharp pinch in the crook of her arm alerted her of the needle going into her skin.
She could vaguely hear paper cascading down from the EEG machine beside the bed, the pages ruffling as they fell on top of each other. She hated Dr. Thorn. She wanted to throw her through the window rather than the wall again, but it still wouldn't fulfil the need to bring harm to her as she had done to Jude and the other people.
The chair lifted from the ground, hitting the wall and dropping to the floor.
"Wonderful," Dr. Thorn said, her voice full of enthusiasm. Natalie switched her line of sight to the doctor, narrowing in on the woman. She was evil incarnate, and Natalie knew it. She tortured Jude and Roland when they were children, among who knows how many others, and she would continue to do it as long as she was able.
Dr. Thorn must've noticed the look on Natalie's face as she moved from her, whispering something into Brent's ear, "Give her a bolus." He fiddled with the machine dispensing Natalie's sedative and Natalie fought against at the restraints, the sudden crash of dizziness drowning her.
"Let me go," Natalie demanded, her voice already softening despite her rage. The workers hustled around the room, taking the tubes of blood and a large stack of EEG carbon paper. The man disappeared behind the curtain with the items in his hands while the other woman stayed behind with Thorn, who had walked around to the head of the bed.
Natalie couldn't see her, and Natalie's frustration was growing, and along with it, the raw energy. It coiled and festered in her chest, a painful tinge that begged to be released. Natalie felt rage, hot and fiery within her, pushing aside the effects of the medication. "You got what you wanted. Now, let me and Jude go." Dr. Thorn snorted but said nothing.
Natalie's panic rose, the pain in her chest blossoming from the energy. This wasn't how she would continue her life. She was not a lab rat. Natalie took a long breath, filling her lungs before letting all of it out, the energy permeating the air as she screamed.
The EEG monitor exploded, flickers of light along with metal shrapnel falling around the room as well as onto the papers that were still falling from the printer. Her chest heaved, every cell in her body alight with the expulsion of the energy. Natalie heard Dr. Thorn curse as the fire alarm began to squeal. "I don't care how you do it, but you need to turn it off."
The machine continued to spit sparks, falling onto the moth-eaten curtain before sprawling into tiny fires. Natalie's heart slammed against her chest.
The woman was scurrying around the room, turning to look at Dr. Thorn with wide eyes. "I don't know how to silence the alarm. Even if I do, it's still hardwired to the main frame. The fire department will be here any moment." She held a rusted fire extinguisher, pointed it at the machine engulfed in flame, and attempted to spray it. Nothing happened.
Natalie peered at the ceiling, noticing the smoke twist around the metal prongs of the sprinklers, sprinklers that weren't turning on. "We must gather the data and leave immediately," Dr. Thorn shouted over the noise.
The room began to fill with thick smoke, the machine spitting fire throughout the room, causing Natalie to yank her arms, desperate to release her wrists. "You can't just leave me here!" she screamed.
Flames licked the ceiling, the heat rippling the air around her. Natalie tugged her arms harder, the restraints not budging. The other woman had already fled from the room but Dr. Thorn stood in the doorway, fingers clutching the crumpled EEG papers, watching the fire begin to consume the room. "I've gotten what I need and you're no longer necessary in the equation, dear." She disappeared through the doorway.
The heat of the fire encompassed Natalie, beads of sweat prickling her skin and running down her forehead. The flames inched closer, devouring the machine and crawling toward the bedding of the stretcher.
Natalie shouted when tendrils of heat licked her arm closest to the fire, the temperature melting the fabric of her restraints, freeing her right arm. Teeth clenching down on her bottom lip to keep her focus off her burnt arm, Natalie worked the other band from her left arm and then she jumped off of the quickly igniting sheets of the stretcher, her knees buckling when her bare feet hit the tile. She forced herself upright, wobbling to the door, ripping off the IV from her arm as she made it into the hallway, palms slapping the walls as she struggled to maintain her footing.
