The Unlocked (Charlie Hartley Series Book 1) (19 page)

Madison screamed: "Jeanne, no!"

The alarms blared. Through the ear-piercing noise, Charlie
heard heavy footsteps slapping wildly on the marble floor. She stared at her
twin helplessly.

"Jeanne, what have you done?"

"Please, Jeanne," Charlie beckoned in a last ditch
attempt to convince her sister. But Jeanne’s expression didn’t change. Madison
pulled Charlie's hand.

"We have to go, Charlie," Madison said, sounding
scared for the first time. "They're going to catch us. We still have a shot
if we run. Come on!"

She freed her hand from Madison's grip without shifting her
gaze away from Jeanne. "I don't know what they did to you, but you have to
trust me, Jeanne. Let me in. Let me get you through this." Charlie reached
out to take Jeanne's hand. Jeanne flinched and backed away as the moment of
recognition came back and just as fleetingly disappeared. Charlie had so many
things to tell her sister, so many years to make up for; instead of a happy
reunion, she found herself running out of time and running away from pursuers.

The guards were at the door. An exasperated Madison groaned
and poised herself to fight while Charlie, who had finally realized that her
sister wasn’t in her right mind, joined her in the defensive. The guards, each
holding a gun, barged in one by one as the door was too small for a massive
simultaneous attack. At the end of the hall she saw a bespectacled guy in a
white coat. He can wait, she thought. 

What Charlie didn't see was the one sandwiched in between
the last guard and the lab coat guy.

Charlie and Madison flung the guards to the wall with
relative ease, their bullets stopping mid-flight and tumbling to the floor.
Madison kept the fallen at bay, pinning their arms with her mind while Charlie
took care of the oncoming wave. Their teamwork had fared well so far, despite
Charlie making rash decisions in her desire to retrieve her sister.

It’s true what they say: love can make you blind. But at
the same time, love can make you see, and to me, it’s crystal-clear. Everything
I’ve done up to this point, every sacrifice, every challenge I surpassed, was
all worth seeing my sister in the flesh.
It was no longer a figment of her
imagination that she had a friend she couldn’t see and, more importantly, she
was no longer alone. She’d often felt like there was something missing,
something that should be with her. Sarah and Carl were amazing parents, but
Charlie just couldn’t shrug off the partial incompleteness. The hollowness in
her chest she was not even aware of quickly filled up upon seeing her twin
sister alive. Now that Jeanne was here, Charlie would do everything in her
power never to let her go.

When Hilary came into view, Charlie's knees buckled under
her weight. Her friend’s expression was blank, and there was a gun pointed at
her temple. The last of the guards held Hilary at gunpoint, and she didn't look
like she had the slightest idea what was happening, nor the slightest care.
Either way, it gnawed on Charlie that Hilary was being used as a puppet and a
pawn.

"Don't move or I shoot her," the guard said.
Charlie started to focus on the gun in his hand, but he was quick to notice.
"Don't even think about it. I feel even the slightest anything and I pull
the trigger."

Charlie knew there were other options, but she didn't want
to risk her friend’s life by trying the untested. She waved her hand at Madison
from behind, who groaned but understood the gesture and let go of the guards as
Charlie requested. They all stood up and pointed their guns at them while
Jeanne casually walked across the room and out the door, where a figure Charlie
assumed to be Amanda stood in the shadows, waiting for her. Charlie’s chest
tightened as if all her oxygen was being suctioned out of her body.

Charlie couldn’t describe the feeling with words; she had
never felt asphyxiated, especially not the kind that was caused by a blatant
betrayal.

She watched Jeanne’s back, longing for another moment with
her sister. Having Carl and Sarah as parents allowed Charlie a great childhood.
She was loved by two people who adored her even if she wasn’t biologically
theirs. She never dealt with unrequited love simply because she was
inexperienced. Yet here was her spitting image, her blood, walking away from
her like she didn’t matter. Like nothing she’d done to find her mattered.

“Why?” Charlie sniffled, holding back her tears. Madison
grabbed her hand and squeezed hard.

She said in a low voice, while guns were pointed at them:
“Remember what you told me earlier? Don’t let it get to you.”

The man in the lab coat took slow and deliberate steps
toward the girls, holding up two syringes. "This won't hurt one bit,"
he said with a smile. A stinging pain erupted in Charlie's arm, and she fell
limp on the floor. She saw Madison fall on the floor with eyes closed
,
and then the world turned black for Charlie as
she lost consciousness.

When Charlie came to, she found herself in an infirmary
stripped of all furnishings. She immediately rushed to the door and pounded.
“Let me out of here!”

“Shut up!” shouted a male voice from the opposite side of
the door. Charlie recognized it as Bradley’s.

“Open the door, Bradley!” Charlie said.

“We are not allowed to do that,” said a smaller voice that
was unmistakably Hilary’s.

The sound of her friend’s voice shifted Charlie’s words.
“Hilary? Hilary, I know it’s you. Please let me out, Hilary. Please. Snap out
of it,” Charlie begged. “I know we haven’t known each other for very long but
that doesn’t make you any less dear to me. Please, Hilary. I need to see Jeanne.”

None of the voices replied to her plea. Then she heard a
faint screaming. Charlie pressed her ear to the door and heard Madison’s
high-pitched voice calling for help.

Charlie pounded on the door harder. “Stop! Don’t hurt her!”
The screaming grew stronger and more intense, as if the person was being
tortured. Charlie’s pounding became heavier and more insistent. “Madison has
nothing to do with this!”

When the screaming stopped, the only sound that remained was
sobbing that echoed through the halls. Charlie remembered Madison’s reassurance
that even if things didn’t pan out, they had tried. Now Charlie heard her from
a distance, her cries echoing. Charlie couldn’t imagine what was being done to
Madison, but suddenly she was inundated with wrath.

“I SAID STOP HURTING HER!” Charlie screamed and with all her
might. She flung the door open with her powers, loosening it from its hinges
and causing the heavy metal door to fall on Bradley.

He may be gifted with superhuman strength, but he was not
invincible. He also can’t regenerate, so the male sentinel just lay there with
labored breaths.

Hilary started throwing fireballs in Charlie’s direction,
but she redirected each of them to the side.

“Hilary! Don’t, please!” She didn’t stop firing until
Charlie bound Hilary’s hands and gently pushed her to the side. “I’m so sorry,
Hilary. I promise to come back for you.”

Charlie ran to the exit only to stop dead in her tracks.
Jeanne stood outside brandishing a gentle yet menacing smile on her face, as if
she knew something that Charlie didn't. Charlie’s instinct was to run and
embrace her sister, but there was something in the way Jeanne hugged her back
that was wrong. She moved an inch away from Jeanne’s face and studied her
carefully.

“Jeanne, do you know who I am?” Her sister nodded, but
Charlie wasn’t convinced. Charlie realized she’d dropped her guard with Hilary
so she became defensive, expecting another attack. But when she looked, her
friend was no longer making any attempt and merely standing near the door. With
a short breather, Charlie looked back at her sister. Jeanne held Charlie’s
hand, but the connection wasn’t there. It was like an electric current resisted
by a plastic covering.

“Let’s go, we have to go now!” Charlie told Jeanne. “We have
to get Madison and get out of here. I promise to explain later.” She pulled her
sister and ran through the halls until she saw the exit. As she pushed the
metal bar, she expected a whiff of outdoor air but instead saw a white light.

Wait, what?

Then she heard a loud thud behind her. Amanda and Hilary
were closing the door. Charlie realized that she was back at the infirmary,
only inches away from the steel bed positioned in the middle. Charlie turned to
Jeanne, who was a few steps ahead of her. She thought it odd Jeanne’s hair
wasn’t as long anymore. It was cut to shoulder-length. She placed her hands on
Jeanne’s shoulders. “Jea---” Charlie gasped. The person in front of her was not
Jeanne. It was Kio.

Charlie was caught in a moment of confusion. Then she saw
Jian standing on the side, the last of the hallways slowly fading, revealing
the entirety of the room. Kio grabbed her from behind and pushed her to the
bed, strapping her in place. She pushed Kio to the wall, but before she could
unlatch herself from captivity, a heavy object that smelled of iron was
attached to her head. When she looked above to see who put it there, it was
Hilary.

"Hilary, what are you doing?! Stop!"

She struggled to free herself until a figure appeared in the
doorway. "Well, what do you know? Our little hero is awake," Amanda
said. Charlie tried to locate tools around the room she could use. There was
nothing. When Charlie attempted to use her telekinetic powers to throw Amanda,
a stinging pain shot through her skull. Charlie screamed, the pain in her head
unbelievable.

Amanda laughed, satisfied. “There’s no point trying that in
here, Charlie dear. You won’t be able to use your powers.” She was now within
arm’s length from Charlie. “I don’t know what you were thinking. Did you really
believe you could escape ANDREI?” Amanda’s sly smile transformed into a
contorted face of rage. “I welcome you with open arms and this is what you
do?!” Charlie looked the other way, but Amanda held her head in place. “You
will not disrespect me by not listening! You have no right!"

It wasn't Amanda’s voice nor her tight grip that made
Charlie retract and become momentarily immobile. When Charlie looked her in the
eye, Amanda’s were filled with hostility and animosity. Charlie had never seen
that before. Amanda was mad. Her eyes revealed a fury bent on exacting revenge.
From who and for what, she didn't know. It made Charlie feel helpless. She knew
well how emotions could drive one to recklessness.

"What is it with you, Charlie? I've had it easy with
the other kids, even with your sister," Amanda said, wheeling in a metal
cart with a bunch of syringes and vials. "You fascinate me. I like
that."

"W-what are you going to do?" Charlie demanded.

"Oh, this?" Amanda said, holding up a syringe.
"I'm going to draw a blood sample from you so I can study you."

At the mention of blood, Charlie flinched. Her arms tensed.
"You can't do that!"

"Oh, really?" Amanda chuckled. "Watch
me."

Charlie felt the needle pierce her skin. "No!"
Tears spilled. "Why are you doing this?" she asked in an almost
inaudible voice.

"Why am I doing this?" Transferring the blood from
the syringe to the vial, Amanda reveled in the satisfaction of seeing Charlie
reduced to a subject of her experiment. She was still in control, unbeatable,
undefeatable. "Because I can, Charlie. Simply because I can."

The fact that Amanda toyed with her literally and
figuratively made Charlie fume. She’d had enough; she bit her lip, preparing
for the oncoming pain and focused on what Amanda was holding. The headmaster-turned-megalomaniac
was caught by surprise when the vial of Charlie's blood burst in Amanda's
hands. She thought of the times when her powers were supposedly disabled and
yet she was able to use them, but when Charlie tried to do it again her head
throbbed with a sharp ache. Amanda whipped her head back and charged at
Charlie. "How did you-"

Amanda stopped short before erupting into a manic fit.
"You know, you remind me of your father. We were a perfect team, your
father and me. But he was so stubborn; he refused to see things from my
viewpoint. Had John been smarter, he wouldn't have married that mediocre woman
whose children he sired."

"Don't ever talk about my parents that way!"
Charlie screamed.

"It's not my fault they didn't live long enough for you
to find out yourself."

Now Charlie was bathing in fury while Amanda continued her
tirade. "Our discovery could've helped the world, but your parents were
cowards. They feared that that our creation would be exploited and abused by
greedy individuals thirsty for more power. Bollocks! We could've been those
people who benefitted from our own creation. They were all idiots! Joshua
could've been with me, could've lorded over the students here at ANDREI."

Joshua isn't insane after all
, Charlie thought.

"But Joshua preferred to commit suicide. And for what?
Advocacy? Morality?" Amanda laughed bitterly.

She thinks he’s dead, but I know he’s not.

"He’s better off dead. This world has no room for his
morality. Had he lived, the world would have snuffed the life out of him slowly
until nothing was left.” Amanda looked at young girl. “That's exactly what's
going to happen to you, Charlie. I'm not the bad guy you believe I am. I
have... unconventional ways, but I do not harm anyone who agrees with me. So
I'm going to give you another chance."

"I am never going to help you, Amanda," Charlie
said firmly.

She shrugged. "Alright, then. Just so you know, your
so-called friends have been and will continue to 'help' me. Your sister, too.
I'm sure you've figured that out I can control the entire school population. I
can make them do whatever I want them to. Your friend Madison broke free
because she mimicked your powers, but she can be tamed."

Charlie baited Amanda, "Do you have any idea what it
feels like to have family? To have kids? Would you have done this to your
children? Would you willingly subject them to a lifetime of robotic existence?
Would you?!"