The Association - Chapter One
I had originally written this for an essay contest, although I didn't win. However, this is the longer version, I will post the alternate version soon! Please comment! I am one of the few who actually like criticism!
In my groggy daze, I heard the dull beeping of the alarm clock. I already knew that if I laid there for a few minutes, then my mom would come in, turn off the droning tone, and wake up my already non-sleeping lump on the bed. But gentle isn't a word I would use to describe her, considering she wakes people up with buckets of ice water, and she dumps a bucket on you every time you moan. For me, that would usually mean about ten tubs, so usually, I can turn off the alarm on the third beep. But today, I couldn't even twitch my fingers. I tried to open my eyes, but I only succeeded in realizing that they felt as heavy as blocks of lead. But with just a glimpse of the ceiling, I could tell that I wasn't in the same old room or even the same old house that I'd lived in all my life.
Suddenly, I started to hear screams and the rushing around of many people. Then, the screams formed words, surrounding me. "She's awake!" "Give her more morphine!" "How could she have woken up? This must be the first time in history. Especially after all the morphine we gave her last night." My mind froze at those two words, and then began to whir. Last night? How could they have done that? I was at the party with Tyler but I don't remember how I got home. Did someone spike the punch? My brain started to cloud over and my thoughts grew suddenly fuzzy. I tried to ask where I was, but my brain had all but shut down by now.
I managed to open my eyes for about three seconds, and was struck with horror at the face that I saw Dad? I thought, filled with confusion. I hadn't seen him since he left me and mom when I was seven, on my birthday. Before I could form another question in my mind, my eyes closed and I blacked out. I woke up to an electronic female voice and the smell of antibiotics mixed with old leather. It took me a few minutes to register the words, from, what I guessed, was a side effect from all the morphine they had given me. If I listened closely, I could make the strange mumblings into words. "Annebelle, it's time to get up. Annebelle, wake up please." The voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. I opened my eyes, which now felt light as a feather.
The mysterious voice continued as I took in my surroundings. I was in a room with a veil of black over it. I couldn't see any doors, or even where the floor stopped and the wall started. The room was nearly bare, as if someone had forgotten to add furniture, but I was lying on a tall, slightly tilted, bed completely exposed, other than where I was lying on it, so it was stone cold. I looked next to me and I saw a bedside table, as tall as the "Bed" I was on, or about seven feet high. On it, I noticed there was a pair glasses. I was half tempted to try them on, but I decided to figure out where I was and why I was there. By now, the anonymous voice was getting on my nerves with its rambling. I tried to sit up, but I found my arms and legs restrained, and I was beginning to be truly frightened by what was happening to me. "Where am I? Why am I here?" I was starting to be hysterical.
"Annebelle, calm down," said the voice. "Calm down? You're telling me to calm down when I don't even know where I am or anything!" I was practically screaming now. I started to frantically look around, as if there was an answer somewhere in the empty room, and realized that I was hooked up to so many IVs and machines that I lost count. I felt my muscles tense up, my eyes widen with fear, and my mouth agape. I began to scream when people bustled through a near-invisible door. I spotted my dad right away, because he was one of the few who were wearing a black cloak instead of a white lab coat. He looked at me at the same time, and in that instant, I saw how sorry he was for leaving. But even after six years, it seemed as if he hadn't aged. He still had his casual five o'clock shadow, black dress pants, and a crisp white shirt on, with the newly added black-as-night cloak.
He smiled with his dazzling white teeth, when he glanced at me, and he gave me a thumb's up along with a small-almost unnoticeable grin. While he was doing that, I was still processing the fact that he was here in the middle of this mass of strangers. I realized that the people around me all had their mouths moving, as if they were shouting at each other. Or me, but I would never know which, because I could only here that annoying motorized voice. "Annebelle, we aren't going to hurt you. You have been chosen to be one of our newest recruits, along with a handful of others." You have been chosen at a younger age than we are used to, because we believe that the younger than our recruits are, the easier it is to train them." "So I'm a recruit?" I asked cautiously.
As soon as I started talking, I felt everyone's attention focus on me, along with their eyes burning into the back of my skull. Then the strangers were trying to talk to me, but I still couldn't hear them. When I shrugged, letting them know I couldn't hear them, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and heard a pop in my ears as if I were on an airplane. I looked over to see my dad with a needle, and he grinning eerily. "Yes Annebelle, a recruit. You are our first recruit to wake up from our first series of knock-out drugs. They are extremely powerful, so the fact that you woke up a couple of days after ingesting them has made us curious." "Really? So what am I a recruit of, exactly?" I asked, flabbergasted. "Annebelle, you are one of the newest recruits in the N.S.A.A., the National Secret Agents Association, or N.S.A. - National Spy Association - for short, knowing people nowadays like to take so many shortcuts" said the voice, which seemed to be audible only to me. I was now not as frightened as before, but once I learned that I was supposed to be a spy, I was stunned, while at the same time terrified.
As my thoughts raced along, I heard another pop, and I could instantly hear the screaming of the doctors (or what I hoped to be doctors) encompassing me. I pulled against the restraints to cover my ears, but I only succeeded in making my wrists endure excruciating pain along with move a few IVs around. I started crying, simply because of my wrist's torture and the constant screaming which appeared to be in another language, along with the feelings of missing my dad catching up to me, all six years of it. "HEY!" I heard my dad above the others. "I just gave her the S.E. shot, so can you all either be quiet or leave now?!" He told the mass of people. "Yes, Sir Chief of Training," they replied as well as saluted in unison. I continued to stare at my dad, as if he were an alien. "What is the S.E. shot? And... Are you by any chance my daddy?" I asked anxious for the answer.
He laughed a deep heart-filled laughter that seemed to fill the endless room. "An S.E. shot is a shot that helps your hearing, or "Enhances," if you will. Please clear the room so that I can talk with my daughter. Oh and before I forget, Dr. Lauren will you go hit the release button for the restraints," he said with a form of order in his voice. "Yes Sir," Dr. Lauren replied. It was almost as if I were hallucinating which for all I know I was, because when I blinked the room was suspiciously empty except for me and my dad. He looked me up and down approvingly, as I did to him. As he took in how much I had grown up in six years, I noticed that I had started sliding down the tilted table. As I was sliding off the table, I noticed that I was now being set free from some of the machines that I was attached to. I winced slightly and my dad pushed a button on the smaller table, until the table gradually tilted back until it was completely level. I looked at him with a new form of curiosity. "As you probably noticed, I am a higher rank than most of the others," he stated, a hint of bragging in his voice. I stared into his deep blue eyes, which looked like an endless expanse of ocean-side, just as I had always remembered them to be.
Suddenly I started pounding him with all the questions that had been swirling around in my head just moments before. As my words tumbled over one another, he stood there patiently, as if he had expected me to break down like this. After I had finished murmuring one of my last questions, a smile spread across his face. "I promise to answer all of your questions, without giving away any classified information," he said, "If you promise to forgive me for leaving you and your mom." Now that is a wonderful father I thought. He probably thought of me everyday the same way I thought of him. "I promise. So... as my first question," I started with a smile, "Did you really go to a bar everyday and then 'forget' to come back in a wasted mess one day, like mom told me?" I concluded, fidgeting. He was baffled and almost looked frightened, as well as hurt. Almost, but he did look hurt, for the record. "Is that what they told you?" He asked, his voice lower than a whisper.
Suddenly, I started to hear screams and the rushing around of many people. Then, the screams formed words, surrounding me. "She's awake!" "Give her more morphine!" "How could she have woken up? This must be the first time in history. Especially after all the morphine we gave her last night." My mind froze at those two words, and then began to whir. Last night? How could they have done that? I was at the party with Tyler but I don't remember how I got home. Did someone spike the punch? My brain started to cloud over and my thoughts grew suddenly fuzzy. I tried to ask where I was, but my brain had all but shut down by now.
I managed to open my eyes for about three seconds, and was struck with horror at the face that I saw Dad? I thought, filled with confusion. I hadn't seen him since he left me and mom when I was seven, on my birthday. Before I could form another question in my mind, my eyes closed and I blacked out. I woke up to an electronic female voice and the smell of antibiotics mixed with old leather. It took me a few minutes to register the words, from, what I guessed, was a side effect from all the morphine they had given me. If I listened closely, I could make the strange mumblings into words. "Annebelle, it's time to get up. Annebelle, wake up please." The voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. I opened my eyes, which now felt light as a feather.
The mysterious voice continued as I took in my surroundings. I was in a room with a veil of black over it. I couldn't see any doors, or even where the floor stopped and the wall started. The room was nearly bare, as if someone had forgotten to add furniture, but I was lying on a tall, slightly tilted, bed completely exposed, other than where I was lying on it, so it was stone cold. I looked next to me and I saw a bedside table, as tall as the "Bed" I was on, or about seven feet high. On it, I noticed there was a pair glasses. I was half tempted to try them on, but I decided to figure out where I was and why I was there. By now, the anonymous voice was getting on my nerves with its rambling. I tried to sit up, but I found my arms and legs restrained, and I was beginning to be truly frightened by what was happening to me. "Where am I? Why am I here?" I was starting to be hysterical.
"Annebelle, calm down," said the voice. "Calm down? You're telling me to calm down when I don't even know where I am or anything!" I was practically screaming now. I started to frantically look around, as if there was an answer somewhere in the empty room, and realized that I was hooked up to so many IVs and machines that I lost count. I felt my muscles tense up, my eyes widen with fear, and my mouth agape. I began to scream when people bustled through a near-invisible door. I spotted my dad right away, because he was one of the few who were wearing a black cloak instead of a white lab coat. He looked at me at the same time, and in that instant, I saw how sorry he was for leaving. But even after six years, it seemed as if he hadn't aged. He still had his casual five o'clock shadow, black dress pants, and a crisp white shirt on, with the newly added black-as-night cloak.
He smiled with his dazzling white teeth, when he glanced at me, and he gave me a thumb's up along with a small-almost unnoticeable grin. While he was doing that, I was still processing the fact that he was here in the middle of this mass of strangers. I realized that the people around me all had their mouths moving, as if they were shouting at each other. Or me, but I would never know which, because I could only here that annoying motorized voice. "Annebelle, we aren't going to hurt you. You have been chosen to be one of our newest recruits, along with a handful of others." You have been chosen at a younger age than we are used to, because we believe that the younger than our recruits are, the easier it is to train them." "So I'm a recruit?" I asked cautiously.
As soon as I started talking, I felt everyone's attention focus on me, along with their eyes burning into the back of my skull. Then the strangers were trying to talk to me, but I still couldn't hear them. When I shrugged, letting them know I couldn't hear them, I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and heard a pop in my ears as if I were on an airplane. I looked over to see my dad with a needle, and he grinning eerily. "Yes Annebelle, a recruit. You are our first recruit to wake up from our first series of knock-out drugs. They are extremely powerful, so the fact that you woke up a couple of days after ingesting them has made us curious." "Really? So what am I a recruit of, exactly?" I asked, flabbergasted. "Annebelle, you are one of the newest recruits in the N.S.A.A., the National Secret Agents Association, or N.S.A. - National Spy Association - for short, knowing people nowadays like to take so many shortcuts" said the voice, which seemed to be audible only to me. I was now not as frightened as before, but once I learned that I was supposed to be a spy, I was stunned, while at the same time terrified.
As my thoughts raced along, I heard another pop, and I could instantly hear the screaming of the doctors (or what I hoped to be doctors) encompassing me. I pulled against the restraints to cover my ears, but I only succeeded in making my wrists endure excruciating pain along with move a few IVs around. I started crying, simply because of my wrist's torture and the constant screaming which appeared to be in another language, along with the feelings of missing my dad catching up to me, all six years of it. "HEY!" I heard my dad above the others. "I just gave her the S.E. shot, so can you all either be quiet or leave now?!" He told the mass of people. "Yes, Sir Chief of Training," they replied as well as saluted in unison. I continued to stare at my dad, as if he were an alien. "What is the S.E. shot? And... Are you by any chance my daddy?" I asked anxious for the answer.
He laughed a deep heart-filled laughter that seemed to fill the endless room. "An S.E. shot is a shot that helps your hearing, or "Enhances," if you will. Please clear the room so that I can talk with my daughter. Oh and before I forget, Dr. Lauren will you go hit the release button for the restraints," he said with a form of order in his voice. "Yes Sir," Dr. Lauren replied. It was almost as if I were hallucinating which for all I know I was, because when I blinked the room was suspiciously empty except for me and my dad. He looked me up and down approvingly, as I did to him. As he took in how much I had grown up in six years, I noticed that I had started sliding down the tilted table. As I was sliding off the table, I noticed that I was now being set free from some of the machines that I was attached to. I winced slightly and my dad pushed a button on the smaller table, until the table gradually tilted back until it was completely level. I looked at him with a new form of curiosity. "As you probably noticed, I am a higher rank than most of the others," he stated, a hint of bragging in his voice. I stared into his deep blue eyes, which looked like an endless expanse of ocean-side, just as I had always remembered them to be.
Suddenly I started pounding him with all the questions that had been swirling around in my head just moments before. As my words tumbled over one another, he stood there patiently, as if he had expected me to break down like this. After I had finished murmuring one of my last questions, a smile spread across his face. "I promise to answer all of your questions, without giving away any classified information," he said, "If you promise to forgive me for leaving you and your mom." Now that is a wonderful father I thought. He probably thought of me everyday the same way I thought of him. "I promise. So... as my first question," I started with a smile, "Did you really go to a bar everyday and then 'forget' to come back in a wasted mess one day, like mom told me?" I concluded, fidgeting. He was baffled and almost looked frightened, as well as hurt. Almost, but he did look hurt, for the record. "Is that what they told you?" He asked, his voice lower than a whisper.
Post Comment
