The Project Part One: The Beginning

By Linda W

I looked up at the clock and sighed. I watched closely at the second hand slowly ticking away and looked back to my teacher as he droned on and on about the history of art. I slumped down in my chair and pulled my hood over my head. The last day of school and this is the only class where we actually have to learn and work. You can always count on that one teacher to be the kill joy. I smiled to myself as I thought of Mr. Bambia in a banana suit and giggled. “MS. GREEN CAN YOU PLEASE TELL THE WHOLE CLASS AND ME WHAT IS SO FUNNY?” I blushed and softly whispered “nothing Mr. Bambia.” I could hear everyone chuckling as he kept on staring at me and shaking his head. “Ms. Green because of you I have now decided to assign everyone summer hom-BEEEEEEPPPPPP“ I signed with relief and thought to myself “saved by the bell” I quickly jumped out of my chair and made my way out of the classroom far far away for Mr. Bambia. “Yo Lysa” my bestfriend yelled across the hall. “What happened between you and Mr.Bambia?” Wow gossiping already, typical Nal. I looked up and giggled, “nothing just imagined him a banana suit and made the mistake of laughing.” I smiled to myself and closed my locker. “Finally, its over! One more year and im out of this place” I grinned happily at Nal. She nodded in return “AMEN TO THAT SISTA!” We made our way out of the school and breathed in the air! “Already smells like alcohol and chlorine,” Nan screamed to me and we looked at the teenagers running out of the school doors highfiving each other and laughing. “GET READY TO PARTY GREEN” a senior screamed at me and ran to his car. I laughed and smiled to myself and thought of my perfect summer; sleeping in, eating, sleeping, and more sleeping. Perfect time to relax and people decided to spend it on partying and making bad decisions. As I said bye to Nal, I started walking to my car. When I reached my car I heard a loud thump and a sudden pain in the back of my head…then blackness surrounded me. I woke up with a terrible headache. I looked around and realized I was gagged and tied up along with 5 other people. “Where are we?” a girl on the far right corner whispered. She was beautiful, her long black hair fell perfectly around her shoulders, she had big blue eyes, and a full set of lips. I looked up and said, “ I don’t know.” She looked at me and said “ Hi my name is Mandy.” I scoffed “ This is hardly the time to be polite but I’m Lysa.” One by one everyone slowly woke up and looked around. There are three guys and two girls, counting me. I soon learned their names:
Tristan: brown hair green eyes 6”1
Sam: black hair brown eyes 5”11
Mandy: black hair blue eyes 5”8
Dan: blonde hair blue eyes 5”11
Me: brown hair brown eyes 5”8
We sat there for hours before a deep voice filled the air “ HELLO MY CHILDREN, YOU HAVE EACH BEEN CHOSEN BY ME TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR SUPER HUMAN PROJECT! EACH OF YOU HOLDS SPECIAL QUALITIES. YOU MAY NOT KNOW IT BUT YOU ARE ALL THE SAME IN ONE WAY. SO GO AHEAD GET AQUAINTENCED!” Men in white suits came in ungagged and untied us. They marched out the room and soon returned with trays of food that looked prepared for a king. As soon as they left we all looked at each other. I ignored the food and hugged my book bag close to me. We all stared at one and other for hours until Tristan finally asked, “Well anyone know why we’re here?” “Do you?” Sam crossly said to Tristan and glared at him. Tristan walked up to Sam got close to his face “If I knew, do you think I would ask you?” Tristan questioned him. “Ok ok boys break it up” I quickly stepped in between them “none of us know why we’re here, ok? So I suggest instead of fighting we try to figure it out and get the heck out of here!” everyone nodded except Dan who rolled his eyes and said “Ok Ms. I’m In Charge, how to you propose we do that?” Mandy got up and flicked him square on the nose. “Stop being so cross and try to help, Lysa has a point, we shouldn’t be fighting!” I smiled gratefully at her. “ Ok let just see how long we’ll be kept here ok.” We all went to sleep and the next day when we woke up there were new trays of food. The whole room smelled like bacon and eggs. I breathed in the air and smiled a little. It smelt like home. One by one everyone else woke up. “Good morning sleepy head.” I heard Mandy say to Tristan. Tristan just smiled and put an arm around her. I got up and walked to the tray of bacon and started eating. Dan and Sam did the same. Mandy and Tristan were in the corner together eating pancakes. The next few days were excruciatingly boring. Everyday we woke up, Mandy and Tristan would go into a corner, snuggle close together, and whisper to each other, Sam and Dan would wrestle, and I would read a book that I found in my book bag. “The Secret Garden” wasn’t the ideal book I would choose for myself but it was the only one I had. In the book the boy said he was sick and that he couldn’t go outside, I closed my book and fell into thought, if I couldn’t go outside I would’ve never been kidnapped and brought here. I quickly shook the thought off, if I didn’t go outside there would be so many opportunities that I would miss. When the men in white suits brought out our dinner, turkey and gravy, I suddenly didn’t want to eat anymore, I missed my family and friends. I pushed away my tray of food and went to sleep. That night I dreamed about being the sick boy from “The Secret Garden” and finally being able to go outside and explore the world. When I woke up everyone one else was already eating. I sighed, getting ready for another boring day. “THAT’S IT!” Sam said, “I can’t do this anymore! Everyday we do/eat the same things! I’m sick of it! Come on people, lets do something fun!” he smiled at everyone. Dan grunted and asked, “There’s not much we can do in here, its not like they gave us any board games.” As soon as Dan said that, the men in white suits came in with handfuls of board games and sat it down in the middle of the room. Sam ran over to the stack and held up Monopoly, “Lets Play.” He said. For the next few hours we had the most fun we ever had in 1 week. “BEAT THAT!” Sam screamed after winning at Monopoly for the 6th time. We all laughed and clapped as Sam bowed. “Alright losers, lets play The Game Of Life” Sam announced. I smiled to myself and got up to get the board game while Mandy, Tristan, Sam, and Dan cleaned up the board pieces to Monopoly. I picked up The Game Of Life and brought it back to the group. We set it up and started to play. I was the blue card and wisely decided to go to college first. Princeton was my dream school. I was planning to apply to Princeton next year, but now I don’t know if I’ll even get out of here. After 3 games of Life, dinner was served. Again, I wasn’t hungry. Mandy looked worriedly at me and asked; “Lysa aren’t you going to ea-“suddenly the room went black. “WHATS HAPPENING?” everyone was running around trying to figure out what happened. We heard a scream and a thump…then the lights turned back on. I looked around checking to see if everyone was all right, but someone is missing. “HE’S GONE” Mandy cried “WHERE IS TRISTAN?” we all scrambled around the room to find him. “Hello my pets” we all froze as a sickening thought filled us. “Tristan has currently been taken to the exam room, but don’t worry he’ll be back” we all turned to look at each other as the mysterious deep voice informed us about the disappearance of Tristan…shock filled us. “WHAT DID YOU TO HIM” Mandy yelled and started pounding on the walls. “Now calm down Mandy,” the deep voice said. Mandy cried and screamed even louder “GIVE HIM BACK!” Two men in white suits came in, grabbed Mandy, and hit her. She screamed and tried to kick them. “LET ME GO!” she yelled. I quickly ran over and tired to pry the men off of her “DON’T HIT HER!” I shouted at them. Sam and Dan stood in the corner with worried looks on their faces. Soon I managed to successfully make them let go of her, but not before they shot her with a sleep dart. I slowly and gently laid her on the floor and held her hand. “YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES! DOING SOMETHING SO AWFUL!” I yelled at them as the left the room. Sam and Dan walked over and sat down next to Mandy. “What do you think they’re doing to Tristan?” Sam asked Dan and me. Dan smirked and said “What if they’re torturing him and slowly cutting him into pieces? I bet that when they take us too they’ll cut us into pieces and then sew all the different parts of our bodies together!” I shuddered at thought. Suddenly, before I could stop him, Sam swung his arm and punched Dan in the jaw. “WHAT THE HECK MAN? WHAT WAS THAT FOR?” Dan yelled at Sam. “STOP SCARING LYSA!” Sam yelled right back at him. “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!” I covered my ears and screamed at them. “Will you two give it a rest? We have enough to deal with! Right now we should focus on taking care of sleeping Mandy, finding Tristan, and getting out of here! Ok?” I looked at both boys waiting for them to answer, daring them to argue with me. Both boys nodded and glared at each other. I sighed and said “I guess all we can do right now is get some food into our system and sleep” I gestured to the food and took some bread form the trays. They mumbled and grudgingly ate some food and went back to their separate corners. I ate the bread quickly and lay down next to Mandy. I start to think about Nal and my family. Shaking my head I thought to myself “What a horrible way to spend the first day of summer break.” Soon I fell asleep, I dreamed about being free from this place, I dreamed about seeing my parents again. “BANG” I quickly sat up and rubbed my eyes. I looked around and saw that Sam, Dan, and Mandy already woke up. “Good Morning Darlings!” the deep voice boomed over the intercom that was somewhere in this room. Mandy rolled her eyes and said, “What could you possibly want this early in the morning?” she threw some bread at the wall. “Darling don’t be so rude, I have information on Tristan.” Mandy perked up fast and said “Tell me, tell me now.” The deep voice chuckled and replied “Tristan is fine just a little beat up.” A hologram appeared in the middle of the room. It was Tristan. Everyone gasps and covered their mouths when they saw him. His face was purple and blue all over, it looked like someone took a bat and hit his face and head continuously. His shirt is torn up and dirty. Mandy let out a small squeal and fell down onto her knees. She crawled into a corner and hugged her knees, quietly sobbing. I sat down next to her and rubbed her back, “It’ll be okay, he’s still alive and we will find him” I cooed. She nodded and lies down. I sighed and looked over at the boys. They crossed the room and sat down next to us. No one said a word. There was nothing to say. We’ve been here for two weeks and we don’t know if we’re ever getting out. Slowly we all fell into a deep sleep. The next day when we woke up, there were four canvases lined up in a row, and dozens of painting utilities in font of us. There were at least 100 of different colors of paint too. Mandy looked amazed, she got up and walked up to the canvases. She slowly ran her hands down them. She picked up a brush and started painting. The rest of us watched with astonishment as Mandy gracefully sprinkled colors onto the canvas, turning it into something beautiful. We leaned against the wall and watched her for hours and saw that a smile formed on her face. She didn’t even look up when lunch and dinner was brought in. Lost in her own world, Mandy looked free. When the rest of us went to sleep, she stayed awake. I woke up to a beautiful painting in the middle of the room and a sleeping Mandy next to the paint stash. I giggled to myself and got up to get a closer look at the painting. It was fascinating. The dark shades of red made the background look like a rose, but if you looked close enough you would be able to tell that this painting was based on the pain that Mandy was feeling. If you looked even closer at the shades of gray and black you would see the face of Tristan. Dan and Sam soon joined me while we investigated the mesmerizing painting, transfixed. “What are you guys doing?” Mandy mumbled, rubbing her, and sitting up. I bent down next to her, finally understanding her pain, and hugged her. Surprised she hugged back and sighed. Soon the boys were hugging us and we were in a big group hug. “Oh how beautiful.” The deep voice said. “I love happy endings!” the voice laughed. “Well I just wanted to drop in and see how everyone was doing” we heard a sigh and then the deep voice said, “Before I go I would like to tell you guys to not trust Sam” he chuckled and left. We all turned to look at Sam. His eyes widened and said “I have no idea what he’s tal-“ the room went black before Sam could finish talking. This time we heard Dan’s voice screaming “OW! STOP PLEASE.” When the lights turned back on we saw Dan in the corner with slashes on his face and arms. We looked around to see who was missing and couldn’t find Sam. I ran to Dan and took his hand. “Are you ok?” I asked him and raised my hand up to his cheek to gently touch his cuts. He mumbled and fell out of consciousness. “As you can see Sam is now missing but in his place is a box. It is in this room. If you find this box there might be a chance to find both Sam and Tristan. Inside will be all the materials you need.” the deep voice announced to us. Mandy quickly got up and started looking around and runs her hand against the wall. “Lysa I think I found it!” she lifted a section of the wall up and inside it is a simple black box the size of a brief case. I ran over to her and helped her pull it out. “Should we open it? What if it’s a trap?” Mandy asked Lysa. I shook my head and replied, “This might be our only hope in finding Tristan and Sam, and it’s a risk we have to take.” I slowly opened the box and inside are two maps, three flashlights, food, water, a hammer, a knife, and a key. We took all the items out and placed them neatly in front of us. I looked around and saw to nurses come in, each dressed in short skimpy nurse outfits. They bent down and started to clean out Dan’s wounds and bandaged them. As soon as they were finished they stood up and walked over to Mandy and me. They took out needles and stabbed it in us. We struggled and tried to run away but their iron grips kept us in place. I slowly saw the needle fill up with blood. After they were finished they stood up and said “It is complete; the super human creation can now begin.” I stared at them and soon understood…if it’s my blood they want, they cant have it. I tackled the nurses and quickly grabbed the needles. Mandy caught on to what I was doing, ran over, took the needles, and gave me a knife. I nodded understanding what she wanted me to do. I closed my eyes, raised the knife, and stabbed both nurses twice. Tears ran down my face as I stood up and let the knife drop to the floor. I slowly backed away and dropped to my knees; looking at the blood on my hands. “No, No, No, this can’t be happening, I couldn’t have done this” I kept shaking my head. An angry voice started talking “CONGRAULATIONS YOU JUST KILLED MY BEST NURSES! I HAVE TRIED TO BE NICE BUT YOU HAVE REFUSED TO COROPERATE! YOU LEAVE ME NO CHOICE, YOU WILL BURN!” as soon as the deep voice stopped talking the room started to catch on fire. I panicked and looked around. The fire was spreading to fast. I quickly put the things back into the box. “Mandy we have to leave now” I coughed and felt my lungs filling with smoke. I looked at the map and saw a secret passage in the floor. Mandy followed my lead and helped me carry Dan, who was still unconscious, to the passage. I opened the door and one by one we went in. Mandy first, then the box, next I pushed Dan in, and lastly me, making sure to close the passage door behind me.