The Syndicate: Darkest Before the Dawn - Part Three by: Enemyoffun Rick Grant has always been in control of his life, whether its living on the streets or stealing to survive. But when things get out of control he finds himself facing off against a very dangerous organization with vicious tactics, persuasive agents and a deadly agenda.

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Author's Note: Here's Chapter Four. Once again I'd like to thank everyone for their wonderful comments from the last two parts. Once again I've only got one chapter here and I'm sorry if things are going a little slow with the story but I feel sometimes a story needs to build before one can truly get to the heart of it.

Chapter Four:

I woke with one of those nasty metal tastes in my mouth. You know the kind right. I hate that taste. I’m not sure where it comes from; all I know is that it makes me feel like I’ve slept with a metal spoon in my mouth. It’s disgusting. But the taste was the least of my worries. Because when I awoke it was to darkness. The first thing I did was open my eyes and as soon as I did there was nothing. I’m not saying the lights in the room where off either. It’s totally black. I waved a hand in front of my face and nothing.

I panicked, wouldn’t you? My heart started pounding in my chest, my hands started to get clammy. I started to hyperventilate. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I gasped out loud, “I’m bind”. Somehow when I opened my eyes earlier, I got burned so bad that it blinded me. I’m blind; I’m never going to see again. Oh God, oh God. I fumbled for my bed covers but found I wasn’t wearing any. Instead my fingers found the hem of a flimsy paper-like gown, like the ones worn in hospitals. I rubbed the fabric, trying to see if it was real. Maybe it was another dream like before. Maybe I’m in a different part of that crazy black void place.

I noticed more things stuck on my body. But this time there was a lot of them, with twisting wires and a beeping. I snapped my head in the direction of the sound. It was the only one in the room. It was an annoying sound, like those machines; I don’t know what they’re called. They have them on medical TV shows (I mentioned those before, right?) The beeping was driving me crazy but it was the only sound in the room so it was kind of soothing too. I know what you’re thinking: what kind of freak am I? But come on, if you woke up in a strange room as blind as a bat you’d find comfort in stupid things too.

I wanted to get off the bed but I wasn’t sure if I trusted myself. Would you? For all I know I could go stumbling, fall face first into a tray of scalpels and my panic would be over real quick. So instead I just sat there. I pulled my feet in, bending my legs and hugging my knees to my chest. As soon as I did panic attack number two set in. As soon as my knees touched my chest I knew something was wrong. My chest, it was too fleshy. I reached up with both hands and what I touched sent my heart racing even further and my breathing into rapid. My mind shut down for a few moments and all rational thought disappeared. Not possible kept rolling around in my mind over and over again. I started rocking back and forth; I’m not sure for how long.

I didn’t hear the door open nor did I hear anyone rush into the room. The first time I noticed I wasn’t alone was when I was pulled into a comforting hug. I felt long hair brush my cheek and the warmth of another human being as my new chest touched theirs. The embrace was gentle and soothing. I couldn’t remember the last time anyone had ever actually hugged me. Nor could I remember the last time I cried but I did. It was like Niagara Falls. The tears rolled down my cheeks as someone gently rocked me, cradled my head on their shoulder and whispered good thoughts into my ear.

I finally truly came out of it when my Rescuer (that’s what they were), wiped some of the tears away. When she spoke, I recognized the voice immediately: it was Trish. “It’s ok. Everything is going to be all right. I’m here and I’m going to take care of you”

I kept my head on her shoulder as I spoke in a voice I didn’t recognize: a girl’s voice. “I’m blind. I can’t see. I’m going to need one of those stupid canes and one of those smart dogs”. I wasn’t ready to address the other problem yet.

She laughed. She actually laughed at me. I couldn’t believe she found my misery so amusing. Maybe I didn’t like her after all. “Honey we don’t know if you’re blind yet?”

I opened my mouth to say something and she silenced it with a finger. “As far as not being able to see at the moment, your eyes are covered with bandages”
She reached up and touched my face. For the first time I noticed that there was indeed something covering my eyes. I could feel it now, some kind of gauze, wrapped tightly. I had been in such a fit before over so many revelations that I hadn’t even noticed. I wonder what else is hiding in the darkness. I sighed and listened. I’m not sure what I was looking for or why I was even doing it. But something about my situation was truly freaking me out (besides the usual). I’m not sure what I was listening for but whatever it was I was sure it was something important.

“What are you doing sweetie?”

Trish’s hands were on my face, trying to take the bandages from my eyes. I wasn’t helping any by constantly moving my head, trying to listen to what I thought I could hear. Besides the beeping I heard the pounding of my own heart and breathing: mine and hers. So nothing out of the ordinary there. I tried to hear Trish’s heartbeat but I wasn’t close enough for that. So instead I tried to listen for things in the hall. There had to be a hall right. There was definitely a hall in the last room. Wait; was I even in the same room? I didn’t even know that. Do creepy clandestine organizations move their prisoners from room to room? Is there more than one room? God, wouldn’t that be funny if they only had one room for everyone. What if I was there only…well let’s call me “guest”? But that’s ridiculous of course, they have commandos and other colors surely they have more “guests”.

“Stop fidgeting” Trish’s voice brought me out of it, again.

Finally I stopped. She ordered me to stay still as I felt her fingers working on the bandages. I kept my eyes shut for fear that the same thing might happen again. I’m not blind, I silently reassured myself. I couldn’t be blind, there was so much yet to see? Besides I’m sixteen, blind people are old. Ok I apologize for that one but I’m really scared. There used to be an old blind guy down the street from one of the homes I lived at. He was really weird and smelled of tuna fish. He used to walk up and down the street, tapping his stick on the sidewalk. He liked to talk to himself too. He used to scare all the kids in the neighborhood. I did not want to be that guy.

“Ok moment of truth” said Trish as I felt the last of the bandages and gauze removed. “Now keep your eyes shut for a few seconds. You had some scarring and I want to see if that’s healed first”

Scarring? “How long have I been out for?”

“A few days”

Days? There was no way someone could sleep for days, was there? They must have done something to me. I vaguely remember being pricked before. They probably used the same method to put me out. But why for so long? Were they scared that something was wrong with me? Or were they just plain scared of me?

I felt the warmth of a light pass over my face. It was probably one of those lights a doctor shines into your eyes during a checkup. I was pretty certain now that this place was a hospital and hospitals had things like that. She was a doctor too and they definitely had things like that.

The light passed over my face and I felt a bit of a tingling sensation. It wasn’t a burning per se but it wasn’t pleasant either. When I pointed this out to her she stopped immediately. I’m glad I didn’t smell smoke. She seemed interested in my reaction so she tested it on other parts of my body and I responded the same. It seemed that somehow, according to her, my body was now very sensitive to the light. Which would explain, also according to her, why I had such an adverse reaction to it when I opened my eyes? But it didn’t explain why the rest of my body didn’t react to it the first time. It took me a few seconds to realize that Trish was talking to herself, rambling and theorizing.

I crossed my arms under my new chest (still avoiding the problem there) and waited impatiently for her to finish.

“What are you thinking about right now?” Her voice startled me.

“Are you talking to me now?”

She ignored my snark. She repeated the question and I told her I was thinking about nothing. When she asked me to clarify I said I was thinking about the darkness. She nodded and went away to think some more. I heard her heels on the floor, tapping as she went off to talk to herself again. What did my thoughts have to do with anything? So what if I was thinking about darkness, all I can see at the moment is darkness.

She came back again and surprised me. She asked me to stop thinking about the darkness. I laughed. You know how that goes. If someone asks you to not think about something of course you’re going to think about it.

“I’m going to try something you’re not going to like” She didn’t wait for me to answer. “Up to this point the lights in the room have been off and I’ve been examining you via a pair of night vision goggles. In about ten seconds I’m going to turn the lights on”

I nodded. I silently counted off the seconds in my head. She announced she was ready and I heard the switch flick. Immediately my body exploded in intense pain. It was absolutely excruciating. Just like before but instead of my eyes it was my whole body.

“SHUT IT OFF!!!”

Immediately the pain disappeared. I started to pant heavily. Trish was back to me again, her arms wrapped around me in the tightest hug. I started to cry on her shoulder again. I was doing a lot of crying, like a sissy or a… I’m not finishing that sentence. Trish apologized over and over again. She reassured me she’d never do it again but that she had to test it.

“No more pain. No more screams, I promise”

Hopefully it wasn’t an empty promise. I never screamed that loud in my entire life and never wanted to again. It brought about the thing I was avoiding. My voice was definitely not my own. It was high-pitched, exactly like it had been from before. When I was talking earlier I kind of ignored it but there was no doubt now: it was a girl’s voice. What the heck did these people do to me? What did I ever do to these horrible people?

“What’s wrong with me?” I sobbed all the words, tears flowing freely now.

“I can’t say. I’m not authorized. But I can tell you that I’ll do everything in my power to protect you and make sure nothing bad happens”

I hugged her even tighter. This time I wrapped my arms around her neck, nuzzling my head under her chin. There was definitely something wrong with me. My emotions are all over the place. I never cry (ok I do) but not this much. Whatever they did is starting to affect me in strange and crazy ways. We hugged for a while and she let me cry everything out. For the longest time I didn’t think about anything except how much I liked her and how much I didn’t want to let her go.

After about ten minutes she spoke: “Sweetie, I’m sorry but we need to continue”

She kissed my forehead and I reluctantly let her go. She took a few seconds to compose herself, I think. Then I heard her pace a few seconds, probably thinking things through. After a few moments, she announced we were going to try again. This time she was going to leave the lights off and she was finally going to have me open my eyes. She told me she’d only do it when I was good and ready. So I sat and took a few moments to catch my breath. I can do this. All I’m doing is opening my eyes. I took a real deep breath and told her I was ready.

I opened my eyes.

I could see. The room was a bit blurry at first but then everything slowly started to come into focus. The room was pretty bare. There was a bed, which I was sitting on. There was a wooden chair in the corner. There were several different medical contraptions. The beeping one closest to me, had several cords leading from it to the several doodads sticking all over my body. One wall of the room was mainly a large glass window but it appeared to be tinted because I couldn’t see anything beyond it. There were a few things I saw that I didn’t like. There was a security camera in the top right corner and the only door in the room didn’t have a handle, at least not on this side.

So “guest” I am not.

I turned my head to take in the rest of the room and finally got my first look at Trish. I smiled because she was beautiful. I knew she was beautiful. There was a no way an old crone could have a voice as sweet and as gentle as hers. She was blonde, about twenty something (maybe). She wore a white lab coat over a gray dress and her heels were at least two inches. She had a pair of smart black frame glasses and stood with an air of confidence. This was definitely the woman that I had grown to love in my few times with her.

Oh did I mention she was a blonde.

“So what do you see?”

I smiled and laughed. “I see everything. This is fantastic” I paused for a second, waiting for the tingling but it didn’t come. “How did you stop my skin from burning?”

She looked a little puzzled. “What are you talking about?”

“Well you said you were keeping the lights off but I can see you were only humoring me. I just wanted to know how you stopped my skin from burning up”

“Honey, I didn’t turn the lights on”

Now I knew she was messing with me. Do you remember me talking about my night blindness? Well there’s just no way in heck that I can see this good in the dark. No one sees this good in the dark. I could see every detail of the room, including all the colors. All right I admit lack of colors actually. The walls and floor were a sterile white. Trish’s dress was kind of drab but I could still see it. I waved a hand in front of my wave and paused. It was dainty looking. The nails were on the longish side and my fingers were longer than I remembered. My skin was kind of pale too, almost white. Trish looked that way too. Maybe they don’t get out much sun around here.

Trish ruined my thoughts again. “Are you telling me you can see in the dark?”

I stopped to think about that. Then it floored me. I could see in the dark. I laughed (no giggled?). Was that even possible? I then remembered back to the night I was taken and how things in the house had been clearer then. It only dawned on me now that I’d actually been seeing in the dark there as well. But where did such a thing like that come from? I know for a fact that I wasn’t able to do it a few weeks ago. I remember because I got lost going down a dark alley and stepped in some dog crap. If I had been able to see I would never have stepped in it.
“You got to help me out here, sweetie”

Trish walked over to me, her heels clicking as she did so. She took my hands, making me even giddier. She asked me some quick questions. First she wanted to know if anything had a different hue to it. When I told her everything was normal she asked me to describe it to her. But I didn’t understand the question and no matter how much she reworded it I still didn’t understand. Normal was normal right. We both got frustrated so she moved on to other questions. She asked me to concentrate. She wanted to see, according to her, if I could turn it on and off. She told me to try thinking about the room being dark. So I did as she asked and thought as hard as I could about the room. At first nothing happened. I sighed and was about to tell her it was a waste of time when bam the lights went out. I panicked and stumbled backwards, nearly falling over the bed as I did so. Trish grabbed my shoulders and told me everything was going to be ok.

I opened my mouth to tell her off when something strange happened. I saw a strange glow. It was bluish in color and it was coming from her. First it was her hands and arms which were still on my shoulders. Then it was the top half of her and then the bottom half. Slowly a blue outline of a human formed in the darkness. It wasn’t an exact likeness but it clearly had Trish’s shape. There were no distinguishing features but it was her. I reached out to touch her but stopped when I saw my arm glowing blue as well. I waved my hand and it moved in slow motion, creating a blue wake in the dark as it moved.

I laughed and looked around the room. Other things started to appear out of the darkness suddenly. They came one at a time and they weren’t blue; they were green. One by one the room filled up, exactly how it had been before. It was amazing. I laughed as I jumped onto the bed. The Blue Trish outline moved with me. It moved awkwardly like it was stuck in slow motion. When a hand touched me I jumped because the blue hand reaching for me hadn’t gotten to me yet.

“What are you seeing?”

“Everything is blue and green now”

She asked me to clarify so I told her how we appeared blue and the furniture and stuff was green. She asked about the walls and the floor and it was the first time I realized I couldn’t see them. I looked to where the left wall might be but all I saw was black. On the wall I could clearly see a green circular clock but it was like it was hanging in mid air. I told Trish what I saw and her blue head nodded. Then she wanted to know if I could see beyond the room. So I tried but it was too hard so I stopped. She tested me a few more times, on different things. She held up a scalpel but I couldn’t see it very good. She waved her I.D. in front of my face but all I saw was her hand.

When I asked her what she was trying to do she told me she was gathering data. Great now I’m some experiment to her. I don’t want to be a guinea pig. I want to be normal. I want to live a normal life, with normal friends, doing normal things. I wanted to scream but instead I felt lightheaded. I gasped and bam black, blue and green were gone. The world came rushing back at me, taking me by surprise. I jumped back, nearly falling off the bed. Trish grabbed my arm and steadied me. When she asked what was wrong I told her.

So Dark World was gone. Thank God it was starting to give me a headache. I sighed in relief and dropped down onto the pillow, my new chest flopping about as I did so. Once again I tried to ignore it but this time I was less then successful. Now that I could see there was no way I could avoid what was clearly staring me in the face. I had breasts, good size ones too. They were like two small mountains pushing up in the center of my flimsy gown. I closed my eyes. Maybe I could will them away. When I opened them my breasts were still there. I groaned. There was no way a boy could grow breasts overnight. But it wasn’t just the breasts. I knew that because of my hands and my nails and even my voice. I tried to shut out the truth before but there was no way now.

Somehow I was a girl and I didn’t like it.

Photo Credit: MeetMeByTheLake2Nite