Darkness. That’s the first thing James noticed as consciousness slowly returned to him. Total darkness enveloped him like a thick, choking blanket. His body ached all over, muscles protesting any movement as if he had been wrestling an angry bear. But where was he?James tried to piece together his fragmented memories of what happened before this strange awakening in the dark, but came up blank. The last thing he recalled was going to bed in his home, exhausted after a long day of school. After that, nothing. Just an abyss where recollections should be.Panic clawed at his throat as disorientation set in. Blindly reaching out with his hands, he felt cold metal beneath his fingers. Running them along the smooth surface revealed it to be the wall of some enclosed space. No, not just any space…a small room.His breath quickened into short, ragged gasps. Was he trapped inside a box? A coffin, even? But why would someone put him in a box underground? Unless…“Calm down, you’re going to hyperventilate.” A feminine voice interrupted his spiraling thoughts. It was calm yet anxious, the tremor revealing how unsettled the speaker truly felt.James jerked towards the noise, encountering another wall on his left. Trapped in a tiny prison with no visual cues, he glanced around wildly in vain. “Who’s there? Where am I?”A sigh. “My name is Ashley. As for where we are…I don’t know for certain, but I think it’s some kind of high-security facility.”Facility? Surely this was all a mistake. Some kind of twisted nightmare his exhausted mind had concocted. James grasped at the one concrete detail he could latch onto. “How do you know my name?”A shuffling sound echoed in the cramped metal box, like Ashley was adjusting her position to face him as best as their circumstances allowed. Her voice took on a gentler tone, as if addressing a startled animal.“I know your name because we’re roommates here, James. They put us in these cells together to…monitor us, I suppose. Watch how we interact and stuff.” She sighed again, the weariness in it aged well beyond her years. “I saw them bring you in earlier while I was awake. You were out cold.”Roommates. Cells. Being monitored. Ashley’s matter-of-fact words painted a chilling picture, anchoring Jameswith the unsettling fact that this wasn’t a nightmare after all. He was truly trapped in some kind of high-security facility with no memory of how he got there. A thousand questions bubbled in his throat but one stood out amongst the clamor.“How long have you been here, Ashley?” His voice nearly cracked under the strain of trying to remain calm despite rising panic.She paused a moment before answering quietly, as if reluctant to acknowledge how long her personal nightmare had lasted. “I’m not entirely sure…time loses meaning in a place like this. But I think it’s been close to two months now.”Two months. The horror of Ashley’s matter-of-fact statement gripped James colder than the freezing metal walls surrounding him. Two months stolen without explanation, trapped in this lightless box while who knows what evil machinations were set in motion above. If they did this to Ashley for so long, what fate did they have in store for him?But no, he refused to surrender to despair so easily. Not until he had answers, at least. Swallowing down acrid bile, James steadied his voice and asked, “What do they want from us, Ashley? Why are we here?”A tense moment passed before she spoke. When Ashley did, her words ruptured what little hope James still clung to. “They want to use our abilities for something called the Paragon Program. Turn us into human weapons through any means necessary.”Abilities? Weapons? Paragon Program? James’s mind whirled with more questions yet part of him instinctively understood what those foreboding phrases implied. A sense of dread sank talons into his heart at the confirmation that this was no ordinary imprisonment. They were trapped in something far more sinister.Before he could process it all, metal grates shrieked as their cell door was forcefully yanked open. Blinding white light stabbed into the darkness, banishing the sheltering shadows. Two imposing silhouettes loomed in the entryway like armored grimm reapers come to deliver damned souls to new levels of hell.“Testing time, specimens. Mrs. Nobody will see you now,” a chillingly dispassionate male voice announced.Ashley made a small distressed noise. Without sight to anchor him, James reached blindly towards her until their fingers intertwined in a shaking grasp. A feeble attempt at reassurance, or maybe to stop each from facing whatever awaited alone.Rough hands seized James’s arm in an uncompromising grip and wrenched him upright. The guard hauled him towards the open door without care. His legs almost crumpled beneath after so long paralyzed in the cramped cell.Looking back over a shoulder, James managed to make out Ashley’s silhouette being escorted just as harshly. Her petite frame appeared frailer than ever in the hulking guard’s grasp.Through squinted eyes as they adjusted, James took in their dank surroundings for the first time. Bare concrete walls, low ceilings and track lighting lent the narrow corridors a maze-like quality. No distinguishing marks to differentiate one path from the next. They could be anywhere.He tried to commit the route to memory as they were dragged through confusing twists and turns. If somehow presented a chance to escape, orientation could prove invaluable. But escape seemed an impossible fantasy under such strict guard. Not while surrounded by an impenetrable fortress and with unknown abilities to harness.All too soon, they arrived before an innocuous steel door. James’s guard punched in a complicated code on the keypad. With a resounding clang, it slid open to reveal a brightly lit laboratory facility. Medical chairs sat in the center of the gleaming white room, restraints at the ready like instruments of torture.An icy chill crawled up James’s spine at the clinical yet sinister setting. Doubts crept in as to whether ‘testing’ referred to scientific study or something more insidious. His legs threatened to lock in place but the bodily threat of his guard spurred him into motion.They were being herded into exactly the kind of facility one might imagine for conducting unethical experimentation on unconsenting subjects. James knew with instinctual adolescent certainty that no good would come of whatever awaited inside.At first glance, one detail stood out amongst the technological machinery and cold décor. A regally dressed woman presided over it all from an observation deck above with a clinical yet intrigued gaze. Broad shoulders lent power and authority to her tall frame. Sharp blue eyes assessed everything with merciless precision through owlish glasses perched at the end of an aquiline nose.“Specimens, meet your director. This is Mrs. Nobody,” announced James’s hulking guard with mocking ceremony before shoving him roughly towards a restraint chair.Ashley let out a frightened squeak as she suffered the same rough handling into an adjacent seat. Her eyes met James’s, pools of panic and torment that he knew reflected in his own gaze. Whatever darkness awaited them going forward, at least they were in it together.Guiding eyes rolled to take in their prone forms with disturbing interest, like specimens under a microscope lens. A thin smile curved crimson lips, enhanced rather than diminished by a chilling lack of warmth.“Welcome to Paragon Facility, children. Let us begin your assessments, shall we?”Mrs. Nobody snapped gloved fingers, which prompted faceless assistants in sterile coats to ready ominous machinery with eerie efficiency. Apparently procedures were quite routinized by now.James struggled reflexively against unyielding leather bindings as primal instinct started overriding battered courage. But escape was futile, as intended. They were prisoners in every sense, destined for torment at the whims of an unknown evil until somehow finding liberation. If such a thing were even possible from this inescapable abyss…
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