I sat down on the bed and stared at the empty white walls. Rolling up my sleeve, I looked at the tattoo again. Why would both Jaiden and I have the same tattoo? And why couldn’t we remember anything? Sighing, I pulled my knees up and rocked back and forth. Maybe Jaiden and I had been friends, and maybe we’d even come here together, so that was why we had matching tattoos. But you had to be a very close friend with someone to get something as important as that, so why couldn’t I remember absolutely anything about him?
A frown creased my brow and my head felt as if it were filled with heavy rocks. I blinked at the door, wondering what I was supposed to do until they needed me for another testing. Getting to my feet, I hopped over to the closet, but inside were only clothes and shoes. Seriously, what was I usually doing here? For how long had I been here exactly, anyway? I put my hands on my head and let out a frustrated groan. Finally, I headed to the door, but when I went to push it open, I realized that it was locked. Had they decided it was better not to let me outside again? But I wasn’t supposed to be a prisoner here. I’d done nothing wrong, or at least I thought I hadn’t.
Tracing my finger across the wall, I circled around the room. The wall’s surface was rough and hard under my touch. If only I had a TV, a book, or anything to occupy my mind. I came to a stop in the middle of the room. Maybe I could practice with my elements. But as I reached inside me, my elements didn’t budge. My whole body started to tremble, so I let go of my elements, and the feeling of dread immediately vanished from my stomach.
Why was this happening? Why would I feel guilty about using my elements? Ah yes, because using my elements was a waste of energy that should go into the element collectors. And it could mess up my tests and everything if I used my elements too much, but surely a little bit of fun wouldn’t hurt anyone or significantly affect the levels of my elemental energy.
Taking a deep breath, I focused on my elements again, trying to push my fire out a little to warm up the air around me. Nothing happened, and my fire kept resisting. I repeated the process with my air, but I couldn’t get it to do anything either. Lifting my sleeves up, I checked my arms for any devices or bracelets that could be blocking my elements, but there weren’t any. I looked around the room, but unless there was a blocker in the wall, I didn’t know why my elements weren’t working.
Still, I went back to the wall and closely inspected it, but no matter how much I touched and probed it, I didn’t find any indication that there was some kind of a protection in it, although it was possible it was well-hidden. But my elements felt differently when there was a blocker in the walls. I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but somehow I did. Something was telling me that I’d been using an element-blocking bracelet and had been in a protected room before, and the feeling wasn’t anything like this. This seemed more as if my elements were disobeying me on purpose.
I paced up and down the room. Maybe the walls had a different kind of protection or maybe... I closed my eyes, trying to picture myself going to the lab for more tests. My elements didn’t have any problem surging out then, so if I imagined I was there, maybe the bad feeling would go away. I tried to picture Kira strapping me into that chair and turning on the machine, and I reached for my elements again. A few moments later, my fire surged out, coating my fingers, and I opened my eyes to look at it, a smile spreading across my lips. I’d done it! Pulling my fire back, I let my air swirl around me, ruffling my hair.
The door beeped and I immediately called my elements back and sat on the bed. A man with black hair and dark brown eyes entered the room and offered me a smile.
“Hello, Moira. My name is Dr. Price, and I’m here to check on you,” he said, a blue notepad in his hand.
“Um, hi. Is something wrong?” I didn’t know why I needed a special visit from a doctor, especially in my room.
“No, not at all. Just a routine checkup.” The guy looked me up and down, then sat on the bed next to me. He pulled a small black device that looked like a phone out of the pocket of his coat and took my hand, pressing the device to it. The device beeped and beeped, and Dr. Price’s face was expressionless as he monitored the screen. I leaned forward slightly, but I still couldn’t see what was on the screen. Price picked up his notepad and started scribbling something in it, leaving the device lying on my bed.
“Everything looks fine,” he said, getting to his feet. The device was still on the bed and he was intently staring at me. I wondered why he used that notepad when he probably could’ve just gotten that device to send the results to a computer or something, but when he turned toward the door to leave, I realized what he was doing; he was testing me. He was planning to leave the device with me to see if I would return it or if I’d try something with it.
“Dr. Price!” I yelled before he could leave, and he turned around. “You forgot this!” I picked up the device and handed it over to him with a small smile on my face.
“Oh, thank you.” Surprise filled his eyes for a moment, but he quickly masked it. When he was out of the room, I chewed on my lower lip. What the hell had that been about? They clearly didn’t trust me, but why? I’d volunteered to come here. I wasn’t a threat to them and I didn’t endanger anything they were doing, so why were they so upset that I’d gone to see Jaiden? It didn’t make any sense... except something was wrong. I could feel it. I just didn’t know what it was, but I was going to find out no matter what. At least the door no longer seemed to be locked.