Franky Is Lucky

CHAPTER 8
I HAD NO IDEA WHEN I WOKE UP THIS MORNING THAT I WOULD GET A CHANCE TO MEET THE DEVIL.

The room was a sterile white like the previous ones but it reeked of blood and gore. Along the sides of the room there were tall and wide cabinets filled with God knows what. In the middle of the room was an odd chair facing away from the door towards the wall. The wall it was facing had a screen on it and when I looked up at the ceiling I saw a projector. I walked over to the chair cautiously. There was a figure strapped in. I looked at the crumpled body of what must be a woman in front of me. She had dyed blonde hair on her head there were electrodes and despite the lack of normal clothes, the body was wearing a hospital gown, I knew it was Amy.

I lifted the head of the wilted human and as I did her eyes fluttered open. She’s alive! I held her head between my hands and stifled back the tears as she looked up at me blankly for a moment, and as we stood there her eyes focused and she realized who I was. She looked so relieved and terrified at the same time. I looked her in the face.

“Amy? I am going to get you out of here. Okay? Are you hurt badly?” I didn’t see a scratch or scrap on her, not even a bruise, but she could have sustained damage that was obscured by the gown. She looked up at me weakly and nodded her head in my hands.

“Okay, do you think you can you walk?” I had started undoing the straps I noticed as I let her head go that it fell forward. What had they done to her? I quickly got the leather straps undone. And started taking off the electrodes attached to her head. Underneath them the skin was charred. They had electrocuted her?

This was bad. I couldn’t figure out why they had tortured her. Me. That’s why they did it. It was because of me. They wanted information. I wonder how long Amy had held out and how many times they had shocked her. Why wasn’t she dead? I hoisted her up from the chair and tried to get her to stand. It was no use her legs were jello.

Amy is thin and short and I am rather muscular but she was still dead weight. Also I was afraid, if I drained her in her current state something was going to happen, something irreversible.

What do I do? You get the hell out of here no matter what. I knew in my heart that I was right but I had to help her. She had been tortured because of me. I hoisted her body over my shoulder and she made a sound out of pain.

“I am sorry, just hold on okay.” My voice was pleading with her, pleading her to live. I walked over to the door by the wall the weight of Amy’s body slowing me greatly, but before I could even reach out to open the door I heard commotion in the hallway.

“Check the prisoner.”

Shit.

I wrenched open one of the blue cabinets and stuffed Amy inside and walked in beside her. I shut the doors over us and fiddled the lock from the inside and locked the doors. The door to the torture chamber opened and what sounded like at least three people stepped in.

“The girl is gone!” Shouted a man. Well not really guys. Please don’t find us, please don’t find us, please, please, please.

“How long do you think Taylor was tied up?” said a different man.

“He said just a few minutes, the girl got what she wanted and left. But how would she have gotten down here? This area is extremely secure you have to have a pass key and you’re telling me no one saw her?” He seemed anxious like he was explaining to his boss that this wasn’t his fault. I held my breath and hoped with everything that Amy didn’t make a noise.

“We need to find her! She is extremely dangerous and smarter than we thought. Dr. Molokai go check the hallways, if she is carrying dead wait she can’t have gotten too far and initiate lock down, she can’t escape.” No! I was getting locked in here? What was I going to do now?

“Yes sir.” A woman’s voice said. They stood silently as I heard her walk out. Then the boss man spoke.

“How did this happen?” He sounded angry in an authoritative way. I was scared of this man.

“I don’t know, I can’t tell you. We didn’t know, we were unaware.” He was stammering and sputtering.

“You know what this means don’t you James? I don’t want to do this but I have too. Now have a seat.” I heard the other man plead with the authoritative one. What was going on? I shifted in the cabinet silently and found a narrow sight line through a slight gap in the doors. The authoritative man was much larger and in a very expensive suit, the other was small balding and in a lab coat. I watched as the suited man forced the one named James into the chair. He strapped him in and went over to one of the cabinets nearest him and pulled out a box, he opened the box and began placing fresh electrodes to James’ head and a few on his arms. He then hooked thin wires to all of them. He turned the projector on and switched another knob on the chair.

“I need you to tell me what you know James, you know how this works. I just need you to think about everything you know about this girl.” All of a sudden movie like pictures started appearing on the screen. I saw a lab top with a chat room open on the screen. Two hands typing and I saw the screen names briefly before the image jumped to another. One of the screen names had been mine, the other belonged to James Servantes, the doctor who had asked to test my blood.

That bastard! He had tricked me. He had tricked me into explaining my problem. He had told them everything. My mind raced. What about the dossier? There was definitely information in there that I had never told him. James was just one cog in the machine. I looked down at Amy. Was Amy a pawn as well and why had they tortured her if she was? I began having doubts but I figured that Amy had to be an innocent bystander; she would have never put herself in this situation if she wasn’t. I made a plan just in case.

I watched through the slit in the door, scenes upon scenes played out on the screen and then after five minutes or so they stopped.

“This is all you know?” The suited man sounded displeased.

“I told you sir this is all I know.” His anxiety was so intense it made my heart jolt even though I now loathed James Servantes I still felt sorry for him.

“Well I am sorry to hear that” the suited man said. “You have been very helpful to me James, I hate to do this but you are no longer of use.” And James Servantes screamed as the suited man flipped the switch and electrocuted him.

I had to hold my breath to keep from gasping and then I had to keep holding it to keep from throwing up. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air so strongly. As the sounds of screaming subsided I knew that James Servantes was dead. The suited man was walking out of the room when I heard Amy wretch. No!

The suited man heard it too because I heard the footsteps of his wing tipped shoes stop. He walked over to the cabinet. I heard the jangle of keys and then the doors flung open. He stood in shock and then grabbed me by the hair.

I still had my wig on so I ducked out of his grasp and barreled past him. I stood there. Every instinct in my body told me to run but Amy was lying there in a puddle of vomit. I couldn’t leave her. Not after all of this.

The suited man noticed my eyes dart from him to Amy to the door and he knew my dilemma. He grabbed Amy and I reached out to try and stop him. He held her to him with his arm across her chest and we he spoke I could have sworn he was the devil.

“We finally meet Felicite.” He smiled coyly.

“It’s Franky.” I shouldn’t be testy in this moment but I get passive aggressive in stressful situations so he would have to just deal with it.

"Well Franky, it seems that we have underestimated you and I have a problem with that because I don't underestimate people." He leered at me.

"Well sir, I hate to be rude but it seems you have been doing a lot of underestimating. First Servantes and then me and who knows who else." But I was trying to be rude. Also I was trying to stall for time. I needed to think of what to do next. He was holding Amy and even if I took him down I would still have to carry Amy out of the room. He continued to speak as I was thinking.

"Yes James was an unfortunate mistake but you Franky you are quite a pleasant surprise. I had no idea that you would even come and then you stunned me by breaking into my secure business; assaulting my receptionist; and interrogating my employee to get what you want. However, I am disappointed you got caught my pet. We can fix that though." He sneered.

"Yea, you could let me and Amy go." I chimed in.

"No, no, no. That will not do at all. You see you are going to stay here and do what I want you too." He talked to me as if I was a child. I hated that. I was seething at that moment.

"And how do you plan to do that? You know that it would never work out you and I." I looked at him slyly that was meant to be an attack on his virility but I don't know if he caught it.

"I have my ways. Allow me to introduce someone too you." He motioned to the corner of the room I turned and out of the shadows walked a tall silhouette, the body was broad shouldered and muscular. He was young and lean and as my eyes made their way up to his face I knew who he was.

"Brent?" I whispered.

"It's good for you to see me Franky." Brent leered at me through his scared face; he looked ominous. How was this possible? I looked at him closely and I noticed that he had a slight shimmer and he was slightly opaque. Again I asked how this was possible.

"You see Franky," The no named suited man talked to me again. I swiveled my body towards him keeping Brent in my peripheral. "Your friend Amy has been quite useful to us. We have been trying to recreate the frequency that reconfigures displaced energy and Amy here has given it to us." He nuzzled her neck when he said that last part. I almost killed him. He as sick this was a twisted man.

"Why did you do this?" I crossed my arms across my chest and let my face become steely and distant. I wanted him to think that I didn't care.

"Well why wouldn't we? You seem to have this complex Franky, it's a selfish complex but it is exploitable. You wallow in your guilt and grief. Your friend has helped us, not willingly of course as you can see by her current state, to make it possible for you to see your guilt face to face. I will admit that at first we thought maybe we would bring back your dead parents or someone else who had suffered from what you are; but then we found out from Amy's brain that Brent was a much more effective tool. The high school romance, the only boy you ever cared for, the boy who was never able to become a man and we had you." Amy's eyes were open and she was starring at me with so much sorrow and regret. I knew this wasn't her fault and I told her so.

"Don't feel guilty Amy. It isn't your fault." I rounded on Brent keeping the suited man in view. "Well Brent you should be proud of yourself. Tell me though, what drove you to make a pact with the devil?"

"It's quite simple Franks. You see Dr. Aster is a visionary and he has given me at least part of my life back. He has given me what I had craved for the past five years, he has given me life again." He leered at me. There was something in his eyes something I couldn't place. Uncertainty, regret, indecision? I decided to exploit that weakness.

"Brent! You are such an idiot. First of all do you think they can broadcast that signal everywhere? There is no way they could. You are stuck here. Second, this isn't life this is just the ability to see you. You can't touch people. You can't hold things. You can't feel, sense or experience anything. You are the same as you were before. And if this is about vengeance then you can't do that either. Also as long as you are dependant on them to give you this you will be in their control. Don't you think if they can figure out a way to reassemble you that they can take that away, permanently? Brent you idiot these are the people that killed you! Why would you help them?" I was livid at this point. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my body and I just wanted to kill someone or scream. I felt tears welling up in my eyes, but I refused to cry. I held them back until my eyes blurred. I turned to Dr. Aster I was seething at this point.

"You are a monster but you are wrong about me. I don't care about Brent. I feel no guilt for his death, in fact I am quite happy he is no longer alive. He deserves what he got." At that moment I meant that with every fiber of my being. I knew that I could only despise someone who would help such an insane and evil person. Brent was truly dead to me in all the ways possible. I had closed off my heart to him. I searched Aster's eyes for a while waiting for him to speak and all I saw was contemplation.

He finally spoke. "Well, I really don't think you mean what you just said, as impassioned as it was, but even if you did, we still have the matter of your friend here." He looked at her in a perverse way. I was so angry he was doing this. He would pay.

"If you kill her I won't tell you anything. You will have no hold over me." I thought this was logical and sound reasoning, I also thought this may very well save Amy's life.

"Kill her why would I want to kill her? She is so useful and she is also so young, beautiful and weak. Why would I deny myself this?" and then he kissed her neck, I saw Amy cringe and I cried out for him to stop. This was a worse fate than death, being in the hands of this deranged man was the sickest thing that could happen.

"If I do what you want will you let her go unharmed?" I was defeated but I had to finish what I started, I had to save Amy. I looked at Aster pleading. I realized that I had no way to secure that Amy was going to be safe. Say something! I was so fustrated my thoughts just reached their boiling point. I could feel my breath shuddering my body.

"You don't seem to understand the concept of leverage. If I let her go and assure her safety you can then say no to what I want you to do. If I keep her here then when you decide to be noble or selfish I have a bargaining chip. So I will not let her go. As for not harming her I can see that happening. Now do we have a deal?" I had to think. Where would he take us? Where would we go if I agreed? Would we be able to get out of here? I had to take the deal. It was our only chance at the moment.

"Fine. I will go with you." Aster cackled in triumph. I felt myself shudder with anger and then I took control.