The Phantom School 76 The Cruel Recurrence

I was trying my best to listen to him, but I was too distracted by the paralysis and the overall senselessness on my arm. It was feeling like my arm was about to come out of it's place and drop down to the ground. If I could move it around, it could get better; but I was unable to give any commands to that section of my body.

"Make sure he stays in that position." the man in white said. The two men on my sides nodded, and the man in white left the room. I looked around worryingly. Although my situation wasn't good, it wasn't any worse than what I've been through before. The dominant cause of my worries were Idil's situation, and not knowing if we could come together again.

I slowly began walking around in circles. One of the guards looked at me with the corner of his eye, but I didn't mind him. After a minute or so, I could finally feel my arm again. I still couldn't move it effectively, but it was still a relief.

While walking and looking around, I suddenly felt something on my healthy -right- arm. One of the guards held me and dragged me back behind the table, to my original position. Perhaps he was annoyed, or maybe he had a better reason... But I was in no condition to ask for his motives.

The man in white came back into the room. He didn't lose the eye contact with me even for a second. He approached me and kept looking from the other side of the wooden table. He held the leather book and asked me.

"Who gave you this book?"

"I already told you... I don't remember." I was still determined to keep the secrets.

He broke the eye contact and looked down on the table. He was looking... frusturated. He breathed in and out loudly. He was shaking his leg, thinking really hard about something. It was looking like he was more worried than me.

"We have been betrayed." he said. "You know about the implant, don't you?"

He finally looked up right into my eyes again, then turned to the armed guards before I could say anything.

"Take him." he said. He grabbed everything he had left on the table walked away.

I was held by two men by my side again. They blindfolded me and we started walking again. I was trying to memorise my footsteps, but I was practically being dragged; so it wasn't very easy. At least they weren't really hurting me too much.

Suddenly, the men released me. My blindfold wasn't taken off. I waited for a few seconds, expecting something to happen.

I was hearing some water flowing nearby, but I couldn't guess what kind of place I was in.

I was frusturated. I made a daring move to take my blindfold off myself. Just when I was taking it off, I heard someone.

"If I were you, I would keep it on for just a little longer." he said. "But it is your choice."

I took the blindfold off.

Just ahead of me, there were numerous small, white tubes with large gla.s.ses. Inside every tube, there was a half-naked person. Some of them were old, some of them were really young. Their bodies were in really bad shape, most of them had very large open wounds around their stomach. Parts of their skins were literally ripped apart from their bodies; the remaining parts had gray or green marks all around them. A few of the bodies were missing parts like hands, eyes or even arms and legs.

A man was looking at me behind some sort of console. When I looked at him, he averted his gaze. From his looks, I could tell that he was under great pressure.

My heart was about to come out of my chest. Was this... the underground cemetery? Was I going to be executed?

I looked further to the sides, and noticed that I was actually standing in one of those white tubes myself. The only difference was that the gla.s.s in front of me was still open.

No one was holding me back. It could be my final chance. I pushed myself out of the tube.

Just when I was about to get out, the gla.s.s closed up. The tube itself was just a bit larger than me. I had nowhere to run.

The man behind the console was busy flipping switches and pus.h.i.+ng b.u.t.tons.

I kept looking to the bodies in the tubes all around the room. There was no doubt that they had some horrible deaths.

While I was carefully inspecting a body with a single leg, the body moved a little bit. At first, I thought that it was nothing... But then his head turned and he looked at me with one of his eyes. I was not wrong... Despite his horrendous looks, he was still alive! Even by looking at his damaged face, I could tell his sadness as he was looking at me, unable to say anything.

I carefully kept looking around, to finally realise... Those people were still alive. All of them were living by the help of the machinery that surrounded them.

Suddenly, I heard a hissing sound. After that, all the external noises went away. I could only hear my own breathing and movements now.

An electrical buzzing sound followed. A metal rod appeared from the side of the tube. It had lots of joints being moved by servos, like a robotic arm. Another rod similar to that one appeared from the other side.

I looked at the man behind the console again. It was probably him... He was in control of the machinery in those tubes. As he was carefully moving the joystick on the console, the metal rods were moving closer to me.

The two metal rods touched me and pushed me back to the back of the tube to hold me there. I was cramped up; I had no means to protect myself.

Two men in white appeared in the room and walked up to the tube I was in. They started observing the process through the gla.s.s. They were talking to each other just in front of my face, but I couldn't hear them through the gla.s.s.

I was startled by another buzzing sound overhead. A third metal arm appeared in the tube. This one had a pointy end, which probably didn't mean nice things.

The robot arm slowly came closer, positioning itself along my chest. I was shaking...

I screamed as it penetrated my skin.

"Cansu!" I yelled. Although in different ways, we were using the same body; and until now, she had done everything to protect me. What was going wrong this time?

A fourth, much smaller robotic arm appeared. I tried to free my arms and escape the grip of the metal rods, but I wasn't successful. I had no power, I was merely an observer.

Despite my helplessness, I suddenly felt an interesting excitement. This was it; the last missing part of my memory: The implantation surgery! I have been through this once before, years ago... Yet, that was the end of it. I had been caught once again, and I was about to forget everything that had happened. My poor choices had led me to a bad ending to the adventure again.

The excitement faded away very quickly. The very thin, pointy end of the fourth arm aligned itself with my right eye, and slowly, it came closer. My head was locked in place. I could turn my eyes, but I couldn't look away.

As the arm was approaching, the electric sound was becoming louder.

When the needle came close enough, I could no longer focus my vision on it. It was blurry.

I tried closing my eyes, yet my eyelids didn't comply.