Chapter 6 ━━ The Cell Mate

━━━━━━━━☆★☆━━━━━━━━

It is a smooth ride, but it seems to last forever. And so much time to think about things and they finally stop. When the berg lands on the ground, the ramp opens, silence enveloping Vera's world. The only thing she hears is the rush of pumping blood inside her head. She closes her eyes and tries to slow her breathing. She's back to the beginning. She hates Teresa the most. Her hatred towards the girl is more than what she has stocked for Janson and Ava altogether. 

The soldiers begin to unload the teenagers once Ava, Teresa and & Janson find their way out. 

A loud click sound and the place is instantly flooded with bright white light. 

Vera throws her hands up and squeezes her  eyes shut, then, shielding herself, squints to see what is going on. A huge spotlight mounted on a tripod is pointed directly at them. She can just make out the silhouettes of two figures on either side of it. Scanning
the rest, she sees that there are at least a dozen other soldiers, all holding various types of weapons. 

The large doors open and the soldiers guide them in. The place is clean and new. It's clearly made to face any possible Crank attack. 

Vera is barely able to keep her feet under herself. She keeps quiet as she is led down a set of stairs along with other kids and then down a long hallway. They stop, and she hears the swipe of a key card, the click of a lock, then the creak of a door opening. 

Before Vera walks with the other kids through the door, a guard grabs her arm and drags her to another direction before she's pushed into a room like a rag doll. Then all she knows is she's being embraced by none other than Ava Paige. 

"I'm so happy to see you again." 

Vera immediately steps back and the woman's face falls. "I'm sorry? Am I supposed to know you? My memories are wiped by some organization called WICKED." 

Ava slightly glares at her as disappointment fills in her face at the girl's behavior. "Don't act like a spoiled child, Vera. As your mother—" 

"My mother died long ago the moment my sister was killed by her experiments. I am no child of you." Vera cuts her off, with a challenging glare. "And I am not joining your kids killing cult again. I'm done." 

Ava sighs. "Fine. There's no need to join me with the work. Let's just go back home." 

Vera scoffs. "What home are you talking about? You destroyed my family when you took me away from my home." 

"That wasn't your home nor were they your family. Whether you like it or not, you belong with me, Vera. You're my daughter." Ava replies with her authoritative tone. 

"I'd rather die than play daughter and mother with you." Vera states, pointing at her mother. "And I'm a prisoner here just like the other subjects. I'd like to be treated as one as well." 

"I'll talk to you again when you change your mind, Vera." Ava sighs once again, pushes a button on her desk and the previous guard walks in. "Take her to her cell." 

The guard nods and escorts Vera to her new cell. He then pushes her in before closing the cell door. 

"Ver?" 

Vera looks at the source of the voice to see Minho sitting by himself on one of the beds. She looks at him sharply. "Don’t call me that." 

"Huh?" He asks, obviously startled, maybe even hurt. "Why?" 

"Just… don’t." She feels terrible for saying it, but it's too late to take it back. That was what Tara called her. 

"Fine. Shall I call you Miss Vera? Or maybe Queen Vera? Or better yet, just your majesty?" Minho is sitting with his head against the wall, arms folded. 

Vera sighs and takes a seat on the other bed. "I’m sorry. Call me whatever." 

Minho lets out a sarcastic laugh and then they both grow silent. 

"What's your tattoo?" Vera asks, wanting to build up a conversation. She wants to know more about him, not just because they're going to be cell mates until WICKED decides to get rid of them but also she has this attraction to him from the beginning. 

"Group A, Subject A4, The Agile." He replies. 

Vera now has her legs pulled up under her, sitting so that she faces him. "Wait. You were the keeper of the Runners. Weren't you?" 

Minho raises his eyebrow in confusion. "I was. How did you know?" 

"Subject B4, The Ace." Vera answers.
"I was the keeper of the Runner in my maze. I am one of your equivalent or I rather say alternative subjects." 

"What happened to us, Vera? Are we going to end up hanging by our necks, half alive?" 

"You. Maybe." Vera says through a sigh. She looks away and rubs her hand through her hair. She waits several seconds before she looks at him again. "I might be a single subject but they won't take me for experiments anymore. One: My mother owns WICKED." 

His face turns into a frown. "You're Ava Paige's daughter?" 

"One of the two daughters." 

"You have a sister?" 

"I had. She died. Her name was Tara." She replies with a sigh. "She was the trickster while I was the Golden child. We were twins." 

"What did she look like?" 

"She's the mirror image of me." 

"Identical twins?" 

"Yeah." 

"That's cool." He says. "What's the other reason? 

Vera lets silence fill the air for a few moments before she answers. "I no longer have a twin sister. They might have sent me to the maze. But Immune twin subjects are normally considered as one. And individually, their immune system is not very worthy." 

"And how exactly you befriended that hot-headed, Katherine?" He asks, with a smile at their feral friend. 

Vera smiles as well. "We worked together before the maze. We became best friends later. There's a reason why I'm fond of Katherine. Kat is just like Tara. Full of mischief, brave and confident. She was the fighter and I was the brain." 

"When did you change?" Minho blurts out. 

“Huh?” Vera replies. 

“When did you become so shuck crazy against WICKED? You’ve worked for them, when and how did you come so strongly over to our side?” 

Vera sighs, looking tired, but her words come out laced with some anger. "And I'm here because I don't agree with Ava's ways. I'm done. You don't know my story, do you?" 

"I'm all ears." Minho says with a shrug. "We have nothing to do anyway." 

Vera takes a long breath and releases to start her story. "When I was small, my family was all I had. My mother was a scientist and father was an artist. We were happy. All those memories we created were the best. My father had a magical voice. He used to sing for mother every time she got mad at him. My sister and I grew up watching their beautiful love story. When my father got sick, none of us didn't know what to do. My mother tried to cure him in different ways. But his sickness became worse every single day. We kept him locked up. Hidden. Thought he'd get better. Every night, he'd make these awful sounds, like screaming. And then, one night, he just stopped. He was finally quiet. We went down to his room. And there was blood everywhere. But he just sat there, calm. He said he was feeling better. The visions were gone. He'd taken care of them. He took his eyes out. There are millions of people suffering out there. Millions of stories, just like mine. I wanted the cure as bad as Ava. To save the world. To save my father. He was a kind man. He brought the best of everyone. He didn't deserve any of it. We couldn't save my father, the virus slowly killed his sanity. He stabbed himself, not wanting to turn into a monster without a soul. That's when Ava became distant from us. She hated the virus. She worked hard and built up the World Catastrophe Killzone Department to put a stop for the virus. She became obsessed. So am I. The pre experiments killed thousands of kids and the remaining survivors were put into the mazes. My sister and I were supposed to go for group B maze as the main subjects. But my twin sister died during a pre-experiment and that's where I woke up from my obsession. But it was too late. They send me to the maze as a single subject."

"Wow. That was quite a lot." Minho comments and rubs his face with both hands. He is yet to know why he just listened to her life story. She has gone through a lot. It makes him want to remember his past life. He wonders if he had any, if they're alive. Then again, his friends come into his memories. He is happy that they escaped. But there's a selfish part of him wishing for his friends to save him from this nightmare. 

The two cell mates continue to share their maze life experiences, enjoying each other’s presence. Part of them knows that the worst is just the distance of their shoulder length. But they decide to let it slide for this one moment.