Rainbow
The Bridge
Chapter One: The Bridge
My feet were sore. My breath was coming in gasps as I panted. There wasn’t a thought in my head as I ran across the bridge. I could hear them chasing after me, but I didn’t stop. I ran faster.
“Stop!” a voice behind me shouted. “We’re not going to hurt you!”
I didn’t trust him. How could I? I didn’t have a clue who he was, and what he wanted with me. I couldn’t think of any decent reason to trust the men behind me.
“Leave me alone!” I screamed.
“Oh, like I haven’t heard that before,” another voice grumbled.
I couldn’t run anymore. I started slowing down. No, I thought, they can’t catch me. They can’t. I looked around wildly. I could…jump off the bridge. I nodded myself. I sucked in a lung full of air, and ran right off the bridge.
“No!” I could hear them yell as the freezing water engulfed me. I swam above the surface, and gasped my final breath. “She’s alive!”
After that, it seemed to blur. The water changed, somehow. It was like a sudden storm had raged along the coast. A merciless wave pulled me under, and I hit my head on something. Probably the metal pillars supporting the bridge. All I knew for sure, was that I lost consciousness before death came.
“Stop!” a voice behind me shouted. “We’re not going to hurt you!”
I didn’t trust him. How could I? I didn’t have a clue who he was, and what he wanted with me. I couldn’t think of any decent reason to trust the men behind me.
“Leave me alone!” I screamed.
“Oh, like I haven’t heard that before,” another voice grumbled.
I couldn’t run anymore. I started slowing down. No, I thought, they can’t catch me. They can’t. I looked around wildly. I could…jump off the bridge. I nodded myself. I sucked in a lung full of air, and ran right off the bridge.
“No!” I could hear them yell as the freezing water engulfed me. I swam above the surface, and gasped my final breath. “She’s alive!”
After that, it seemed to blur. The water changed, somehow. It was like a sudden storm had raged along the coast. A merciless wave pulled me under, and I hit my head on something. Probably the metal pillars supporting the bridge. All I knew for sure, was that I lost consciousness before death came.
That was what I had expected. Instead, I woke up in an overly-sterilized room. It wasn’t a hospital. It didn’t have the sanitized smell that burned my nostrils on contact, and slowly began killing my brain cells. It was more like a mental institute. The only object was a table and a chair. It was in the center, and reminded me of the interrogation rooms in crime shows.
I sat in the corner—or, more, I had curled myself into a ball in the corner. I was trying to maintain body heat to avoid hypothermia. They hadn’t bothered changing my clothes. Which meant that I was soaking wet, and freezing cold. I started trembling from the frigid temperature my body was dropping toward.
Was this how I was going to die? Not a quick merciful death, but a slow, agonizing death from starvation and hypothermia?
Well, isn’t that why you jumped off the bridge? a voice in my head scolded, You just wanted to die, right? Here you go.
I narrowed my eyes at the voice in my head. I would have enjoyed dying instead of having them capture me, I thought sharply to it.
I didn’t care that I might be going insane in my final moments. If hypothermia didn’t kill me, then maybe they would once I started going hysterical.
I heard the metal door open, and a hoarse, “Good luck getting anything out of her. She hasn’t moved once since she woke up.” The door slammed shut after he finished.
I heard a sigh, and then footsteps walking toward the chair. It scraped against the speckled tiles as whoever it was turned it to their liking.
“Alright, let’s go ahead and get this out of the way,” the guy sighed. “Name?”
My teeth started clattering together, and I gritted them shut as I refused to look him in the eyes.
“Name?” he repeated impatiently. Silence answered him. “Are you awake?”
I turned around to face my corner, unwilling to see his face.
“Fine. Be that way,” he muttered angrily.
Anger.
The word seemed to be echoing through my head at an amazing speed, bringing a bright red fog with it. I shook my head to clear it.
“Something wrong?” he asked through his teeth.
“I’m suffering from hypothermia,” I stated through stammering teeth.
There was silence that I gladly welcomed.
“How long have you been like that?”
“I don’t know. A couple hours.”
The chair scraped violently, and he yelled, “Someone get her some dry clothes and a blanket.” It was almost immediately answered by the squeak of the iron door. “Put these on.” He threw the clothes at me as I slowly turned around. I stared at the clothes, examining them to see if they’d fit. I looked up at him, and gestured for him to turn around. He scoffed. “Seriously?”
I nodded. He sighed, and obliged. I quickly changed into the dry T-shirt, panties, and jeans, not wasting any precious moment that would allow me the possibility to delay my death. I ran my hand down the soft cotton material of the sweater, and sat against the wall, away from the puddle I had made.
“Are you presentable yet?”
“Yes,” I whispered. He turned around, and threw me a blanket, which I wrapped tightly around myself.
“Name?” he repeated.
I thought about my answer for a long time. “Mimi Eve,” I finally said.
“Is that a nickname, or your real name?”
“Nickname.”
“What’s it short for?”
“Madeline Evelyn.”
He scribbled it down. “Last name?”
I pondered that. “Butterfly.”
He looked at me doubtfully, and sighed. “How do you spell it.”
“It’s spelled like butter, and fly,” I said sarcastically. “But, incase that was too complicated for you, it’s spelled B-U-T-T-E-R-F-L-Y.”
He wrote it down, ignoring my sarcasm. “Age.”
“Sixteen.”
“Gender?”
I glared at him, and he smirked. “Female.”
“Birthday?”
“April 14th.”
“Year?”
“2011.”
He glared. “That you were born.”
“Oh.” I pretended to be stupid. “1995.”
“Race?”
“Caucasian.”
“Nationality?”
“American.”
“Hair and eye color?”
“Red, and differs.”
“Height?”
“Five feet three inches.”
“Weight?”
“One hundred and five pounds.”
“Any brothers and/or sisters?”
“Yes.” He looked at me expectantly when I didn’t continue. “One sister.”
“Her name?”
“She’s dead,” I lied.
He nodded, obviously buying it. “Power?”
I stared at him like he was crazy. “What?”
“Power. Ability. Talent.” I continued staring at him. He sighed. “Undiscovered, then.” He closed the notebook he had been scribbling in. “Please, follow me.”
He stood up, and started walking toward the metal door with me trailing behind. The door opened, and I followed him through corridor after corridor of an ugly white blur.