The Outlier

It was somewhere between five and six in the morning, and Anita couldn’t sleep. The teen had been tossing and turning all night before finally giving up on the hope that she would be well-rested for tomorrow. She had lost all track of time, not terribly caring anymore about how many hours she had left.

Anita and Vincent had been preparing for this moment for three days now, working her mind and her abilities while also cleansing her body. She had not eaten anything solid since lunch the day before and she had her last glass of liquids around dinner time.

The procedure itself was going to be straightforward; she would be strapped in and a small electrical current would go to the spot in her brain producing her powers. This small current was going to stimulate this part of her brain and amplify her powers to a usable level. Again, it was straightforward enough for her, but the sixteen-year-old couldn’t help but worry. What if what happened to Rasha would happen to her? What if she couldn’t control her powers once she had use of them? What if the procedure kills her?

It was these thoughts that caused her to lose sleep the night before the experiment.

After what felt like years, the door to the teen’s room opened slowly and quietly.

“Anita?” Louise called out quietly into the room. “It’s time to wake up. We’ve gotta get you prepped and ready to go.”

Anita, who had her back facing the door, pretended to wake up so Louise wouldn’t worry too much.

“Okay,” she said with a yawn. “Let’s get going.”

She pulled herself out of bed and grabbed the sweats from Louise. They were made from some kind of lightweight grey fabric that was soft in the teen’s hands. She slipped into them and pulled on the matching lightweight tank top. She pulled her crazy red hair back into a ponytail, revealing every single freckle on her face. She put on her slippers and gave Louise a thumbs up.

“Ready?”

Anita nodded, closing the door to her room behind her as she walked out.

The walk to the procedure room was silent. Anita was trying to center herself in her breath and posture in a last attempt to calm herself before becoming a new person.

The two young ladies walked into the room, where Vincent was already making adjustments to the machine. “Morning, Anita,” he said as he pulled on the straps to adjust them. “How did you sleep?”

Anita nodded to herself. “Pretty well,” she lied. “How about you?”

Vincent shrugged, still reaching around the chair and pulling straps. “I’ve slept better.”

Something on the machine clicked and Vincent broke into a smile. “Freakin’ finally,” he muttered to himself. “Anyway, your procedure. We’re gonna start at 9:30 this morning, okay? We just have some final things to go over first like some paperwork, some scans, et cetera.”

Anita nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

From there, Anita and Vincent spent close to three hours filling out forms, filing paperwork, performing scans and tests, and having small debates.

“Okay, Anita, I really do think we should shave your head.”

“Don’t touch my hair. Ever.”

“It might help us-”

“Ever.”

Vincent sighed and threw his hands up in the air. “Okay, kid. Your call.”

Just then, Marcus Bennett walked into the procedure room with Anita’s parents following close behind.

“Walsh!” the large man bellowed with a false enthusiasm. “I’m excited to be here, boy! Excited to be here!”

“Dad! Mom!” Anita exclaimed happily, running over to her parents and jumping into her father’s arms.

“Anita! Oh, we missed you!” Marsha said, wrapping her arms around her husband and daughter.

“Now, Walsh,” Bennett began. “I’d like to sit in the technical room for this run, if that’s okay with you.”

“I’m sorry sir, but I would really prefer you and Anita’s parents sat in the observation room with all of our other guests.”

“‘Other guests?’ Who else is coming?” Caden asked, suddenly concerned.

“Just some sponsors, Mr. Nash. Nothing serious,” Bennett replied in a way that Anita almost pegged as smug.

“Louise,” Vincent said quickly, trying to diffuse the situation. “Why don’t you bring Mr. and Mrs. Nash up to the observation room.”

“Of course, Dr. Walsh.”

As soon as the three of them were out of the room, Vincent quickly turned on Marcus Bennett. “Okay, who else is coming? What are you up to this time?”

“This time, Walsh? This time, we have military here. Generals and shit. They want to see her potential.”

“No go, Bennett,” he practically spat. “My patients are not weapons, they’re people and should be treated as such.”

“They are mice,” he muttered, voice hushed. “They are subjects in life-altering experiments. Remember, Walsh, you started this.”

Before Vincent could respond, Bennett walked out of the room and made his way to the observation room.

“What does he mean by that?” Anita asked. “What’s going on?”

The young doctor shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, Anita. Let’s get you all set.”

Reluctantly, Anita nodded and hopped into the table that had replaced the chair that Rasha had been in.

“Now, you remember how this is going to work right?”

The teen nodded. “A small current is going to go through my brain and make me a superhero. I have the general idea.”

Vincent chuckled quietly and shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re gonna hold that against me.”

Anita smiled as Vincent started attaching straps to her and placing the metal device on her head. It was cold and instantly wiped the smile off the teen’s face. She could feel it tighten on her temples as Vincent adjusted the size, and remembered Rasha’s face as her temples bled from the burns.

Vincent nodded. “Alright, you’re all set. I’m gonna run into the technical room and we’re gonna go through the same thing as we did with Rasha. I’m going to ask if you can hear me and if you can, I need you to respond with ‘yes, Dr. Walsh, I can hear you.’ That way we’ll know if the mic in this room is working properly.” After a brief pause, he lowered his voice. “You ready to go?”

Anita nodded, unable to find her voice.

“Okay. You’re going to do great.”

As Vincent went to walk away, Anita grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t let me end up like Rasha,” she muttered to him. “Please.”

He nodded. “I won’t. I promise.”

The red-head let go of his wrist, trying to hold back tears and nodding.

He walked into the technical room and pushed a couple buttons.

Anita took a couple breaths to ground and center herself, all the while trying to push the image of Rasha in this same spot in this same room with the same terrifying device on her head.

“Anita, can you hear me?”

Anita looked at the window to the technical room and nodded. “Yes, Dr. Walsh, I can hear you.”

“You’re gonna be okay, Anita. This is just like we talked about. And if you get cold feet at any time before I pull the final lever, let us know and we’ll stop the test.”

She nodded again, feeling her heart race in her chest.

“Beginning sequence,” Louise said from the technical room. “The machine is warming up to 5 milliamps.”

“Begin the countdown from twenty, Louise.”

Anita’s breath became shaky. This was it. This was her last moment as a normal person. From here, so many things could happen, the worst of which was dying on this cold table.

“Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen, fifteen…”

Her heart was pounding so hard she could almost feel it in her head. She wanted to run away as far as she could.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six…”

This was it.

“Five, four, three, two, one…”

Anita held her breath, waiting for pain to shoot through her.

“Engage.”

Anita felt a jolt run through her. It started in her head and worked its way through her body, causing pain in certain areas. The largest concentration of this pain, however, was in the back of her head. She wanted to scream and shout, but no sound came out of her mouth. She suddenly became unaware of where she was or what was going on. All she could remember was the pain.

Suddenly, it was over. There were no sounds, no pain, nothingness. Before they could turn the machine back on, Anita scrambled to undo her bonds and take off the accursed device.

Vincent came running into the room, worried about the sweat-drenched teen attempting to pull herself off the examination table.

“Anita? Are you okay?”

Anita looked over at Vincent.

“I feel...funny…” she muttered.

“Do you hear anything?”

Anita, trying to catch her breath, continued to stare at Vincent before straightening up in a moment of sudden realization.

“I can hear your voice,” she said in awe. “You’re in my head….”

“What do you hear?” he asked.

She continued to stare at him for a few moments, processing this new thing she could do. Finally, she spoke in a voice that almost didn’t sound like hers.

“And now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds...”