Battle of the Elements

I left my room after an hour of everyone smiling and laughing and celebrating until finally letting me have some time to myself.

I walked out of the door, feeling slightly guilty for lying to my father – I had told him I was going to get some air. I walked around the familiar castle until getting to a room I knew well, Alex’s room. I opened the door and saw him immediately. He was wearing some of his casual clothes and his hair hadn’t been combed. He saw me and his eyes widened.

He came towards me. I flinched, I didn’t want him to touch me. He stopped around a meter away from me, “Titania. I’m so-”

“Sorry? Don’t you dare apologize Alex. I don’t want to hear it. I came here for one reason alone, to tell you who I am now. Those labs changed me. I am not the same person I was before them. I am stronger, less naïve, and I have seen things that have changed who I am completely. I have changed Alex. You don’t know this new me. I put my pieces back together differently this time, and they are stronger than ever before.” I walked to the door, just before I left I finished off with, “So don’t apologize, I do not need your pity. I am better than that.” And I left.

Titania

I went to sleep and was greeted with the nightmares…

“Welcome to the Magical Inspection Program. I am your doctor, Doctor Misine.” The man with a pointy nose and rectangular glasses said to us as we walked through the laboratory. The white walls and floors, and benches that were covered in papers and unidentifiable liquids were clean and crisp. There were hundreds of giant glass windows leading into rooms off white tiles walls and floors, no furniture, and almost every room had one or two people in chains and covered in scars and wounds.

The guard who was escorting me to the labs pulled me along by the ropes that were tie around my wrists. The white walls and floors gave the appearance of cleanliness, until I walked past a window, inside the cell was a woman in a white lab coat, she was mopping the floor with a cloth tied around her face. I didn’t want to think about what she was cleaning.

We came to a final window. Inside was a boy, his chest was bare and had scars running through every inch of his pale body. His black hair was scruffy and he appeared to be sleeping – how he could sleep when the lights were so bright, beats me. There was something about him, something I couldn’t place.

Doctor Misine kept talking, “Here at the Magical Inspection Program, we strive to make sure our guests remain fit and as healthy as possible. We give them two hours a day out in the sunlight with the other patients, give them three meals a day, however, we must cause some discomfort with our tests. I hope you feel as at home here as you possibly can, Titania.”

I looked up from the boy and nodded. Misine opened a steel door – the only thing that wasn’t white in this place – and gestured for me to enter. I did, with shaking hands.

“Shane!” The doctor yelled.

The boy – Shane – opened his eyes, they were blue, but not just blue. Right near the iris was a deep, ocean blue, then, the middle was an ice-colour, and the edge of his pupil was a dark-blue. He looked up lazily, “Yeah?”

The doctor made an annoyed face, “This is your cellmate, Titania.”

Shane looked at me with thoughtful eyes, looking me up and down before closing his eyes again and resting his head against the wall, “Yep.”

The doctor’s eye twitched slightly, “Shane, say hello.”

Shane sighed, “Hi, let me give you a little insight as to what you’re going to expect here. The food sucks, the people are crazy, and the pain…well…”

“That’s enough Shane!” The doctor shouted, his vein was bludging. He looked to the guard, “You can go now, she’s in safe hands.”

And the guard left without glancing at me.

The doctor looked at me, his expression changed to something scary as he said, “Let’s get to know each other a little bit.” And he locked two chains that weighed a ton onto my wrist.

I saw Shane frown and his eyebrows arch as the doctor called in people in coats. They surrounded me and tore my clothes from my body. I heard Shane utter the few words before the people came at me with weapons I had never seen, “Easy princess, the pain will stop soon.”

“Titania, wake up.” My father said.

I opened my eyes. Shane was standing in the corner of the room looking at my father and I. My father was holding my arm gently.

“I’m ok.” I said to him.

He seemed worried, but he let go and placed my breakfast – two eggs, a slice of ham and a chunk of bread – on my bedside table and left my room.

Shane smiled. He had his arms crossed and he was leaning up against the wall. “You ok?”

I smiled, “I’m fine. Why are you here?”

“What, I can’t come and see you without a reason now?” he said.

I smiled, “Come here.”

He walked towards me and sat on the edge of my bed, planting a kiss on my forehead.

“I haven’t even asked you how you’re doing.” I said.

“I’m fine.” He said, tilting his chin up in the air.

“Seriously, how are you?”

“I’ll tell you how I feel when you tell me what’s been bothering you.”

I arched my eyebrows, “Nothing’s been bothering me.”

“Don’t lie.” He said sharply, “You’ve been feeling off for the last few weeks. You have been very absent-minded lately too. What’s wrong?”

I paused for a moment, not sure if I should tell him or not.

“Titania,” he said softly, “you can tell me anything.”

“I can’t.” I said, my voice cracking.

“Yes. Yes you can. I will love you no matter what.”

I shook my head sadly, “I know you will love me, but will you love it?”

He stopped, paused, “What do you mean?”

I shook my head, I couldn’t tell him.

He put his hands on my shoulders, “Titania,” he said sternly, “tell me.”

“Will you love the baby?”