Ha, yes! I’m still alive! Saywer’s still alive! All of them are! (For now.)

Here I am with the twenty-third installment of Broken Reflections, my superhero origin story serial! Please enjoy!

(All the parts are listed HERE, and I hope that you’ll read through them!)

This hour passed a lot quicker than the first. Alla and I conversed every once in awhile. Although I was glad when I heard the cellar doors clang open.

“Sawyer’s next,” Andy announced, reclaiming his napping spot.

“Really?” I nervously stood up.

“You’ll be fine.” Colleen Ada briefly touched my hand. I felt a rush of confidence, though it mostly left when Colleen Ada reclaimed her hand.

I nodded in thanks, and walked to the cellar. There were wooden stairs leading down. It was light, but from my angle I couldn’t tell what lay below; awaiting me.

With one last look at the bored teenagers, I headed down the stairs and closed the door behind me.

The room wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. First off, the whole room was bigger then the house above, and that’s not even including the multiple closed doors leading who-knows-where. Next, the room was empty except for Dr. Eugene standing expectantly a few feet away.

“Sawyer, you looked scared. You can’t even tell that you have thousands of scars you’re so pale! Relax.” His words echoed throughout the empty room.

I nodded, though when you’re in a closed cellar with an “abilitized” man, you can’t exactly “relax”.

“Follow me,” Dr. Eugene said. He started walking away.

I hesitated just a moment before following him. Dr. Eugene stopped almost, if not exactly, in the center of the basement.

“Stand here.” He pointed to literally the exact center of the room. At least, from what I can’t tell. But I’m pretty sure that it was the exact, exact center.

Nervously. I stood where he pointed.

“First we’ll test for the basic, stereotypical abilities; flying, invisibility, invincibility, and the such.”

How did he test for invisibility? Or worse, invincibility?

“Don’t move,” Dr. Eugene ordered, then walked off and disappeared into one of the many doors.

Now, when someone tells me not to move, I instantly want to move. I squirmed and shifted from foot to foot, though I tried to stay still as hard as I could, but I’m not sure that I did a good job. Scratch that – I did a horrendous job.

“Are you ready?” Dr. Eugene called.

“Uh, for what?” Something flew at me, and I dropped to the ground as hard as I could. “What was that?”

At least twenty more somethings flew at me. I was breathing heavy and my shirt was drenched with sweat despite the cool weather when Dr. Eugene came out.

He took a look at me and looked disappointed. “Did even one hit you?”

I stood up shakily. “What were you doing?”

Dr. Eugene walked behind me and picked up the fallen objects, which I could now tell were daggers, each wickedly sharp.

“Were you trying to kill me?” I demanded.

“Well, I was hoping to have at least one hit you so I could test your invincibility. Pity.”

Clara’s accusation didn’t seem too far off right now. And how on earth was I going to literally survive an hour of this?

“What if I wasn’t invincible?” I asked.

Dr. Eugene shrugged.

“But I’m most not likely invincible since I’ve got cuts all over me.” I jerked up my sleeves and held out my arms for evidence.

Dr. Eugene just shrugged again, then went to a different door. I was cautious, since I didn’t know Dr. Eugene would “test” me for next.

He was in there for awhile, before the floor underneath me began to shake and rise. It wasn’t the whole floor, just a five foot square, maybe. I began to panic, and I almost jumped off, but something held me back, and I had the same feeling when I was in the hospital; as if I had no control over my actions. Dr. Eugene.

“What are you doing?” I called, not expecting an answer.

“Testing your ability of flight,” Dr. Eugene replied, stepping into the room, and walking in long strides towards me.

“And how will you do that, exactly?” I asked cautiously.

“Oh, there are a number of ways to be sure,” Dr. Eugene responded airily. “But since you seem to be scared of getting injured-”

“Who isn’t?”

“-we’ll do the safest way,” Dr. Eugene said, ignoring my statement.

Dr. Eugene walked around the hole in the floor. I couldn’t see what was holding me and the cement slab, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know.

“And that is?” I asked, motioning with my hands for him to continue.

But Dr. Eugene just waved his hand dismissively. “Bah. You’ll find out.”

Unless I died first. Dr. Eugene really was a madman.

Once Dr. Eugene was done pacing the perimeter of the hole, he stopped in front of me. “So are you ready to fly?”

“Uh, no. I can’t fly. Believe me, falling from a tree and breaking an arm doesn’t sound like flying. And that’s another strike for invincibility right there.”

“Huh. Just a real quick test.”

“But I don’t want to,” I protested.

Dr. Eugene looked up from the floor, and his eyes met my green ones. “Did I ask?” There was an edge to his voice, sending chills up my spine.

I tried to hold his gaze, but my eyes reluctantly dropped.

“Good.” His voice now sounded more upbeat. “Now jump off the platform.”

“What?” He was crazy. Though I was only seven or so feet off the ground, I certainly didn’t want to jump onto concrete. And I also didn’t want to do what Dr. Eugene told me to do.

“Jump. Hurry up.”

“I don’t want to. That’s not safe!”

Dr. Eugene sighed. “You can either jump off, or I can make you.”

What would he do to me?

“No. I’m not committing suicide.”

“Okay.”

Lightening fast, projectiles flew towards me. The daggers.

I dodged them. Unfortunately, I fell to the floor. And it hurt.

“So no on the flying,” Dr. Eugene muttered.

Pain raced through my left arm, which was laying under me. I braved a glance at it, and saw my arm twisted in a funny direction. I grimaced, and averted my eyes.

“Come on, stand up,” Dr. Eugene said.

“I’m not sure if I can,” I snapped, pain filling my voice.

“Sure you can.” Dr. Eugene grabbed the shoulder of my hurt arm and hauled me to my feet, raising a yelp of pain from my dry throat.

When I stood, my arm hung limp at my side. Instead of my normal pale skin tone, my arm was a mixture of black and purple.

“This is the same arm I broke three years ago,” I ground out, pain pulsing through my arm, as well as the rest of my body.

Dr. Eugene waved a hand at me. “Hush, I’m trying to think.”

“And I need medical attention.”

“You’ll be fine. Nothing a few months of good food and rest can’t fix,” Dr. Eugene said absent mindedly.

“Good food and rest?” I began, but figured it wasn’t worth the fight. I slowly sank to the floor, using my good arm to steady myself. The pain flared for a moment, then it lessened a great deal.

“I need Alla!” Dr. Eugene said, then turned to face me. “I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”

“Where would I move to?” The pain flared again, my face tightened into a grimace. Dr. Eugene didn’t even give me a seconds glance as he took the stairs two at a time, to the world above. Natural light briefly flooded the dimly lite basement, but it vanished as Dr. Eugene shut the cellar doors with a thud.

I sat alone. Just me and my pain. The pain would come and go, agonizing flares of pain, then nothing more then a mosquito’s prick. This was different from last time I broke my arm, then the pain had been pretty steady, though it still hurt like crazy. Nothing as it now felt. I clenched my teeth, and balled my good fist.

Light once again flooded a small space of the basement. This time two figures came down; Dr. Eugene and Alla. The latter closing the doors shut with an echoing clang.

Dr. Eugene and Alla walked to me. When Alla got a good look at me, slumped on the floor, cradling a swollen and discolored arm, her face showed compassion, but she did nothing to help, not even a kind word.

“I need you to read him,” Dr. Eugene said simply.

Alla nodded and knelt next to me.

“Whoa,” I said. The pain was at a low right now, so I was able to keep my voice from cracking. “I don’t want you to do a bunch of palm reading or dark magic on me.”

Alla gave a comforting smile. “Don’t worry, I don’t like that kind of stuff either, so I won’t do it to you. I promise.”

Alla’s smile calmed my nerves slightly, that is until the pain flared once again.

“What are you going to do then?” I ground out.

“I’m just going to use my “sixth sense” to try and figure out what your ability is,” Alla said calmly. She took my good hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

The pain died down again, and I shot a glare in Dr. Eugene’s direction. “And we couldn’t have tried that first?”

Dr. Eugene shrugged, and went off to the door which made the floor rise, when he disappeared, the floor began to lower again. I inched away, so that nothing would get caught on the disappearing platform.