03-13-2014, 08:55 PM
Before the tour began, Nixie was led to the "basement". That wouldn't be part of the tour for the others, no. They would learn that place soon enough, by experience. And for now, it was off limits.
Nixie was led to a metal door at the other side of the staircase. Opposite the library door. The metal door would only open with a code, a fingerprint, and eye scan, so Nixie noticed. Once inside, the door closed behind them. There was no way out for Nixie now, not on her own, so Smith released her.
She followed. What else would she do? Fight? Then she'd be drugged again. She wanted to see this place down here, and know what it held. She might rethink those thoughts later. The long corridor they walked down was mostly dark. It was lined with more guards. Nixie wondered how so many people just didn't care what was going on down here. Perhaps they were just that well paid. Maybe they were brainwashed. Maybe they were robots.
Smith led Nixie to a room. The door was also metal, but slid open immediately. In a chair there sat Dr. Greenwich. An image flashed in Nixie's mind of him leaning over her. There was a bright light... The image was gone. A memory? Nixie stood there in the doorway while Smith filled him in on what had happened. She gathered that this man was called Doctor Greenwich. Then Smith was dismissed to begin the tour with Dr. Heyman.
Greenwich motioned for Nixie to sit down, and she very reluctantly did so. Dr. Greenwich surprisingly looked normal. Like a regular man. Almost kind of attractive. He had short brown hair, and glasses. The unsettling part of him, was his long white doctors coat. Was he even really a doctor?
Naturally, Nixie's heart rate quickened. Her breathing did, too. He smiled, it was also unpleasant. "Calm down Nixie," he said, knowing why she'd initially agreed to come here, and not wanting her to black out before he could conclude their meeting. "I'm not going to hurt you here," he reassured her, not lying. He would hurt her, and the others. He'd just try hard not to in his personal office.
He moved around his desk and offered his hand to Nixie, gesturing to two chairs against a wall that faced each other. She kept her own hands together, wringing them nervously. She stood though, and followed him to the chairs, somewhat reassured by his words that she wasn't going to be hurt. She sat across from him. "Tea?" he asked, offering a cup as he poured it via a small platter on the coffee table between them. Nixie shook her head no.
What was she doing here? Why had she been brought down here? What did this doctor want? They stared at each other for a moment. "Have you made any friends yet, Nixie?" he asked in a friendly manner. She frowned. What did that have to do with anything? She looked down at her hands. Somehow, she couldn't find her voice, even if she'd wanted to talk to Greenwich. She was too nervous, and scared.
Dr. Greenwich rambled on about the weather, and the living accommodations, to see if Nixie would open up. But she didn't. He sighed. "Okay then Nixie," he said, leaning forward. "I suppose you want to get right to it then?" She looked up at him finally. Right to what?
He stared into her eyes. Somehow his light colored eyes darkened, his pupil swallowing up the iris entirely, and Nixie looked away. Had he done that to anyone else, the hypnotization would have worked. But of course, Nixie who doesn't look anyone in the eye in a high stress situation, broke the eye contact. "Look at me," he said. But Nixie wouldn't. He stood and moved around the coffee table to sit on it in front of Nixie.
"Look," he demanded. But Nixie stared down at her own trembling hands, bangs in her face. She'd always thought of her bangs as a sort of barrier between her and the world. If only it would really act like that now. Dr. Greenwich grabbed a hold of her jaw and forced her to look at him. He made eye contact, and quickly burned through into her soul. He didn't waste any time losing her this time around.
He released her face, and clasped his hands together in his lap, watching her. With his mind, he calmed her. Her anxiety and stress went away, as did the trembling. She stared into Greenwich's eyes, unblinking, unmoving. When he was sure he had her, he closed his eyes, not needing the eye contact to keep her tranced any longer. She'd be that way until he said so.
When he was ready, he placed a hand on each side of her face, closing his eyes again. He began then to search her mind, her very soul. While seemingly being nothing much, it would be a very degrading feeling when he was done. He was able now to see anything he wanted, to reach into the deepest depths of her feelings and see memories even Nixie couldn't remember. If he had all the time in the world, and it wouldn't cause death, he could watch Nixie's life from the very beginning, through her eyes.
For now, he was after something else. His mind pushed through hers, bypassing recent feelings and memories until he found exactly what he was looking for. When he had the information, he began maneuvering out, but something caught his attention. It was her memory of earlier in the yard. Dr. Greenwich would be pushing it, to stay in her mind any longer, but he wanted to see this.
He watched everything that had happened, through her eyes. So it would seem that the others were starting to show signs of their powers, too. Then they all would be. Pain now, in Nixie's mind. He could feel it. He'd been there too long. He pulled out as quickly as he possibly could, snapping the real world into view as his eyes opened.
Even still hypnotized, Nixie had begun to frown. One of those painful frowns one got when they were hurt or being hurt. Well, she was alive. He was only still trying to perfect his own power of digging into people like this, and well, he'd learned the hard way that he couldn't stay for long. It was only six or seven failures, so far. He'd get there.
Dr. Greenwich moved back to his desk, jotting down some notes. He'd found exactly what powers Nixie had. And, in that memory of hers, little tidbits of Caleb and Corynn's, too. It was only a matter of time before he got his hands on the others, literally, to detect their powers, too.
He snapped his fingers, and Nixie blinked, frowned, and grimaced. She dropped her head into her hands, her head was pounding. She couldn't even think straight for a moment. Finally, after squeezing her eyes shut and thinking hard, Nixie recalled what had happened. Unfortunately for her though, while Dr. Greenwhich had searched through her mind, he'd taken some of it with him. Bits and pieces of memories were missing, though she wouldn't notice yet.
He returned with a glass of water and two pills, offering them both to her. She instinctively moved away from him, looking down at her lap again. She felt, violated, and angry. What kind of person just went into a person's mind and soul like that. It felt as if Nixie had been completely revealed to him. Not in a naked sense, but the feeling was the same.
Besides, she didn't want those pills, she didn't trust him at all. Her head throbbed. "It's just Advil," he said, half annoyed. Nixie looked at them, taking them quickly before she changed her mind. Her head was splitting, and she couldn't handle it. When she finished the water, she looked at him questioningly, before looking away again. She hated him. She'd known she hated all the people here, but now she really really hated Dr. Greenwich, with a new level of hate. "You can sit there and pout all you want, or you can make conversation. You can't leave until an escort arrives."
That was just fine. Nixie crossed her arms and refused to look at or talk to Dr. Greenwich. Tears filled her eyes, but she refused to let them fall in front of him. "Fine then," he said, returning to his desk to continue doing paperwork.
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