The Elementals - 7. Abyss

*Ray’s POV*

10 Years prior to Tom’s 14^th Birthday

“Madam, we found a boy, still living, in the ruins. What shall we do?”

“Take him. To have survived this whole ordeal is nothing short of a miracle. I also want to do tests and see how he survived this whole nuclear ordeal.”

And that’s how I came to meet Ms Natalie Oakley. A cold-hearted woman who loved science more than her own child back home. She put on a good motherly face the first time I met her (essentially, I was 4 years old during that little intro scene) and well I fell for her charms. I fell for the whole “mother and son” thing she had started because my own biological mother had hated me and was now dead.

After coming to the lab at age 4, they ran some standard procedure tests. Then a week or two after my arrival, hell began.

“Raymond, honey, come here really quick,” Ms Oakley said in a sweet motherly tone. “Can you be a big boy and follow these gentlemen to the room they escort you to? Can you do that for me?”

“Sure Ms Oakley.” I replied, naïve to the torture and hell I was about to experience.

Upon arrival, I was shoved into this tiny 5m x 5m room with only a ventilation system and nothing more. The room was damp and had a stench I couldn’t recognise, but already detested. I would later learn that the smell was that of death, or better put, the smell of all the people who had died in the hands of these monsters.

“Tomorrow we start tests on subject 01105. Please have him ready by 07h00 as we need to begin as soon as possible.”

And so, at 07h00, I lost my innocence and I descended into an abyss of sorts. The tests we rather cruel. Apparently, they had discovered a genetic mutation in my blood that had allowed me to survive the nuclear “accident” that had happened in my hometown.

The first test was seemingly harmless. They exposed me to rather small doses of radiation. At first, it was non-lethal doses of radiation then they began to increase the exposure till essentially the radiation levels were so bad that I felt the effects. My blood oddly began to boil, and my skin felt like someone had set it alight and kept adding fuel to keep it burning. My entire body was searing with pain. After a minute or so (though it felt like hours), I noticed pieces of my skin bubble up and fall of like some nasty, slimy substance. All the screams that I had suppressed began pouring out now and I began screaming for Ms Oakley to save me. All that screaming didn’t help and after another minute, they stopped the test and the radiation dosage diminished until there was none. Oddly, my body began to regenerate, albeit at a sluggish rate. This unfortunately grabbed the attention of the monsters and they wanted to test the extent of my “healing” abilities.

So, after my body had fully healed that day, they began a new method of testing my capabilities. They bought in a highly skilled doctor/assassin (as I’d later find out) to test my capabilities. I thought method 1 was bad but this was absolute sadism. He began by piercing my body with a surgical knife in any area he deemed non-lethal to me. Once he saw my wounds heal rather rapidly, he decided to try a new method. He asked for a grater because he wanted to peel my skin. Now, I want you to imagine a block of cheese moving against a grater. What does it do to the cheese? Well, that’s the image I want you to have as this man began grating my skin off. To say it hurt would be an understatement. I nearly blacked out from such torture. The worst part? He was laughing and enjoying himself the whole time. He had an erection for crying out loud! I screamed till I couldn’t anymore, and all my skin had been peeled off. Once he decided he was done, my body began to heal. Now, the previous wounds healed quickly, but these wounds were oddly different. It’s like my body was “secreting” a new coat of skin and it was painful, but not as bad as being grated like fucking cheese.

For 4 years, tests like these continued interchangeably. I eventually grew immune to pain itself and I became like my tormentor. I quickly became cold, emotionless and a sadist. That is, until I met Ms Oakley’s son, Thomas. At first, I thought he was another test subject until I saw how the staff and Ms Oakley herself treated him. I grew enraged at this fact until he looked over at me. At this point in time I was 8 years old and so was he, so we knew nothing about love, but the fact that he ran over to introduce himself to me ignited something in me. He was the embodiment of all things pure and innocent. He spoke fast, but not enough to make you lose track of what he was saying. He was a very attentive listener and we soon became friends. When they weren’t running experiments, Ms Oakley would bring him in and we’d play outside. The visits ceased one day, and I’d later find out that he had school and was only here because it was summer vacation. For that short time, I had a reason to live, a light that I wanted to see, and nothing was going to stop me. I started planning my escape to see my reason for living (and to obviously get away from these monsters).

A week prior to me implementing my plan, a new test was run on me. A serum of sorts was injected into my body. For an hour nothing happened, and as the doctors we about to call the operation a fail, I died. It was instantaneous. One minute I was taking in a breath, the next I’m dead. The doctors rushed in to resuscitate me, but it didn’t work. After 4 minutes, they had to declare me dead. In a weird turn of events, an hour after my death, I came back to life. Unfortunately, I was being supervised by a doctor who believed that I would come back to life (damned doctor). After that, they ran some new tests to see what I had acquired during my death period. They noted that my brain activity was way off the charts for a normal being and wanted to see of I could manipulate anything using my mind. It was then that they discovered elemental manipulation. They took samples of my blood and ran tests on it. They also ran tests on the serum by injecting it in animals and humans who they’d bought in. None of those tests subjects survived. It was then declared that only my blood (without the serum) could trigger the capabilities. Also, they noted that my regenerative capabilities had ceased to exist, meaning that I had lost a power to gain a new one.

After a year (now aged 9), Ms Oakley assigned me “parents” because Tom had been pestering her about when he could see me again and why I didn’t go to school and other stuff like that. To keep him from running his mouth, she managed to get me to live with 2 gay and “happily” married scientists, Peter and Paul Edwards. Thus, I became Raymond Charlie Edwards, son of Peter and Paul Edwards. After that, life wasn’t so bad. I got to hang out with Tom occasionally, and then that all changed when that bitch Jordan arrived. Around that time, Blake had left Tom and it was just me and him. He wasn’t his usual cheery self and I tried to ensure that he was at least content.

Jordan arrived, and Tom was smitten. I knew because I was deeply in love with Tom and I knew the look all too well. I tried to get Tom to notice me or to even treat me like he treated Jordan, but it looked like I was a jealous boyfriend and Jordan noticed it. After that, he began laying on his charm and Tom got even closer to the bastard.

A month before Tom’s 13^th birthday, I’d had enough of his shit and cornered him on one of his night walks. It was then that I discovered that I wasn’t the only elemental user and that I wasn’t even the strongest. I wasn’t supposed to use my powers and I had hoped I’d spook Jordan, but in the end, he spooked me by telling me he’d expose me to Tom if I didn’t leave them alone. Naïve me did exactly I was told, and I ignored Tom out of fear. I only saw the light on Tom’s 14^th birthday and was ready to let him know my thoughts and how much I loved him. I never got to confess my love to him because Mr Overbearing was there. The highlight of that night was Tom falling into my arms. I swear I saw a hint of disappointment at first then a look of him being awestruck by my smile. I didn’t get a chance to say a word before Jordan stole him from me (have I mentioned that I want to kill the bastard and have been planning to do such since last year?).

After I while I got bored and was about to leave when I bumped into and fell on top of Janie Phillips. Now, to any bystanders, it looked like we were about to kiss and to her boyfriend, Blake White, I was practically about to fuck her. And thus, a massive fight broke out between the 2 of us and as such the party was disbanded. We left the house and unbeknownst to me, that would be the last time I would see Tom with a smile that beautiful on his face and the last time I’d visit him at his house.

He was about to live my nightmare. One that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. One that I wish I could have saved him from.