Beyond the Thorns: A Novel

I yawn, drooping my features into a slight frown as the unnaturally hued blonde continued to ramble about random things. Her arm was fully healed now, though it's been less than a day. It shouldn’t be surprising after what she told me the previous day, but it still is slightly off-putting.

“Oh yeah, how about ‘The Fates’ for our name?” She spans her arms out dramatically.

“Aren’t those a trio? There’s only two of us,” I comment.

“Until we get another ally,” Cana grins.

“And who will that be? A Curio?” I quip sarcastically.

“No- wait, that's actually a good idea…” she strokes her chin to emphasize her thoughts.

“I was joke- that’ll never happen,” I hiss sternly.

“But…”

“No.”

“What if…”

“Even a Curio’s child wouldn’t, if they have children…”

She sighs, “okay, but hear me out, if a kid of a Curio came to ‘visit’ their parent and we befriended them… they could help us escape!”

“Great plan,” I drawl, “if that happened, the kid would want to work as a Curio, not to help Tested escape.”

“Ah, fair point, maybe I can look into the other Tested and find another ally,” Cana offers.

“Smarter than your other ideas.”

“Hey! I have smart thoughts!”

“Mkay, just go find a new friend,” I wave her off jokingly.

“I will,” she huffs, crossing her arms before spinning around. She stalks away and walks up to another group, me zoning out as she does so. If she does find another person that can help and is willing to do so, will their ability actually be helpful? If it is, how can we use it to the fullest?

I blink, causing a vision. It was late at night, the noises of partying came loud to my ears, a headache hit my brain like a brick. The clambering of unknown people most likely woke me up, I mutter a complaint under my breath and attempt to fall asleep again.

My sight comes back to the cold, sterile white walls of the monochrome Laboratory of my everyday life. A slight droop in my chest with the indescribable feeling of "what is the point" washed over me. If we do escape, the Curio will just hunt us down and do who-knows-what with us. It makes our hope feel useless thinking about it. No, thinking about the negative won’t help anyone. I need to focus on planning the escape. I blink out for a second and analyze my current situation, grounding myself doing so.

I see Cana in a small group of three boys and four girls, she was talking to one with dark skin and darker hair. Is that who she wants to ally with- a talkative male? Sure that’s a rational idea to get everyone on board with escaping, but what else can he do besides that? Could he do anything about the doors- or even better, a map of the Lab? I start to daze off until a loud alarm echoed, I get up and walk to the Yard, as the signal suggested. I fell behind most of the Tested, though I clung carefully behind the people before me. Nobody wants to stray from the group during location transfers, it could -if not did- lead to immense pain or the occasional death.

A large crack of a whip was heard beside me, where two girls were conversing jolt in fear. One of them getting a large gash in their back, though she doesn’t respond at all, no cries of pain, only a faltering of the step and silent weeping.

“No talking!” A low, violent voice growls out from the whip’s holder. I cringe at the now-bleeding incision on her back, the white uniform stained and torn from the inflicted wound. The girl, who was now leaning on her friend, cried silently. Not a noise exited her lips as her tears made their way to the floor. Though no one else acted in sympathy towards the sudden violence, they simply kept walking. Silent, straight, and mindless. Though it’s to be expected, if they didn’t they’d end up like the girl. Or that’s what anyone in their right mind here would assume.

I think back to my vision, the one of open fields and real sky. I remember the ruins of the Laboratory, but not as I envisioned them before, it was fully upright, the door hanging wide as Curio quickly processed what occurred and started chasing after us. A Tested boy ran down to face the Curio. He looked back with bright blue eyes, smiling as he essentially sacrificed himself for everyone. We all ran, dispersing into a dark forest, I rested in some foliage as Curio and other unknown people scoured the place for my location.

A chill of something unknown crawled up my body. Was that another vision? This is strange… I’ve never seen two visions that come off of one another. But it seemed so realistic, almost like it’s what’s bound to happen.

“Mist! Look! I told you!” Cana’s hyper voice startles me out of thought.