She steps into the room with her head held high, an air of importance surrounding her. The doctors in the room stand a little taller, do things a little more precisely, and handle everything with a little more care. They're more cautious of what they're doing now that she's entered the room.

I watch her walk towards me, her heels clicking on the bright white floor. She doesn't make eye contact, instead completely ignoring me and making a bee-line for one of the doctors.

"The files." She demands. Immediately after, I head the sound of rustling before her heels begin clicking once again, coming towards me. She stops and stands right in front of me, gazing down at me with distaste. "Everyone leave." She says, and they immediately do.

It's just me and her. Her lips painted that familiar blood red while mine are chapped, pale, and peeling. Her eyes are the color of ice while mine are that of steel. Her sleek hair is pulled back in the usual bun, an unnatural blonde color while mine is a tattered disaster, cascading over my shoulders in uncontrollable waves. We look nothing alike. How can we be related? How can this horrible, evil woman in front of me, staring down at her own daughter as if she's nothing, be my mother?

The question I've pushed to the back of my mind now makes its way to the front, filling me with a sense of dread. It's a question I feel almost forbidden to ask, but one that I need an answer to.

"Do I have a brother?" I ask. My voice sounds almost foreign, like it's someone else's voice trapped in my body. The question doesn't elicit any kind of reaction in her, though. She looks down at me over her pointed nose, her expression staying the same. I stare up at her through my swollen eyelids, willing her to give me an answer.

She doesn't say anything for a moment. She turns her back on me and begins pacing across the room, her heels clicking rhythmically on the floor once again. And then,

"Where is the Right Arm?" 

I stare at her, wetting my lips before asking, "what?"

"You heard me." She snaps, turning around to face me. "Where is the Right Arm." When I don't reply, she takes a few steps towards me, staring down at me with an expression that causes shivers to run down my spine. "I know that you know where they are. Just tell me, and all this will be over." She holds her hands out, nodding down at my restraints. I notice for the first time that there's fresh blood dripping onto the floor again from my wrists.

"I don't know where they are." I reply, directing my gaze back up to her. 

"Don't play games with me, Venus Paige." She says quickly, her cold tone biting into my skin. "Where are they? Where's Thomas?"

I tug at my restraints again, growing frustrated with the conversation. Through gritted teeth, I say, "I told you. I don't know where they are." And then, "Why's Thomas so important? Why do you want him so bad?"

She looks up at the wall behind me, nodding once. Immediately after, two guards come marching into the laboratory room, making a bee-line for me. My eyes widen as I begin tugging at my restraints harder and harder. I ignore the stinging in my wrists and ankles as I try to throw my body out of the chair and cuffs holding my arms and legs to the metal of the chair.

"This is your last chance." She warns as the guards stand on either side of me. "Where is the Right Arm located?"

"I told you, I don't-" My raised voice is cut off by a sudden jolt of electricity running through my body. I feel paralyzed as my body trembles, my vision going dark except for the flashing lights that appear just behind my eyelids. I let out a bloodcurdling scream, but I can't really hear it. All I can hear is a faint mechanical buzzing. Time seems to slow down. There's no concept of it here, wherever 'here' is. I have no control over my body; no connection to it.  Am I real? Am I dreaming? Am I dying? Is this the end?

And then it's over. Like a light being flipped on, I can see again. I can hear again. I can feel my heart beating rapidly and wonder if it'll beat out of my chest. I sit as still as I can in my chair, willing myself to disappear. I can't feel my hands, but I can see them shaking uncontrollably. I don't meet her eyes, but can feel her staring at me.

Every atom in my body is shaking and trembling. I don't know how long I was electrocuted for.

"They left you, Venus. Your friends let you be taken. They sat back and watched. I don't understand why you're still protecting them.

"I d-don't kn-know where they a-are." I force myself to say, bringing my eyes up to meet hers despite everything in my body screaming at me not to. There's a fire burning there, thawing her icy stare. She's angry. No, not just angry. She's furious.

The back of her hand makes contact with my cheek, causing a white-hot pain to erupt in the area. My head flies to the side as stars begin forming behind my eyelids. I meet her gaze after a moment, her features blurred by the tears forming in my eyes. 

"Take her away." She spits in disgust, giving me one last glance before leaving the room, the sounds of her heels clicking against the floor echoing off the walls and following her all the way out.

The guards undo the cuffs on the chair only to replace them with a pair of handcuffs. I'm too weak to fight back. I can barely lift my legs to walk on my own. I let them haul me to my feet, their hands gripping my forearms tightly as they lead me out of the room, barely even able to make out the turns we take down corridors as we walk. My brain feels fuzzy. My body is numb.

They take me to a new room, completely empty except for the single metal chair standing in the middle of the floor. They force me down onto it, removing one handcuff and, instead, wrapping the small chain around one of the pipes running vertically on the ceiling above me before locking the handcuff around my other wrist, forcing my arms to stay up. I can feel the blood rushing down my arms as the guards make their way out of the room, leaving me sitting in the chair with my arms raised, the handcuffs wrapped around the pipe on the ceiling in order to keep me in place.

I can still feel small tremors running throughout my body every few seconds, which turn to every few minutes. I don't know how long ago the guards left me, nor how long I'll be in here for. There's no concept of time anywhere in this place. I slump back on the chair as much as I can before closing my eyes, my cheek still burning from the impact of my mothers' hand.