Crystal Children

Note: Experimental lab rats of the government, these five teens develop a mutation where they bleed (and cry) jewels. One doctor grows greedy, one guinea pig becomes suicidal and tragedy almost strikes. Can the rest find a way to escape before the greedy scientist bleeds them all to death ?

Chapter 1—Trapped Teens

Scientists of the government given the name “Elite” had begun a series of extremely controversial and underground tests exploiting the phenomenon of crystallization of tears and blood with certain individuals. The best subjects they had found as of late were five teens. There was Ismir, the eldest, who was from Turkey. She, like the others, had been chloroformed and brought into the laboratory without anyone’s consent. The next two in the test group were Youby and his twin brother Hasid. They felt pain in tandem, and did almost everything as a pair, but they had uniqueness about them. Then there was the youngest set of test subjects, the blonde Tessa and a redhead named Bea. None of the five knew what they were about to face when they awoke, but none of them were going to enjoy their circumstances at all.

“W-what happened ?”, Youby questioned, as he groggily awakened once the chloroform wore off.

“I don’t know, Youby, but I have an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. I am not comfortable with this place, whatever it is.”, Hasid agreed. The two brothers, against the code of machismo, embraced each other to give each other comfort.

“It’s so sterile and cold here.”, Bea said, shivering. Tessa, her friend, covered her with a lab-coat and cuddled next to her. The tender moment was soon interrupted by a group of researchers who began pinching the teens to cause them pain in order to cry. To get the men to cry was a bit more challenging but they had collected their tear-crystals for the day.

“No one gave you consent to do that !”, Hasid yelled, running toward the door before it was shut in his face.

“It’s better you hold your anger, Hasid. It won’t help us in this situation.”, Youby said, wisely. Hasid sulked and exhaled in frustration.

“You’re always right, Youby.”, Hasid stated, rolling his eyes, not admitting that he sometimes loathed how Youby had always been more intuitive than his brother and chose his actions and words cautiously. They would have to figure out a way to outsmart their captors, but for now, their minds were all drawing a blank.

Chapter 2—Bleed Them Dry

Over the next couple of weeks, one of the Elite became greedy in the collections she was making with the ‘test subjects’. The weakest of the teenagers was showing some rather negative side-effects from the ‘crystal collection’. Bea was suffering the most out of all of them, and was looking rather emaciated. If she lost anymore blood from the collections, she would certainly die.

“Bea, you can’t sulk like this, it’s not like you.”, Tessa said, trying to hold her friend’s head up to see the light coming in from a window in the cell the adolescents were being held in. Bea couldn’t look at the light and she groaned at how bright it was.

“We’re all going to die, Tessa. You know that, and so do I.”, Bea said, fatalistically. For once, Tessa believed her best friend was right.

“We won’t die, Bea. You need to pull yourself together. The only reason you’re weak is because of that female scientist. She’s the one that has wanted our blood and she’s been going to any lengths to get it. I propose we find away to bust ourselves out of here…”, Ismir stated, her dark eyes glimmering with hope.

“And how do you propose such an escape, hmm ?”, Hasid stated, with some anger in his tone.

“Hasid…please. Let’s hear what she has to say.”, Youby answered, calmly before Hasid could fly off the handle at her. Ismir began to map out her plan by drawing with a nearby twig that had happened to fall into the cell in which they were being held on how to escape. Ismir was the only ‘crystal child’ who held a secondary ability to the phenomenon of crystallized tears and blood. She could sense where the exits were in the building and knew exactly what to avoid (such as security cameras and laser-trips for alarms). This ability was known as ‘geo-psychometry’, or in layman’s terms, “seeing the blueprint of any building and knowing it as if she had lived there her whole existence.

“So, now we have a method…we just need to know how to implement it.”, Tessa said looking at Bea. Bea was still quite weak but she would be perfect bait to lure the one female scientist away from her colleagues long enough for them to start following Ismir out of the god-forsaken place in which they had all been entrapped.

Chapter 3—Escape !

Bea had begun acting as if she was deathly ill, but this wasn’t really that much of a stretch considering her recent condition. As soon as the greedy scientist came to bleed Bea of what little blood she had left in her veins, Hasid finally got to act out in violence as he had been wanting to the entire time he had been imprisoned.

“Normally, I don’t warrant such action, brother, but that witch deserved it. Lord forgive her trespasses.”, Youby said as they slipped by the unconscious woman.

Bea had to be piggy-backed by Tessa as the remainder of the teens followed Ismir to a series of hallways. The whole facility was labyrinthine and any normal person would’ve found themselves lost without hope of ever finding an exit in sight.

“Oh, thank heavens. Maybe once we find ourselves in civilization we can get Bea to a hospital. Bea, hang tough ! You’re going to make it.”, Tessa said, as a verbal pat on the back for her best friend. The weakened red-head held on limply to her friend’s shoulders as the five continued to walk towards civilization. They knew their escape would be difficult since the other scientists would be following them at any moment, but at least they had a fair advantage and were halfway to their destination.

Chapter 4—Sanctuary

Fortunately, before the scientists could ever know that their subjects had gone out on the lam, the group had found a nearby hospital, and Bea was taken in immediately. Not only did they find an acceptable blood type that could be fused into her own, but they had been able to give food to her and the other teenagers. Thanks to their records being current, the doctors had been able to locate their parents.

The scientists had not been able to find their guinea pigs, with no results. Thanks to the information they had given to the doctors (without telling them the reason why they had been hiding from the scientists to begin with), the doctors had been able to file their information in a password encrypted book that only the hospital doctors could access it.

By the time that the threat of the scientists had passed through the city, the parents of the teenagers had already shown up to take their children home, and all of them were euphoric simply to have been reunited with their families in such a manner, even though the circumstances were a bit surreal and unexpected.

Epilogue

Eventually with background work that the doctors in the hospital conducted, the Elite were shut down although they had found five more rare subjects to begin testing once again. They were a group that was motivated solely by greed and the “trade value” of their talent, not of the humanity of the subjects themselves. There would probably be more like the Elite, but so long as those doctors existed, they wouldn’t let another Elite have one snowball’s chance in hell to form.

Bea had fully recovered from her weakness, and she had been doing well just as her newly-made friends were. After their terrible ordeal, the five of them had remained rather close, and had become a “family” in ever sense of the word. Even though they were from different backgrounds and lived in unique situations, they were friends and family nonetheless. They had finally overcome the post-traumatic stress syndrome of the past and the awful nightmares they had faced, realizing they would never happen again. Sure, they were unique, and that set them apart from ‘normal’ human beings, but in this group they knew they held the common denominator of having their special ability. Throughout life, the five would remain close and maintain their contact no matter where they went or what they did. Their treasure was friendship and they would hold onto it against all odds, because that is what had saved them after all.

The End