A River's Melody: An Innocent Murderer (Aurum)

Sophie
"In the arms of the angel, may you find some comfort here." A pretty girl sang while she stroked a 6 year old's head. Sophie smiled sadly to the little boy and watched as his eyes stopped glowing an eerie green and faded into a normal shade of brown. She put her hand to his cheek and looked at his face. "Are you okay now? Will you be able to stay calm if I go for a bit?"

The little boy nodded his head and wiped a tear from his cheek. "I'll stay calm, Sophie." Without warning the kid wrapped his arms around the girl and smiled. "Thank you for coming to sing to me today. You're sure you aren't like us?"

A giggle escaped her lips and she kissed the boy's forehead. "Nope. I'm afraid not, Jake. I don't have a cute tattoo like you do." She pointed to the ink that stained the boy's perfect skin inside his elbow. A black flicker of flame danced there and disappeared when he bent his arm towards him. "Sorry. I need to leave now though." The girl stood from her spot on the bed and turned back to the boy to ruffle his blonde hair. "You be good now, okay? I will be back later tonight once I do dinner rounds. Yours will be the last so I can talk to you the most." She poked his nose playfully and earned a smile from him.

"Okay! I can't wait to see you!" He replied, giving her one last hug before she walked out of the fireproof room. As soon as she closed the door, her face dropped its happiness and was replaced with sorrow and defeat. All day she had been making rounds to those who called for her, and for some reason today was her busiest. She walked down the hall and into a large area where scientists sat at their computers and microscopes to gather information. Sophie looked to a black haired man who was overdue for a clean haircut.

"Anymore work for today before I take my dinner rounds?" She asked him, waiting for him to look up from his work and answer her question.

A big smile passed over the man's face and he leaned back in his chair. "Yes, ma'am! We just got a new specimen for the tattoo project. Everyone is very excited! They also thought you should bring him his dinner last, so you can speak to him for a little while if he is talkative tonight. If not, I am sure you would like to sing to the little ones before you head home." He explained. "Haley doing better than yesterday?"

With a quick nod, she replied, "oh, yes! Her fever went down and she is having able to levitate just as well as when before she came down with the flu." Her thoughts rushed around in her head. A new person? How many more were going to pass through those solid, locked doors? She wondered. "Anyway, I will hurry up with my runs and then head for the new person's room. Will I find their information by the food?"

"As always, Soph." He said simply as his eyes moved to the computer again.

"Alright... Hope you get some rest tonight, Adam. You have been working too hard for your own good." She joked and smiled before heading off to begin her simple dinner routine. She made a wide circle around the entire facility so that she could get to everyone's room without having to do too much work to get the job done. When she reached the last two trays of food, she found the batch of information on the new experiment on a simple piece of paper, drugged food, and Jake's food. Letting out a deep sigh, she took up the tray with details and started off to the new room.

Upon entering, Sophie looked at the slip of paper for a name for the newcomer. "John... Mehteeleh?" She shook her head and read the last name once more. "Mahtillee? Oh, I am terrible sorry. I didn't mean for my first impression to be having trouble with names." She apologized and felt embarrassment sink into her stomach. The girl walked over to the table and set the tray of food down. "I've come with your evening meal. If you have any questions, I can answer a few now." She looked at the paper again and her eyes widened. He was sent here because of a faked murder charge? Could this place get any worse? "I am also here to talk for a little while if you want. I can't be too long though. I'm sorry. Is there anything you will need for the night that I might be able to get you?"
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John
John slowly looked up at this girl's face. He studied her for a second, thinking that she didn't look like a normal guard... more like a scientist. Though strange, he didn't really care much. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered right now.

When he had been taken here, the security took him to this strange windowless room after confiscating some of his possessions. They didn't treat him very well. Why should they? He was a murderer. They kind of just threw him in not caring what would happen to him later. He had plenty of time to think about what had happened. John willingly came with the guards. He remained quiet on the way there. They drove to a fairly large building, much larger than a normal prison. It also didn't have many of the staple features. No extremely high walls, no fences, and it didn't look like there was a guard outpost. John thought that was peculiar. Then they led him through the doors. John paid close attention to his surroundings, but it looked like a normal building, almost like a hospital as being the closest thing he could compare what he saw of the layout to. And now he was back in the present, waiting for something to happen.

Still, she seemed kind. Kinder than the rest of the people around here, though she did butcher his last name. She was different, somehow. He had plenty of questions to ask, but he figured not all of them would be answered. For starters, they took his necklace and ring when he came in. John wanted to know where they were placed and if he would ever get them back. The ring wasn't extremely important, but the necklace was. John would be devastated if anything happened to it. He also was curious what the name of the man that he killed was. He COULD even ask if the food was good, but that wasn't an extreme priority. The possibilities of questions were endless.

He realized that she had been there the whole time he was thinking about the strange circumstances. The boy quickly said, "Sorry, I was lost in thought. It's pronounced mare-tea, by the way. Thank you for coming. May I ask if you know where my necklace went? I was wearing one when they came in, but they took it from me. It means everything to me, and I would like it back, but right now I just want to know if it's safe."
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Sophie
The brown haired girl looked at the boy and then at his name on the paper again. She smiled and took out a pencil from her pocket. "Mare-tea? Okay! Thank you for telling me." She scribbled the name on the paper to remind herself how to say it correctly.

When her brain finally registered his question, her face fell and she let her eyes moved back to the new specimen. "A necklace?" She questioned and searched her information for anything about it. "Um, well, I don't have any record for it, but I bet they took it only for good measure. I will ask about it before I leave. Normally we don't get rid of possessions and give them back for good behavior." She tapped her pencil to her chin. "I bet I can bring tomorrow morning if it will ease your worries." Her face brightened and Sophie placed her things back in her pockets.

"For now if you don't mind, please eat up. You will need all the energy you can get for tomorrow morning. I have been working here for quite awhile and I have noticed the sudden lack of energy after the first morning here." She advised.
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John
His hopes rose slightly. If she could bring it tomorrow, the wait here would be much easier to endure, no matter what happened. John stared at the food she brought him. It looked like a bowl of soup, some bread, and an apple. The soup looked a little strange, but it IS jail food, and no matter how weird the jail is, it probably still has the weird-tasting food. He was not very hungry yet, however, and he still had questions, so he only picked the apple off of the plate and took a small bite out of it. She hadn't revealed her name yet, and as easy as it was to talk to her, it put a barrier in front of him not knowing someone's name. He thought about it and decided that she looked like a Jillian, though it probably wasn't her actual name.

"May I ask what your name is?" John asked inquisitively. "It would be better for making conversation." He looked around the room quickly, searching for any hidden cameras. As he didn't see any at first glance, he also asked, "Could you also tell me the name of the man I killed?" The police had told him some of the members of that infernal gang who had been hospitalized because of him. As much as he hated them, he really didn't want to kill them, though Kristin had died.
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Sophie
The question was almost never heard from the girl's older patients. She was always asked "Where am I?", "What have you done?", and "When do I get out?". All of them made the girl feel a pain in her chest that reminded her that she was a part of this. The nice thing about it was the suffering was slowly becoming so normal that she couldn't notice it.

"My name?" She wondered loudly before smiling and sitting down in one of the chairs in the room. "I am Sophie. You will most likely be seeing me a lot now for food and the occasional check in, so I guess knowing my name is a good idea, right?" She crossed her legs and thought about his other question before speaking again with a caution hidden in her tone. "I don't have that information. Sorry... I can only tell you that your work starts in the morning."

Having perfected half truths as most scientists did, she showed no sign of telling it. However, she felt the normal pang in her heart. This boy seemed like someone who needed to be taken care of... with his tangled hair and almost kind eyes, she felt like he couldn't have been accused of such a horrible thing. Why did his family and friends... why did he believe it?
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John
Sophie, huh? He could see that. He paid attention to the way she sat down, the way she moved, her voice tone, everything to try to have a small clue of what her personality was as he ate his delicious apple. Most of the time, John did not eat fruit, but with limited rations, he made an exception - especially since it was so juicy. As for the other question he asked, he wasn't really surprised. It's not like people go around telling other people everyone this guy murdered. He just figured that it would be nice to know. Oh well, he thought to himself. "Nice to meet you, Sophie. How has your day been?" he asked.

John kept looking at the soup; there was something different about it, but he couldn't tell what. He stirred it around for a little while, and seeing no evident change, he was about to taste it, but found it strange to eat soup in front of someone else while having a conversation. Then he realized that he just ate an apple in front of her. He decided that there was not much point in trying to look polite anymore (especially since he had killed someone) and took a sip of it. It tasted strange, but there had been stranger tastes. He then inquired, "What kind of work do I start tomorrow?"

He felt his mind losing a slight focus, but he shook it off. He felt like this was an important question to ask, though it may have seemed commonplace to her. He started to lose focus again, and this time it was harder to break. He had the nagging feeling that something was wrong.
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Sophie
A small smile appeared on her face as she watched the boy for a moment with apologetic eyes. "My day has been rather busy. I have been tending to the others here." She commented. Her expression changed to one that showed her displeasure for her job a bit more as he ate his food. "I just finished most of the dinner runs."

Sophie shook her head and smiled kindly to the boy as he asked his other question. "Oh, it depends on what those who are higher in power want you to do. You could be lifting stuff for all I know. Sorry I am not much help, John." She said. Soon the boy would be passed out and she would be able to leave without seeming rude. She could also go see Jake if he wasn't asleep already... then she would probably ask a co-worker to drive her home since she couldn't keep her mom stranded at home all day while she was at work.
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John
John heard her and registered her words, but was quickly losing focus. He didn't understand what had happened... He looked down at his meal, scanning the plate for anything suspicious. The soup! He thought it looked weird, but only now did he realize why. How foolish of him! Unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything to stop it, only to wait it out. His mind was quickly fading, but he had one more question:

He mustered the last of his remaining energy and asked weakly, “One more question before I slip into unconsciousness: why did you drug me?” He didn’t get to hear her answer as he slumped in his chair.
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Sophie
The question was like a physical blow to her as he passed out from the sedative. Why had she drugged him? Because she had no choice... If she hadn't, she would have no job or she would be stuck in this facility until she co-operated... No way they would let her leave while she was refusing to do anything. With her luck she would become an experiment if she stopped working.

She closed her eyes gently and sighed, trying to release some of her worries and leave him for the scientists to deal with. Sophie opened her eyes again and walked out of the room as she saw the stretcher coming down the hall with five different scientists rushing down with it. "He just fell. You guys just get better and better at getting here shortly after the patient settles." She complimented dryly.

"Thanks, Soph! You can head home for the night." A woman named Jessie said before helping the others get into the room. The girl walked off and held her head high to show that nothing was wrong. Her feet lead her to the last dish of food and she frowned when she realized how long she had been. Her hands grasped the tray and placed in the microwave close to heat it back up for her little friend. Once it beeped at her, she headed down the hall to get the fire boy to eat and sleep for the night. Right after she planned to head home to catch some shuteye before tomorrow came and her heartbreaking job restarted.

As for the white coated people, they strapped the sixteen year old onto the stretcher and dashed him to a new room for his ink injection. This new room was just as his room was in color, but there were monitors of different uses and sizes. The place was definitely more like the facility was meant to be; a laboratory. This room had a window to another room in case the higher ups wanted to watch the specimen in a closer aspect than through a small t.v. screen from some security room. It also made for quick emergencies of something were to go wrong. The scientists wouldn't have to go too far to get to the experiment.

After placing John on a chair with restraints to keep him upright while he slept, another man came into the room wheeling a table of tattoo and medical instruments. He pulled up another chair and sat in front of the boy. The man picked up a sheet of paper from the table next to him and scoffed at the drawing that he would be duplicating on the boy for the day. This was there best? It looked as if one of the children from the patient's hall had drawn it. It was an insult to his skill. The drawing nevertheless was what they wanted for the boy and he obeyed the men above him on the food chain.

The man took up his needle and got to work, drawing wavy lines and sharp tips down the boy's entire right arm. They curled around his skin and almost seemed to move with his muscles when the artist moved John's arm. To keep himself from feeling annoyed at the lack of skill in the drawing he was supposed to do, he decided to be a bit creative and add his own style into it so what was supposed to be ocean waves were more realistic and worked around his arm instead of being stale, straight.

When he finished, the guy wiped up the blood and completely wrapped the boy's arm in bandage to help with the bleeding and healing. Seeing as how some of the scientists previously there had been watching from the window, they were inside the room again in a matter of minutes, putting John back on the stretcher and bringing him to his permanent home.

Sophie drove off to the facility in her beat-up truck and parked it around the back. She locked it up and walked in, grabbing a coat as she entered to find one on a hook. When she got to the main research room, she picked up a clipboard and put a pencil behind her ear. "So, all I have today is watching John? Isn't that a little much?" She asked to no one in particular.

"Sophie, you have done harder jobs. Why are you complaining?" Breathed a middle aged, grumpy woman who stared at a blue computer screen.

"No, it isn't the work." She corrected. "It is that watching over means staying in the room with him until dismissed by someone because of testing. You sure he really wants that much company when he first gets up with the horrible pain?" She asked, locating a nearby syringe that was most likely filled with a painkiller.

"Relax, he will be fine. If he gets violent, just call in and leave. No need to fret over something so small." She grumbled. The poor girl sighed and shrugged.

"Alright, see ya later, Catherine." The girl picked up the syringe and walked off to the boy's room. She opened the door and sat down after closing the door. Her legs crossed and she looked to the messy clothed boy as he slept on his small bed. Could she get away from humming to herself to keep herself occupied? She took the chance and quietly hummed to a soft melody in her head.

Coming out of that terrible effect was difficult. He expected that.

What was harder for John is that he lost most of what he analyzed when he came. He lost his knowledge of how thick the walls were, the layout of the building, even his previous room's appearance. What he didn't lose was his knowledge of how he got here and how he was drugged.

When the police had knocked on his door, John knew that he was going to be arrested. He still felt the traces of the burning anger against the members of the Green Fire, the way he felt when Kristin had died, when he had seen her beautiful but lifeless body. He felt the pain and the grief from that event. John still remembered every blow he dealt to those sadistic, cold-blooded killers. He felt slightly guilty for killing one (or perhaps more) of them, but they probably had deserved it. Then the police took him away.

But they didn't take him to a prison. No jail, at least not really. They took him to what seemed like a lab, which John thought was strange. Too bad he could only remember that far. Along with one other event: Sophie.

John was surprised he could still remember her name after basically having his recent experiences shredded. She walked in. He remembered his analysis of her and wondered if she truly were kind. But he couldn't mistake those eyes for anything else, so John couldn't place the blame entirely on her. She most likely knew that the food had been drugged, but it's unlikely that it was anything personal. It WAS her job, after all. Even still, John realized he'd have to be more careful around the food.

Next thing to figure out: why did they drug him? He tried moving his legs. Worked fine. Next came his arms. One of them worked perfectly, but out of the right arm came a sharp pain not unlike being stabbed with quite a few needles. It was then that John realized his arm was wrapped in a fair amount of gauze. He probably should have realized that sooner, but to be fair to himself, he had just recovered from being drugged and had woken up in a new place. He started to unwrap the gauze when he noticed a presence in the room, and John decided to wait and see what this interesting facility had in store.

"Hello."

Sophie
The girl stopped her humming and looked up to see the boy trying to take off the gauze. She slowly moved over and smiled with sorrow in her eyes. "You may not want to take it off just yet... It will hurt more once the sedatives wear off and the gauze tends to ease the pain more." She advised.

Sophie stayed just far enough to not be touching him as she leaned down to stop him from uncovering his arm. She hoped desperately that he wouldn't lash out at her like some of the kids did. Many of the poor souls through tantrums and kicked and slapped her for getting too close. Luckily she didn't have it as bad as Sasha... grown men tended to leave cuts and bruises all over her when they woke... compared to her, Sophie had it easy.

"You can see it once we get more painkillers to you... but until then, removing the bandages will hurt more than you hurt now."

John noticed Sophie was a bit tentative around him. He wasn't sure if it had something to do with experience from other prisoner's reactions or if she thought that the betrayal would make him angry and aggressive towards her. If this had been before the event, maybe it would've. But John honestly didn't care. He didn't trust Sophie, that's for sure. But he also felt this nag saying she wasn't the bad guy. Perhaps it was right, but he knew he still couldn't let his guard down entirely around her.

John lightly brushed Sophie's hand away. He knew that taking the gauze off would hurt. It seemed pretty obvious to him. What he wanted to know was what was underneath, especially since it was in so much pain already. Still, he stopped unraveling the gauze. Maybe he could just ask her. And about that necklace, too. John still needed that to keep any of his hope alive.

"I just wanted to know what's underneath, since it hurts terribly. I'm guessing this is why..." He stopped for a second, about to say you, but thought better of it. Sophie probably lacked the ability to take that statement full-force, based on what he had already seen. Though he wondered what her response had been to that last question in the first room. He finished with, "...why I had to be drugged."

"Do you know what is under the gauze?' he inquired. "And about that necklace... I really do need it back..." He winced and stopped as another sharp pain shot through his body.

Sophie
The worker nodded and sat back down at the table and took the clipboard to right down some notes. Note: Find out about Necklace. Information: Told him about tattoo, drugs, and necklace.

"Um... The reason there is gauze is because underneath, you have something to a tattoo. The scientists here have created a type of ink that has the ability to give humans powers of some sort." She started. "The bandages are to keep you from losing too blood since we used normal tattoo procedures to make sure the ink took effect. Oddly enough, this normally cause more blood to come out than if we were doing a regular tattoo. We aren't sure why so we just adjusted our routine to giving painkiller and gauze to the patients for a longer period of time than what is normal."

"As for why you were drugged." Her face saddened and she let out a sorrowful sigh. "It's so the patient doesn't feel any pain while the procedure is being done." Anymore information at this point was frowned upon. With the security cameras set in the room, it was hard to be able to slip more information about the drugging to John without getting a loud lecture about classified information.

"As for your necklace. I am not quite sure where it could be, but I will try to talk to the rest of my group to see if they know where it might be." A smile appeared on her sweet face. "I made a note here to make sure to look for it. Anything else you need, Mister... Mahtillee? Ah... I'm sorry. I am really no good with names and I know you told me how to pronounce it." 

Sophie rubbed her temples as she noticed a headache beginning to form. Just another thing to top off the day for her. She made a note to herself to take a Tylenol before entering the kid's room today.

John found it quite amusing how little she remembered. It was almost as if Sophie had been drugged. Oddly enough, right after that, she rubbed her temples, which made little sense to him. Had his lighthearted thought been correct? More likely than not, she's probably just tired from working, John decided. And what a job it must be, especially caring for people in likely a secret facility that experiments on people, giving them strange tattoos with special powers.

Speaking of which, John wondered, I'm quite interested in these so-called tattoos. If they really did give people special powers - and who's to say that the tattoos even work - what kind of power did it give to him? Knowledge of that could be useful later on. And it seems Sophie might be the only one half-willing to give it to him. Or maybe he'll find out on his own.

And again, she dodged the question about the necklace. What's going on in this place? John realized that it's unlikely he was actually here because he committed a crime, since not EVERYONE in here could have possibly murdered someone and been taken here as punishment. No, the place for a murderer is prison. Where he should be. Maybe he should play along, see if anyone in this place feels guilt.

"I think you left a note on your paper earlier about how to pronounce my name. Unless you were just scribbling. Anyway, it's Mare-tea. And do you know what kind of power the tattoo gave me?" John did his best to sound slightly irritated, then excited, but he knew those weren't his true emotions. Rather, he was intrigued by this whole facility and hoped to learn more about it.

Sophie
Poor girl was hurt slightly when she thought about the note from earlier and noticed it in the clipboard. "Gah... I'm so sorry... Mare-tee, Mare-tee, Mare-tee..." She repeated. "Wonder if I will be able to remember it if I repeat it enough times... It seems to be almost as hard as 'Kadlaboski'" She sighed.

Sophie looked at the clipboard again and noticed the strange markings at the time. "Hm... I believe this is your tattoo... Looks a bit like water..." The drawing on the side of the paper went half way down the paper and up with two parallel lines on either side of the tattoo. sharp strokes jutted out of one side of the middle line. "Or spikes... Maybe you will have control over water, or you could have the power to grow spikes... or maybe you can control the moon's orbit! You know, control high and low tide? that would make sense, wouldn't it?" 

She sat back in her chair and placed the board in her lap. "Honestly, no one knows what power someone will get. We try and narrow down the possibilities but we can only ever make educated guesses by the look of the tattoo. I think one time there was a boy who had an apple with a worm in it as his tattoo. He was able to grow plants! It was really cool to see him grow an apple tree that could fit in a small room and it would have apples blossom from its branches..." She sighed she remembered before looking at the boy she was in the room with. 

"What do you think? This is your tattoo." She turned the paper to him and pointed to the sketch.

John thought that the drawing was extremely basic. A second grader probably could have drawn something better. Regardless, it did look vaguely like a wave, which likely meant his power had something to do with water. Sounds cool. He always liked a bit of water, especially when he was thirsty. Anyhow, his power sounded better than the poor guy with the trees. That wouldn't be fun. But there must have been something else about that guy, because she sounded glad to talk about him.

John decided to feign a bit of ignorance. It usually helps draw knowledge out. He still suspected she wasn't telling him everything. "I'm not sure what I make of it. It looks a bit dull, though. Anyway..." He winced from the pain again. "Anyway, will I ever get to meet any of the other people here? And are all of the people in this place... did they all kill someone, too?" If John had a term to describe what he was doing, it would be called guilt-info. He noticed her emotions have some sort of power on her, so maybe if he could raise enough guilt, he'd get some better answers. Not like he wanted to hurt her feelings. She just got caught in the crazy crossfire of his mind. "And what ages do you deal with here? Do you have children?"

John felt like a bit of a jerk. But again, he needed to know some of this. And really, he didn't care what he felt like anymore.

Sophie
The shy one placed the clipboard on the table and listened to his questions with clenched fists in her lap. "I... We..." She tried to say, her words getting caught in her throat. She closed her eyes and breathed slowly before she tried to speak once more.

"There are lots of people here. Many of them different ages and I take care of the children who are here. I help them get whatever they need and keep them from throwing big tantrums." A small smile came to her face. "You could say I am the mother of the section of people I take care of. They put you with me..." 

She wasn't sure why she was responsible for John. Sophie looked up to the boy and tilted her head ever so slightly. "I don't know actually. You should be in block 4 with the adults." Her index finger touched her lip. "That's strange. I didn't think of that till now!"

The girl shook her head. "Sorry, distracted myself. That happens often. I hope it doesn't bother you too much..." She apologized and tried to remember his other questions. "I don't know if you will be able to meet others in the facility. They don't normally give me that information." Tears welled up in her eyes and she brushed them away casually. "Um, with what I told you about the block I take care of, yes, we take care of kids here too."

"Any more questions?"

John didn't know how to react. There were so many conflicting emotions inside of him for once. On the one hand, it seemed that he had indeed struck a soft spot, enough to make her cry. He didn't entirely want it to go THAT far, only far enough to actually get information. And about the information... They kept KIDS HERE?! WHAT WAS THIS PLACE? He couldn't even pretend to want to imagine how those little things were torn, probably mercilessly, from their families. John was having a rough time deciding if he wanted to go and comfort Sophie, who really was as soft as she seemed, or charge out of the room and take on the entire facility alone. How, he wasn't sure, but John couldn't just stand by while they took children. While they took Gabriella...

He flashed back to the incident with the bear. After he had run out and found Gabriella, he saw probably a 10-foot tall bear. He probably wasn't even exaggerating; that monster was HUGE. "Walk backwards, Gab. Quickly now. I'll do my best here." She was a bit tentative at first, then went away. Hopefully she'd go tell their parents about it. Then he wouldn't be long.

The flashback ended when he felt wet. In fact, he didn't only feel wet. He looked wet. And so did most of the room. His sink appeared to have burst. John wasn't sure how. But something like that usually meant that something was wrong with the plumbing. He didn't have much of a problem with that, except he couldn't explain how the entire room got doused. Maybe Sophie saw what happened, he thought.

"Final question: what just happened???"

Sophie
The girl knew exactly what happened. Her experience with people with the tattoos had assisted her in more than one occasion. Thank goodness they prepared rooms that meet certain requirements for the possible powers. She could remember one time needing to use a fire extinguisher to keep herself from burning in a nasty flame because a specimen letgo of his control on his emotions. Another time came into play when a little girl was having trouble breathing and all Sophie had to do when reach under the bed and grab a tank of oxygen.

She stood up and opened the endtable by the boy's bed and pulled out two towels out of four from the table. She tossed one to John and kept the other to dry off her arms and legs. "Don't panic, someone will be in shortly to clean up and get you some new clothing." She smiled, hoping to comfort the boy with her confidence.

"It's one of your powers. I think you let an emotion get out of control or... maybe you were thinking about something important in your life and the water in the sink reacted. It's hard to understand how someone's power works when you don't have one... but I try!" She giggled slightly and sat back down on the chair with the towel under her.

Her mind wondered as she became curious of what the man was thinking. "Um..." She trailed. "Is there something you want to talk about? I don't mean to be pushy or nosy. Just curiosity I guess. I don't mean to ask a lot of questions."

The towel landed squarely on his chest. John winced in pain because the impact moved his right arm a little. He had listened to her words, searching for any deception whatsoever in her light tone of voice. He didn’t find any, which either meant she was telling the truth, or she was an amazing liar. Either way, Sophie had told him quite a bit of information already. John doubted she needed to tell him more. And if the water was controlled by his emotions, there shouldn’t be too much to worry about, since his mind almost always had control. Sure, there were times, such as a few minutes ago, but they were rare to start. With this kind of power, John knew he needed to be a bit more careful. Otherwise something might end up wet that wasn’t supposed to be.

John took a deep breath to gather his thoughts back together. As long as he wasn’t trying to amplify Sophie’s emotions, he couldn’t amplify his, so he tuned the conversation down a few levels. “Well, I’m all for stories of other people if you’re willing to share. It might also give me a hand in being able to channel my power better.” Sophie, John could see, was truly a sweet person. Maybe if he got on her good side, things would go more smoothly for him here. Based on his observations, she had a huge heart for the people here. If his plan worked, Sophie might end up siding with him.

Unfortunately, the gauze was soaked by the large splash. It wasn’t sticking, so John decided to remove it. What he saw under the gauze was more realistic than the drawing on the paper, almost like it flowed down his arm instead of remaining stationary. Only a true artist could have done this kind of tattoo off of that weird, vague drawing. He decided to also ask Sophie for more gauze, since the pain throbbed through his body. But it was cool to see the tattoo. “And when you leave, could you get someone to bring more gauze?”

Sophie
The girl smiled and walked back to the end table and reached in and pulled out a roll of gauze. "I don't think it is too wet from the water, so it should work fine." She exclaimed as she grabbed her chair and moved it closer to the bed to help John with his arm. "I can get this done quickly!" She smiled and lifted his arm gently to pull the rest of the wet gauze off.

"Stories... hm..." Her mind wondered and she felt a bit of pain well up in her heart. "Most people I have taken care of are no longer patients of mine... They either didn't need me anymore or were re-assigned... It's sad really." She began wrapping his arm with the dry gauze. "But this one little boy, Geoffrey, he was a fantastic kid! His power was to imitate the sounds of different objects and people. I would also walk into the room and jump at the newest one of my co-workers voice coming from the little kid." She giggled. "It was a blast."

As she secured the bandages, she looked around the room. "What about you? You have to have some funny stories about your life before... this, right?"