Patterns [DESTINY'S STORY]

Lights blared open in a small white walled cell. Destiny's eyes flew wide and closed again under the piercing glare. There were two bangs on the door.

"Allright! Get up!" barked an older scientist's voice, muffled behind the heavy metal door.

This is how experiments D and K were woken up every morning at 7 AM. Experiment D, also known as Destiny, rolled on her stomach, silently, pushing her body from the cool tiled floor into an upright position. Her brother K, or Kyle if you please, was already up on his feet. Simultaneously they moved gracefully to the back of the cell, placing their animalistic hands on the wall. They had to wait until the personnel was done bringing in their food for the morning. Any sign of motion would result in a shock. Destiny had learned this the hard way, many times. This morning she took her brother's example, who was resting his head on the cold wall, eyes closed, calm, patient.
A few moments later the door slammed shut, a distinctive three bangs rigning fro the door. The "ok" signal. They were allowed to turn and eat.
This was routine was repeated day in and day out. It's probably one of the only set ups they do on a regular basis, and one of the only times where Destiny feels safe. She knows the drill. It's precise and timely. She is able to predict from her standing place at the back of the cell what sounds will come next; the opening of the door, the quick and nervous shuffling of working feet bringing in their food, their rather relieved stepping out of the cell. Pattern.

Like every other morning she got to her food before her brother, swallowing the mish mash of boring yet nutricious mush. It was full of everything they needed nutrition wise; the daily quota of carbohydrates, proteins, lipis, vitamins and minerals. It was filling, but rather tasteless. Rarely did they ever get anything different; the generally more tasty food usually came in the evening, if they had been good that day.

The siblings ate in silence, not that words were ever exchanged between them anyways. The both know only how to speak basic english; yes, no, up down, that sort of thing. Yet as siblings should, they always understand each other. Body language is their main means of communication, accompagnied with the occasional snarl, growl, roar...whatever. Words are never needed. Speak through sight, sound, smell...
Meals finished, two more bangs on the door. The cue to head for the back wall so that the workers could pick up their...erm....bowls and clean them. Kyle licked his sharp teeth clean and Destiny was now restless. Between the two of them she was the energetic one. She often paced the cell when she was by herself, always looking for something to do or pokijng her brother to play a game of sorts. This morning was not any different for her it seemed. It was for him however.
As the door shut once more Destiny shot him a playful smile, Kyle promtply ignored her moved to the center of the cell where he lay, rather quietly. Her smile faltered; since when did she get ignored? Fidgetting slightly she trotted to the center of the room, stopping short of her play mate a few feet. With a pounce she was on top of him, snarling playfully, demanding a game. He looked at her, death in his eyes, grabbing her by the scruff of the neck and digging her face down into the tiles. She whimpered slightly, thrashing about. Okay I get it. He let go and she scampered away. Never had she gotten such aggressive behavior from him, allright, they roughhoused on occasion and he pushed her around, but never did he put an end to a game so fast. This was not play; it was a warning. She crawled to a corner of the room, sitting down quietly watching her brother stay still in his spot.

They must have sat that way, in their respective corners, for hours. The air was dense, thick with worry from the both of them. Suddenly, the silence was interrupted with two loud bangs from the door. Their cue to kiss the wall once more. Destiny had gotten to the wall before her brother; he seemed to be taking his time on this one. She shot him a sideways glance, whimpering and pawing the ground slightly. She was demanding to know what was wrong. Kyle's eyes urged her to remain quiet, stop moving and behave, but it was too late...the scientist had seen this, and jabbed her in the lower back with a cattle prod. She bore the blow, feeling the jet of electricity spear through her gut. Destiny yelped, facing the wall once more in a flash. With the same boiling intensity as the electricity, anger raced through her veins, pumping through her bloodstream, but she remained still, fighting the urge to yank that pole out of his hands and jab him with it. Her attention was turned back to her brother, who remained still, facing the wall. The scientist slightly poked at him, mentioning something about coming with him. He, with what seemed to be a rather painful face, turned slowly to follow the scientist's lead, leaving his sister with a look that spelled "behave". She dared not watch him go, feeling her worry bounce back as loud as the slammed door.
After they had left, she trotted to the small window at the door, watching the scientist turn the corner into The Room. She hated that room. They strapped you to a machine that makes you run, along with something on your face that injects very dry and tasteless air into your mouth. Hours on end they would have to run on that thing. At the end of the session they would get thrown back into their cell, with minimal amount of drinking water. On the one occasion she had done one, Destiny was in terrible pain afterwards, chest pain, firey and persistant she had to be given a shot of some medication below her tongue. Something called nitroglycerin. They mentionned that it was because she had a problem with her heart, and that it was not shaped normally. They also mentionned that Kyle was the same. But as soon as the pain had gone, Destiny forgot about her heart, and how it could be shaped differently.

After watching the last of his tail slip past the door frame she grew restless again, wanting to know if he were okay. She paced around the cell, banging her tail on the wall, making noise in her worry. A face swam into the little window at the door, and she paused, watching it. It gave her a stern type look. She frowned, wondering if it wanted her to face the wall, but there was no indication about this. Destiny then snarled, showing off her row of impressive teeth. She wanted the face to go away; and it did. Pattern. Destiny would have to remember this.

For now she continued pacing, letting the hours creep by.

Bang bang on the door. Her cue to face the back wall. It opened, and slammed once more. She turned to face her brother who was now back in the cell. He looked…pretty good except for the fact that he seemed exhausted. She threw him a smile, and he returned this one; now that was the Kyle she knew. Trotting to him, greeting him with a coo. As she got closer she was able to hear his pounding heart; it was much louder than usual, but he seemed fine, so this fact was almost immediately forgotten. She was now able to lie in the center of the room with him for a few minutes while he was obviously trying to catch his breath. Being cooped up all day however made Destiny get up on her feet again to pace about. She was desperate for some kind of play with her cell mate, and she threw herself around the room, growling at him.
Something strange caught her attention however; she watched a slow grimace grow on her brother’s face, and was able to see all the color drain from it, turning from a light being tone to a complete gray. She stopped dead in her tracks. It was then that Kyle stood up in a state of panic, made an awkward type choking sound, and collapsed back onto the cold floor, crumpling under his own weight, limp. Destiny took a moment to absorb the situation before letting out an ear splitting shriek.
“Kyle???” the girl barked, making a wild grab at his shoulders, shaking him violently, calling his name in a flustered way. He did not respond. She yelped and snarled, roaring at him, trying desperately to bring some life back to her brother. The commotion got some scientists rushing outside the cell door, peeking through the window, yelling things at each other.

Bang at the door, but she did not budge; it was their fault if he was like this. Forget the wall now, she was not moving. To their great surprise when they came into the room she was hovering over his body, snarling viciously at the men. They yelled at her to make her way to the back wall, but she refused to move, her teeth bared, her tail arched in a menacing fashion. One of the men threw his cattle prod into the mix; she knocked this one down, whipping her tail, flaring the spikes on it. As a few of the scientists distracted her, another one made his way around her body, and shot her two tranquilizing dart, which stuck to her upper thigh. Destiny yelped, clawing at these, turning to face the one with the gun now. But her features grew weak, her shoulders slouching, the sounds escaping her mouth fading to silence.
She fell unconscious, slumping over her brother’s body. The men moved in quickly; lifting her up and away.

Destiny’s eyes fluttered open. She did not know where she was, she knew however she was not in her usual sleeping area. Groggily she turned onto her side, feeling sluggish, drunk almost in her motions, as the world came back into its straight position. Her head tilted backwards, peering at her surroundings; she knew this place, this was just outside of her cell, but what was she doing there? Kyle…..Kyle!!! Looking around desperately for him now, her getting up motions slow and retarded. The girl heard the sound of voices coming from somewhere to her left and she saw them; there was about 5 scientists, two of which she did not recognize, all wearing a strange, long light blue shirt, and sporting fabric on their faces. She saw her brother, still lying on the ground, heavy tubing protruding from his mouth. There was an irregular beeping sound coming from the machines that stood grimly around him. They began rubbing a yellowish liquid onto his chest, and raised a large stainless blade…

Before the one guarding her could even begin to realize what she was doing, Destiny was on top of the five scientists, flailing her tail around violently, shoving them away from her brother’s body. The men recoiled in fear as a raging Destiny crawled protectively over her brother, growling deep and menacing. There was silence for a moment as she looked them each in turn. The guard that was supposed to keep her down came into the room with his tranquilizing gun, but he didn’t have a fast enough reaction time as she looped her tail around the barrel of the said gun and threw this one over her shoulder. Two men began yelling at her, telling her that they wanted to help Kyle, screaming that they were there to save him. It was as though she had turned a deaf ear to their conversation, roaring madly at them, not moving. One of them began brandishing the cattle prod in her direction; she simply took all the blows, feeling the electricity racing in her tissues, feeling the pain of the moment but not budging.

This game was played for an hour, yelling and prodding, jabbing and snarling, with no result.

She. Would. Not. Move.

The scientists pleaded the girl, begged her to move. But she refused. She lay there, over her brother, glaring them down. All they could do now is watch his vital signs fade from the machines as his heart gave way, finally leading to the monotone sound of a flat line.
Destiny did not know what this sound meant, but she couldn’t hear his heart anymore. She lay her head on his chest, whimpering slightly, confused. What was going on? Why….Kyle? She shook his shoulders again, snarling at him, demanding him to wake up.
One of the scientists moved towards her, trying desperately to make himself welcoming. She saw this out of the corner of her eye, turned her head to face him snarling. When he was close enough she shoved him from his midsize, sending him rocketing backwards a good three feet. The other scientists rushed to his aid, as he waved them off, once again, now yelling at Destiny.

“You god damn BITCH. It’s your own fault he’s dead! Three fucking million dollars later and oh whoop little miss here decides that we are not allowed to save the fucker…” Her snarling slowed….save him? You were…trying to save him? Her face falters, shock now replacing the once angry expression. How could that be?? Why didn’t they tell her that before? The scientist must have understood her; body language…
“That’s right you fucking shithead! We were trying to save Kyle! You didn’t listen! Now he’s dead! Good fucking job!” he spat at her.

For the first time she cowered, removing herself from the body of her brother. He lay motionless before her, endless tubes making their way through his broken image...