P Is for Prisoner

Chapter 2
Two

Chapter 2

In her head, Jennifer Dancette saw herself as she never wanted to. Flashes of her brief and violent life whizzed by like comets, making a stilted, jumbled scrapbook of awareness that left her both dizzy and unsettled. One picture showed a happy, tow-headed young brat, gleefully hosing down the family dog (who looked absolutely miserable) in the front yard, a pair of smiling suburban parents looking proud and happy in the background. Another one flew by, this one a picture from softer days, as the little girl was finally old enough to attend preschool. She looked oh so terribly cute in that blue dress and shiny black shoes. Pictures of her first boyfriend, a child, Trevor, his name was, loomed. They kissed, while their parents looked on. They were only nine years old.

Then the pictures shifted, and in these pictures, the little girl wasn’t smiling anymore. There was an image of middle school, when her best friend introduced her to pot behind the bleachers on the football field. Then a rapid series of photos, and in each, a new drug, a new fix, a new man. There was one of the young lady arguing violently with those proud and happy parents, the subject of this particular argument forgotten, but the knife in her hand immortalizing the moment. Brief images of the time spent on the road, two months it was that she ran with Jose, trying to live life as best she thought she could. Pictures of the mural of tattoos that covered her skinny body like a second skin.

And there were pictures of the guns, of that beat up old mustang, and a hallway...a long hallway that she was being led down, shackled at the feet and accompanied by four female officers. Some of the inmates they passed were crying for her, some were laughing, still others yelling. Mutely, Jennifer bowed her head in this picture...and then all faded to a blinding white light.

A cold, metallic feeling around her neck jerked her to consciences, snapping her from the spell she had been held in. Back in the ivory Receiving Room, she lay naked on the cold floor, her furry face still wet with tears.

There were other people in the room now, talking and conversing with the man introduced earlier as Dr. Cade. They were of various species and gender, but all wore the white lab coat like an issued uniform. Numbly, Jennifer’s paw reached up to feel what was causing the cold, somewhat dulling sensation near her throat. Her hands brushed metal, and with a gasp, she twisted towards the mirror again, risking that horrible sight again.

It was a silver collar, pulsing and fretting with small, electronic lights. Beyond the fear of her form, that scared her worse, and she began pulling and tugging at it, heedless of the pain it caused her.

“You will want to stop that, Ms. Dancette,” Dr. Cade spoke from behind her, startling the kit anew. “There are a six separate fail-safe devices embedded in that collar to keep it on you...it would be in your best interests not to trigger them.”

If you know anything about humans, it is that we, as a species, drown in our fears. Constantly awash with suspicion and anxiety, humans have gradually adopted a fight-or-flight response in dealing with fearful situations. It is a reflex that perfectly mirrors animal behavior.

Her stomach turned again, but Jennifer bit her lip and glared up at Dr. Cade. “What did you do to me? What are you going to do?” She tried to stand, unashamed of her nakedness, but her legs would not support her. They knew better. “If you touch me, I’ll claw your eyes out!”

Cade sighed, and pulled his recorder out again. “Subject displays aggressiveness at twenty two minutes into the experiment, moving to pacify.” With these words, the doctor turned the device in his hand, exposing a host of red buttons on the backside. “Jennifer, I am going to be frank. If you cannot calm yourself, I am going to sedate you. You will comply with the process, or their will be consequences.”

“What process? Why am I a child?” The fire in her chest began to give her a little strength, and she found courage behind that warming heat. Knees wobbling like match sticks in the wind, she finally stood, the top of her triangle ears only reaching up to the doctor’s thigh. “What right do you have to do anything! Tell me!”

Her voice, high and slurring out of fear, held not a single note of threat within it. “I have no reason at all to explain the process to the test subject.” He said coldly. “However, in the interest of expediting your compliance, I will say this.” He turned to his orderlies, and dismissed them with a simple glance. They seemed anxious enough to go, for at that gesture, they fled from the room.

“The body you currently inhabit is not the one you would have arrived on Thera with, should you have ever visited our world. Our records show that though you robbed several Slider Stations, you never actually made the trip, so this might come as news to you.” He turned his back on her, and began pacing, his rat’s tail swishing almost angrily behind him. “You actually carry feline genes within your genome, in case you were wondering.”

“Why a skunk?” she blurted out, trying to maintain her composure. It was a battle she was losing...her stomach felt terrible, and her eyes were beginning to tear up again. There was an emptiness, something hollow within her, caving in. Unconsciously, she grasped onto the giant, fluffy tail, taking some solace in how soft it was as she held it around her body, covering her nakedness..

“It was in the queue,” Cade remarked as an aside. “That is not important, or it won’t be very soon. The fact of the matter is, you were condemned upon Earth to die, and die you will, but you be reborn as a child of Thera.”

Realization began to dawn on her. “So...you’re going to just leave me like this?” That...maybe that wasn’t so bad...maybe...

“No.”

She gasped and looked back up at him. “What do you mean?”

A slight grin lit upon the doctor’s long snout, and Jennifer’s legs gave out once more at the sight of the horrible thing. It was a smile devoid of any joy, an expression as far from it’s intended purpose as it could be. “We have a situation here on Thera that arose some time ago. I will not explain it in detail, but suffice to say the situation is why this Project was begun. We have been doing it covertly for sometime now, with the cooperation of Earth’s governments only a recent development. We have refined the process down to clockwork...100% success, 100% of the time. It is a systematic indoctrinate that will wash away your former personality, your prior life’s memories, and leave nothing behind but a child’s simple mind, ripe to be assimilated into Theran culture and society.”

Panic, though it had never left, once more coursed through her. This man was pronouncing her death, the death of self, and that terrified Jennifer more then the thought of frying in the Chair.

All her life, Jennifer had fought for individuality, believing, perhaps mistakenly, that standing out and not falling into line with the rest of the slobbering, idiotic world was the most important thing there was to life. Even though she bitterly and sadly regretted her life choices and where they had ended her up, she always took pride in the fact that she remained true to herself throughout. To wipe clean that slate, completely and utterly, to destroy that which made her...

“No...”

“Yes. Now, I am afraid I have reached the end of my soliquity.” He turned to an aide whom Jennifer hadn’t notice return to the room. “Dress her and make her ready for transport to the Academy. I have two more arrivals to greet before I make my way down to the lab.”

Hyperventilating, the little skunk squeezed her eyes shut and opened them several times, willing herself awake. Had she died back in Carol County? Was this Hell, this...sinister, cold man the devil himself? As she gasped for air, she felt a dampness around her midsection, then a pool of it around her knees. In her terror, her bladder had emptied itself on the floor.

“Get a mop,” Dr. Cade said shortly. “And a bucket with a rag to clean the subject with.” He looked down his long nose at her. “It won’t do to have it arrive in such a condition.”

Jennifer tried to cringe into the white walls of the Reception Station, but they remained solid, repelling her.

“I will take the child from here, Dr. Cade,” a woman’s voice, clear and gentle, drew Jennifer’s attention. Standing near that evil man was an angel, to follow the Heaven/Hell metaphor. She was clad in soft purple robes that billowed around her, spun by an unseen breeze, and her shoulder length, dirty blonde hair was styled to give her a smart and business-like appearance, despite the feral nature of her vulpine heritage. Long, tapered wings rested above her, held tight.

“Do not trouble yourself, Therisiani. I already have another of your attendants assisting me in this matter.”

Theresa shook her head. “I already cleared it with Olin. I need to go down to Tiera Raev anyway...Addy hasn’t been feeling well, and I think I’m going to take him home.”

The doctor whirled sharply, only now giving the winged fox his full attention. “He’s ill? How? Is it...?”

The vixen made an angry, short note. “It has nothing to do with the process, Cade. It is a fever, nothing more.” She turned away from the possum and stepped towards the huddled pile of black fur, Jennifer’s wide brown eyes taking in her every move. “It’s ok now, lovely. Things are going to be ok.”

“Please...I don’t want to die this way...like this...” the child said, pleading.

“Let’s get you cleaned up, alright? I think we can find something a little better then a bucket and rag to help,” she said, smiling serenely as she reached for the child’s small frame. Without warning, Jennifer lunged forward, snapping at the outstretched paw like an angry puppy.

“I’m not going anywhere! Take me back, please! I was ready...I wanted to die!” Jennifer glared at the two Therans, who exchanged a look between them. “Not like this...though...”

“I am most sorry, child, but this is the way things must be.”

“Try to touch me again and you’ll lose a finger!”

“Again, I am sorry,” Theresa said, reaching into a pocket of her purple robes. From it, she withdrew a device very similar to the one Dr. Cade had brandished earlier, complete with a multitude of red buttons. Sighing, the vixen glanced at the remote, and pointed at Jen, who didn’t have a second to react as a powerful current ran through the device on her neck, a numbing sensation, that dropped the world back into the ivory mists of Transition.