Chapter One: A Proposal

Something was annoying the hell out of Jeb Batchelder as he tried to concentrate on his experiments. It had been three months since he had returned to the solemn and frightening mood of ‘The School’ after getting the flock ready to be able to survive on their own.

His annoyance was caused but an experiment in the other room. One of the older things was getting moody in her old age of 23. (This is insanely old for any of the projects). She was always demanding attention and starving her and beating her didn’t stop her cries. She merely called out ‘hey’ over and over again. It wasn’t a desperate ‘hey’ just a simple annoying tone of voice that could drag out a single ‘hey’ out for several minutes and she wouldn’t stop until you gave her the attention she desired. But there was so way he was going to feed her stupidity, still Jeb was on the brink of insanity because of that thing so he was going to have to do something about it.

“ARI!! ARI!! COME HERE!!” Jeb yelled angrily. Ari is Jeb’s 7 year old son who wasn’t quiet so normal. There is a large fast paced walk that can be heard barreling down the hallway soon Ari comes bursting through the door eagerly ready to do his fathers whim. Sadly the easiest way to describe this boy is a monster, if you didn’t know his story you would never know he was 7. He had the hulking figure of an adult grown body building adult. He was an eraser, when he was just 3 years old his father pretty much abandoned him at the School, and the scientists there did what ever they desired to do. Erasers are half human, half wolf creatures. Normal eraser could easily change back and forth either looking completely human or completely wolf, but because Ari wasn’t born an eraser he never looked completely human or wolf, he was always stuck somewhere in the middle.

“What is it Jeb?” He asked his father.
“What is it? What is it?!” Jeb said in a snappy tone. “Cant you hear that annoying racket coming from the experiment room next door?”
“The too be ‘retired’ room?” Ari asked
“Of course! What else?! I want you to go in there and silence that thing and you may do whatever is necessary to make it quiet!” Jeb yelled.
“Right…I will make it shut up.” Ari murmured. Ari turned and left the room, heading down the hall towards the near ’retiring’ room.
“Oh Ari,” Jeb added. “Don’t talk to her, she is extremely manipulative and will easily get into your brain!”

In the room the creature was still crying out. She looked like a girl around the age of 7 or 8, but she had the figure of a woman much older than what she looked. The experiments that she was put under over the years had stunted her growth. She had her hand placed on top of the cage she was in and she was lightly tapping on it with her nails.

“Heeeeeey!….Heeeey!…Heeeey!!” Even though she was so little the cage she was in was still too small for her and her legs draped out the other end of the cage. Her cage was stacked on top of several others.

The door to the room creped open and she looked forward at it excitedly. Finally there was someone out there kind enough to answer her. Ari stepped through the door way looking extremely intimidating but the girl just stared with her wide eyes waiting for him to come closer. As he began to walk toward her she started to talk to him.

“Hey kid! What are they thinking sending someone as young as you to greet me in this scary place?!” She asked in an extremely confident tone.
“I’m not a kid and you are crazy if you think I find a place like this scary.” He said in his raspy voice.
“And you’re crazy if you think I’m going to believe you are not a kid.” She pushed in. He scowled at her, wondering if there was really a possible way that she actually knew his age. She simply smiled back at him
“I’m not going to talk to you anymore,” He stated.
“Aw that’s sad, I really need someone to talk to, you know? Someone who actually knows the human tongue. It’s so sad but none of these other poor bastards know how to talk. I don’t even know if they even know what I am saying.”

“I’m not going to talk to you.” Ari repeated. “I’m here to make you shut up, that’s all and if you don’t do that willingly, I’ll shut you up for good.”
“Oooo that’s so scary, please don’t hurt me” Her confidence still remained which irritated Ari to no end. He rushed her cage but she stopped him without blinking an eye. She extended her figures, to around his head and one in the middle, extremely close to piercing his forehead. “Come no love,” She began. “There is no reason for you to get so hasty, I just want to make a proposal with you, that’s all.”

“A proposal?” Ari questioned.
“You know, a deal, if you do something for me, I’ll return the favor to you. How’s that sound?” She smiled.
“No! My father told me not to talk to you! I just came in here to!-” Ari was cut off.
“Oh why not?” She looked really sad and babyish after he said that.
“You are manipulative!” He shouted.

“Really? Do you even know what that means?” She asked. Ari just stared at her for a moment. “It means I’m only out for myself and that I am really to do anything and everything to get what I want, and in a way that is true. But I never go back on my promises, so if you help me out, I promise I’ll do something nice for you.” Ari looked at her wearily, not sure if he should trust this thing or not.

“What is…it that you want?” Ari asked.
“What I want is extremely simple Ari, I’ve been in this cage over 20 years, and I really can’t take it anymore. My time to ‘retire’ is coming soon, and I really don’t want to be in this cage when I go. I want my life to mean something, even if it’s not much at all. I don’t want my body burned and my ashes dumped away. I want to prove that I was truly alive, and that all the pain I faced in this world wasn’t for not.” It looked like Ari was lost but he just nodded in agreement. “So I want you to get me out of this cage.” She finished.

“Now why would I do that?!” Ari asked. “What good would that do me to let you go! I could ev-” Ari was cut off again.
“Are you ever lonely Ari?” She asked. He looked a little taken aback . “I think that’s a shame, children shouldn’t be left alone…Ari if you do this one thing for me, I promise to stay with you till the end and even beyond the end, you’ll never be lonely again, because when you need someone I’ll be there.”
“Why the heck would I want that? You could be the most annoying person in the world! I would gain nothing from that!”

“That is true…” She said. “Alright then, how about this, if you ever get annoyed with me or hate me, you can kill me. Kid, I’m on the verge of retiring, I don’t have the time to go shopping for a lonely little kid.”
“I-I’m not lonely!” He stuttered and she just smiled. “And I’m not so little! I’m way bigger than you are!” She shook her head at him.
“It doesn’t matter, when I look at you, I see a kid waiting for someone to care for them. Tell me Ari, if you are waiting for someone, and I on the other hand am looking for someone. Don’t you think its quiet possible that we are a match for each other?” Her voice became soft and caring. Ari looked away and down at the floor.

“Even if, I believed you, and agreed with you…how would I get you out of here with the security camera in here?” He asked. The girl peered up at the security camera moving backwards and forwards. Good thing those cameras didn’t have any sound to them or this whole idea would have failed. The girl just smiled, she released Ari from her ‘grip’ and smugly smiled.

“Don’t worry about a thing, love. If you agree to me, I’ll deal with the camera, so…what do you say?”
“…I’ll help you.” He said defiantly.
“Promise?”
“…yes…”

“Wonderful!” She squealed and clasped her hands together. Without moving her body she lifted her hand towards the camera. Her entire hand transformed into a blade and she shot it towards the camera in a flash, and completely took out the entire camera.

The camera’s screen FISSSHED and then went completely black.