Severance (News! News! Check the News!)

My dreams were uneasy. Walls were closing in around me. I was a test. A test. I was something extraordinary. I was built for something more than I knew. Test. I wasn't made out of love. But wait, yes. A rebellion. I was a way of rebelling. Love. I rebelled. Against love? No. For love? Quite possibly. I was a tool, a test. A test. Geographical features meant nothing. A sequence, math. There were numbers. A sequence. More numbers. Math. A test. I was a test. This was a test. I failed.

"Chancey?" My mother shook me awake. Tears were streaming down my face I was tossing and turning, trying to fight her off. "Chancey! Ray! Get in here!" She called. My father came through the door, as the two of them tried to wrestle me down.

"Get off of me!" I shouted. I finally relaxed and let more tears crawl around my face.

"Chancey, what was wrong?" My mother asked.

"Just... A bad dream." I assured her. I heard the howl of my dog downstairs and I sprang up and rushed down the stairs to tie her to the leash and walk her.

What was my dream about? It was scary... I knew that. It definitely played up my claustrophobia. Which was bad. I shrugged it off and kept walking Trek. He was a bigger dog, golden with dark green eyes. I loved him. I walked him for nearly a half hour, before rushing back home and remembering I had to get ready for school.

I rushed that too. I yanked a brush through my red hair, tied it up in a pony-tail and grabbed my glasses and backpack, heading out the door.

I don't know why I wear glasses. I don't need them. They're really just thick frames with plastic lenses, but something about them makes me feel better, so I wear them. I look good with glasses... Better than without, and I seriously think that these help me see.

"Chancey, what are you doing?" My friend Dellin asked me. He motioned for me to sit down next to him, so I did, putting my backpack on the floor. He touched my glasses and laughed. "Why do you wear these?"

I pulled them off and looked at him. "Because I look so dashing in them." I told him, batting my eyelashes and stuffing the glasses back on my face. He rolled his eyes and turned to look out the window as we pulled up to the school.

I had known Dellin for as long as I can remember. Our parents used to work together, or be best friends or something... I don't know. All I do know, is that his parents didn't seem to like the fact that I was a girl... But, there really wasn't much that I could do about that... I loved his dad, Dennison. He was the one who seemed to think that it was okay that I was a girl. Dellin's mom wasn't so sure... Jayla. She wasn't very tall, but she was blonde and skinny, and looked to be about half the age of Dennison and both my parents. Whatever. Dellin and I always played together when we were little. Both our parents really encouraged the violent videogames, saying that it prepared you more for the real world than some stupid game about collecting jewels and freeing dragons.

We walked into school together, and sat down at our first class.

School was boring, except for when Dellin decided it would be funny to put a tack on the teachers stool. I have to admit, seeing Mr. Bernicelli fly through the air screaming was highly amusing.

Dellin came over to my house afterschool, and we played around with the Nerf guns, played some videogames, and chilled around with Trek outside. He had to leave around six though, which left me alone in the house until around ten, something I was kind of grateful for.

The phone rang around 9:30, waking me up as I had dozzed off in front of the TV.

"Hello?" I answered groggily.

"Miss De Occa?" The man on the other side said. His voice was stern, harsh even.

"Yeah, that's me." I said with a yawn.

"I'm calling from Duma Science. Are your parents home?"

"Nah." I answered casually. "They'll be home later. Want me to take a message for you?"

"No, Chancey that won't be necessary." He said. I froze, much like how my mom's fork had frozen yesterday during dinner. How did this psyco know my name?

"What did you call me?" I asked.

"Chancey De Occa." He answered. "We know everything about you. Social security number, how much money is in your precious little savings account, which school you go to, and even everything about your little friend. Dellin White? Yes, Chancey. We've known about you for quite a while, and we have to say that we're impressed that we've been kept a secret from you for so long. We'll talk later, Chancey. Your mother is about to ring the doorbell." The line went dead.

The doorbell rang, sending me nearly out of my skin. I was shaking as I went to answer it. My mom stood there, hands full of groceries. There was never a day where she didn't grocery shop...

"Finally, Chancey! What took you so long?" She asked. She set the groceries down on the kitchen table and looked up at me, running a pale hand through her red hair. "Anybody call."

"No." I answered, lying. I didn't like to lie, but if my Mom didn't want me to know about this Duma Science place, I was going to find out about it. She couldn't keep it a secret from me forever...

I rumbled through my backpack, pulling out a math worksheet, and doing it within five minutes. Easy.

Dad came home a little while later, as Mom made dinner. I ate in silence, thinking about numbers, math, Duma Science, and my dream. Somehow my dream had tied into this whole thing, but I couldn't remember enough about my dream to remember what the connection was.

I did little in the ways of activity after dinner. I said goodnight to my parents and snuck up to the computer again, looking up keywords like "Duma Science", "Numbers" and "Love", which I had remembered from my dream. A single article came up. It was from 1994, and the article had much crammed handwriting.

"Duma Science is proud to release their newest test! The L.O.V.E. experiment, which stands for Langchester Oxnio Versitile Experiment will start Monday. Eighteen couples, have been selected at random to compete in an experiment about the Oxnio. These couples will each be asked to have one child. One child only, and raise that boy as they see fit. When the boys reaches the age of sixteen in 2010, they will be taken from their parents and used for the final testing procedure, which shall be announced, prior to the actual event."

The notes in the side said words like "Oxnio = Oinxo" and "Chess and Ray; Den and Jay; Me and her, but what's the other one?" and even other things like "Participants at random? I think not. Ray, we all know what's really going on here, and The Boss is most definately behind this."

Boys? Oxnio? Oinxo? My mind was racing, but this still didn't explain anything about the numbers, until I noticed, in the tiniest writing, at the top of the page, was "4 16 20 10 19 96" I couldn't figure out what those meant, but I'm sure that they meant something.

"Chancey?" My mom asked from downstairs. I cleared the cashe quick and dashed to the bathroom silently, waiting twenty seconds before flushing the toilet and stepping out.

"Yeah, mom?" I asked. She noticed that the computer was on. STUPID! I told myself.

"Uh... nothing. Just... get some rest, sweetheart." She went back downstairs and I curled up into a ball at the top of the stairs, waiting for around half an hour.

The house was quiet. There was no wind, and my heart was the only thing moving. I kept my breathing silent and steady, and made sure that Trek made as little noise as possible as he lied on my bed.

"Do you think she's asleep?" My mom asked finally.

"Yeah." My dad answered. "Chess, I don't know what to do..." He said. Chess. It rang a bell! Hadn't the person who wrote on the article said "Chess and Ray"? Yes, he had. Oh, it was starting to make sense! But wait, if my Mom was Chess, and my dad was Ray, didn't that mean that I was one of these test subjects, part of the L.O.V.E. Experiment? I held my breath and kept listening.

"They keep calling here, Ray. They're trying to find her. They know that we did something wrong, that we were wrong. That she's wrong. She's not ready for Oxnio or Oinxo. We can't let it happen, Ray. We can't let The Boss take her to Duma. She's not strong enough. We haven't trained her enough." Trained me? I was feeling more betrayed by the second.

"Yes we have, Chess. Chancey is strong enough, she's ready to face Oxnio and Oinxo. She can do it. She has to if she wants to stay alive."

That was enough for me. I went into my room and paced, quietly. My parents worked for some company, and I was part of an experiment. I was supposed to be a boy. Den and Jay... Dennison and Jayla! Oh my god. I was so confused. That was why Jayla, Jay I guess... always wanted me to be a boy... She knew that my parents had rebelled against the experiment! But the numbers! What about the numbers?

I lied in bed, trying to think of how everything tied together. Duma Science. Oxnio, Oinxo. It was all so confusing. I finally drifted into an uneasy sleep, feeling both betrayed and excited.

That's a great chapter, Keri It was sort of confusing at first - but that makes it more suspenseful.

Thank you.

That's awesome! But wait, it's not like they could have chosen to have a girl. They couldn't have rebelled, right?

Awesomeness job.

rattyjol wrote:That's awesome! But wait, it's not like they could have chosen to have a girl. They couldn't have rebelled, right?

well the people might have implanted a special hormon to make them only have boys and actually if you do IT at the right time there is a way the chances of having a boy increase.

also that was an AWESOME chappie Akeria! I CAN NOT wait for another this is so good!

Ooookay, then.

Hm. xD That was very suggestive, but still . . . bleah, I won't edit, but just be careful about that Cat, mkay?

Tossing, turning. 16. Closed off, sheltered from reality, the real world, reality. A mistake. 95. Part of the test. Part of L.O.V.E. 10. Not for real love, pure. Honest. Fake. Disloyalty. Hurt. 4. I was part of a test, part of a test, part of the test. Experimental. 19 No rebellion, just disloyalty, a test, an examination, an experiment. 20. Hurt. Numbers. Tested. Wasted. Awake.

My eyes slammed open. It wasn't my Mom, trying to probe from an uneasy sleep of riddles. It was like trying to swim through syrup, you got stuck under, and couldn't pull yourself back. It took all of my strength to bring myself up to the point of consciousness, and then it was almost as if my brain said "Alright, Chancey, that's enough for now. Wakey, wakey." And threw me back into the waking state.

Not that I was complaining, heck! I'd take never sleeping again if I could. Those dreams... Full of rash, violent images, guns, knives, L.O.V.E. It was bad. I couldn't sleep at all.

I turned my head to look at the clock on my bed-side table. 2:23 AM. No wonder Mom wasn't waking me up... It was a little too early for school... I groaned and stood up, stretching out my shoulders and looking around the room.

My room was plain, simple. I liked it. There was a bed in the corner with a plain wooden frame and headboard, a matching nightstand and a small desk in the corner. The walls were painted white, and there was a single picture in the room, of my family.

I didn't have much in the way of possessions... I had a lamp, a clock, a picture of my family, a watch, and a cell phone. We had like, Nerf guns too, but those were my Dad's, really...

What the heck do people do at 2:30? I asked myself. I then realized, people usually aren't up to anything at this time... I sighed and went out of my room down into the kitchen, where I looked through the fridge for a snack and something to drink, to calm down my nerves before I went back to bed.

I found some Goldfish and some water and ate in silence just thinking. A noise in the den made me turn my head. The tip of a gun came through the door first, taking aim on me. I heard the click of the safety as it turned off and the gun loaded. I was the target.

I dove, headfirst into the bathroom as the gun started firing. I covered my head, crawling into the tub. I put my hands on the side, and felt something. It wasn't completely obvious, but it was definitely a button. I pushed it, as the entire east wall of the bathroom flipped upside-down, revealing a wall of guns. I grabbed the middle sized one, a simple hand gun, loaded it, and braced myself to open the door.

I clicked the lock and creaked open the door. The glass with my water was shattered, and broken Goldfish were all around the floor. Stepping over the broken glass, I made my way to the den, where I looked inside. No one was there. I turned around, hearing something going up the stairs.

My parents. I thought. I sprinted up the stairs, not noticing as my feet got cut by shards of glass. I raced into my parents bedroom and opened the door.

They were gone.

"Don't worry, Chancey." A voice told me from behind. "They're safe."

I turned, recognizing the voice. The man before me stood at around six feet tall. His arms were very long, as were his legs, and his skin was very dark. His eyes were very white, except where the color was. That was a dark, dark brown. His features were perfect, and he looked very regal, almost like he should be a king. He had no hair on his head, and he wore a gray suit, with a white shirt underneath, purple tie as an accent.

"Confusion." He said. He put his arms behind his back and paced to the desk on the other side of the room, sitting down, and motioning for me to do the same on the other side. I refused "Your parents work for a secret organization."

"Oh yeah?" I said, skeptically. "What's it called, then?"

He smiled, flashing a set of brilliant white teeth.

"I am not at the liberty to discuss that." He answered calmly. "However--"

"Liberty to discuss that?" I interrupted. My voice was stern, fists clenched at my sides. "I don't believe you." I told him, as I turned away, putting the safety back on the gun I was still holding so I wouldn't shoot myself in the foot.

"I understand completely." He said. "I didn't understand either. But The Boss has specific instructions about how he'd like his organization run, and as part of those instructions, I am not at the liberty to discuss the name of this organization. You could even call it a company if you'd like, if that'd make you feel better."

"Is that where they go to work everyday?" I asked, more innocently. My eyes grew wide as I realized the truth. I had been lied to.

"Yes, Chancey." He said. He folded his hands together and looked at me before standing up to look out the window. He stood there, a perfect statue for around five minutes before he finally spoke. "Chancey, what do you know about love?" He asked me.

I thought about my answer carefully. Was he referring to L.O.V.E.? Or was he referring to real love? True love? Honest-to-goodness-head-over-heals Love? I thought about my parents. Had they loved me? Or had they L.O.V.E.d me...? I thought about all the good times we had. All the Nerf games with my dad, the board games with my mom, and even the song we sang together.

Leave it to chance,
Leave it to dell,
We love eachother,
We always will.

Of course... It didn't quite rhyme, but it was the thought that counts.

I turned back to the man a few minutes later.

"My parents loved me, sir. And I loved them." His eyes dropped and he turned to look back out the window. "However," I started again. His eyes snapped back up. "I do know about L.O.V.E." I said, spelling out the letters. He flashed the same brilliant smile again.

"Excellent. Well. We left it to Chance, now we'll leave it to Dell." He told me turning away and walking out the door. "Bring that gun, Chancey. You'll need one from now on."

I stood there, stunned at the use of my old song... Chance? Dell? Ugh... whatever! Too many riddles! I took the gun and followed the man downstairs and outside, hoping I would see my parents again, and wishing I had just gone back to bed...

Please check the news.

*gasp* Chancey and Dellin=Chance and Dell!

OHH good cath there Ratty!!! that was a great new chappie Akeria!

Maybe.

You gotta admit, that's sort of a big coincidence to be a "maybe". XD

Maybe.

Nice job!

Merciiiiiii

I think Ratty's right, Keri.

Awesome chappie, anyway! And cool idea, for the writing schedule thingy.

But what about Saturday and Sunday? o.0

Dark. Chance. Numbers. Waking. I was a test. L.O.V.E. Not real. Not love. I was wrong. I wasn't true. I wasn't supposed to know. Know what? Love. Numbers. Test. Me. Love? No. Disloyalty. Chance. Dell.

My eyes snapped open. My head was resting against the side of a sleek black car. I remembered grabbing the picture of my family, the gun that was in my hand, and my cell phone, and shoving them into a bag. I remembered walking out the door, and looking into Trek's cage, only to find him missing like my parents. I remembered getting into the car, and thinking how quiet it's engine was as the regal man beside me sped silently along to somewhere unknown to me. I didn't remember slipping under, falling asleep, and into the fearful dreams that so haunted me.

I looked at the green glowing clock on the dashboard, seeing that it was just after five when I woke up. Ugh... It's still dark out... I thought, wishing the sun would hurry up and make it's first appearance of the day. I stretched out, hitting my hand on the top of the car, and turned to the man.

"Where are we going?" I asked. My voice was groggy and heavy with the reminisce of sleep. I yawned and awaited his reply.

"You shall see." He stated. His voice was very crisp, and he pronounced each letter carefully.

"I don't want to see, I want to know where we're going." I told him, almost mimicking his pronunciation. He ignored my statement and kept driving, though he did press down on the gas a little more. I rolled my eyes and turned away, staring out the window.

**In Progress**

Nice job so far. x3

It sounds great so far Akeria, I can't wait for the rest!