Prologue

              I wake up on a white bed feeling hazy and weak. I have no memory of my life. My eyes move around, trying to make out my surroundings but my vision is very clouded making it almost impossible for me to see. I see doubles of something. I look around but everything looks so blurry. My head starts to ache terribly. I need to get out of here. I shift my body around. I try to get out of bed but I find that I have no control over my legs. Typical.

          “Damn,” I say out aloud after a while.

I finally, then start to pull my useless body with my able arms off the bed. I realize how surprisingly comfortable the bed is, not that it matters. I reach the end of the bed and flip myself off it.

I land on the ground, smacking my shoulder and causing pain to shoot through it. Must have bruised it. I also happen to make a lot noise. Damn. Too much noise because a few seconds later I hear footsteps coming closer and closer to where I am.

I look around desperately hoping for something that can get me out of the mess that I’m in. All I see is . . . nothing but the bed and a door.

The door bursts open a couple of feet from where I am and arms grab me roughly by the shoulders. I try to escape but I find that their grasp is overpowering my useless strength.

I’m still struggling to find out why my whole body is not doing what I want it to do, when it hits me. I’m drugged or at least I think I am.

Well, that explains a lot.

I’m dragged out of the room and into some sort of hallway. I still couldn’t tell exactly what was around me but I’m assuming the hallway was dimly lit. The walls around me appear to be some grayish color. But before I can fully take in my surroundings I’m dragged into another room.

I’m shoved into a chair where my hands and legs get chained to it.

“Why… are… you doing this to me?” I finally manage to ask. Whatever they have drugged me with is making it hard for me to speak.

A tall, dark, foggy figure appears in front of me. It is hard for me to tell who the figure is because my vision is so hazy. But judging from what I can see he’s at least a good six feet and a couple of inches tall. And looks a bit threatening.

He approaches me and laughs.

“All in good time, Skylar,” he replies.

Skylar. That’s my name. And just like that a sliver of my memory comes back. Not enough to remember my life or how I got here but enough to put some strength into me.

“Let me go!” I say. I think the drug is wearing off because I’m able to think a little bit better now, not by much though. My vision is also getting better but I still see a double of everything.

“Not till we get the answers we need. I already explained this to you about…,” he stops for a second then continues, “About what we are going to do to you. Remember I’m the Architect.”

The name just rings in my head over and over until feel like my body is just going to explode into a million molecules.

“You can’t do this to me. I don’t remember anything.”

“Well, let’s just hope you survive. For your sake and the sake of the world.”

He then walks away. My vision still sees a double of everything so I see two black figures walking away instead of one. I would really want to at that moment to punch that man but as I said before I’m chained.

I must’ve fallen asleep in the chair. No one is in the room when my eyes open.

Soon life springs back into my legs and I can move them. Great, now I can make all the noise in the world with these chains but not escape. My life is really not going so well, if only the drug had worn off before. I just sit there knowing that escape is no longer an option for me.  Before I know it I slowly start to drift off to sleep again.

I dream that there are alien ships in the sky firing down on me. I’m in a city, not sure which city though. I’m on the run as buildings explode and collapse around me. I look behind me and notice a blonde-haired girl running. Her clothes are torn and she has multiple cuts over herself. She looks into my eyes for a fraction of a second before a huge metallic spear shoots from one of the ships with a chain attached to it. It impales the girl and I instantly know she’s dead. The chain pulls her limp body up to the ship. I realize I need to continue running but some light beam shoots from the ship and drags me up to it. 
          
          A door opening jolts me awake into reality.

A voice behind me says, “It’s time.”

I begin to dread this moment. As I’m being taken through a passageway dimly lit by a single bulb, I realize that this could be my last moments alive or worse. The Architect and three other guards lead the way. Each with a gun. An automatic sliding doors open up at the end of the passage way. They push me into a large room. The door shuts quickly behind me just as fast as it opened. I realized I’m not in a room but in an underground train. I notice the windows and see the dark tunnel ahead. The train slowly starts to move.

Soon the train is going at speeds that make a plane look slow. The contents in my stomach seem to be pulled to one side as the train moves. I start to feel very nauseous. But before I can say anything, the contents in my stomach come out all over the floor.

“Jeez, you could’ve said something,” says one of the guards.

He disappears to the back of the train and appears back with a bottle of water and some paper towels. The guard then begins to wipe away the vomit on the floor.

I feel a little better and no sympathy towards the guard. I watch the guard wash away what came out of my stomach and all of sudden my eyes glance at the opened bottle of water lying near the guard. I find myself looking at it. I feel a rush of adrenaline. I stare at it for a while and the water in the bottle starts to. . . . rise. The Architect yells at the guard to move the water bottle away from my sight.

What just happened? What in the world did I just do?

The Architect pulls the guard that was cleaning my vomit by the ear and whispers harshly into his ear. I can’t hear what they are saying I only catch words like “power” and “not controlled”.

What do they mean?

But before I can ask any questions the train comes to a stop. The doors open up and I’m being dragged away by the guards. I fight back even though I know it is useless against three armed guards.

One of the guards blindfolds me immediately after we step out of the train. They drag me through what I am guessing is another hallway.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

“Shut up,” is the only answer I get back.

“No you shut the hell up!” I yell.

All of sudden I’m filled with strength and I free myself from the guards. I rip the blindfold off my head.

I see that the three guards are lying stunned on the ground and the Architect is looking at me in shock. I take off running in the opposite direction.

I don’t stop running until I feel like I can’t run anymore.

I stop and catch my breath. I hear the sounds of footsteps closing in on my location. I desperately look around for an escape route but I can’t find any. I’m at a dead end.

While looking around I see a water fountain along the hallway I came through which now I hear footsteps are coming even closer. I finally see one guard, then another and then another. There are at least fifteen of them. All of them are armed with guns.

Looking back at the water fountain I suddenly have an idea.

I let the guards come closer to me. I raise my hands as if I’m going to surrender. I reach out with my mind to the water fountain. I concentrate and try to feel something. I concentrate even harder.

“Give up, Jaden,” I hear someone say, must be the Architect.

Suddenly I feel a tug in my gut and the water fountain explodes. It showers all over the guards, dowsing every single one of them.

Now!

With them stunned and shocked for the moment, I run straight through them. I go back the way I came but take different turns instead of the one‘s that I took before.

Yes, I can escape from this prison.

I glance behind me for a second to see if anyone is following me. I see no one. Hell, yeah! I grin and turn back to the front.

Bam!

I slam into someone. I fall and look up to see who it is. Of course, it is the Architect.

“Don’t be stupid, Jaden,” he says. “There is no possible way to escape this facility.”

I quickly get up and back away from him. I look around to see if there is any water source near me but I don’t see any. The Architect slowly starts to walk towards me. His presence looking more menacing than ever.

I start to run away but the Architect grabs me firmly on the arm with an iron grip. He pulls me close to him.

“Look me in the eyes, boy!” he yells.

“No,” I say.

He grabs me by the head and forces my face to his.

I try to avoid it but I look up into his eyes. They’re fully black and as dark as night. I find myself unable to move my body at all. Suddenly my body isn’t doing what I want it to do. I get up but it’s not me doing it. It’s the Architect doing it.

He’s controlling me.

It’s like having my mind and body hijacked. He can see everything about me.

I realize I can see within his own mind too. I grasp on to something floating around in his subconscious. A memory.

I see a small boy with black hair and a frightened face. A tall older man is in front of him and yelling at him. He smacks the boy in the face. The boy falls to the ground….  Get out of my mind, Jaden.

Never.

The boy is lying on the ground in tears with blood on his face. He looks up at the older man. Suddenly the man is on the ground in pain as if he is hurting internally. He stops moving.

I will kill you. I will become more than your worst nightmare.

Suddenly there is a bright flash and I slowly lose consciousness.