Experiment Zero

8. Anger On A New Level

     Mrs. Clark levels a gaze at me, and I see a slight apology in her eyes. "Ashley, while you were a bit....delirious, Zero did something. We have video proof that he might be even more dangerous than he already is."

     Stunned, I watch her with careful eyes. Does she know about Zero's eyes? I recall the way I had seen them in a shade of pale blue. I thought I was just imagining things, but if Mrs. Clark has video footage....I want to see it.

    Mrs. Clark leads both of us to a door that leads to a room with a desk and computer inside. Distantly, I hear furious growls as the door slides shut behind me. Those must be loud growls if I could hear them even through the thick glass. I sigh, shaking my head. Zero can throw a temper tantrum all he wants. I still haven't forgiven him for the stunt he pulled with breaking my card.

     As if reading my mind, Mrs. Clark picks a card up off the desk, which I'm assuming is hers or maybe an extra, and hands it to me. I nod gratefully and slide it into my pocket. She sits in the chair and starts typing furiously at her key board while I study the desk. No pictures, or books, or really anything besides a few papers and a pen. It's almost like she has no personality.

      "Ah, here we are." She says, gesturing me over. My dad follows behind as I approach, looking over Mrs. Clark's shoulder at the screen where a video is pulled up.

     I watch as she presses the play button and immediately my eyes zone in on Zero and myself. I watch myself become sick, growing slightly irritated with Mrs. Clark when the memory of how horrible I felt at the time is brought up again. I watch as the camera zooms in towards Zero, but his back is turned towards the camera, meaning they don't have a view of his eyes. However, his eyes weren't the only thing to have changed, I watch as Zero makes no movement for a few seconds, and then suddenly his hands turn really pale, as if they're suddenly super cold. Mrs. Clark pauses the video then and swivels in her chair to face me.

     "We have an idea that Zero is able to manipulate his body temperature, and also that he may have more abilities than just that. At this moment Zero is being taken to the examination room where he'll be doing a few more x-rays with some added blood tests. The tests aren't because of his powers, if we were able to tell he had powers through x-rays we would have seen it long ago when we took our first x-rays of him, but we hypothesize that something has changed since the last time he took an x-ray."

     "Changed?" I ask, waiting for her to go on and wondering what could have possibly changed unless his internal organs completely restructured themselves overnight or soemthing.

  "Yes. A connection seems to have formed between you an Zero." She says.

"A connection." I state, incredulous. One, what does that even mean? Two, how on Earth do you see a connection with an x-ray? I'm getting more and more confused by the second.

 "We think Zero's people have a custom of forming special mental connections to certain people they trust deeply. Perhaps it has to do with a survival instinct, to have an ally in simpler terms, or maybe it's just the desire to mate. Nothing is for certain at the moment."

  Survival instinct? Mate??? If it really is survival instincts, why would he choose to form this 'connection' with me. I can't be of any use to him. I'm just a secretary after all, who has no power here except through my father, but I doubt he'd listen to me if I told him to let Zero go free.

Mrs. Clark speaks up again, dragging my attention away from my thoughts. "Which is why I'm led to this question. Will you let us perform a few tests on you? Nothing big, just a few blood samples and a couple of x-rays. We'd like to see if anything physical has changed because of this connection. Just to be cautious."