[ 33 ] 2014 

-

"You're a jerk, Calum. Its no wonder no one likes you anymore."

-

Calum had gotten done with his football practice for the day and made his way towards the locker physical education building where the locker rooms were located. The cheerleaders practiced close to the entrance of the PE building and as the football (soccer) team passed them, he noticed Harley was no longer there. He thought she had probably already gone inside the locker room to change back into her school uniform.

He was quick to change out of his PE uniform and hurried outside to offer Harley a ride home. Normally she got a ride with Niall and Andrea, but in their intention to help him out, they always tried to leave her behind so that she would have no choice but to catch a ride home with Calum. He made it out of the building just as the cheerleaders were leaving, headed to the parking lot to their cars that were parked there. He waited by the door a couple of minutes, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, expecting for Harley to emerge with Andrea, Dempsey or Cindy. 

The girls piled out of the building, many of them talking about the prom proposals they had gotten over the past few days. The last of them to appear were Andrea and Cindy. Calum pushed himself off the side wall by the door and stepped in front of the two cheerleaders to stop them.

"Have you two seen Harley?" He asked them immediately, as he found it strange that she wasn't with either of them. "I've been waiting for her so I can give her a ride home."

Cindy gave a shake of her head and was the first to respond with a bright smile on her face. "Oh, that's so cute! Are you two back together?" She asked Calum a question instead of replying to the one he had asked them.

He nodded his head. He knew they had never actually been in a relationship, but the school thought they were. "Yes." He replied with a hint of annoyance, mostly at the fact that she hadn't given him a direct answer to what he wanted to know. Still, he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity at having the whole school knowing--or thinking--that they were back together. "Cindy, I need you to focus and tell me if you've seen her. Can your little pea brain process that? Or should I bring Billy over here so he can translate my words into something you would understand?" He brought his index finger up and tapped on the side of her head, her platinum blonde hair ruffled a bit by his actions.

Her demeanor changed entirely from friendly to hostile. Cindy Hemmings never really had a problem with Calum. It was her brother Luke who had problems with him, but she still didn't appreciate that he was questioning her intelligence, no matter how much--or how little of it--she had. 

Andrea just stood by watching their whole exchange.

Narrowing her eyes into a glare, she barked back at him, "You're a jerk, Calum. Its no wonder no one likes you anymore." Without waiting for his response, she stormed off, making sure to bump shoulders with him harshly as she passed him.

"That was cold, Calum." Andrea eyed him with her lips pursed in disapproval.

Calum rolled his eyes. "I'll apologize later, but she was steering the conversation in another direction. Besides, Cindy has known me since pre-school. She knows I've always been an asshole."

"That's probably why Luke Hemmings hates you too." Andrea reasoned. "Both of you are kinda mean. Maybe he just doesn't like someone being as much of an asshole as he is."

The boy with raven black hair shook his head at her conclusion. Most people at St. Genevieve's knew the back story as to why Luke and Calum hated each other, but newcomers like Harley and the other shifters and hunters didn't. They would never know either, because no one ever talked about it. Now Calum was ready to tell Andrea the back story so that she could understand some things. "That's a small part of it. We used to get along when we were kids. Up until we started here at St. Genevieve's was when it started getting rocky. Luke hates me because I went out with Cindy. We dated for like two years, maybe a little bit less and then I broke up with her to sneak around with Kylie. He later broke up with her to be with Alessandra Colton and Kylie was devastated, she wanted both. She went fucking mental and killed herself. Luke was just mad when he found out that she and I were seeing each other behind his back, when he was already mad that I--his former best friend--had dumped Cindy after so long." He sighed, thinking back to the time when he used to be friends with Luke. "Better off without his friendship anyway. He's vengeful and manipulative, and just a horrible person if you remember what he did to Billy Quinn as well. Cindy got over our break up, but Luke never did. Now he hates me because Harley and I are dating and he's jealous."

"You aren't dating Harley." Andrea pointed out.

"Yet." Calum argued. "Harley is the one girl I have always wanted despite everything we've been through. With her, I feel what I've never felt before."

Andrea snorted. "That's so cheesy."

Calum shot her a glare. "Did I ask you if it was cheesy?" 

Andrea said nothing.

Pulling his cellphone out of his pocket, Calum looked at the time. It had been almost a half hour since practice ended and there were only a handful of cars left in the parking lot. Still, Harley was nowhere to be found.

He turned to Andrea, and asked her the same question he had asked Cindy Hemmings. "Have you seen Harley?"

Andrea nodded in affirmation. "She showed up to practice. But then Dempsey was summoned to the front office, and when she never returned, Harley went to look for her. Neither of them returned to practice so we assumed Harley eventually found her and they went home."

Calum shook his head. "I doubt it. Harley didn't have a ride home."

"But Dempsey did." Andrea pointed out. "Maybe she left with her."

But Calum wasn't convinced. He felt like there was something clearly wrong with the disappearance of the two girls.

-

Harley Quinn's blue eyes opened to see only darkness. As her eyes adjusted to the limited light, she noticed she was in a dark room, on her back, strapped to an experiment table like the ones she had in her college physics classroom at St. Genevieve's. She only had the ability to move her head from side to side, and she saw only a few feet from her was Dempsey, still passed out on a table like the one she was strapped to.

Her heart raced in fear that something would happen to them. Dr. Barnes was clearly insane, in her opinion, if he was willing to kidnap two teenage girls for the United States government in the name of science. Her breathing became erratic and quick as she pulled against her restraints to no avail. 

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but she wondered if anyone was looking for them. They had to be, since Harley had family, and Dempsey had loved ones. Harley was sure Paúl would have done anything to find Dempsey. And she was also sure that Calum would be looking for her. Perhaps he was seeking help from Arthur as well. They had a hope, however small, that they would make it out of there. And then there was Ashton, who still loved her as she loved him, despite their decision to give themselves some time off to decide what they would do with his soul.

"Ashton." Harley gasped in a whisper.

She could summon him, just by calling his name, and he would be able to help them escape. 

"Ashton." She called again, but no one ever came to her call.

"Ash-" She had started again, but cut off abruptly when she heard a door open and close loudly, followed by a set of footsteps that got louder as the person got closer to the girls.

Harley closed her eyes tight and pretended to be unconscious, but she had been seen already. "Its no use to pretend you're asleep, Miss Quinn." Dr. Barnes told her in an amused tone. "My security cameras caught you trying to summon your ghosts for help." When he reached the two tables, he stopped in between them, looking down at Harley who now had opened her eyes. "I'll just tell you a little secret." He leaned in close to her ear to whisper, "This room is protected with a magnetic field which prevents foreign entities from entering the premises, and it also serves to neutralize your powers. That's the power of science, Miss Quinn. We have learned to use your natural genetic powers, and replicate them, only stronger. We've known about the growing population of super humans called shifters for a long time. We want to find a way to give those powers to any human being and use it to our advantage. We want to find out how it is that your people pass on those powers from one generation to the next." 

Harley thought that he didn't fully know what he was talking about. He didn't know of the distinction between the hunters and the shifters, or maybe he did know and it was all the same to him. All in all, it was genetics. According to what she had learned, shifters and hunters got their abilities from their parents. But only one's father could pass on the shifter gene. Even though Harleen had the abilities, Harley had gotten hers from Arthur. That was how it worked. It was the reason why Billy was a normal human being. Aaron was normal, and thus had no shifter gene to pass on.

"If your science has done this," Harley began through gritted teeth. "then why do you want to take Dempsey?" She asked, keeping her voice steady. She was nervous and afraid, but she would never let him know that.

Dr. Barned chuckled darkly. "There is always more to learn, child. And we've run out of test subjects. Area 51 sent me here to specifically retrieve Miss Johannsson. Its really nothing personal against her--or you. You just happened to be collateral damage. You were at the wrong place, at the wrong time."

"My dad is very powerful." She threatened in regards to Arthur. "He will find me, and then you'll be fucking sorry."

"I'm not afraid of you and your people." He replied confidently.

From beside Harley, they heard Dempsey groan and stir awake. Dr. Barnes now turned his attention to her. "You're finally awake Miss Johannsson." He said, giving the impression that they had been asleep for a while.

"What do you want from us?" Dempsey asked, struggling in her own restraints as Harley had done earlier.

Pulling up a metal stool from nearby, he sat on it, still facing Dempsey. "Now that you're awake, how's about a little story?" He asked her, a satisfied smirk on his face. Both girls knew that whatever he was going to tell, it wasn't going to be pleasant.

Dempsey ignored him and continued pulling against the straps that held her down. But it was no use.

"Do you remember that night the armed forces of Area 51 stormed into your house?" He asked her, his voice filled with a sort of excitement. It was as though telling the story brought back memories that he liked to remember. "We took your parents and you were the only one that managed to escape because your mother sacrificed herself. She was normal--a human--and we were told there were two in that house. She said she was a shifter to spare your life, so we wouldn't search for you and take you away."

"We found out she was normal after the first experiment." Dr. Barnes explained. 

"Stop." Dempsey begged, shaking her head from side to side and closing her eyes tight.

"We strapped them to experiment tables just like these." He touched the smooth surface of the table Dempsey was laid on. "Electroshock was the first experiment. Your dad tried to shield her with his powers, but he was eventually too weak. The force of the shocks were so strong that they fried her brain almost instantly-"

"Stop it!" Dempsey cried out, tears streaming down her face now.

"Stop!" Harley yelled as well, seeing the emotional pain it was causing her friend. 

But the doctor continued. "It was rather interesting to see it happen. You should have been there." He laughed at the memory. "But she was human, so we had her cremated and sent her remains to the family." With a shrug of his shoulders, he added, "It was an honest mistake. We were there to get you and your father, so in a way you killed her."

"She didn't!" Harley argued whilst Dempsey's sobs filled the room. "You killed them. You killed them for your stupid experiments."

He defended the experiments by informing them, "Her father was of great help to the advancement of science. We gained much helpful knowledge on this new species, which allowed us to create other experiment rooms such as this one." He gestured to the room they were in, where there were all kinds of machinery and advanced technology.

Dr. Barnes finished with, "In a few days we'll go to the airport where the United States government chartered a plane that will get us back to America and no one will ever hear from you again."

He got off the stool he was sitting on and walked out of the room, leaving a crying girl and another who was yelling for him to set them free. 

Their only hope was for their loved ones to find them, and help them escape.

-

the picture at the top is supposed to be cindy hemmings, played by the beautiful angelique boyer ^.^ french-mexican actress.

an update really quick. this one is a bit shorter than the others because i have a ton of homework to do this weekend, but i wanted to update anyway. also, i made it rather suspense filled for you all, because i feel like my recent updates have been lacking suspense and action. also, i just want to inform you that i changed the order a bit. there were 18 chapters to each part, but now there will be 20 for each part because i needed more space to develop some stuff.

so i hope you like the update.

also, some shameless self-promotion again. i don't know if you all have noticed, but i uploaded a new 5sos and 1d story called 'scream kings'. its gonna be like scream queens but a bit different. and i hope you like it.

finally, qotd: what kind of phone do you have? i remember when i asked this, i had a cheap ass android. now i have the newest iphone bc i have a job and can give myself the good life. lol also, what kind of phone would you like to have? if you dont have the one you want already. lame question, but its a way to get a conversation sort of going.

-clary xx