Grey

By: CestLindor

folder Original - Misc › -Slash - Male/Male

Rating: Adult +

Chapters: 15

Views: 10,815

Reviews: 73

Recommended: 0

Currently Reading: 4

Category: Original - Misc › -Slash - Male/Male

Rating: Adult +

Chapters: 15

Views: 10,815

Reviews: 73

Recommended: 0

Currently Reading: 4

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

Awakening

Grey

Chapter One: Awakening

The cold feel of metal infused with the warmth of the electricity passing through the wires had me almost squirming in delight as my mind travelled through the computer dealing with the staff and schedule planning of the place. The many electronic connections setting into place as I corrected the errors felt as though a key fit perfectly in a key hole.

Outside of my mind I tapped the keyboard and moved the computer mouse to test if it was working correctly. The computer almost made a purring sound in my mind as it appeared to be functioning flawlessly. I was just about to unlock my mind-connection with the machine when a window popped up, showing the schedule for the ones bringing food to the staff. The word Pheriodexin immediately caught my attention, especially when I saw that it had been applied to my own food.

Pheriodexin was a chemical substance designed to keep the people who took it docile and cooperative. I frowned as I released myself from the computer and – once out – signaled for Miss Evergreen to try it out.

I was about to ask her about the chemical when she gave me a huge smile and thanked me. But when I looked her in the eyes, I saw something else. What was that? I asked myself. Disgust? Contempt? She sure as hell wasn’t the sweet angel she always looked like with the blond hair and big blue eyes. I decided to nod back at her and went back to my apartment in the lower layers of the building.

I could see from the open door that Shawn had been here earlier. He was probably looking at my latest work on my personal lap top to see how I was progressing on the new model. I got inside and saw that he was still there, sitting in front of the computer and looking at the 3D animation of my newest creation.

He turned the animation of the car back and forth, zooming in here and there, and changing the color a couple of times before he heard me put down my keys on the table top of the kitchen counter, and he looked around.

My apartment was small and sparsely decorated, but those things didn’t really matter to me either way. Mostly the furniture was black, grey and white, shaped as squares with sharp edges. Most of the floor was visible, making the rooms seem bigger than they really were, and I had an entire wall-window facing out to a garden two stories beneath me. Most of the scientists and researchers with dogs and other pets let them run around in that garden when they were off work.

Shawn turned around in the chair in front of the work desk with my lap top and grunted at me, his steel grey eyes boring into my blue-grey ones. His features were sharp and edgy, his salt-and-pepper hair accentuating his darker skin and highlighting his light eyes. He had a strong jaw line and a nose reminding me of a hawk or an eagle. The few wrinkles a forty-year old such as Shawn should have, had been removed through surgery, and he now looked like a thirty-year old despite his graying hair. His form was fit with broad shoulders and a height to match. He worked out daily in the fitness room for the employees, and sometimes he dragged me with him for a work out session.

Shawn gave me one of his tight smiles he usually gave me at night, and then he nodded toward the screen of my lap top. ,,Nice work, Cole,” he complimented. ,,You’re almost done with the new model. Mr. Ayers is going to be very pleased.”

His words sent a surge of happiness and warmth through my system and I smiled in return. Although Shawn’s pleasure was more my goal than pleasing the boss, I knew Shawn liked it as well. The all-nighter spent working on this was surely paying off.

,,What about you get us some food, and then we can watch that crappy movie you’re always pestering me about?” Shawn nodded towards the door signaling for me to hurry to the canteen. Before I even answered, he turned around and studied my work again.

I nodded though I knew he couldn’t see it and hurried out again. My heart pounded, my head felt light and my body felt as if it was shining, beaming with happiness as I was. I almost ran through the corridors, ignoring Mr. Ayers’ other employees and headed to the canteen on the floor above my apartment. As I walked down the grey hallways lit by artificial light running in wires above my head, I let my fingers brush against the surface of the wall on my left. The touch was just enough to let me have contact with the many electronic and electrical connections and workings of the huge building, but not enough that I interfered with it and ruined the other scientists’ and researchers’ work.

The canteen was a huge room lit with the same wire-light in the ceiling as in the hallways, but here there was also light streaming through a huge floor-to-ceiling window facing out to the same garden as my own window, letting in real light. There were plants and painting breaking the dull colors of grey and black and white. The anthropologists and psychologists, that I knew, said colors brought a more peaceful atmosphere and therefore made it easier to eat in the canteen even if you were stressed out by a load of work. I agreed with them, though I didn’t really care about it.

I went directly to the desk with the food and took one of the big platters. I filled food as I went through the shelves and put great thought into picking Shawn’s favorites. I hesitated a little when I got to the drinks section. Should I try something new and take a six pack of beers? Or should I just take some water with added minerals? Though I guessed it could have been fun with a little of alcohol I decided on the water. I had always taken water, why should I stop now?

Finally I reached the last stand where one of the employees stood, cataloguing what you took and advising you to add a thing or two if you needed more protein or other things like that. The woman having the shift every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Mrs. Langston, smiled brightly at me and expected my food platter with a practiced eye.

,,It looks good,” she finally said, ,,as always, Mr. Greyson, but you still need these.” She took a quick look at her screen before she turned around and began searching for the pills she always gave me before I could leave the canteen.

A sudden curiosity made me subtly touch the back of the screen, enabling me to see what she saw on the other side.

Pheriodoxin.

The pills she gave me weren’t proteins or minerals, they were Pheriodoxin. What I saw earlier had been true. They gave me sedatives.

I barely managed to remove my hand from her computer before Mrs. Langston came back with a little shot glass of plastic containing four small white pills. That was two more than I usually got.

,,You didn’t come for your dinner yesterday, so I’ll give you an extra shot of the pills.” Her smile was as true and genuine as it had always been. It didn’t seem like she was planning something evil behind my back, giving me those pills.

I just nodded, unable to give her a smile in return, and hurried out of the canteen. Why I hadn’t noticed the pills or that they gave me sedatives before now was a mystery to me. But then I thought of the fact that I didn’t get them yesterday. Perhaps they were already wearing off after just two missed pills. Perhaps, if I didn’t take them anymore, I’d-

What would I? I asked myself. That was the $100.000 question. I had always deemed myself a sharp mind. What would happen with it when it wasn’t dulled by the chemicals? Would I be able to infiltrate the computers and electronic systems just by looking at them? Would I be able to look through the millions of files at this place undetected?

I knew by the time I stood outside my apartment that I had to try it out. I was a free individual. I hadn’t given anyone permission to give me pills – especially not unknowingly!

I walked inside again and closed the door behind me, not addressing Shawn by the computer yet, before I put the platter on the coffee table in front of my television. If we were going to see a movie while we ate, there would be no sense in sitting at the dining table in the other end of the room.

Shawn closed down my computer and went over to me, his hand sliding down my back and resting at the small of it, hovering just above my butt cheeks. He pushed me a little forward so he could put an arm over my shoulder as he inspected the food. His fingers curled around my shoulder, keeping me where I was. A cold shiver ran down my spine. Although I couldn’t remember ever feeling uncomfortable around Shawn, his touches made me fidget – and not in the ‘right’ way.

Not at ease, I untangled myself from his grip and took the glass with the pills, excused myself, and went for the bathroom. When I had ensured that the bathroom door was locked I looked at myself in the mirror and caught my eyes.

I was paler than I used to be and I figured it must be because of lack of sleep the last few days – or rather, nights. My black hair lay flat along the shape of my skull, easily reaching my shoulders. I looked thin in the reflection, and adding the pale pallor it just made me look like I was sick. Did the sedative have anything to do with this, too? I wondered. What would change with me when I stopped taking the pills? How would I behave? I knew that my mind would be sharper, but my temper would change, too. I knew I would easily get angry when I just suddenly stopped taking Pheriodoxin – my body not used to a life without it. But I would be much more perceptive. Like when I had looked at Miss Evergreen earlier today, she hadn’t seemed as… neutral as I had always thought she was. How much would my vision of the persons I knew change? I knew it was changing with Shawn already. Never had I been as uneasy about a person as I was now.

But I loved him! Or at least my sedated self loved him. The question was whether I loved him or not. Just before I threw the pills in the toilet and flushed, I decided to give the man a chance. He couldn’t possibly be that bad if some part of me had loved him. Could he?

The days afterwards were tough. I could feel my body craving for the Pheriodoxin, just like a smoker would feel the need to fill their lungs with smoke and their blood with nicotine.

I grew restless. I had ticks just above my left eye driving me crazy when I was awake. My feet patted against the floor whenever I sat down, and I couldn’t keep from flexing my fingers every five minutes. I was happy I had spent two nights beforehand working on my new automobile model-car, so that I could allow myself to take a little break.

I spent the most of my time in my apartment away from any others whom I might get angry and start yelling at. I could feel the anger in my blood boil by every second, every minute, every hour, every day. When I looked back at my behavior before quitting the pills I couldn’t believe how pathetic I had been.

I behaved like a lap dog, wagging its tail whenever the master as much as looked in its direction. Just thinking about Shawn made me furious. It appeared to me that the big man had only taken advantage of me, the naïve child that I had been back then. Every time we had been together, it was he who decided what we should do, it was he who bossed me around, ordering me to bring him coffee, bring him food, bring him anything! The sex was awful, too. Never once did Shawn make sure I got any satisfaction from our tumbling around between my sheets. As soon as he was done, he left my bed and went back to his own apartment, where we never went.

As I had thought, my ability to feel electrical activities grew rapidly stronger. I experienced on my own computer what I was able to, and that was quite a lot. Without much work on my side I could hack my way into every computer turned on in the building, I could get past encrypted shields, and I could do it all unnoticed.

I found out how to control the electronic dynamics of the building itself; the sliding doors, opening and closing windows, air conditioning, light, heat, and so on.

It felt as if a whole new world was unfolding in front of me, waiting to be discovered.

When I – after a week of self induced isolation in my apartment – went out to get some fresh air and see how much everything seemed changed to me, it startled me how deeply sedated I had been. When I walked down the usually familiar hallways everything seemed strange and foreign to me. I noticed the soft grey carpet underneath my shoes, bouncing lightly when I walked. I noticed the hissing sound coming from the wire-lights above me, the texture of the cold metal walls. It was as if I had been blind, and now I could see. Everything was in high definition.

In the canteen, the added colorful paintings and the green plants seemed fake to me. They were only a way to keep the employees in a good mood so that they could continue working with greater productiveness. I looked around and almost gasped when it appeared to me how different all the scientists and researchers looked, compared to each other. Before they had just been a blur in my mind, but now all their differences, flaws and perfections came to view fully.

There was a man with a nose that had been broken in his youth, a young woman who had colored her hair purple, a young man with a tattoo up his entire left arm, a woman with a birth mark on her neck… The list continued.

I was glued to my spot in the canteen for several minutes before I could even start thinking about moving on. When I did move, I did it slowly while I turned my head left and right to catch every glimpse possible.

One man puzzled me in particular. He sat at the furthermost back of the canteen with a view over the entire room, his eyes squinted closed and his lips a thin line above his chin. His eyes darted from one person to the other, studying everyone almost as thoroughly as I had done. He had sharp characteristic features with a cleft chin and high cheekbones. His skin was gold brown accentuated by his dark brown curls. Added with his almost black eyes it made him look very exotic in my eyes. Before I really knew what I was doing, I walked toward him with a smile on my lips.

The man looked to be around his twenties – as me, though he looked a little older than my twenty-two years. As I got nearer and nearer I got the feeling that he was hiding, although he was in plain sight. A frown appeared on my face just as his eyes suddenly found mine, and everything stood still for a few seconds. I almost drowned in the depths of those black pools, and I probably would have if it hadn’t been for Shawn suddenly appearing in front of my face, standing with his arms crossed over his chest and his brow furrowed in annoyance.

,,Shawn!” I gasped, surprised at seeing him after a week of avoiding the man. I really didn’t have time for this. I wanted to talk to the man who hid in plain sight. I tried walking around Shawn but he simply moved, positioning himself in my way, blocking the dark eyed man behind him. I finally realized that if I wanted to get past Shawn I had to talk to him first. I stopped, looked at Shawn and mimicked his position with the arms crossed over my chest, sighing in impatience. My antics only seemed to make the man more annoyed – or angry. ,,What is it?”

Shawn bristled and sucked in a load of air, puffing himself up so that he got even bigger and more threatening. I knew that Shawn wouldn’t possibly hurt me here in the canteen with all the other people watching, so I merely lifted one eyebrow and awaited his response.

,,You’ve been avoiding me.” A statement, not a question.

No shit, Sherlock, I thought to myself. My only response was lifting my other eyebrow, resulting in Shawn’s face turning a very deep and angry looking tomato red.

,,Why?”

Now we were getting somewhere. I held our eye contact for a little while, suddenly asking myself what the hell I had seen in this man before I had stopped taking the pills. Then I sighed and moved myself into a more relaxing stature, showing that I wasn’t in the least intimidated by him. ,,Look, Shawn, I don’t think you want to hear this. Here. Now.” I let my eyes skim around the room where most of the other people were outright looking this way or pointedly ignoring our little scene.

,,Why have you been avoiding me?” Shawn simply repeated, his right foot impatiently tapping the floor.

I sighed again. Well, he asked for it himself. Now it wasn’t my fault that all of the employees would know about this. ,,I don’t want to be with you anymore, Shawn. I think you’re a selfish, egoistic prig that I don’t want to see inside my apartment ever again. That’s why I’ve been avoiding you, dumbass.” I made sure my voice was raised enough to make everyone hear – or at least so that some could hear and then pass it on to the person standing behind them.

I didn’t wait to see the message go through to him. I simply walked around him and only hesitated a split of a second when the hiding man wasn’t there anymore. Then I walked on, adamant on finding another way back to my apartment.

Shawn didn’t quite get my message that day in the canteen; I could often feel his eyes boring holes in my back, and several times I found out through my computer that he had tried to hack his way into it. My strengthened abilities in that area made my personal and working computers impenetrable, but I could still see it if someone tried breach the security walls. As a response to his doings I sent him a little present in the shape of a virus which made his computer always shut down after approximately twenty minutes.

The ticks and frustrations of not taking the sedatives anymore slowly decreased, and I could once again focus on my work. But as I was working on my new model it occurred to me that I had never asked myself why I was here, why I was working in a field that I no longer found interesting. I was the person in charge of the designing of cars, but now that I had made numerous of them, I just didn’t find the passion anymore. I wanted to make bigger things; wilder things.

I went to library on the lowest floor and borrowed everything I could about plane engineering and design. I researched and researched and researched and finally I began creating. The aircrafts I made were not the kind to apply luxury for the passengers. I made them fast, soundless and bulletproof. And – almost the most important of all – I made them cool.

But I also knew that my boss, Mr. Ayers, wasn’t interested in making these kinds of aircrafts, and he was possibly the one who had made me take Pheriodoxin, so I did it all in secret while hiding my more independent personality behind a pathetically submissive one.

I began watching the news. Those had never interested me before, but now that I saw them, I realized that I wasn’t like all the other employees in Mr. Ayers’ company. As soon as the title shone on the big screen, I remembered what was going on in the outside world, Paras vs. humanity?

My control over electronic devices made me a para, and it suddenly downed on me why I had been given sedatives. Some years back it had been legally required that every working para had to take some kind of sedatives when working with normal humans. Although the time before starting my work here was blurry to me, I realized I had taken the job despite the knowledge being forced to take the pills.

A fury surged through me. How could they ask that of people?! I was almost as normal as they were! I hadn’t hurt anyone!

The fury and anger fusing my motivation, I worked my magic on my computer and began searching for others like me; others who felt the same. It amazed me how easy it was. If the government officials just had a good hacker and plenty of motivation they would easily find the website that I looked at now.

It consisted of only a black blank page. As soon as I was in, another user sent me a message which was shown on the black page in bold white letters.

-Who are you?

I hesitated only a second before I answered. –With this slack in your security I could easily have been from the government. That would perhaps make them more cautious next time they created a website.

-But you aren’t? The other person asked instead.

Frowning a little, I answered truthfully, -No, but you shouldn’t make it so easy to find you.

The time before the next response took so long I had almost given up and was about to search in another direction, when finally the other wrote again. –I have noted that, thank you. I am Blake. You?

,,Blake, huh?” I mumbled to myself. ,,Not very informative.”

-I am Grey, I simply answered, using a part of my surname.

-Are you a wit or a changer?

Now, that made me frown. My fingers danced over the keyboard as I answered him. –What do you mean? Hesitating only a little but then thinking, To heck with it, I also wrote that I was a para.

-I figured that out. A wit uses his gift with the mind, with telepathy, while being a changer involves a transformation of some physical sort. I am a changer.

-That makes me a wit, I answered and let the word fall off my lips. I liked it.

-Why did you look for this website? ‘Blake’ then asked.

Feeling a little playful, I teased him, -Perhaps I just stumbled upon this website.

The answer to that came almost immediately. –Although our security is lacking, it couldn’t have been that easy for you.

Holding back a laugh, I leaned a little back in my chair, looking over the short messages we had already sent to each other. Why, indeed, had I looked for them? The most basic reason was that I wanted to find others like me, but could there be more to it? Did I want to get away from here? Did I want to join forces with these people?

I decided that I didn’t really have anything to hide, as I spilled out my feelings through the internet. –I’ve been given sedatives for years without knowing, and now that I’ve stopped taking them, the world as I thought it was is anything but.

After I had sent it I found my heart was pounding wildly in my chest. This was the most daring thing I had done for years, and I suddenly felt like a proud teenager going against his parents’ wishes for the first and not feeling bad or ashamed about it.

-We can help you, was the first answer, and seconds later it was extended by more words. –Join us, Grey. Tell us where you are and we can help you escape.

,,Escape?” I said aloud, frowning. It wasn’t like I was held captive here. I could walk out of this place anytime I liked. Or could I?

Suddenly I remembered a day some months ago when I had gone to one of the meeting rooms located around the entrance of the company to look for Shawn. I had been stopped by two guards clearly recognizing me as a para, though I only realized that now. They ordered me to return to my apartment, and if it hadn’t been for Shawn showing himself then and there, the guards would probably have dragged me back here and locked the door behind them.

I shook my head, getting back to present time. I was a prisoner here. Held back and not able to leave.

I realized that Blake was still waiting for a response from me. But before answering his question, I asked him one instead. –Who are ‘we?’

-Others of our kind.

My mind and thereby attention was so into the conversation that I only noticed the person outside my door when he knocked on it. I shook my head to wake myself up and look at the locked door. ,,Who is it?” I called.

,,Mr. Ayers wants to see you, Mr. Greyson,” answered a guard – probably – with a grunt.

,,Shit!” I hissed in a whisper before I turned to the lap top again. –Can’t talk anymore. I’ll be back. Then I closed down the website and ensured to remove it from my history before I closed the computer down and moved to the door, taking a deep breath before I opened it.

Mr. Ayers’ office was a penthouse suite with the entire wall facing out made of glass so that when you came in and he sat by his desk in front of the window you could only see his dark silhouette before your eyes adjusted to the bright light.

The office’s furniture all looked expensive and extremely high class. In front of the desk sat two persons in a black leather couch, both facing my way when I entered. It was a big fat Latino man with a mustache, and a graceful blonde woman with the lightest blue eyes I had ever seen before in my life; they were almost completely white. Both of them wore a black suit; the woman wearing a female version of it with a blazer and a short, tight skirt.

,,So, this is the wit designing those fabulous cars or yours, Richard?” the woman said with a low, seducing voice, her eyes gleaming with a cold light toward my boss, Richard Ayers.

Ayers leaned a little back in his chair and folded his hands on the surface of his desk. A small smile tucked at the corners of his lips. ,,This is the one and only, Verona. A technical genius.”

,,A wit gift those not make the para a genius, Mr. Ayers,” the Latino said with a heavy accent. ,,It is how he uses it.”

Although I wanted very much to spit them all in their faces for talking about me as if weren’t there, I also knew that they thought I was still on the sedatives and didn’t have a mind of my own. ,,Mr. Ayers, sir,” I asked in the most submissive voice I could muster. ,,What can I help you with, sir?” God, I wanted to bite out my tongue, but I didn’t want them to force eat me the pills either. And I think they would do it if they found out for how long I hadn’t taken them.

Being the assholes that they were, they ignored me and continued talking. About me.

,,What does he take, Richard?” the woman, Verona, asked.

,,Ah,” Ayers let out and looked at his screen for a moment. ,,Something called… Pheriodoxin. Most effective. He’s never been any problem. I have nothing to complain about to the government.”

So these were government officials! I looked them over once again through my lashes as I respectfully kept my gaze low. They didn’t look like people from the government, but how could I be able to tell? It wasn’t really swarming with government officials here. Only prigs.

The woman gave a smiled that didn’t reach her eyes and made me want to shiver a cold away. ,,Good.” She moved to stand and turned toward her ‘colleague.’ ,,Then I guess our work here is done, wouldn’t you say, Quincy?”

The Latino stood up and nodded, his eyes once more trailing me up and down. I got the feeling this wouldn’t be the last time I saw them.

Ayers stood up as well, a huge fake smile also plastered on his face. ,,Good, then I guess Mr. Greyson can be escorted back to his apartment.” He motioned to the guard who had also taken me here, and then I was dragged out again. Before I was out, I sneaked a peek over my shoulder and got a heavy lump in my throat. The look Verona was giving me clearly stated that this was indeed not the last time I would be seeing her. I began feeling uneasy.

As soon as I returned to my apartment, I locked my door and sat behind my computer again. As fast as I could I found the website again. I knew that I couldn’t stay here. First of all I was held captive. Second of all I knew I wouldn’t be safe knowing that Verona and Quincy knew where I was. Third of all… I didn’t have a third of all, fuck it.

-Blake? I asked out into the forum.

-Grey? was the immediate response.

-I work at Richard Ayers’ head quarters. Get me out of here.

Just as I had pushed ‘Enter’ and sent my message, a loud roar filled my ears coming from the hallways, followed by a violent tremor making the whole building shake. What the hell?!

A sudden idea taking form in my head :3 I hope you like it

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