Besieged (Book One): Rise of the Misfit

"He Floats..."

Dr. Hani Jager was the head of the research team conducting the study in Ravenwood. As the head of research, he would usually move around to the various stations to observe how things were going there. Today was different because he wasn’t present, so the lady filled in for him. Her name was Dr. Imarri Easton. And after Finnian’s explanation, she remained silent, as if contemplating something.

“I see…” She muttered under her breath. She knew the various due protocols and wouldn’t move against the wish of her superior. Though she was curious to know more about why Finnian would do something as unorthodox as wearing weighty clothes, she had to suppress it and carry on with the tests.

“Since it’s that way, I’ll have to ask Dr. Hani himself,” She thought to herself, and afterward, turned to Finnian. “I didn’t know anything about this till now, so I apologize for my tone earlier. Since it’s something Dr. Hani told you to do, then I’ll have to ask him myself.”

Finnian smiled faintly, “It’s alright,”

Dr. Imarri nodded and continued with her tests on Finnian. She checked his vital signs and wrote down the results on her notepad. Now, it was time to take a blood sample. She prepped some syringes for the test and was about to take Finnian’s blood. But when the needle was just a few inches close to his skin, it started to twist, as if being bent by someone. Dr. Imarri, when she thought all would go smoothly, saw this and was even more confused. Finnian who had his eyes closed, as if trying to avoid seeing the needle didn’t know what had happened.

At this time, Dr. Imarri looked and examined the needle, and to her surprise, it was twisted beyond recognition. When Finnian noticed that little time had passed and nothing had happened, he slowly opened his eyes.

“Is it done yet?”

Dr. Imarri didn’t know what to say and just showed Finnian the needle. “I hadn’t even started and this happened. Did you do that on purpose?”

Finnian furrowed his brows to look at the needle, “How could I possibly do that when the needle hadn’t touched me yet? And even if it did, I don’t think I can twist needles like that. Who knows, the needle could be defective.” Finnian gave a succinct reply.

Dr. Imarri had to admit that Finnian was making sense. The needle was only a few inches from touching his body when it got deformed, but that still raised a brow for her. Finnian wasn’t the only person she had attended to today, and he wasn’t the first to deform or break a needle. However, his case was different, being that the needle hadn’t touched him yet but got deformed either way. And from Finnian’s explanation, it appeared he too wasn’t aware of something like this happening to him; it could be the first time it had happened for all she knew. But, what did she know about him? Her curiosity had been stoked yet again, and to get the answers she wanted, she would have to meet Dr. Hani later.

“It could be,” Dr. Imarri replied and reached for another needle. This time around, she was extremely careful to capture everything and not miss a single detail. To her surprise, the needle met no resistance as it drew Finnian’s blood, which left her quite confused. Did she imagine it, or was she just careless the first time?

The rest of the tests went unhindered and Finnian was finally done with his inspection. Compared to the others, Finnian spent more time than them in his inspection. Putting on his weighty clothes once again, he walked out of the room with easy laid-back steps, leaving Dr. Imarri astounded. This was because the stool Finnian sat on was noticeably deformed now. And on a closer look, she found out that its legs sank a few inches into the ground with a few cracks crossing like spider webs. From how easily Finnian seemed to move around, no one would believe that he was wearing weights as clothes.

…

It was a few minutes before sunset and the inspection was over. Dr. Imarri was still in the office tidying up her pieces of equipment. As she filtered through the records of today’s inspection, she came across Finnian’s blood vial with the results of other tests attached to it. She reached for them and once again read through them to make sure she wasn’t making anything up. That seemingly ordinary kid was among the few that roused her curiosity today. She was still immersed in her thoughts when she suddenly heard a knock on the door and slightly jerked.

“Dr. Jager, I didn’t think you would come around again.” She said as she greeted the man at the door.

Dr. Hani Jager was a man looking to be in his late fifties, but he had quite a stocky build compared to others his age. He walked in with a relieved sigh, “I was thinking you would be drowning in all the work so I rushed here as soon as the meeting ended. I’m quite relieved to see that you handled things quite well here.”

“I’m glad I could help,” She smiled. “Coffee?”

“Oh yes please, I haven’t had anything to eat all day.” Dr. Hani said as he sat down. Dr. Imarri quickly brought the coffee and served the man. But Dr. Hani seemed to have noticed a deformed chair across the room. “What animal did you examine that did that?” He said, pointing to the chair Finnian had deformed.

“I was just about to ask you about that.”

Dr. Imarri’s words seemed to have spurred Dr. Hani’s thoughts. “Gene Finnian…”

No confirmation was more than this, and Dr. Imarri was now certain that the Head researcher indeed knew something about the boy.

“I should have explained things to you, but I didn’t have the time to.” Dr. Hani said while taking a sip of coffee.

“It doesn’t matter now. I had to find out a few things myself, but I can’t help but be curious though. Why the weighty clothes though?”

“Hmm… the answer is simple. He floats.”