38- Oil

I am currently walking down the hall in the entrance of the facility, looking directly in front of me, not paying attention to what is happening around me, nor in front of me, while I take this walk, I run "simulations" inside of my mind, scenarios of high emotions.

Seeing a cute puppy, nothing.

Seeing a delicious meal, nothing.

Seeing a spider, worry.

Imagining death, fear.

Faraday...

Nothing. Just... Nothing.

I worry about the situation but at the same time I don't feel sad about it.

Nor regret, I feel... Alright, if I can describe it in any form.

While I was walking with my eyes practically closed, I hear a fastly approaching person coming from behind me. I turn inmediatly, my fear disappears.

-THERE YOU ARE!.

I hear him shouting while he hugs me frankly, too tight, and I'm not saying he can't or that I'm mad he is doing it, I'm saying that my thorax is 60% it's normal size.

-Gaaah- alright,alright I get it, no need to crush my internal organs!.

-Oh sorry, sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you.

-I know you didn't, don't worry.

-I'm sorry it's just that... (He moves his hands around me while looking at me) ITS YOU!, COME HERE!.

He hugs me again, more happy and more affectionate, and less hurtful.

- Alright, I get it.

I say while tapping his head so this moment ends.

-Fuuh, god you don't know how MUCH I need to tell you, trust me.

-I'll listen to it while doing our work.

-Hey, what's wrong?.

-What do you mean?.

-I dunno, I thought you would be better by now, are you still under stress?. If you want we can take more time for you to come back or-.

-No, no need to worry, I'm fine.

-You don't sound fine.

-I am, I don't need to be jumping around and screaming to be fine.

-... Right...

I stard walking towards the room, he follows me

-So, how is she.

-She Is doing fine, she woke up in a really good mood today, she said she had a wonderful dream last night.

It's clear why. She still doesn't see it as anything but a dream apparently.

-And what were you doing right now?.

-We were running some tests with Faraday.

-More testing?.

-Oh we have something new to test!.

-And that is?... Hold up, what do you mean "we".

-Oh right, I didn't tell you about Madeline did I?. She came here to help us... I was gonna say while you were off but actually she just came here only 2 days ago, but she has helped us make something wonderful!.

-I fell like your not saying things on purpose.

-Oh nono, sorry it's just that the excitement really doesn't help with my already weird brain hahaha.

Ok let me see, since you left, me and faraday have been going our day to day trying to ignore... And failing at it... Gustave, she even tortured Faraday at some point.

-Has she continued the torture?.

-Uh, well no, she stopped like 3 days in, fortunately.

Also you don't seem to be... Angry at that.

-Me being mad about it wouldn't help the situation, and as you said it stopped, so I'm actually glad for that.

-I mean yeah but... I dunno you really seem off today you know?.

-Are you going to repeat that after every new I'm supposed to be getting?.

-...

-Please, go ahead, I need to know if anything else happened.

-Well... After that we discovered that Faraday can transmute all the matter into whatever she wants.

-Now that, is something I needed to know, tell me everything you figured out.

W-well at first she didn't seem to know what she was doing, she did it unconsciously, after I discovered it I tried some things with her, she managed to turn a plastic cup into a gold one, a real metallic pure gold.

-hmmm... According to the laws of physics that shouldn't be possible without an intense amount of energy, and I'm talking a star levels of energy.

-And she did it with a couple sparks from her hand... ISN'T THAT AMAZING?!.

-No need to shout.

-Oh sorry.

-What else did you figure out?.

W-well I didn't go that deep into the matter since I wanted to wait for you to come back so you could run the experiments yourself.

And also I really didn't want to drag attention to it.

-Why not?.

We both stop mid halfway. Alan turns to face me with serious expression

-Because I REALLY don't think Gustave, or any other member of the facility should know this.

-Why not?, it could benefit the search for a new material to contain Faraday, in fact it could mean that she herself could make it.

-Think about it, do you REALLY think that Gustave would just use that kind of power for something so boring as just making a new cage for the girl she already wants to see dead and not caged?.

Without a second thought, I say:

-Not at all, great thinking, we shouldn't discuss this matter as long as there is anybody listening but us two. Now, anything else?.

-Yes, there is the matter of that woman. I think there is something you should know... She... Uh...

Alan scratches his head and looks the other way, I can feel myself the knot on his throat.

-Listen I need you to promise to not freak out, alright?.

He says to me

-I'll try my best

I say with literally no emotion on my face.

-That woman, Madeline, is the daughter of Gustave.

I can't help but worry, just a tiny bit, before the logial thinking arrives at my head. If she was like her mother, she would show it right away, Gustave makes it really clear when she hates someone, and her daughter should follow the same path if she has the same temperament as her. And if she doesn't, then they don't share all that hate in their hearts.

- Oh. Alright.

-Uh... I expected another reaction, then again I could say that about our whole conversation.

- I told you, no need to worry, now, what is that thing she helped with?.

-She made this!.

Right as we reach the door, Alan pulls a watch from his pocket, resembling a regular wrist watch, yet not having any resemblance of one, there are no numbers or anything of sorts. Where the numbers should be, resides a glass panel that bellow it, And in the middle of the whole thing, exists a crystal of some sorts, surrounded by a couple of miniature rings floating around said crystal, so miniscule that I can barely see them with my eyes.

-And what does this exactly do?.

-Oh trust me, you have no idea how useful it is. Please put it on before we enter.

He lends me the watch before passing right besides me and hitting the sequence to open the door to the control room of Faraday's cage.

I can't help but notice the tinniest of warmths coming from the watch as I tightened up the watch in my wrist, as soon as I put it in my wrist a pulse comes out of it, an orange one, that after the door hits the middle of the opening sequence, turns into a blue one, not just any blue. Faraday's blue.

I feel a current of electricity run through my body, I try to face Alan to ask him what is going on, only to see him standing still right where he is, his hand extended signaling the room inside the door. No movement comes from him, not even breathing or pulsations on his hands do to his heartbeat. I look into the room only to see the main window of Faraday's cage fully opened for observation, someone was looking at her, and that one was the daughter of the devil herself, a daughter that somehow, ended in the complete opposite expectrum of light.

An intense amount of light is coming from Faraday's cage, so much that is illuminating the whole room, this allows me to see clearly inside it, This woman, Madeline, has one watch that looks identical to the one Alan gave, her's however is orange and not blue, I assume it didn't work as intended, or, from what I deduce by the 3 bottles of liquors scattered around her, she was too drunk to realize she didn't turn it on on the first place, I can tell due to the way she is leaning to the window, and her mouth open that she was giving instructions or commands to Faraday before the device didn't work.

As I get closer to examine her, I notice that in that stream of light coming from the window there are constant pulses of tones, movement to be precise, I get closer to the window and see Faraday bouncing around from one side of the cage to the other, hitting a wall with her feet and bouncing to another one or another edge of it, all that to carefully and expertly move around it like she was playing a silly game. This time, I can finally see the lightnings coming out of her back, making an arch and hitting it again, all of that to produce her signature speed, and all of that in slowmotion, and it doesn't even feel slow, is as I'm seeing her walking slowly, but seeing every little detail around her with that much speed aswell.

I don't think time is being slowed down, much rather, I am moving at HER speed, I'm seeing the world just as slow as she sees it when she hits this velocity

She continues to bounce for 1 minute before stopping in the middle of the cage, all the lightnings she generated before remain in the air, as if they're only remnants of the trial she just made. She turns around while saying something.

-Fuuuh, was that enough miss Made-.

As she was turning to face the control room, she looks at me, her eyes stop, her mouth opens, she remains there standing completely still, for a moment I think that the devide accelerated me so much that even she froze in time, but no, she was just processing all of this.

-M-m-m-mi...

Her hair starts sparkling up, the intensity of the brightness in it looks like something I haven't seen before, her eyes are as bright as a lightbulb. Those eyes are also watery as their just seconds before dropping down rivers of tears.

I see a lightning rush into the window of the room, window that can't compete with the absurd force applied to it.

In what I can assume to be Half the half of a second. I see countless numbers of fragments of glass from the window shatter and make way to Faraday coming out of the cage and the room, screaming while opening her arms as she flies in my direction.

-MISS CECILEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

She shouts as she encounters my confused body with a hug that not only pushes me back, but also makes me fall and roll out of the room along with her due to the amount of speed and force she just had as she launched towards me, yet, I didn't feel a a single amount of damage, not even pain registered at all.

Now, I'm in the floor, Faraday is on top of me, looking me right in the eyes with the biggest smile I have ever seen a human make, yet cascades of tears falling from her eyes.

-MISS CECILE!, YOU'RE BACK!!.

She shouts as I hear the effect of time returning to it's place, I hear the boom from the lightning as well as the window shattering and those fragments of glass hitting the floor.

A red light appears from all the lights on the hallway and the control room as a siren starts blasting on the hallway

WARNING. WARNING.

SUBJECT F HAS BREACHED CONTAINMENT

I REPEAT

SUBJECT F HAS BREACHED CONTAINMENT