Episode 8

Episode 8

JOURNEY

Written by Andy Mascola

Jennifer stepped forward. “I will go first,” she said.

John looked at Jennifer in disbelief, then over to Charles. “You can’t put her under that spotlight. Those wings are like tissue paper. She’ll be incinerated.”

“Step onto the treadmill, Jennifer,” Charles commanded as he stepped aside.

On the plasma screen Mrs. Margot looked on in silence.

Jennifer stepped up onto the treadmill. Two of the guards came and cuffed her wrists with metal clamps to the support bars on either side of the machine.

John stepped forward. A third guard grabbed him by the arm, holding him back. John’s tail instinctively swatted the guard’s hand away hard causing the guard to cry out in pain. John again stepped forward. Cyrus stepped in front of him and growled, gritting his teeth.

“Whose side are you on, big fella?” John asked.

Cyrus grunted and punched John in the chest with a big meaty fist, knocking him off his feet. John flew backward. His head hit the tiled floor hard. Shaking the Cyclops’ blow off and rubbing the back of his head, John carefully got back on his feet and watched as the guards started the treadmill from a bank of computers on the opposite side of a glass enclosed area.

Charles walked slowly around the treadmill, observing Jennifer as it began to roll faster and faster. Jennifer was forced to keep up with the pace of the rapidly moving conveyer belt beneath her. 

Charles looked up at the spotlight above the winged girl’s head and then nodded to the guards behind the glass.

The spotlight hummed and quickly turned from a soft yellow light to orange, and then changed again from orange to red. From where John stood he could feel the heat coming off the lamps above the treadmill even though it was more than fifteen feet in front of him.

Jennifer cried out in pain. Her wings instinctively spread, shading her body from the punishing synthetic rays that were increasing in temperature by the minute. The treadmill got increasingly faster and louder as Jennifer’s feet beat down hard. It was torturous to watch. John couldn’t imagine what it was like for anyone to endure this “training”.

The heat was so high now that John began to sweat. Jennifer’s wings began to dry and shrink before his eyes. Jennifer was crying and there was smoke coming from her spread wings.

“Stop this!” John yelled. “You’re destroying her!”

The Cyclops’ back was to John. He quickly seized the opportunity to act. John ran across the room and into the enclosed area where the guards stood. Between the sound of the treadmill and the hum of the spotlight the men didn’t hear him coming. John punched the guard closest to him in the side of the face, and then pushed him as hard as he could with both hands into the guard next to him, knocking both men to the floor.

John looked at the myriad of switches and buttons confusedly. He grabbed a lever and pulled it down. The treadmill slowed. Charles took notice.

“Cyrus!” Charles yelled over the hum of the spotlight. The Cyclops’ one eye looked in the direction Charles was pointing.

The giant ran into the control booth and with one hand grabbed John behind the neck and dragged him out of the control booth area. The two guards got to their feet and repositioned themselves behind the controls.

John’s hands grabbed at Cyrus’ arm and fingers. The Cyclops held John away from his body and waited for his next instruction from Charles. John’s tail shot up and whacked the giant one eyed man hard in the crotch.

Cyrus groaned and let John go, grabbing at his genitals with both hands and collapsing to his knees. 

John rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Stop the training!” Charles shouted to the guards.

The room became quiet and dark as the spotlight above the treadmill went off completely. The air was tinged with a smell like burned hair. It was Jennifer’s wings. The fluorescent lights in the room went on.

The girl was panting and crying now having fallen to her knees. Her hands were still secured to the bars on either side of her. Her wings were shriveled and appeared much smaller. Smoke floated up from her back.

“Behold!” Mrs. Margot’s voice boomed from the plasma screen.

John’s eyes widened as he watched Jennifer’s shriveled wings shed their dried burned feathers to make room for fresh new feathers.

“Bring her to me,” Charles said to the guards as he stepped between Cyrus and John.

The guards undid the clamps around Jennifer’s wrists and lifted her to her feet. She had stopped crying and panting. The guards gently walked the girl off the treadmill and over to where Charles stood.

Charles made a motion with his finger in the air. The guards turned the winged girl around. The men watched as Jennifer’s body naturally shed the last of the blackened and singed feathers, replacing them with beautiful soft white feathers before their eyes.

“You’re next, monkey boy,” Charles said to John.