Amy

Zina was telling the truth. Some of her cousins owned five-star hotels in Bluebridge, and to them, she was your highness. As her royal subjects, loyal peasants, they gave her anything she wanted.

Like the old days, when the trees bristled in the sun, ninety-five degrees, and the music played quietly, it was a good day. It reminded me of when Cleo and I used to crash at luxury Airbnb's and resort hotels.

'But where were they when you were locked up?' I asked her, 'couldn't one of them bust you out?'

'I was in a tight situation', she sat on the chair by the balcony, while I lied upside down on the bed with a hotel vape in my mouth, 'a social worker found me and put me in that mental home. But I preferred the mental home to getting caught and sent back to the death chamber'.

'Ah, so it's the low-profile thing for you?'

'I need to do whatever it takes to not get caught', she said, frowning, 'even if it means hiding in a mental home'. Our view from the seventh floor was nice. I could stare at it all day... reminiscing...

The telephone rang. I sat up, darting my eyes at Zina.

'It's from the reception', she said, before picking it up, 'Hello –'

'Don't!' I slammed the phone back into the receiver.

'Amy!' she growled, 'the only people that can call us from here is the reception'.

'Yeah... but...' I didn't know how else to respond. I was paranoid. Noted. But I trusted nothing. It rang again. Zina picked it up.

'Yes. Room Seven-Eleven...' she listened intently, while I just watched her, 'extra towels?'

'What are they saying?' I whispered.

'No-no, we didn't request extra towels...' not even a moment later, we heard a knock on our door. Immediately, I stood up and crept towards the door, while Zina stayed on the phone. The knock was louder.

'Room service', a man shouted. Taken back to the memory of when the cops busted into our home, arresting me in underwear, I couldn't keep calm. Maybe they found us.

Cautiously, I cracked the door, peering... it was just a man holding a stack of white towels.

'My bad! I forgot', Zina remarked over the phone. Since we hadn't left the room in over twenty-four hours, room service couldn't do much of their job, one of which was cleaning our beds and refreshing our towels. In fact, it was the third time this situation happened to us.

'Thanks', I snatched the towels from him and slammed the door as fast as possible. Sigh.

'Are you always this worked up?' Zina sneered.

'What – and you're not?!' I retaliated, 'you're the daughter of a Saudi prince. Aren't you scared like – a jihadist mafia will infiltrate one of your cousins' hotels in disguise and... catch you?'

'Jihadist mafia', she repeated, laughing. I threw myself back on the bed.

'Sorry Zee', I whined, 'it's just, there's this particular cop. He always finds me'.

'I get it', she got up and walked into the bathroom. Our hotel door knocked again. 'Oh, maybe they forgot our soap', she mumbled, coming back out of the bathroom to attend the front door. I walked towards the bed. Sigh.

'Oh – and can you also ask them to get another vape?' I requested. suddenly the room went silent, 'Zee?' I sat up, 'Zina...?' Then... THUD. Before I could see anyone at the door, I saw Zina lay unconscious on the ground, a tranquilizer in her thigh. Obscured from their view, I hid behind a corner.

'Think we should just... you know', the infiltrators whispered between themselves, 'finish her off?'

'Two bullets to the head, or one?' a female voice whispered. No. It couldn't be... that son-of-a-bitch detective.

'No – Stop!' I cried, standing right behind Zina. 'Wait... who are you?' A man. A woman. They both wore black ski masks, 'you're not... the cops, are you?' feeling dizzy, my words slowed down. My thigh. A pin-like tranquilizer wedged into my skin without me even feeling it...

'You... tricked me...' I woke up mumbling these words, lying on a bed, both my hands and feet cuffed to it. Whiteness, everywhere. Silver machines. I was in a lab. Snapping from theta-mode to fully conscious, I started pulling on the cuffs, 'Arggggh! Let me out!'

'Relax, Amy...' an old man in a lab jacket replied, bald, with a white beard, 'your powers are neutralised'.

'How do you know I have powers? How do you know my name?!'

'I've known you for a very long time now, misses...' He took a seat next to me. My clothes... had changed. To my left, Zina lay on a bed like mine, unconscious. Blood samples were taken. Scans and photographs of her body were collaged meticulously on the wall behind her.

'Is she dead?!' I wailed.

'She wouldn't be much use to us dead now, would she?' the man sneered. Then, he picked up a nano-sized tube filled with a purple substance, waving it in front of my face. 'Know what this is?'

'No'.

'Your blood', he was intense. In the background I noticed PC screens with past surveillance of Zina and I in different locations. We were being spied on the whole time. 'I've spent a lifetime looking for this'.

'Looking for my blood?'

'No. Looking for the substance that runs through your blood. This is my creation'.

'What?'

'I'm the man who gave you powers'. Struck by a subconscious memory of his face, my heart pounded. I remembered. I remembered feeling scared of his face.

'Who-who are you?!' I stuttered. As if he were awaiting my question, he grinned. No reply. He mystified me. 'And what is this long – dress I am wearing?' Mysteriously, he walked back to his workstation, being precious with the tube sample of purple stuff, my blood. 'Zina!' I glanced over to her. Zina wore the same thing I wore. There she lay... still unconscious. 'Hey Mister!' I finally yelled.

'Amy'.

'You didn't answer my question!'

'Child', he patronised me, 'you wouldn't remember, you were too young to remember...'

'Remember what?!' I hammered on, 'why is my blood purple? What did you put inside of me?!'

'The cure that saved your life!' he countered, with his intensity. Too mystified to even respond, my eyes travelled sporadically, hatching an escape plan with the proximity of all this evil lair equipment. 'You were born with a rare blood disorder, to which this day... some say has no cure to it', he slowly leaned in, 'but you're my evidence that there is a cure, and something more...'

'What?'

'The abilities you possess, they can be used to power beta AI systems, sky cities, Internet 3.0 projects. You will inspire and normalize trans-humanism in militaries across the globe. You and I would pocket all the royalties, and all I ever needed, was a sample of your blood'.

Then it hit me. The Royal Intelligence Company had made me their Guineapig, the very thing Sergio was trying to protect me from.

'Yuri' a lab assistant called from behind, 'should we start on the girl?' they were talking about doing something to Zina. Yuri, the mastermind in front of me, nodded. They started sticking extraction tubes, injecting potions, and tying things around her unconscious body.

I panted, heavily.

'I was born with a blood disorder?' I whispered to myself. Every time I tried to use my powers to escape, they were suppressed by a stronger frequency, something that repelled against the chemicals in my blood. Purple. 'What are you gonna do to Zina – let her go!' I wriggled around. Pinch. A needle in my skin. Not again. Sedated.

In no time, I woke up again... in a glass dome. Hands bare. Feet bare. Everything was clear, white, squeaky clean. Zina was in a separate dome beside mine. I banged my fists on the glass. Soundproof.

'You vampires!' I wailed, 'Let us out!' sucking our blood. Tsk. 'I'm not just your doll!' We were ignored. There was a small shoot in the corner for a bathroom, and a water fountain. 'Zina!'

'Amy', she mimed. I couldn't hear her, but I read her lips. As she touched the glass, it crackled, turning a stone texture... but morphing back into glass. She started miming something to me that I didn't understand. I shrugged. She shook her head.

Bending the metal tap of her water fountain, her touch made it stone and she snapped it off. Then... she used the sharp edges to start cutting her wrists.

'No – no!' again I banged on the glass, 'don't do it Zee'. Now, both her arms were bleeding out and she crouched to the ground.

About thirty seconds later, her dome was opened. She was bandaged. But before being cuffed, the two lab assistants attending to her turned into stone waist-down.

From one of their pockets, she snatched a key card, and unlocked my dome. I ran out.

We ran. Not knowing where to. Just ran. Through the halls, up the stairs, between the rooms, around the labs.

'Security!' I squealed, skidding to try and turn backwards. But it was too late. Two guards had Zina and I back-to-back. Both guards wore shades and looked like double-agents.

'It's okay, I'll escort them', said the second guard, removing her shades.

'Wha...' I whimpered. That guard was Selena. The first guard nodded. Selena pointed two guns at us. Then she skidded some cuffs over to us.

'Put these on – both of you!' she was short with us, while the other security guard just watched.

'Okay...'

'What?! Amy don't put them on!' Zina whispered.

'It's okay – just put it on'. Zina gazed at me in disbelief. Of course. We had powers. 'Trust me'.

'Amy...' reluctantly, Zina agreed. Selena escorted us through a fire exit.

'So are you gonna let me in on your rescue-escape plan?' I asked her.

'Move! Let's go' Selena muttered. Then she halted. We all bumped into each other. Selena looked up at a camera.

'Chief...' she whispered slowly through her ear-piece mic, deepened voice, eyes dead on the camera, 'you're certain you're the only person that can see us?' I imagined Sergio found his way into the control room, watching us.

'You're all clear', I heard from Selena's receiver. That red, poignant light beside the camera... I had a bad feeling already.

'What's happening?' Zina asked.

'This way – now!' Selena turned left, and we followed her through this maze exit. We walked fast, which became jogging, which became running.

'I know who you are!' came a playful, puppet-master voice... Yuri. Security guards had us surrounded, 'detective Selena... Rose...'

'Dammit!' Selena grunted, huffing and puffing out of breath.

'Bluebridge PD think their so smart, compromising our surveillance... but you missed a spot', Yuri seethed, in a dark evil-lair tone. Yuri wasn't seen, only heard through announcement speakers.

'You're so close!' a cry came from the exit doors the guards blocked. From nowhere Kai and Morello burst in also disguised as security. In a chain reaction, they all pulled their guns out. Royal intelligence vs police.

Then, with a cool temperament, Yuri walked into the scene, removed from hiding.

'Just give me Amy, and the rest of you can go free', he requested, 'and we can end this situation'.

'Can't let that happen', Selena replied.

'Well in that case...' Yuri reached for his weapon. But Selena shot him and the two guards beside him.

The shooting war broke out.

'No!' immediately, I used my powers to create a force-field around us, repelling every bullet flying our way, 'are you crazy?!' I shouted at Selena.

The longer I held up, the more they shot at us. Both Selena, and Zina stood behind me. Drops of blood fell from my nose to the ground...

Purple.