Elle finishes up in the bathroom and comes out to the living room. The Director looks over from his desk and nearly swoons.

  “Oh, Elle. You look beautiful.” He gets up and walks over to her. “You’ll knock’m dead at dinner.”

  This guy was really a nut case. Even Jerry wasn’t this loony tunes.

  “Please tell me you like the dress, pumpkin.”

  She takes a moment to take a deep breath, so as not to explode on him. “I like this dress, it’s very nice. But I am only wearing this for the only man and woman I call father and mother. Simon and Melissa Prowman. And if Mr. and Mrs. Talvert like it to then I wear it for them too. Even Jackson, Jerry…and Chris too.” She crosses her arms and holds her head high.

  The Director ughs. “Oh, pumpkin. You are a jokester.” He returns to his desk. “Let me finish up with some computer work then we can go to dinner.”

  Elle goes and sits in a chair to wait for the Director to finish with his ‘work’. She ponders what she’ going to do for Halloween. Since she now officially hates ‘pumpkins’.

  “Don’t look so down my sweet. Today was a good day.” The Director says, working away on his computer.

  He goes on but Elle doesn’t pay attention. She tries to remember the way here when they first arrived. They came down, went through the Offices door. Then they past a couple doors. Offices and…generator? She remembers the Director talking with an assistant about an inhibitor or something. Could that be the room where it’s at?

  “All right.” The Director finishes with the computer work. “Shall we go for supper? Your friends will be there.”

  The Director takes her hand and they walk to a room with a huge table with settings for everyone. It looked like a conference room, but Elle guesses it could be used as a dining room. No doubt every guard in the pce will be here as well, keeping a trained eye on all of them. She just hopes the kid isn’t there. He scares her more than the Director.

  “Have a seat my dear.” He directs her to a chair next to the head of the table. “Sit tight, I’ll be right back.” He turns and leaves for one of the wall phones.

  She lets out a sigh, and then remembers a movie she saw. Looking quickly at the pcements, she takes a butter knife and stashes it down her dress top and situates it securely. Thankful for not being ft chested. She then sits like nothings wrong.

  “They’re on their way, now. What are you hungry for my dear?”

  Nothing made by you or your people, she wants to say but just keeps her head turned away from him and her mouth shut.

  A few minutes ter, her family and friends are brought in by the guards. She notices that the guards have switched to what looked like clubs. Mixed expressions cover the faces of everyone. From depression to angst to anger. She feels for them, because she feels the same.

  After everyone gets settled in, and all the guards taking position behind everyone, the food is brought out by Miss Carlton and a few of the guards. Elle has to smirk at the sight of the big bad guards serving food. What was with them anyway, they never talked.

  “Welcome my friends. So gd you could make it.” The Director says, happily.

  Elle even has to give him a look as if to say, “You’ve got to be kidding”.

  Everyone looks down at the ptes in front of them like they know there’s poison in the food.

  “I’m so gd we can all meet like this. Today’s little test went extremely well. Little Tetra is resting right now, so he won’t be joining us tonight.”

  What a shame.

  “But he didn’t use any fire powers. Hmm. We’ll have to test them out tomorrow.”

  “Director Hariman?” Larry asks.

  “Yes.”

  “Ask us straight. What are you gonna do with us? And no obscure answers.”

  The Director swallows his bite of steak. “That’s a good question. I’ve arranged for all of you to be sent to a Dr. Steinhaus in Spain. He’s a fellow scientist like me. But his specialty is in genetics. More along the lines of combining different genetic codes together into one being.”

  “Like a…hybrid?” Melissa asks.

  The Director begins to cut into his steak. “Yes. He’s been trying to merge human DNA with animal DNA. Most have been unsuccessful. But he’s making progress. He feels that the human race could benefit from a little enhancement, here and there. I told him…” He rambles on, again.

  Elle looks over at Chris, who sits looking a bit bored. As well as sad. She doesn’t care anymore if he caused all this or not. She just wants to hold him. She wants to feel the spark between them. To be lost in the feeling of flying high into the clouds.

  “Elle?”

  She snaps out of her daze. It’s the Director. She looks up.

  “What do you think?”

  “About what?” Her voice was a little sharp.

  “About sending them to Mr. Starinski first. Let him test out his men against them.”

  “I think you’re fucking insane.” Wow. Did she say that? Chris and her brothers snicker audibly.

  The Director ughs and pats her shoulder. “Youth today.”

  Yeah, she did say that. How can this guy go on like everyone is so buddy-buddy. She scratches her chest, the knife still held tight. She’s just gd no one noticed it was missing. This had to work.

  “Where’s your knife, pumpkin?” The Director asks.

  Shit! “I don’t know. I never got one I guess.”

  The Director snaps his fingers at a guard and orders him to retrieve a new butter knife for her.

  Phew! She breathes a silent sigh of relief. She might as well start eating. One can’t pn an escape on an empty stomach. Then she remembers.

  Elle stands up. “Hey, dad…mom. You like my new dress?” She says energetically. “I wore it for you.”

  “It’s very pretty, sweetie.” Her father says. “But, uh, how did you get it?”

  “The Director got it for me, but I’m wearing it for you instead.”

  Her friends and family get a ugh out of that. A hand on her arm pulls her back down into the chair.

  “That’s enough, pumpkin.” He pats her shoulder, chuckling like he gets the joke.

  Elle smirks anyway. That got him.