Submission

I frowned as my name came over the intercom.

"Skye Davies, Hollie Misser, Alisha Coregrue, please make your way to the assembly hall for your injections."

I had heard of these injections before. They were a new thing. Only four other people from our class had ever had them. Once they had left, we had never seen them again. Apparently they moved away from here, according to the headmistress. Sunday was her name, she taught all three classes in our sector. Mistress Sunday.

I stood up slowly, as did two other girls, Hollie and Alisha. Alisha was dark-skinned, with hair a few shades darker. Her eyes were a piercing green, and it was hard to look away once you had been captured in their gaze. Hollie was pale, in complete contrast to Alisha, with white-blond hair and dull grey eyes, like storm clouds. The color was constantly shifting, just like normal clouds.

Out of the three, I was by far the most beautiful. The others were simple, I was stunning. I was pale like Hollie, but my hair was black as a raven's wing, and eyes the color of a jay's feather. Rumors had been going around that I was a witch, and I had used my magic to make Sunday go easy on me. See, she was normally strict, immediate impositions if you forgot your homework.

We filed out of the class in one line, me at the head. They respected me. It seemed like they thought I was the natural leader of the class - nay, the entire sector. I was popular, it's true.

Outside of our bland class, with chairs, desks and walls all the same shade of beige, there was a long corridor. Metal floors, as with all the floors in this sector. It made everything cold, but our desks had heaters installed, so we were warm enough. The hall was lined with doors. Most of them lead to storage, or empty shafts that must have held elevators at an earlier time, though nobody had been around at this school long enough to know, 'cept Sunday, and she wasn't about to tell us. Two led to classes, and the double doors at the end led to the assembly hall. Down the corridor, our black standard-issue shoes clicking on the shiny floor, through the doors, and we were there.

The assembly hall - wow, was it huge. Carpeted floors, apparently copied from Sector Four, and an area the size of a football field. The walls were interesting, too. Each was a different color - yellow, blue, red, green, and a dark shade of purple for the ceiling. It was all too bright, and it hurt my eyes, but it drew your attention from the three people standing in a row in the middle of the hall. Two males, one female. Beside each person was a tray, with a different array of needles. The injections.

The taller - and cuter - of the two males called me over. He had picked up the biggest needle and was holding it aloft. I noticed as I walked up that each tray had the needles arranged in order of size. The largest was as long as my hand, the smallest only as big as my little finger. The male - he was a nurse, it said so on his badge, along with the name James - smiled as I approached. It was a knowing smile, like there was some secret he was keeping from me. He indicated for me to stand next to him, so I did, breathing in his scent involuntarily as I did so. He smelled of sweat and faintly of floral perfume.

James pressed the point of the needle against my skin, just under my shoulder.

"Now Skye, don't worry. This won't hurt, at least not much." There was that cute, knowing smile of his again. I swallowed with difficulty. I had never been a fan of injections, not even the little ones to protect against diseases like miphilla, or titolis, that was the worst. I had heard that when you got titolis, you got covered in sores, and all your hair fell out.

Swiftly James injected the medicine or whatever was in the needle into my arm, and I bit my lip, tasting a bit of blood. It didn't hurt that much, but the biting was mostly from surprise. He hadn't said he was going to do it so soon. With the miphilla injections they had counted down. Gently he pulled the tip of the needle from my skin, with a faint sound like someone sliding along the metal floors of the corridor. It sent a shiver down my spine, and James grinned wider.

He picked up the next needle in line and pressed that into my skin too, just as quick as the first one. I bit my lip again, this time from the pain. It felt like someone had held a flame to my arm. The salty blood was filling my mouth now. It felt like I had bit deeper than I intended to. At least the pain from my lip blocked most of the pain in my arm.

He took needle three out of four off the tray, and this time I felt scared. Surely so many injections at once couldn't be healthy. What if I caught titolis, despite my injections? I shook my head slightly, banishing these frightening thoughts to some dark, dank corner of my mind. This time he counted down from three, though it seemed mostly for his benefit as he said it almost too quietly for me to hear. When he pushed the tip of the needle into my skin, I was prepared, but not for pain like this. It honestly felt like my arm had been set on fire, it burned so badly, the pain searing my flesh, but with no visible effects.

I almost asked him to stop, but then I thought, What will my classmates think if I go back and say that I chickened out? They'll never let me live it down. I used that thought to console me, despite the liquid in the last injection having a shimmering, reddish tinge. I suppose it was the color of the liquid that scared my the most, but my thoughts of humiliation far overpowered my fear.

James oushed the needle into my skin, and this time I screamed, though the sound could not be heard by my class through the thick walls and steel doors. The other two - I could barely remember their names through the pain that clouded my thoughts - screamed in unison with me. This time, my entire body was burning. It was like I was standing in the bonfire my class had had last term. This time, I screamed, and kept screaming, for a whole minute, or so James said. This time, I myself yanked the needle out of my arm, but the movement just made it hurt more.

I fell to my knees, the pain jolting again and again through my limbs and torso, my head feeling like it was about to explode. I had broken out in a sweat, and the tears were flowing freely down my cheeks, where they evaporated on my burning hot skin. A single thought broke through the haze of pain, and it was not my own.

Submit, you fool.

I gasped involuntarily at the shock of it. Were these injections putting a seperate entity into my brain? Was it taking over my body at this very moment?

Of course I am. Now submit. Your friends have already given in, and their pain has been relieved.

I turned my head and sure enough, Hollie and Alisha were just standing there, showing no sign that they had experienced such torture aside from the red cheeks and almost imperceptible shivers.

Submit!

The pain suddenly doubled in intensity, and I screamed again, so loud that I was sure the students in our sector had all heard it. Again and again, the pain increased, and again and again I fought it, but my attempts were in vain. All of a sudden, my limbs locked, and I fell flat on my face.

Give in, you fool. You cannot fight one such as me.

I did not want to lose my mind to this creature. No, not a creature. A parasite. An arrogant, bossy parasite. But neither did I want to die from this torture. I figured that my life was worth more than my mind, and as I thought this, the pain lessened. But it was still there, an incessant, jabbing pain, that twisted my thoughts and made thinking straight almost impossible. Finally, I gave in.

"I submit," I gasped weakly. Abruptly the pain was shut off, and my limbs regained movement, relaxing beside my body.

Finally. You have made a wise decision. Too bad you will not be around long enough to feel the full pleasure of this pain relief...

I shrieked one more time as I realised what the parasite was saying, then everything went black.