Nine lives

The three doctors tied me up to the bed. My ankles, my wrists, my head. When they pulled them tighter, I whined. My body was sore. My body was broken.

'Please, not again. I'm too weak. Please, don't do this to me.' I begged them to stop. I never thought I was going to spend my summer holiday in one of the most delirious and extreme medical facility in the states. My mom had driven me to summer camp, but before I could join the opening ceremony, men in white suits found me and drugged me. I woke up in a operating room. I couldn't move. All I could do was scream when they started cutting into me.

'Let's put on the machine first.' Doctor Ben said. Doctor Viv and Sadee started to prep for another session. I barely survived my last session and I would probably die this time. I can feel I'm dying.

'Please, it's too soon. Just bring me back.' I kept on begging, but they didn't listen. One set of hands paste stickers on my forehead, while another set of hands pushed a needle in the arch of my elbow. There were tubes attached to the needle and the stickers, connected to the machine, to take my blood and my vitals. They have been testing me for weeks now. I knew what came next.

Doctor Viv grabbed the scissors and cut open my hospital gown. 'Maybe she was right. She didn't heal this time. Sadee, look. She has still the cuts from yesterday.' That was why they were testing me. Since the day I was born, I was never sick. I healed faster than a normal human. The cuts normally healed within a few hours. They had found out when I broke my back during a school trip six months ago. I fell off an old balcony of a museum. It was an unexpected accident. No one even noticed I died that day and came back to live. All they wanted to know was how I was healed my broken back in two days.

'We have to proceed, Viv. We have only two days left before she is supposed to be back from camp. We have to do the last test now.' doctor Sadee said.

'But she will die.' In all those weeks, doctors Viv and Sadee tried to make me feel comfortable during my stay here. They let me watch tv, they brought me food and they played board games with me. Viv was the one that brushed and braided my hair and told me I could go back when all the tests were done.

'Better she dies than we. We have to do this.' Doctor Benedict took the knife. I wanted to scream, but no sound was coming out.

The knife was placed on my right side. I could feel the cold tip of the blade puncture my skin. Doctor Ben pressed the blade deeper and made a cut deep into my stomach. I was pulling at the straps, I was arching my back in pain. This was how I was going to die. I wasn't going to heal this time. 'Start the clock. When it's been fifteen minutes, we cut again.'

I felt weak. I was on the edge of passing out. I was loosing blood fast, trough the cut and through the tube. They were killing me. I wasn't healing this time. 'Viv.' I whispered. 'I'm begging you. Please stop. I'm not going to make it. I'm dying.'

'Don't listen to her. She is lying.' Doctor Ben was always the hardest doctor around here. He had beaten me almost daily, just because I didn't participate willingly. Can you blame me? He made it clear he didn't like me. The feeling was mutual.

Then the timer said the fifteen minutes were over. Doctor Ben took the knife again. He sliced me from the collarbone all the way down to the other cut on my stomach. I didn't scream, I didn't move, I couldn't feel anything anymore. My breath stocked a few time. The sound on the machines flatlined, because my heart stopped for a second, but then kept on beating.

'She is going to die!' Viv pushed Ben away from me. 'Carmen, hang on. You are so much stronger than this. You can heal. You are going to make it.'

'I'm not.' I closed my eyes. I was too weak. 'Not this time.'

'Carmen, open your eyes.'

'Just tell my mom that I loved her.' I felt my body going weaker. My heartbeat went even slower and I was slipping away.

'Carmen!' Sadee now screamed.

'Carmen.' Viv cried. Both Viv and Sadee tried to wake me up. They were shaking me to wake up. But I was gone. My heart stopped. The cuts they gave me weren't healing this time. I died through blood loss. Flatlined. The end. 'God no, she is dead. Carmen is dead. She tried to warn us and now she is dead. What are we going to do now?'

24 hours or something later....

I woke up in the forest. My mind was blurry, like I had been sleeping for way too long. I sat up and looked around. There were trees everywhere and I had no idea where I was. I was laying under a pile of leaves, like someone tried to hide my body here. I brushed them off. I was wearing a white shirt and white pants, now dirty with mud and leaves. These weren't my clothes. What the hell happened to me?

I just started to walk. What else was I supposed to do? I walked and walked until I saw a boy kissing a girl against a large tree. The boy had dark skin and black hair. The girl had really long brown hair, that was all I could see of her.

'Hey, you there.' I yelled. They both got screamed and looked at me. 'Tell me, where the hell are we?'

'Camp Lalune Resort.' the girl answered. 'Did you go to camp with us?' Now I could see, she wasn't wearing a lot of clothes, only a bikini top and shorts.

Camp. The memories of coming here with my mother, the white men, the experiments, the doctors and me dying on their table, it was all coming back to me. Shit. I shook it off. 'Where is this camp? I need to get there.' They just pointed to a large camp sign. I was so close and I didn't even notice it. 'Thank you.' I walked to the sign. There were people everywhere, laughing and talking with each other. They all weren't wearing much clothes. It was really hot outside. I was the only one wearing a long sleeve shirt and pants. I hadn't seen the sun in six weeks. I didn't even feel warm right now.

There were boys and girls standing in a large circle with suitcases, parents talking and people saying goodbye to each other. It was the last day of camp or so it seemed. I missed it all. I was held in their stupid hospital for six whole weeks. I could've had so much fun here. It looked like the others had.

I didn't waist any time and walked around, looking for my mother. She wasn't here and I didn't know if she was even coming for me, because I never went to camp here. Did she even know I was missing?

'Can I help you? Are you looking for someone? You seem lost.' There was a man standing next to me, looking at me like my hair was purple or something. He was wearing a Camp Lalune Resort shirt. So he must be a leader here.

'I am looking for my mother.' I told him honestly.

'What is your name, sweat pea?'

'Carmen O'Hara.' He was looking on a list on his clipboard.

'Wait, you are the girl that was missing the first day. Where have you been?'

'That is none of your business. Can I use your phone so I can call my mother?'

'Wow, watch your mouth girl. We have been looking everywhere for you. So, tell me where were you?'

'To be honest, I don't know.' I held my hand out for him to give me his phone. 'Can I use your phone or not?' He finally gave in and gave me his phone. He kept looking at me weird though. I had to think for a minute to remember my mom's number, then I dialed.

'Hello?' my mom said on the other end of the line. I missed hearing her voice so much. 'Hello? Who is this?'

'Mom, it's me.' I whispered.

'Carmen? Oh my god, Carmen!'

'Mom, sssh. You don't need to shout.'

'Carmen, I have been worried sick. Where have you been?'

I actually started to cry. I don't cry easily. In the six weeks they had held me captive, I never cried once. Now the tears were streaming down my face and there was nothing I could do about it. 'Mom, it happened again.' I could hear my mom gasp trough the phone. 'They found me mom. They were testing me. They didn't know the thing... You know what I mean. That is why.. Mom I have four left. I have four lives left.'

Well, there you have it. That is my secret. I was cursed at birth by some witch. Mom won't tell me by who, but he must be evil. I was given nine lives. If I have one or more lives left at the time I turn eighteen, I will live a immortal life until I'm hundred years old. But if I die nine times before that, I will stay dead. Nine lives sound like a lot, but the curse is making my live a living hell. Accidents happen all the times, I had so many already. I have died five times.

The first time I died, I was only a few days old. Mom said I just stopped breathing at one point. She was so scared.

I died when I was four years old and I died when I was twelve.

The balcony fail, when I was sixteen years old a few months back, was the fourth time I died.

And now I died by extreme scientists.

I am now seventeen years old and I died five times already. I have only four lives left. The scientists where just the beginning. If only they knew I am still alive....