Outside the box

Emily's P.O.V.

"Emily, we have to go, we're going to be late, " My father says, opening the driver's door. 

I still feel uneasy about this. How did I end up here? One minute I feel fine and I'm talking the next I just felt weak and sick, disoriented. I guess the only way to get answers is to play along. 

Shrugging off the uneasy feeling that churns deep in the pit of my stomach. I open my passenger door and slide onto the brown leather seat.  

"Where are we going?" I ask, prompting a very confused look from my dad. 

"What do you mean where are we going? This whole trip was your idea" he laughs looking at me and back at the road. 

"Yeah, I know, I just wanted to see if you remembered." I smile back. 

'Well that didn't work.'  I think to myself starting out the tinted car window. 

The rest of the car ride shifted to complete silence. The radio stayed off and my forehead remained glued to the passenger window. Occasionally, getting bounced off from the minors potholes and dips in the uneven road. 

After about an hour of driving my father pulls into an empty parking lot about the size of a football field. Next to the lot is a skyscraper that glistens in the sunlight. The rays from the sun bouncing off the window panels, making it appear brighter than it truly is. 

I look around for any signs to identify the mysterious building, there aren't any. Confused I look at my dad and a deep sickening feeling engulfs my stomach and goosebumps begin to crawl across my arms, legs and back. The hair on the back of my neck stands up straight. 

"This way Emily" he smiles. 

Despite all the red flags and alarms my body is signaling to me, I ignore them and follow my dad inside the mysterious building. It's dark on the inside nothing but pitch black with the exception of the bit of sunlight that creeps through the open door. The windows on the outside are fake. Just one sided solid panels that are for decoration. 

'Run' I think to myself. 

Nonetheless, it is too late. The door slides shit behind me and locks. My only exit is now sealed and I am stuck inside another pit of darkness. I suppose it is fair to say that when I got the wretched feeling of dread and my skin crawled I should've ran sooner. Typical girl in a horror flick movie. I am the idiot that calls out "hello" to my killer or the evil ghost in the movie. 

I can feel the panic begin to rise in my chest. My heartbeat races. 'Thud...Thud….Thud…" it rages onward and beats in my ears. I feel short of breath and weak at the knees. 

"Let me….let.." I try to speak but I can't make the words, I can force the sentence out. I grab onto my chest and hit the ground. Cold concrete greets my body.  Still surrounded by the darkness. I realize I am again alone. 

Z P.O.V.

"Her heart beat just spiked. We have to do something, before it reaches critical levels." 

I call out to Natasha as she scurries around the lab trying to locate the divine needed to help slow the heart. 

"How is this even possible? Her heart beat is off the charts for a human?"  I scan the monitor as it beeps in alarm.  

Emily's heart is pounding at an excess of two hundred beats. Way out of the normal for what a human's heart can beat. 

Natasha comes to my side with a syringe filled with an orange serum. Testing to make sure the needle is good a couple drops spill out of the tip. Natasha looks at me before she sticks Emily. I offer her a brief nod in approval and she continues on. 

Within a minute her level begins to drop back to normal and her body relaxes. Breathing a sigh of relief, I take her hand in mine. Rubbing my thumb across the top of her cold white hand. 

"What the hell was that?" I ask Natasha. 

" A panic attack, " she whispers. 

" The hell it was!" I yell, causing Natasha to flinch. 

" Z, whatever happened to Emily, is causing her body to act erratic, outrageous levels. The up and down between stable and unstable, she can't take much more of this, we need to find a way to wake her up." She replies looking down at her friend. 

"I used to think that I could shield myself from feeling this way again, that I was this badass Lycan, we are not supposed to have feelings, but she broke that wall, " I smirk at the thought of how she shattered my inhibition. 

"She is good like that, " Natasha smiles. 

Clearing my throat, I set my mind back to the task at hand and walk over to the desk reviewing the notes on Emily.

" So, what do we know so far?" I ask picking up a clipboard that has her blood levels. 

" Nothing, " Natasha replies in a defeated tone. 

I look up at her and set the clipboard down.  Her response wasn't all that surprising, if the great Elders of Numir couldn't give an answer, then Natasha wouldn't be able to either.  Frustrated, I rub my face with my hands. 

"What are we supposed to do?" I speak into my hands covering my face. 

"All we can do is keep looking, and maybe..just maybe we will catch a break." 

I scoff at her reply. And take in a deep breath trying to keep my composure. I can't lose my head not now. Losing focus will only make things worse. Right now Emily needs us at our top performance anything less and she could die. 

"Okay, let's quit looking at her levels for a moment and try and think outside the box." I stand turning off all the monitors. 

"What do you mean?" Nicole interjects. 

The twins both have a confused look on their faces. Looking back at them in the eye I grab hold of each of their hands. 

" I'm saying what if we are going about this all wrong., we've been acting like she's been poisoned, however, if it was poison she would've been dead by now."

"Makes sense, " They say thoughtfully.

"So, where shall we start then?" Nicole asks, cracking her knuckles. 

"We start by re-examining the events that day, and what Emily consumed that day. If it wasn't a poison as I suspect, then it has to be some other herb or powder. "