S1, E2 | Mother

} The following events take place on the 4th and 5th of April, 2030, and the 18th of January, 2031 {

> 4th April, 2030 <

Pressing her knees against her own chest, Sophie leans against the cold metal wall at the back of the room, her foot chained to a makeshift restraint anchored to the wall. The palms of her hands pressing against her eyes, Sophie begins to develop a headache, a result that doesn’t phase her, as her actions are made in an attempt to awaken from what she can only hope to be a terrible dream.

Nothing around her to drown out the noise, aside from the faint buzzing of the light tubes above her, the sound of a voice from beyond the door captures her undivided attention. Slowly pulling her hands away from her face, Sophie looks toward the cold, metal door ahead of her, well beyond what her restraints would allow her to reach, hearing the faint voice gradually sound louder as it approaches nearer.

When thrown a water bottle earlier, Sophie failed to see the figure's face, only recognizing the voice from somewhere she could not recall. “Let me go!” Sophie calls out, her voice not loud enough to be described as a shout, but not soft enough to fall out of her captor's reach, prompting an immediate silence from the other side of the door. “Do you hear me!?” Sophie exclaims, her voice growing louder, though not as loud as what she would follow with.

“LET ME GO!” Sophie shouts, emphasizing the final word in her plea for release, a guttural ‘o sound’ being prolonged until her voice becomes exacerbated. Nothing loud enough to conceal the sounds from just outside the door other than Sophie’s breaths, hesitant footsteps begin to present themselves to the imprisoned young girl, almost unsure of whether or not to present herself.

“I know you can hear me now!” Sophie says through bated breaths, hearing the footsteps stop immediately, her kidnapper’s attention completely set on her, just as Sophie’s own is when offered back. “You have me chained up, and you’re either gonna kill me or keep me alive… Both of which you’ll need to show yourself to do” Sophie continues, not a single footstep interrupting her, “just get it over with now.”

After a few seconds, the sole of a shoe slides across the ground just outside, proving to Sophie that her abductor is just as conflicted about the situation as she is afraid of it. After another few seconds, the doorknob of the barrier between Sophie and the outside world clicks very subtly, only further adding to the tension of the moment. Knowing her captor's hand to be close, Sophie barks out another command, her orders being answered just as the final word leaves her mouth.

“Just open the fucking door!” Sophie shouts, watching the rectangular entrance swing open quickly, blinding the pre-conditioned inmate with an overwhelming light from the outside world. Pulling her arm over her face, Sophie shields herself from the painful sights, her eyes directed toward the floor from behind her cover, allowing her to watch as the entrance closes up once again, returning her to the conditions of her space’s increased-occupancy.

Slowly removing her arm from her face, Sophie looks to the front of the room, expecting to see the empty interior she’d become accustomed to, only to be surprised upon seeing the familiar figure adding to the landscape. Dropping her arm the rest of the way, Sophie’s mouth hangs open, her eyes widening as one word leaves her chapped lips. “Mom?” Sophie mutters, the face she finds finally making sense of the familiarity she has with the voice.

As if she had forgotten what role she plays in this current situation, Sophie’s mother begins to smile, her face sporting a happy expression upon hearing her title spoken from her eldest daughter’s mouth. “Mom?” Sophie says again, again struggling to get to her feet, this call of her mother’s title holding more fear and anger, something the older woman doesn’t pick up until a few moments later.

“Mom, what the fuck!?” Sophie shouts, collapsing to the ground once more upon failing to adequately stand, now resorting to pulling with all her remaining strength at the restraints she’s held back by, desperate to break free. “Don’t be mad!” her mother empathetically pleads, both hands held out as if that would calm her offspring, the reality of her actions only beginning to set in.

“What the fuck!?” Sophie shouts again, frantically trying to break the chains she’s locked into, which pushes her mother into action, her efforts to calm Sophie down being shoved away by her desperate victim. “Let me go!” the young girl cries, her voice growing higher the more her throat begins to hurt, each cry for help only further adding to the stress her vocal chords begin to undertake.

Panic beginning to creep in, Sophie’s mother begins to pull back from her daughter’s person, realizing that a failure to act will result in her daughter breaking out from the ties that bind. In an act of desperation, Sophie’s mother takes her dominant hand and forces her daughter’s head against the metal wall behind her, the brief scuffle ending as quickly as it had begun.

Slumped over, Sophie drops to the floor, her mother frantically pressing her fingers against her neck to feel for a pulse, the discovery of which offering her a wave of relief. “Okay Morgan… What do we do now?” Sophie’s mother begins asking, her own inner thoughts being spoken aloud, the deed she has to maintain control not yet having been completed. Making her decision, Morgan pushes herself to her feet and runs for the door, quickly bursting out of the room and running for her car.

Laid on her side, Sophie sleeps peacefully in her unconscious daze, a state of being which proves to be one of the only times she can expect such serenity for the moment being. In the distance, the sound of chains being unloaded from a trunk begin to rattle upon the asphalt, their travel closer toward Sophie’s confinement suggesting the next stage of Morgan’s plan to already be in effect.

= Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards =

> 18th January, 2031 <

“I need to take a breather” Andrew mutters, removing himself from the room and walking out into the open air, leaving Caden behind to continue the line of questioning. Sitting in silence for a few seconds, Caden looks up at Sophie, her eyes blankly staring into the lens, mouth remaining silent as her ears listen out for the following question. “When you woke up, what did you find?” Caden asks, convincing himself that blurting the questions out will make the answers hurt less.

“Chains” Sophie replies, hands still loosely draped over each other in her lap, legs remaining crossed, face cold and stiff. “I had two cuffs tied around my ankles, and one really thick chain wrapped around those” Sophie replies, her face remaining blank in expression, frozen toward the camera while her eyes drift to the side of the room, a metal hook on the wall close to the floor remaining in sight as she continues, “they were held to that hook for the rest of the spring.”

Looking off into empty space, Sophie begins to list the other simple things she had seen, nothing different from before aside from her restraints. “It was the same room, the same lights, the same silence” Sophie continues, eyes finally sliding back toward the camera, the fluorescent lights reflecting off her glossy lips, “the same thoughts to match.”

Squinting his eyes, Caden continues with his previously made requirements, inquiring further into the thoughts provided. Finally breaking her expression very briefly, just to allow her lip to furrow before returning to its original place, Sophie acknowledges the thoughts. “I wanted to die” she explains, the statement bringing a cold rush of air over the back of Caden’s neck, “I thought anyone that would question Morgan would just believe her… I’d be trapped there forever.”

“Why would they have believed Morgan?” Caden asks, digging deeper into the statement before backing off, almost disappointed in himself for interrupting as quickly as he had. “Because she was the mom in that situation, and most people don’t question what women say” Sophie replies, her head tilting as she answers the remainder of the question with her head turned toward Caden, “she got unlucky with the legal system once before… That kind of miracle doesn’t happen twice.”

Wrinkling his nose at that answer, Caden glances back toward the clipboard, silently reading the next question to himself, having less trouble asking this one compared to the rest. “What do you remember from that day?” Caden replies, feeling like the worst part had already passed, the less hearty stuff now to come before the rollercoaster that their questionnaire would end with eventually began.

> 4th April, 2030 <

“Answer me!” Sophie shouts, a bandage covering the back of her head, stitches keeping a wound shut, her own blood dried on the wall behind her. Desperate for an answer from the woman responsible for her abduction, Sophie calls for the attention of anyone, at this point no longer caring who it is that answers, just longing for the response of someone who does.

Left to her own thoughts, Sophie scans the room for the thousandth time since her consciousness returned, the same basic essentials left by her mother in the places she last left them. Isolated from the outside world, Sophie is left with little to pass the time she’s now uncertain of, not an ounce of daylight or moonlight to judge by.

With a plethora of light, Sophie looks to her side and picks up a notebook, its cover perfectly smooth and pages perfect, not a bend to be found. Taking the notebook into her hand, Sophie runs her palm over the pristine cover, keeping her composure under control with the help of the sensation of unbridled perfection. Beside the notebook, a package of brand new pens were left, the entertainment she’s left with at least tasteful to her interests.

With a loud breath, Sophie gently places the notebook back to the place it was left in, covering it with the assortment provided to her, not wanting to let the perfection of the new journal be disturbed in any way. Drowsy, Sophie slowly lowers herself to the floor, resting the side of her head atop the concrete finish of the room. Closing her eyes, Sophie lets the day pass on, hoping that the following wakeup call will put an end to her troubles.

> 18th January, 2031 <

“I lost track of the days immediately” Sophie explains, her voice carrying weight, but feeling free enough to speak without the pain carried by memory. “By the time I was let out of the room, I thought I had been in there for six years” Sophie explains, citing her mother’s frequent trips in and out to be her only clue as to the time of day. “It was a lot less time than that, but I didn’t know that back then… I didn’t know that until recently” Sophie explains, “she knew that… She used that.”

“How did she use that?” Caden asks, his voice lowered, keeping a disassociated tone in his reflection, sounding sickly at times. Looking away from the camera, Sophie’s eyes drop to her hands, which anxiously fiddle with themselves, fingers uncomfortably wrapping around other fingers, her wrists beginning to wear tension like jewelry. “She told me that I would quickly lose track of time the longer I was in there a few days later” Sophie explains, “said that days would feel like months.”

Her top set of teeth pressing into her lower lip, Sophie brings her stress down by running her right thumb over the knuckles on her left hand, the smooth skin as close to the perfect cover of the notebook she can find. With patterned breathing, Sophie’s subtle wheezing comes to an end, her head halting its rush of thoughts, and her eyes soon return to the camera.

“From what she told me, I can sort of piece together how long I was in there, and how long she said that time was” Sophie explains, stopping herself for a moment so as to not lose control over her emotions, “she said the first week was actually two months.” Biting his own tongue, Caden stops himself from interfering, allowing Sophie to continue of her own volition, something she wastes no time in doing.

“She said the second week was another month and a half, and the next two weeks were four months a piece” Sophie explains, recalling her own regression into insanity. Glancing back to the board atop his knee, Caden asks the next question listed, one written in lighter ink than the earlier ones. “When did you stop feeling anything and why?” Caden asks, his voice completely failing him just as the last word is uttered, disappearing when he needed it most.

“After the first six weeks, which Morgan had made seem like a year and a half” Sophie replies, pausing for a moment, only continuing with a broken statement, one that suggests why she stopped feeling anything. “She said they had ended the search” Sophie continues, unable to persist speaking without the need to clear her throat, “no one was looking for me anymore.”

> 5th April, 2030 <

Awoken from the sound of the metal hatches just outside unlocking, Sophie jolts out of her sleep and backs herself against the blood-stained wall, covering her face before the light can blind her again. The door closing behind Morgan, Sophie becomes concerned, the flood of light not having accompanied her mother into the room. “Let me go” Sophie says again, this time with a tired tone, her cares only being with her longed-for freedom.

Head hung, Morgan walks to the corner of the room and drags a chair along the concrete ground, earning an unpleasant sound from the uncapped legs. Sitting down, Morgan looks at Sophie, the girl repeating her request, hoping for an answer worth holding onto hope for. “I can’t let you go sweetheart” Morgan replies, quickly challenged for her reasoning.

“I am your mother” Morgan reassures, almost astonished at the idea that Sophie would argue with her, as if she had lost complete sight of the picture, “I don’t need a reason to want to spend time with my daughter!” Lowering her arm from her face, Sophie looks toward Morgan with great disdain, her expression suggesting a readiness to kill the woman that brought her into the world right then and there.

“You’re my kidnapper” Sophie replies, immediately earning herself a harsh tone from Morgan, who lifts a finger to her, as if to warn her to tread lightly. “You are my daughter- you will not speak to me that way” Morgan responds, her attempt to further her own dialogue cut short when Sophie defiantly sends a wad of spit hurling toward her eye. Dumbfounded, Morgan lunges out of her chair after a moment of thought and sends her hand crashing against the side of Sophie’s face.

The time between their last encounter having grown them apart greatly, the feeling of Morgan’s hand across her face sends Sophie into shutdown, almost as if she were beaten into docility. “Do not treat me like one of your friends- I am your mother” Morgan shouts back, her daughter curled into a ball before her feet, allowing her own frame to tower over that of her offsprings, her back arched in a leant pose, one that suggests the midst of a scolding, one finger still raised.

“You’ve locked me in a basement and chained me to the wall” Sophie replies, immediately finding her concerns to be considered pointless, ramblings of a moody teenager as far as Morgan is concerned. “I can’t have you hurting yourself, Sophie” Morgan replies, her daughter looking toward her with a confused expression, “you get yourself hurt like that, and you expect me to let you keep doing it?”

Jaw lowered, Sophie looks at her mother as if she were a product of an institution, trying to figure out what is cycling within the older woman’s head. “Are you saying I was the reason why you clubbed me over the head?” Sophie replies, an amused scoff coming from her mother’s face, the following response sending Sophie into a full-blown panic.

“Stop being dramatic, honey” Morgan retorts, waving her hand in Sophie’s face, “I’m your mother- I could never.” Extending her hand to the chain restraining her to the wall, Sophie watches the unconcerned response in her mother’s body language, feeling the dread of what she’s truly dealing with. “I’m your mother. I have to do what I think is best for you honey” Morgan explains, her eyes looking along the chains depressingly, “even if it’s something more extreme.”

Shaking her head, Sophie lunges at the chain, crawling to the deadbolts she’s locked to before desperately yanking at them in hopes of her escape. “Honey, I told you this is for your own good!” Morgan shouts, strolling over to her daughter and attempting to intervene. In a state of panic, Sophie turns away from the chain and looks her mother in the eyes, a survival mechanic taking over in a moment of absolute necessity.

Taking the length of the chain tightly into her hand, Sophie pulls the string of metal around her mother’s neck and begins to pull, her knee pressing against the small of Morgan’s back, giving her leverage. Quickly losing strength in her tired knees, Sophie begins to gradually lose her leverage as quickly as she’d gained it, allowing Morgan’s own instincts to kick in.

Pushing herself back, Morgan crushes her daughter between her own body weight and the metal wall behind her, a wave of relief coming over as the pull of the chain around her neck dissipates. Slumped on the ground, desperate to catch her breath, Sophie gasps for air whilst watching Morgan crawl out of reach, her hands pulling her closer to the door. “I told you this was for your own good” Morgan mutters beneath her breath, pulling herself to her feet once at the door.

“Let me go” Sophie mutters through bated breath, her mother’s hand flicking the lightswitch off, leaving her victim in the dark. “Let me go!” Sophie shouts again, watching her mother stagger through the doorway, slowly pulling the door shut on her way out, enveloping the entire room in a pitch black nothingness.

> 18th January, 2031 <

“Can you show the camera the scar?” Caden asks, satisfied with the ability to check that question off the list. With ease, Sophie pulls the collar of her shirt with her thumb, pressing the edge of her top to the very start of her cleavage, exposing an entire chest full of scratches and markings, her throat etched with an ever-present marking of a chain imprint.

I woke up the morning after not being able to breath” Sophie explains, slowly returning her collar to its original placement, the space between her thumb and index finger gently pressing against her neck. “She wanted to scar me the way that I scarred her” Sophie explains, eyes squinting as she challenges herself on that prior statement, “or, at least I think that’s why she did it… She never really told me.”

“Why do you think she did it?” Caden asks, catching Sophie by surprise, her silent response of lifting her chin forward gesturing for a question more specific. “I meant, what do you think was the true reason for why she choked you?” Caden reiterates, an easy answer, a sufficient answer, and the honest answer all resulting in different responses, all of which are offered by the woman sitting before the camera.

“Easy answer? She’s crazy and she was mad at me” Sophie replies, nostrils flaring as she responds, her facial tone settling down when she approaches the second half, “sufficient answer? An eye for an eye.” Face now souring, Sophie contemplates for a minute before answering, her mind knowing what her mouth ultimately says, but never wants to speak.

“Honest answer?” Sophie begins, pausing to look away from the camera, nodding to herself in assurance, confident in her reply, “she couldn’t help it.” Head hung, Caden places his clipboard to the side, capturing Sophie’s attention. “I need a breather” Caden explains, brushing the back of his head with his hand as he stands from his chair, walking for the door as Sophie turns off the camera.

> 5th April, 2030 <

“Can we talk?” Morgan asks, opening the door just a slight amount, the lack of light inside prompting the interior to brighten with a single line the size of the crack in the door. “Let me go” Sophie replies, refusing to indulge her mother’s unstable thought processes, her request being brushed aside by the older woman, who keeps the lights off and enters of her own volition, the wide-open door bathing the room in sunlight.

“Let me go” Sophie repeats, an answer only coming from her mother’s lips the second time around. “No, I can’t do that” Morgan replies, immediately challenged in a less vulgar fashion, her daughter still testing the waters of what she can and can’t get away with. “I can’t let you leave me again” Morgan reassures, her face falling into disappointment, “you’ll tell your father and I’ll never get to see you again.”

Her arm covering her face, Sophie braces herself from the harsh light, keeping her head covered from Morgan’s view. “I’m not staying with you” Sophie replies, her answers brief, even if not by choice, by necessity, her energy depleting with every hour spent in her confinement. “Honey, I can’t lose you again” Morgan responds, eager to see her daughter’s face, her following request being denied outright.

“Sophia Anne, let me see your face right now” Morgan exclaims, a stern voice prompting the girl to slowly begin to lower her arm, defiance being something she no longer has the power to keep up. Puffy red eyes first emerging from cover, engulfed by sunlight, the remainder of her tired face brings a smile to Morgan’s mouth until her neck appears from cover, a bright red line from one side to the other, capped off with a white outline of chain links in the middle.

“What happened to your neck?” Morgan asks, her daughter shaking her head as her eyes shut tightly, her face being buried back into the fold of her arm. Tears flooding down her face, Sophie sobs into her elbow as her mother kneels down by her side, the touch of her open palm resting upon her knee momentarily, which prompts Sophie to pull away. “I genuinely can’t tell if you’re being serious or not” Sophie replies from within her arm, unaware of the concern in her mother’s face.

“What are you talking about?” Morgan queries, her voice somber and concerned, a response that prompts Sophie to lift her head, a lost look on her face as she shakes her face. “You woke me up by choking me with the chain” Sophie replies, her mother’s face sporting disbelief, Morgan immediately refusing such a claim. “I would never do that to you!” Morgan replies, pulling away from her daughter out of shock, horrified at such a notion, her heart melting at the quiver of her daughter’s lip.

“Why did you do this?” Sophie asks, the first question she carries with her finally being brought up, raised to the only woman that can answer it. “I- I don’t know” Morgan replies, the defeated look in Sophie’s face as she rolls her eyes and collapses backward only adding to the overflow of emotion propping Morgan up, “it was a spurt of the moment reaction! I thought it was fate!”

“So you lock your own daughter in a dungeon and refuse to let her go?” Sophie cuts back, quickly calling her mother’s decision into question, “keeping me here is only going to make this worse for you.” Shaking her head, Morgan looks away from her daughter, refusing to think about the consequences to her actions. “No, no… I’ve covered all the bases” Morgan replies, returning to her feet and beginning to frantically pace around the room.

“No one’s coming to look for you here” Morgan explains, a smile of satisfaction coming over her face, a reaction opposed by Sophie's own, her head shaking. “I texted my friend just before you picked me up” Sophie replies, a small smile of pride coming over her face, “I may not have said much, but I mentioned seeing a beige van at the end of the street.” As quickly as her smile appeared, it vanishes from her face upon the retrieval of a surprise gadget from Morgan’s back pocket.

“Signal jammer… It’s been following me everywhere for the last seven years!” Morgan replies gleefully, “it was running when we ran into each other at the green! That text never went through.” Lip quivering again, Sophie lets out a gasp, the realization slowly dawning upon her that no one has an idea of where she is. “No, no honey! This is a good thing!” Morgan pleads, dropping to her knees and crawling up to her daughter, a gesture which causes Sophie to pull away.

“I’m not going to hurt you!” Morgan explains, a cornered Sophie having nowhere else to turn away, her mother’s hand slowly stroking her hair behind her ear, “I just want us to be a family again!” Eyes watery, Morgan looks at her daughter with an empathetic glare, Sophie’s head finally pulling away from the wall, her expression quickly turning to one induced by rage and fueled by defiance.

Her strength fleeting, Sophie replies in the tone of a whisper, only one word being used to perfectly illustrate exactly what opinion she has on the proposed proposition. “Never” Sophie lets float from her lips, the disappointed look on her mother’s face as she shakes her head bringing deep satisfaction within the core of the frightened young victim.

“I hope that will change over time” Morgan replies, nodding to her daughter before staggering back to her feet, turning for the door without another word from Sophie. Having given up the hope of peacefully being allowed to leave, the captive survivor watches her mother stroll through the doorway and flick the light on, returning her daughter to an existence free from never-ending darkness.

“Goodnight, Sophia” Morgan mutters back, her daughter refusing to answer, watching the older woman walk away through cold, judgmental eyes. Hanging her head, Morgan shuts the door and locks it behind herself, letting her footsteps across the rocky asphalt precede the silence she leaves her daughter with, a treatment equal to what her daughter provided to her.

== Generation Alpha ==