I blinked. I was in a harshly lit, small room, and it was completely silent. A moment later, my eyes started to adjust to the brightness. I looked down. I was suspended a few feet off the ground, held in place by metal arm-like rods. I tried to turn my head to get a sense of my surroundings, but my neck was being held firmly in place. The best I could do was use my peripheral vision to see what was on the sides of me. All I saw was a concrete floor, concrete walls, and a metal utility cart, but no doors or windows. There were a few small cardboard boxes on the cart, but I couldn’t see what was inside them. I heard footsteps behind me. There must be a door over there, then. “Hello, Elias. I’m glad you are awake. Your brother, if you still want to call him that, did a wonderful job in transporting you here.” I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. “Oh, don’t even try that. I am very thorough with what I do. You are not able to do anything I don’t want you to do.” The voice started to come closer, but I still couldn’t see its owner.
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“I suppose you have some questions. You have one minute to ask.” There was a loud beep, and I was able to speak. “Who are you, where am I, what happened to me, and why am I here?” I demanded. The voice laughed. “Getting right to the point, I suppose. Anything else?” I tried to shake my head, but settled on simply saying, “No.” I heard more footsteps, on the other side of me. Were two people here? “Okay, then. You are in the Brick, in a special facility on the 50th floor. I know what you saw in the video archives. You are in a similar situation to the one the... the other was in. What was his name again? Ah, Logan. But don’t worry. You are not here to be turned into a demon, no. We have a better use for you.”
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“Who’s we?” I asked, a lump in my throat. “The Elite, of course. Now, would you like to know what happened to you when you were brought here, or in the woods?” I swallowed thickly before saying, “Both.” Another laugh. “Very demanding. Won’t you have some manners? In the woods, after you fell unconscious, I sent out a very special demon. It injected you with a special serum my colleague created. The serum gives us the mind control elements of being a demon without actually turning you into a demon. Like I said before, we have a better use for you than just turning you into a mindless demon. Anyway, today I had Logan make you pass out so he could bring you here. There would have been some… risks with you coming by yourself. That’s all, really. If you’re wondering why he would do that, it’s because he is now a demon, meaning the Elite can completely control him. His movements, his thoughts, his words, everything.”
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The voice paused to allow this to sink in. So I was practically a demon, just without the cool outfit. But what was this better purpose for me? “I’m not going to tell you who I am. That information is of no use to you.” I rolled my eyes. “Why am I up here? Can I come down?” I could practically hear the voice shrug. “Sure.” There was another loud beep, and I was dropped to the floor. I wasn’t ready, so I landed on my hands and knees. I carefully climbed to my feet. I finally turned to see the body of the voice. There were two people. One was wearing a suit and the other was wearing a lab coat, both with a fitted mask covering their faces. The masks looked like they were made of metal, intentionally designed to look like they were old and beaten up. “Who are you?” I asked again. The figures turned to each other, before the one in the suit, the voice I recognized, said, “I will give you a name. Not my name, but a name nonetheless. Will that answer be to your satisfaction?” I nodded vigorously. “My name is Eliet, and this is Telie. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Now, if you’ll follow me, I believe you deserve a tour.”
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Eliet and Telie started walking away from me. I blinked, still not understanding what was happening. “Are you coming, Elias?” Eliet asked. I quickly nodded and caught up to him. He placed his hand on the wall, and a green scanner ran over his palm. A panel in the wall slid open and we entered a hallway. It looked like what I imagined the inside of a spaceship to look like. Smooth metal walls, bright lights, and absolute silence. That was the creepiest part. There was no noise, not even our footfalls. We turned around a corner and started down a hallway identical to the last. How anyone managed to find their way around this place was beyond me. We stopped, and Telie stepped forward. She scanned her hand on the wall, and the hidden door slid open. We all walked inside.
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“This is the main lab. We have a few labs running at the moment, but this is the largest. It’s also where Telie spends most of her days,” Eliet explained. Looking around, I saw a few people wearing long white lab coats and metal masks. Glass flasks and test tubes were filled with colourful liquids, and some were bubbling over a flame. A few people were typing onto computers, and others were working on tablets. “What are they making?” I asked. “It’s none of your concern,” Telie said. Eliet ushered me out of the room, closing the panel behind us. We started off again, silently navigating the halls.
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We stopped again. There was no scanner, no hidden panel. “Why did we stop?” I asked. Eliet looked at Telie. What Telie read his glance as was unknown to me. “The others want to meet you, and we mustn't keep them waiting. After all, these are the most important people in all of Salef,” said a new, female voice. A figure walked around a corner. She wore a mask similar to the one Eliet and Telie wore. Her hair was dark, and tiny ringlets framed the mask. She wore a black suit, the same as Eliet. “Welcome, Elias. I am very pleased to meet you. My name is Letie. I’ll be taking him from here. Thank you, Eliet and Telie.” Letie seemed to have authority over Eliet and Telie. Was she one of the Elite? I hoped to find out.
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As Eliet and Telie disappeared from view, Letie turned to me. “I apologise for them. It’s their first job since… never mind, actually. I need not worry our guest with matters beyond his comprehension.” And now I was slightly offended. “I’m sorry, but if you’re not going to talk about it, then just don’t. Tell me what you need me to do so I can go home.” Letie laughed. “Oh, my dear child. You’re not going home. This is your home now.” Before I had a chance to respond, Letie started to walk away. “Hey!” I called after her. “Where do you think you’re going?” When I didn’t get a response, I groaned and started walking after her. I was done with following someone hidden behind a mask.
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We went around dozens of turns, every single one of them to the left. How had we not ended up where we had started? This place was a maze, whatever this place was. How big was floor fifty to even fit all these halls? Letie stopped walking in front of a door. Not a hidden panel, but a door like the one on a bank vault. She scanned her hand, entered a password, turned a few locks, entered another password, disconnected some wires, and turned the handle. I didn’t even want to know what could possibly be behind the door to require that much security. Sadly, I didn’t have a choice, because Letie walked right in.
