Eelti stopped walking and waved a key card in front of what looked like a door to a bank vault. Something clicked from deep inside the door and an automated voice said, “Fingerprint analysis, activated.” A small, red panel shot open. Eelti placed his left, then his right thumb onto the scanner. A moment later, the voice said, “Welcome, Eelti.” The door swung open and we walked inside. 205Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡooR65LVyRg
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There were rows upon rows of bunk beds. On the right wall, there were a few metal cages. Only two of the ones I could see were occupied by demons. People were milling around the room, some lounging on beds, others sitting on the floor, and a few others sitting at tables on the left side of the door. “Hey, everyone, listen up!” Eelti shouted. All of the people jumped to their feet, abandoning whatever they were doing. “Elias here needs to speak with someone. None of you are to bother him or speak to him unless he starts it. After he leaves, you all are to start preparing. Eliet has requested you get ready for a battle against the rebels. I’m not yet sure what this battle will entail, but information will be given to you if and when you need to know it. Until then, I want you all to continue with your regular schedule. I’ll be getting a full report back from Elias after we leave, and if any one of you does anything out of line, you all should be expecting punishment. They’re all yours, Elias.” Eelti left the room, and a chorus of people saying, “Long live the Elite,” in the most monotone voice possible followed him out. I looked over at the people. There had to be at least thirty of them. They scattered back around the room. I slowly walked through the room, scanning the crowd for Logan. Finally, I decided to just ask one of the people sitting on a bunk. She was reading a book, and her blonde hair was cut choppy and short, the style of someone who didn’t have the time nor the resources for a proper haircut. “Excuse me, could you help me find someone?” I asked. She looked up at me, then turned over, away from me. “Sorry, I don’t think so,” she mumbled. I nodded and moved away.
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Then, a mousy voice rang through the room. “Well, if it isn’t Elias, our Reaper,” he said. I turned towards the voice. It was Gabe, from the archive centre. “It’s nice to see you, too, Gabe,” I said back. “What are you doing here?” He sighed and climbed up onto the bunk above the girl who was reading. “Well, I’m a demon, and when the Elite called us all back, I came. So now I’m here until they decide to send us out again. Not the worst thing that could have happened, to be honest. You’re looking for your brother, right?” I nodded. “His name’s Logan. Logan Barnet.”
“I know. Follow me, I saw him earlier.” Gabe jumped down from the bed and started walking towards the right side of the room. I walked behind him as people quickly moved away from us, almost as if they were scared. As I walked, the projection got a little too close to a person laying on a bed. My projected hand slipped through the person. I looked down in shock. Oh no. He shrieked, flapping his hands to get me away from him. I jumped, careful to not touch anything else. The person looked up at me, terror in his eyes. “I… I'm sorry,” I stuttered. “I didn’t… didn’t mean to touch you.” An older man stepped in front of the younger one. “Please keep walking, and stay away from him. Don’t touch him or engage with him again.” These harsh commands made me coil away again, but at least he thought I had touched the person. That was better than knowing I slipped right through him. I took a few staggered steps away, towards Gabe. “Not everyone here likes you very much. They see you as the person who ruined their lives, who turned them into mindless, killing machines. The older people, they protect the younger ones. I would stay away from everyone as much as you can. Talk to me or Logan.” What would Logan do when he saw me? Would he be like the older man, or like Gabe? Would he be happy to see me, or hate me? Gabe saw my mind racing, and said, “Come on, we’re almost there.”
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We approached the cages. In the occupied ones, demons were pacing back and forth, shaking the bars and running into the sides. One had the hood of its robes thrown back, and I could see its head. This was the first time I’d ever seen a demon’s head, and I wish I hadn’t. It was basically a skull, with a thin layer of grey skin stretched paper-thin over it. The cheeks were hollow and sunken in, and its eyes were hidden deep inside the eye sockets. When I squinted, I could see the whites of its eyes were not white, but dark grey. The iris was the same colour, as was the pupil. Its entire eye was grey. There was no hair at all on its head, not even any eyebrows. Scratches covered any exposed skin, some bleeding dark green. “Hey, Logan. Elias is here to see you,” Gabe said, rubbing the back of his neck. The demon slithered towards me and sniffed the air. Slowly, the demon sank to the ground in a pile of black cloth. After a moment of silence, the robes disappeared. I watched, confused as to why tears pricked my eyes, as Logan stood up in front of me, leaning on the cage. “Hey, Elias,” he said, his voice rough. Logan was wearing grey sweatpants and a grey tank top, with a pair of white socks. I wanted to walk through the bars of the cage and hug him. But I knew I couldn’t.
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“Hi, Logan. It’s… I’m really happy to see you,” I said. He nodded. “Gabe, can you let me out? I am ready to pass out for a few hours. Never really get used to it.” Gabe picked up a key attached to the wall next to the cage and unlocked the door. It swung open with a screech. Logan stepped out, stretching his arms and neck. “How long was I in this time?” he asked. Gabe glanced up at a clock. “A little under 17. A new record.” Logan pumped his fist in excitement. He clapped Gabe on the back and said, “Come get me in five.” Then he walked away, sitting down on a bunk a few rows away. I blinked in shock. I risk my life and the life of the rebels to come find him, we see each other again for the first time in months, he barely acknowledges me and walks away to take a nap. Wow. Gabe turned towards me, reading the shock and disgust on my face. “Not what you were expecting?” he asked, playing the key back where he found it. “Not at all. What was that?” I asked, still bewildered.
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Gabe smiled sadly. “Everyone in the room is a demon. The Elite want to keep us on our toes, so every day or so they’ll force a few people to transform. Those people, once they’re in demon form, can’t tell the difference between other demons and people catching. So, we put them into the cages until they transform back. Most of the time, they’re out for a full day. Logan’s been working really hard, fighting it, and he’s gotten his time down to 17 hours. Much better than any of the others. He’s been through a lot in the past few months. He still knows who you are, which is a good sign. The Elite, they’ve been slowly changing his mind and his memories, stripping him of all the things that make him, him.” My heart sank. This seemed so much worse than whatever the Elite had been doing to me.
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With a sigh, I said, “Thanks for your help, Gabe. I’m going to go talk to him. I’ll see you later, maybe.” I jogged towards Logan’s bed. As I neared him, my shoulder clipped one of the metal poles holding up the beds. There was a sharp clang, and I instinctively reached up to rub it. I felt the throbbing pain and my fingertips through my shirt. Wait, what? I was a hologram, how could I feel things from floor fifty? I looked around wildly, getting a few strange glances from the people. I couldn’t take it anymore. I impulsively held up my fist. A moment passed before the whispers started. I stayed standing on floor fifty. I lowered my hand and then raised it again. The glances and whispers continued. I was here. Not just as a hologram. Somehow, by some strange, sciencey force, I was on floor fifty. For real. I wasn’t going to be getting back to the base easily. I looked up from my shoulder when I felt someone’s eyes on me. A girl was leaning over the top of the bunks I was standing next to. She smiled a wide, toothy grin. She was missing one of her bottom teeth. “Hi, Elias,” she said, reaching out to touch my hair. The thoughts of going to Logan, or figuring out how I was on floor fifty for real immediately disappeared. I walked around to the side of the bed as the girl sat on the side. “Hi, Juliet.”
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She leapt off the top bunk, catching me off guard. I didn’t know how I should react, so I did the only thing I could think of. I reached out and caught her. That solidified the fact that I was here, and wasn’t leaving anytime soon. Juliet wrapped her arms around my neck, squeezing me as tightly as she could. I returned her tight embrace before setting her down on the ground. “What’re you doing here?” she asked, climbing back up to her bunk. “I’m here to talk to Logan. I haven’t seen him for a while, so I came to talk to him.” I saw Juliet’s smile droop slightly. “But, I also wanted to see you!” I said, making her smile brightly. “Am I your favourite?” she asked with a laugh. I matched her smile and said, “Yeah, you’re my favourite five-year-old ever.” Juliet crossed her arms over her chest and proudly said, “I’m six now.” This was the most I’d smiled in a long time. The difference between Juliet when she’s herself versus when the Elite are actively controlling her was amazing. “Well, then. You’re my favourite six-year-old ever,” I corrected. She beamed, her smile lighting up the room. I placed a hand on her small shoulder. “I’m going to talk to Logan for a few minutes, okay? I'll say bye before I leave,” I told her calmly. “Why can’t you stay with us here?” she asked, her face scrunching up. “There're just some other things I need to do,” I said, trying to keep my smile on. Juliet nodded and threw her arms around my neck. “Don’t go too far away,” she whispered. I bit back tears before saying, “I’ll be back before you even realise I’m gone. I’ll never, ever be too far away. I promise.” I walked away before either of us could say anything else.
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I approached Logan’s bed once I’d regained my composure. He was flipping a coin in his hand, over and over. I snatched the coin out of the air, forcing him to sit up and look at me. “Can I help you?” he asked, snatching the coin back. “I don’t know how much you remember, so I’m just going to ask you plainly: do you have any idea what person attaches to the same you called me?” Logan stared at me blankly before getting off his bed and walking past me. I rolled my eyes. What was wrong with him? He might not remember who I was, but he didn’t have to ignore me. I started back towards the door. I needed nothing else here. I could go back to the Elite, get any other information I needed, and then find a way to escape back to T.R.I.B.A.U.M. base. I approached the door and was about to open it when a hand latched onto my wrist. I was pulled into complete darkness.
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There was a click, and a lightbulb illuminated above in front of my forehead. The lightbulb allowed me to see the small broom closet I’d been dragged into. Logan was standing farther inside, looking around nervously. I threw up my hands in defeat. “What was that?” I demanded. “I’m sorry, Elias. I did what I needed to do. If I pretended I didn’t care about you, they’ll think everything they’re doing is working.” I didn’t need to ask who ‘they’ was. “I remember everything. Don’t worry. I just needed to pretend for the security cams.” I blinked, sure I was hallucinating. When Logan was still there, I quickly hugged him. He laughed, clapping me on the back. “It’s good to see you, for real,” I said. “You, too. I missed you,” he said back. I took a few steps backwards. “So how are you finding your stay on floor fifty?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest. “That doesn’t sound very genuine,” Logan commented. “But, honestly, it’s been… it’s been less than ideal. Just some brutal mental and physical torture here and there, with the occasional crying myself to sleep out of exhaustion, pain, and terror.” He said it so blatantly, so matter-of-fact. “I’m so sorry, Logan. That’s… that’s terrible.”
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He shrugged, shifting from foot to foot. “Why’d you come here, Elias?” he asked with a shake of his head. All of the reasons I had in my mind had disappeared, and Eelti’s warning rushed back to me. You may think you have control of the demons, but in the end, it’s always the Elite. It always has been. How much of what I say would be relayed back to the Elite? It was because of this realisation that I said, “I wanted to be sure you were okay. Eliet, Telie, and Eelti wouldn’t tell me anything. They said that I shouldn’t worry about disposable beings that were worth less than me. So I came by myself. I’m going to have a very serious discussion with Eliet about how he’d been treating you guys.” I stopped myself before I could dig a hole I might not be able to climb out of. “Oh,” Logan said. “That’s… thanks. For coming to check on me.” I smiled. “Well, demon or not, you’re still my brother. I gotta look out for you.” Logan opened his mouth to say something else when the door to the closet was brown open. I turned and saw Eliet’s masked face. I smiled awkwardly and waved. “Hey,” I said weakly. Eliet didn’t respond, but his silence said everything. I was going to be in so much trouble. 205Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3wHVnJFgbp
