Is This The End?

Chapter 3

Emelia was behind me, following closely. When we reached the room I unlocked the security door leading to the room and let us in.

The doors leading into the bedrooms and the recreation area were locked by fingerprint. It was designed so you could lock certain people out of rooms. For example, if Andrew and I wanted to be in the living room we could lock Jeffrey and Josie out. The only problem was that the door didn't lock you out if you weren't registered in our security system.

"These doors use our fingerprints to unlock so I'll have to register you in the system sometime tomorrow," I looked at her to make sure she was listening to me.

"Okay," she responded.

I began introducing the layout of the room to her, "So the bed on the left is mine and the one on the right is yours. The bathroom is the door to the right and we each get our own closets full of the standard uniforms. The TV and gaming systems are set up in front of my bed since I was the only one in the room. Sorry, I'll move that tomorrow. Um... I think that's about it. Your toothbrush and stuff are already set up in the bathroom... other than that, Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she turned to leave but paused, "Actually you can leave the TV where it is. I don't really mind and probably won't use it," she said and then walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

I had already gotten ready for bed before she arrived, so I just got right under my covers and drifted to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning I looked to the left and saw that Emelia wasn't in bed.

Checking the clock, I saw it was only 6:01 am. I could go back to sleep, but I decided to go and find Emelia to make sure that she was okay.

I peeked out of the room and saw Emelia sitting at the counter fiddling with something in her hands. It looked like some kind of leather clip or something. I wasn't sure what it was but I didn't think much of it.

I decided that I needed to go and make myself look presentable before I took a step further so I walked to the bathroom, striped my clothes and jumped into the shower. I quickly showered, brushed my teeth and then walked out of the bathroom.

The clock on my night stand read: 6:13 am. It was time to go see if the others were up.

When I walked into the main area the first thing I saw was Emelia on the couch staring blankly at the black screen of the TV.

"Hey," I said as softly as I could.

She jumped and looked at me startled. "Oh my gosh! Sorry, I think I zoned out."

I laughed and then spoke, "How did you sleep?"

"Okay. I woke up once or twice but other than that it was fine," she replied.

"Good." I smiled before asking, "Would you like any tea or coffee?"

"Umm. Tea please. Any kind that isn't black tea," she responded.

"Gotcha... I don't like black tea either. I was going to make this new mango tea I got anyways," I said with a chuckle.

I walked over to the kitchen area and she looked down at her feet. It was a little awkward being in this room alone with her because I could tell that we were both forcing a polite attitude, but it was also starting to get tiring.

I began making the tea, grabbing the cups from the cabinet, putting the tea bags in the cups and turning on the water boiler. When I paused to look up at Emelia she was looking at me, but quickly turned her attention back to her feet.

It's weird to be stared at, but I tried not to read too far into it. I would probably stare at someone if we were complete strangers living together too.

Once the water was done boiling I poured it into the cups and grabbed some coasters so I could sit on the couch with Emelia.

I plopped the coasters down in front of us on the coffee table, handed Emelia her tea and sat down on her right with my tea cup in hand.

I didn't know what to say to Emelia but she was looking at me like she wanted me to speak. I sipped my tea before deciding on asking, "So, why did you get put in this housing unit if you had one of your own?"

She hesitated for a second, thinking, before she responded, "Well... I don't remember much of what happened apart from what I was told by the government but... My previous housemate, who was my best friend, killed my housemates and held me hostage for three days. When we didn't show up to work the government got suspicious and sent officers to our house. They discovered the bodies of my roommates and immediately took my other roommate away," she shifted her position a bit before continuing. "They found me locked in the bathroom and took me to medical care... I don't remember much after that. They put me in a room at the center and then a couple weeks later, I'm here."

She sounded hurt, like she was recalling a terrible memory, but she also seemed distant from the memory. I wasn't sure how to correctly interpret her words.

"That seems terrible. I'm sorry you went through that. Hopefully your old roommate has been properly dealt with," I responded, not entirely sure what to say.

She didn't speak, instead she just stared over her tea mug which she was holding close to her face.

"Well, I-I... I don't really remember him," she stuttered out after some time of staring.

I didn't know what to say so I just looked at her. She looked on the verge of tears and I had the sudden urge to pull her into a hug, but I luckily never got the chance.

Josie and Jeffrey walked in and looked at us.

Josie spoke, "I see you guys are up bright and early for pancakes." She laughed. "Don't worry they're coming soon."

Emelia chuckled politely, still a bit shaken from our conversation.

Josie was quite a character who never failed to make us giggle, but Emelia's laugh was still somehow disingenuous.

I turned my attention to Jeffrey. "Jeffrey I heard you were starting a new job. What are you doing?"

He looked at me, "Actually, I got put on the reproduction crew."

I gave him a wide-eyed look. If he was doing reproduction that would mean he would have hundreds of little Jeffrey's running around. I couldn't imagine Josie was cool with that, but it's not like she had much choice.

Josie snorted when she saw the look on my face.

"I'm not making the babies. I'm just handling the housing assignments," Jeffrey said trying to contain his laughter.

"Oooooh," I said, contorting my face into an odd expression of embarrassment.

"Haha. What kind of pancakes do you guys want?" Josie asked.

"Chocolate chip, please," I said, licking my lips.

"Me too," said Emelia agreeing with my choice.

"Okay two chocolate, strawberry for you Jeffrey and I assume Andrew wants chocolate too," Josie responded.

"Probably. Speaking of Andrew I should probably wake him up now. It's almost 7, right?"

Jeffrey checked the clock on the oven and responded, "6:47."

"Okay, I'm going to go wake him up," I said, getting up from my spot on the couch next to Emelia.

When I walked into Andrew's room I saw him sleeping peacefully in his bed. He always looks so cute when he sleeps. He had his bottom lip sticking out and his hair was messed up in a cute bed-head way.

I walked forward to wake him up.