The Normals | ✓

N I N E T E E N

I wake up in a stark white room with a humming floor. The moment I realize I'm somewhere I'm not supposed to be, I bolt upright. Everything around me is clean and covered with a padded, smooth material. The walls, the ceiling, even the floor, which I've now determined is humming because I'm in some sort of transport. There's nothing else in the room with me, but I notice a window in my peripheral vision.

Standing up makes my head spin and it takes me several minutes to balance with the slightly wobbly floor, but I manage to make it over to the window. Outside, I find that I'm moving horizontally above a flat stretch of land. Spindly-looking trees whiz past once in a while, but my surroundings look mostly bare. However, as I get a better look, I realize I'm actually quite high above the trees. Am I in a plane?

My fingers trace the outline of the window, looking for a hatch, an opening, but none presents itself. The window, it seems, has been quite simply sealed right into the wall. But there must be some other way out of here, I think to myself, trailing my fingers along the wall. A latch? A hidden door?

"Don't bother searching for a door." Arden's voice makes me jump and yank my hand away from the wall. The sound is coming from behind me, so I turn my head. He's sitting cross-legged on the floor at the other end of the room. "Hi," he says.

"Where are we?" I ask, turning my body fully around. "Where are we going?" I start toward him, crossing half of the small room in a couple of strides. He opens his mouth to say something, but before I can hear what it is, I smack face first into a wall of solid nothing.

I let out a cry of pain and stumble away, clutching my now bleeding nose. The room jerks to the side, sending me lurching into one of the walls. Through my watering eyes, I see Arden hasn't moved from his spot on the floor, but he's staring at me.

"Could've warned me there was a wall there," I grumble, doing my best to stem the blood flowing from my face.

He shrugs. "I was about to."

This time, I walk more carefully toward him, holding one hand out in front of me and holding my nose with the other. Once I get to the middle of the room, my outstretched fingers make contact with a hard and smooth surface. I can't see it, which confuses me greatly, but I can feel it. If someone walked into the room right now, it would look like I'm simply holding my hand out.

Taking my other hand away from my face, I smear some of the blood on the invisible wall. It sticks, a floating red patch in the air. "Now we know where it is," I say.

"Gross," he replies.

I sit down on my side of the wall, making sure to keep a safe distance from it. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

He sighs. "I'm not completely sure. I don't remember much after Gwen showed up and got us arrested, but I think we're in some kind of plane or something."

"Us? Wait, why are you even here?" I ask. "Shouldn't you be with Gwen and the rest of your family? You know, being perfect and all that?"

"That's the thing," he replies. "I'm not allowed back home. I'm here on this plane instead of back home because of you."

"Me? What?"

"They arrested me because I was found guilty of harboring a runaway, along with my outburst at work. And they were gonna overlook the outburst and give me a lesser sentence, but I tried to defend myself again."

"I don't get it," I say, trying to keep my balance as the transport swerves to the side again. "Why are you here? Where are we even going?"

He avoids my gaze and looks out the window. I see him swallow uncomfortably. "They're taking me -- us -- to Pacifica. To the facility there. They've decided I'm Different. That I can no longer be trusted." He turns his head back to me, tears in his eyes. "This is your fault."