In White Robes

Chapter 3 - The Silent One

I'm slipping. I'm drowning. It's the ocean surrounding me. I'm going to die. I'm scared. I can't breathe.

There's something coming out of the dark blue. I'm afraid. It wants me. What is it? A hand. An arm. I see no body. I see no face. It's still reaching for me, and the water is still pounding on my lungs.

Everything's going dark. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. The hand is almost in contact with my own. It's black fur. I'm going to die. A finger slips along my pinky.

I awoke to the sound of locks popping and clicking at the door. I was fully alert when the door came open, causing me to bolt up from my bed and stare at the early intruder. Well, I could not know what time it really was. We weren't allowed the luxury of daylight. Only the white LED lights in the ceiling and the glimmer of metal off a window.

One of the Concealed stepped inside, holding the door open with one hand and reaching out to me with the other. That's what they all did. Stand there with a hand out, gesturing for me to follow them. There was no other option but to follow, no matter where they wanted you to go.

This one didn't carry a weapon, but they were all still solidified fighters at heart. One mistake and it was either death by bullet or death by fist.

I looked calmly past the glass, searching for Avery. He was sound asleep, snoozing away even without covers, without real comfort. I wondered to myself wholeheartedly: how can you sleep so peacefully in this cage?

Sighing, I got up from the bed, my white robes lifting as I went, and I followed the Concealed past the door.

Treading through the halls, I looked in some of the windows when I had a chance. The Concealed was ahead of me and clearly didn't care about what I did, unlike all the others who had previously led me to and fro.

Some of the windows allowed me to see others just like me. The ones sharing my cage. They all looked lonely. Lost. A few had soft, moist eyes, like they had just finished crying. Another few looked angry, furious that this prison was their life now and there was never an expiration to it.

I wondered if some of them had plans of escape. If they had found a way to be free again. If they were just waiting for the right moment to leave. If they would leave me behind, selfishly grasping freedom.

The Concealed stopped ahead of me. I was so lost in gazing through the windows, I nearly bumped into him. He turned on his heel, his masked eyes lifelessly staring me down, and then I noticed where we were.

Another window stood out before us. The Concealed pointed inside, inviting my eyes.

Inside, there was only one person. One of us. They wore the same white robes we did, but this one looked strange. It was a fox, a neat shade of orange painting his fur, and there were black marks running along his left cheek, resembling a claw mark but it did not look like a wound.

It did not look like makeup or paint either. At one point I thought I saw the black mark wiggle.

"Who's that?" I asked the Concealed and immediately felt weird doing so. There was something off about casually speaking to the people who kept us all trapped here. But I had a right to do so.

"That's your new roommate," he said, his eyes not on me but on the solitary fox. I looked again at the fox, and for a moment we met eyes. That's when the Concealed pulled me away from the window. To keep me from seeing whatever expression was on his face.

I did not resist. I wondered to myself about the fox as the Concealed took me away. Wondered to myself about the black mark on his face.