The Black Box

37

I wake up earlier than everyone else. I walk over to the fireplace and sit in one of the white couches. Someone walks over and sits next to me.

"How'd you sleep?" asks Annabeth.

"Good. You?" I ask her.

"Good."

We both sit there awkwardly for a little and then she looks at me. I don't look at her.
"How'd you get this?" she makes me turn my head and she traces the C-shaped scratch, now a scar, on my face.

"Training."

"Really?" She's still inspecting it.

"Yeah."

She looks down at my throat and notices the scar across it. "Is this one from training too?"

"Yeah."

She starts to look over my body. I totally forgot that I was still shirtless. Her eyes go straight for the cut on my arm. "Training too?"

"Yeah."

She looks at my chest. Before she can ask, I answer her. "Training."

"What did this to you?" She brushes the scars from the cuts Isaiah gave me.

"What? You mean who."

"Who did this to you?" she corrects herself.

"Who took us to have our tattoos made?" I quiz her.

"Isaiah," she says through clenched teeth. "I was never trained or tested."

"Really?" I'm surprised. I thought everyone was tested and trained.

"Yeah. Nobody wanted to after looking at my tattoos." She looks at her tattoos, her white and blue tattoos on her arms and shoulders. "Nobody here I've seen has tattoos that aren't black."

"Well you're sort of lucky," I tell her.

"Wanna explore this place?" asks Annabeth.

"Why not?" I look around and find a pen. I don't find any paper so I write, Annabeth and I went out. See you later, on Adam's forehead.
"Let's go." Annabeth and I walk out of our luxurious room and out into the long hallway.

We look around The Shaft and see that nobody else is awake.
My stomach grumbles. "Wanna go find something to eat?"

Annabeth smiles. "Sure. Let's satisfy that monster."

We walk to the middle of The Shaft and look up. "Isn't that beautiful?" Annabeth asks me.

"Sure is."

The dome reflects the light from the morning sky and reflects it all over the uppermost part, making shapes of light against the stone walls.

"Let's head that way. Haven't been there yet." I point over to a hallway to the left of the hallway leading to Noah's lab.

We walk over and through a hallway. It opens up into a room filled with long tables and chairs. To our left is a little booth with an old woman in it, serving food to the few people here.

"Hello. Want to have something to eat?" the old woman says.

Annabeth and I walk over to the booth. Fresh muffins are in a basket, fresh fruits in another basket; eggs, sausage, and bacon in a warming container, toast, bagels, and rolls in a display case. It all looks delicious.

The old woman hands both of us plates and we serve ourselves. I get a chocolate chip muffin with a banana and eggs. Annabeth gets eggs with bacon and some toast. We sit down at one of the long tables and eat our breakfast.

When we're finished, we throw out our plates.
"Do you think we should bring stuff back?" asks Annabeth.

"Sure. If she lets us." I motion to the old woman.

We walk over and I ask, "Can we take some for our friends?"

"Sure, why not?" she replies.

Annabeth and I ask for a bag and get some of everything. We run back to our room, making sure we get the food back before it gets cold.

We enter the room and close the door silently. Annabeth places the food near the fireplace to keep it warm. Everyone's basically up. Jax is jumping up and down on Kevin's bed while Kevin's head in under his pillow. I can't tell if he's yelling at Jax. Adam's looking in the mirror, trying to figure out what I wrote on his forehead. Sophie's just getting up and sees Annabeth and I and comes over.

"How'd you sleep?" I ask her.

"Good. Where'd you two go?" She rubs her eyes.

"Café. We brought some stuff back." I point to the brown bag holding the food. I walk into the guy sleeping quarters. "Food's here."

Jax and Kevin look straight at me and push each other away and try to get out of the bed. Both of them are preventing the other from moving.

"Dude I want food!" says Jax. He's pinned down by Kevin's arm across his chest.

"Well I do too!" Kevin still has his pillow flopped over his head and Jax is sitting on Kevin.

"You two are ridiculous." I walk towards Adam. He's still trying to read my message in a mirror near the glass door. "Did you get my message?"

"Yeah. I just can't read it."

"Just wash it off dude. It's pointless anyway since Annabeth and I are back."

"Where's the sink then?" He looks around the room.

"I don't know. You'll have to find one somewhere." I pat his back and leave him to find a sink.