His Identity

Rotten fish and Gardenia

Evelyn's POV

"Well, well, look who we've got here." 

I froze, my blood suddenly becoming cool. Carla stiffened beside me, horror striking her as well. The voice came from behind the glass cylinders, scary as ever. Finally, the figure stepped into the light with his wicked grin. His dark eyes were hidden from the mask.

"Dear, it wasn't a very clever choice to break into my place and interfere with my inquiry." His voice was raspy than I remembered.

"Excuse us sir, but you are the ones who kidnapped our friends," Carla said. 

I'm still not sure at what point Carla considered me as her friend, but I let it slide. I was too much in horror to speak.

The man narrowed his eyes, looking at Carla as if she's his next target experiment. "Fair enough," he mumbled and snapped his fingers. The room suddenly illuminated itself. My face paled even more when seeing Mar trapped in one of the glass cylinders. 

"MAR!" I yelped, rushing forward, but I was held back by Carla's steady grip.

Mar, who was sitting with her head buried in her knees, looked up. Her eyes went wide at the sight of us as she stood up. She pounded at the glass, shouting at us. Even so, we couldn't hear her. The glass was soundproof. 

"Let her out!" I  screamed at the masked-man, my eyes shooting daggers in his direction. He rolled his eyes and made his way toward the control station. For once, I thought he is actually going to release Mar. I was slightly disappointed when he didn't.

"Eve, stay still," Carla hissed, threatening me to calm down. "I'm formulating a plan."

I had no choice but to trust this girl. I have to admit, I don't like Carla. She was stunning, brave, intelligent, and literally everything I was not. 

Pfft, I wasn't jealous. I just wanted to throw up on her perfect face every time I see her. 

The masked-man, on the other hand, pressed a few buttons. He hit the last button a bit harder than the others and turned to us. The pride he had was even visible under the mask. 

"Consider yourselves lucky," he said. "It's a rare opportunity to enjoy a free exhibition of my inventions."

From to our right, there were clicking noises, heavy locks falling into places to lift the ginormous roller door. I flinched when it opened with a screeching noise like dragging a silver fork along a glass table. It was a structure. A massive structure of our city. 

"Look at it and tell me what you see," commanded the masked-man.

"Our city," I said.

"Look more closely, child."

"Umm... a structure of our city?" I furrowed my brows in confusion. From the corner of my eye, I saw Carla's lip twitch in apprehension. 

The man sighed. "It's the problem with your generation. People are so narrow-minded and less observant. They fail to see the inner appearance of something." He paused as if to let the words sink in. Then, he slid into his pocket and took out a tiny, flat, glass-like device. 

It was his fingerprint that made the structure of the city slowly change. The small houses sank and tall buildings replaced them. The woods dissolved and a massive stadium appeared. Finally, all the rusty-looking buildings fell apart. A glass tower that almost kissed the clouds, stood in the center. It was clearly the main landmark.

The masked man finally turned to us. "That is the reason we should accept change. A little extra polish would only make the shoe shinier."

I gasped. "You are not trying to ask everyone to abandon their homes until you rebuild our city into some... some glass Disneyland!"