Perfect (Rewrite)

Chapter Three

It didn't take long for the men in black, the men in masks, to return and bring them more food. The other girl sat in silence, so did Chloe. She didn't have much to say, of course she wanted answers. But she knew the girl wasn't going to answer them, at least, not yet. It wasn't the right time. So Chloe chewed slowly on her food, savoring each bite, knowing it might be her last for an uncertain amount of time. She drank the small glass of water they gave her and sent a brief thank you to the man in the sky in her mind, hoping that someone would hear her, even though she figured no one was listening.

The time passed on again and no one said a word. The hologram lady didn't reappear, the men didn't return, it seemed as if there was no one left in the world but the two of them. Two girls, lonely and afraid, chained in a white padded room with barely any memory left inside their minds of what was before all this. Chloe bit at her nails, doing the one thing that kept her sane. There wasn't any noise, besides the two of them breathing, and she needed something to do other than stare at a blank white padded wall. This wasn't much of a task, but it took some concentration and it let her mind slip into a state of serenity.

"You don't have any strikes," The other girl finally said after Chloe had laid back on the floor and spread her arms out to her sides. She glanced to her arm again and nodded, but she didn't sit back up. Chloe wasn't even sure if she had the strength to. "So you are new. Is this your first time here, in this room?"

"No," Chloe answered with her eyes closed. She remembered everything that happened the day before. The red door, the rows of chairs, the other girls, the forms, the hallway, the sunlight, the mist, and the men in masks, everything replayed in her mind. And her running had been for nothing, she had ended up back in the same room with the same strange girl sitting across from her. Then Chloe said, "I was told to go out yesterday, but I made a run for it, towards the sunlight."

"It wasn't sunlight," The other girl replied. "I fell for the same thing, except I made it. It's a room filled with a hundred of those guards, all waiting for someone to walk through." Chloe glanced over to her again, then stared up at the ceiling and sighed. The realization hitting her hard. There was no escaping this place, at least not on her own, not as soon as she hoped for it to happen. "You're lucky."

"How?" Chloe asked. The sudden complement made her look to the girl, it was such a strange thing to say. How could someone chained to a wall in a white padded prison be lucky? It didn't make any since. There was no luck in this world. There was no trust. There was only right and wrong, and this place was definitely in the wrong.

"He didn't give you a strike," She said. "He gives us strikes when we're bad."

Chloe looked down at her wrist and grazed the three boxes with her index finger. "What happens when you get all three?" She gulped and wished she hadn't asked that question. It was impossible for it to be a good thing. The only time three strikes was a good thing was during bowling, and there was no alley or eleven pound balls anywhere in sight.

"I hope neither one of us ever has to find that out," She replied and then crawled towards Chloe and laid on the padded floor beside her. Chloe scooted closer to her, knowing full well neither one of them was capable of going to far away from their designated walls. It crossed her mind what things would've been like if they were free to roam around the tiny room. There was a good version and a bad one, a very bad one. Her spine tingled at the thought of the girl tackling her and beating her senseless upon arrival. Maybe the chains weren't such a bad idea. "I'm Melanie."

"Chloe," Chloe responded as she looked back up to the ceiling. Something grabbed her hand and she looked down to see what. Melanie's hand was holding hers. Chloe had never been a touchy touchy feely feely kind of person, but she wasn't going to deny Melanie this. It must've been a long time since she had seen someone, made any sort of contact with anyone besides the guards. Melanie had said it herself, she had lost track of time after a week. A week of being in this room alone would've been terrible, completely undesirable. Chloe couldn't even begin to imagine how lonely it would feel to be apart from society for that long. It only made her wonder how long she had actually been here. Weeks. Months. Years. No, it couldn't have been that long. She said it had been her sixteenth birthday; there was no way she was much older than that now. "We're going to get out of here."

"No we're not," Melanie croaked before she sniffled.

"I promise," Chloe said, fighting back tears of her own. She could see why it was hard for Melanie to stay positive, even Chloe was having a hard time keeping her mind set on the right track and she'd only been there for a little over a day. A couple of weeks in this place probably would've killed her joy too. "I promise I'll get us out of here."

"Stop," Melanie muttered as she retreated her hand. Then she crawled back to the wall she was chained to and sat with her hands on her knees; they hid her face from Chloe, her tears slowly dripped down the lengths of her arms. A faucet of saltiness poured from her tear ducts. "We're going to die here."

Chloe wanted to say something, anything to make Melanie feel better, but she knew there wasn't anything to say. No matter what Chloe wanted to believe, she knew she was right. There was no escaping this place, which only meant one thing. They were going to die here. Unless someone did something about it, unless they could pull of the most impossible task. Her eyes flew to the door and then she rose to her feet and ran towards it again. Surprisingly, she wasn't pulled back, instead she ran straight into the door and fell back on the padded ground behind her. Her back broke her fall.

"Please exit your cell, turn right, and enter the door at the end of the hall," The hologram lady said as she appeared out of nowhere, scaring Chloe half out of her mind. She jumped back and  rested her back against the wall Melanie was chained to. It was the perfect opportunity.

Chloe jumped to her feet and rushed to Melanie; then she tugged at the chain. "Help me," Chloe cried out as she continued pulling, but the grip of an arm on her wrist stopped her struggle. She looked down and met Melanie's gaze. A stone cold girl stared back.

"This isn't going to work," Melanie said, shaking her head. "You need to go before he gets mad." 

"No," Chloe shouted through clenched teeth. "I'm not leaving you here!" She pulled against the chain again, and then she fell backwards. Melanie had actually pushed her away, even though she was only trying to help. Why was she being so uncooperative? Chloe didn't mean any harm; she didn't want to get her in trouble.

"Go," Melanie said, standing on her two feet, holding her arms out, prepared to push Chloe away again if she needed to. She nodded to the open door and yelled, "Go."

"Please exit your cell, turn right, and enter the door at the end of the hall," The hologram lady said again with her sickening smile, but Chloe didn't walk towards the door. Her heart told her to stay and try to escape with Melanie, while her brain shouted at her to follow the commands. It was the smart thing to do. She didn't want to receive any strikes, at least her and Melanie agreed on that. This was the hardest decision Chloe had ever had to make, following orders, or helping her friend, her only friend. Possibly the only sane person left in the world.

"Go," Melanie said again before she slid down the wall and stared at the empty chain laying on the floor. The one that had once been wrapped around Chloe's ankle. It came as a shock to Chloe, at first she thought she had broken free from them, but it was clear that they had released her. The appearance of the hologram lady only confirmed this. She still wasn't free. The truth in Melanie's words became clearer and clearer by the second. She was right. There definitely was no escaping this place. Chloe knew the only way out was by getting three strikes, but she didn't want to leave like that. She wouldn't leave like that, not if she had anything to say about it.

"How many strikes do you have?" Chloe asked after she reached the door. She didn't look back at Melanie, she couldn't. An answer had already formed itself in her head.

"Two," Melanie answered. "I have two."