Briar Preparatory Academy

New Surroundings

Celeste POV

I wake up to the sound of silence. I blink a hundred times before I raise my head and look around. I am surrounded by gray. Gray walls, gray ceilings, gray door, grey floor. All made out of concrete.

I stand up. Or at least I try to, but am rewarded with a sharp yank on my wrists. I furrow my eyebrows. I look down at my lap, expecting to see my hands sitting there... except they aren't. They are bound behind me in steel handcuffs. I am sitting in a chair in the center of the room, and I can't move. My shins are tied to the front legs of the chair and my hands are tied in an inescapable bind. Despite this known fact, I attempt to move my arms anyways. I am rewarded with a sharp pain in my arms that shoots through my neck and into my head. I close my eyes and wait for the throbbing pain to stop. I then look up and take in my surroundings again.

There is nothing in the room except for me, my chair, a single light above my head, and a security camera in the far corner. So much for my escape plan that was slowly beginning to form....

I jump as the steel door in front of me slides open and a figure steps through. I can tell it is a male by his build. He drags in something behind him, and it takes me a few seconds to identify it as a chair. My vision is still groggy. I swallow, realizing for the first time how parched I am.

"Oh good, you're awake. Took a while." The figure speaks for the first time. I immediately recognize the voice from somewhere, but I can't quite place my finger on where. Suddenly, all my memories come flooding back to me. I remember walking, and then I was in somebody's arms and was being bound, blinded, and drugged. I remember voices, and the wheels of a car beneath me before blacking out. I remembered nothing after that. I don't know how I got here, or when.

I don't know where I am.

"Where am I?" I say, trying my best to sound strong but failing. My voice cracks halfway through.

"That's info that we'll keep in the dark for the time being." The figure has remained in the shadows. I know his voice now. This is the man that was holding me while I was drugged and bound. I feel anger boiling in the pit of my stomach. I would get him back for that eventually.

"What do you want with me?" I say, adjusting my hands behind my chair.

"I personally want nothing to do with you," the stranger says casually, "I'm just following my boss' orders."

"Who's your boss?"

"That's confidential until he chooses it not to be."

I grunt in frustration. "Do you work for Colleen?"

"Technically speaking? No. We both work for the same person. I don't take orders from her."

"Well now we're getting somewhere."

"What I've told you so far is useless information. Any escape plan you've been forming in that pretty little head of yours is all but wasted. You're not getting out of here just by questioning me."

"Don't mean to sound cocky or anything," I say, "But I have been underestimated by my peers before."

I could practically feel the stranger smiling. "I know you have." He takes the remaining steps forward so I have a full view of him now. I do my best to hide my surprise.

The first thought that pops into my head is blue... the color of the ocean when the sun hits it. Not exactly dark, and not light either. But clear and bright, so bright that that it could be seen from a mile away. This boy's eyes are like that.