Devil's Daughter

Chapter Five

This isn't how I had imagined it to be at all!

I'd pictured the compound to be a mixture of Hell and an army training camp: barbed wire fences, gunshots, scary guard dogs, with occasional lava flows, decomposing dead souls and daemons everywhere. This place somehow made me want to go in. Just proves first impressions are wrong, huh.

The first thing that hits me is the smell. A bit like lavender, but.. more sickly. Maybe they have gardens here or something. Then I see the gates. They're quite imposing, but elaborately patterned with the metal painted gold. Above is an archway with a sign saying "Welcome to London Changeling Compound" in swirly lettering. Ironically, they're how I would imagine the gates of Heaven to look like. Surrounding the gates and stretching as far as I can see are the 10ft white concrete walls. I don't know if they're for trapping us in, or for keeping other people out. In either case, it does kind of spoil the initial welcoming effect.

There's a doorbell next to the gate. I'm wondering whether to press it or not. Of course you press it, Roza, I think. I need to get inside. Tentatively I press the doorbell and a crackly intercom greets me with "Number and element please?"

"Um.. 139F," I say, a touch nervously. The gates open and I step inside the compound. As soon as I'm inside, they snap shut. I'm in a sort of playground, but it's eerily empty. And quiet. Too quiet. Suddenly I realize how completely stupid I've been. Why did I want to get inside here? I don't know! My mind had felt convinced for two minutes that it was the right thing to do.. What if I have to stay here? Of course I have to stay here!

"Welcome! New recruit?" A woman in a red coat walks up to me beaming. She looks normal, but her hair is too blonde, almost white, and her lips scarlet, to match the tomato coloured coat I presume. "Uh... yeah," I mutter unenthusiastically. Why had she said recruit? I certainly hadn't chosen to come here of my own accord. "That's just great!" she said. "I'll be showing you to your barracks here at the Compound." She walks briskly to a set of double doors, unlocks them - which takes some time - and then goes inside. I notice that she puts the keys inside a secret pocket on the inside of the tomato coat. I figure I might need that information if planning escape. We walk down several corridors. Everything's so... white here. It makes me feel like I'm in hospital.

Finally we reach a door marked 'FG:120-140" (which I'm guessing stands for Fire Girls: 120-140). "Now here is your new dormitory!" says Tomato Coat. "Your dormitory leader should be here in a short while." After a few minutes of awkward silence, she walks through the door.

My heart almost stops.

"Annie?"