Eyes of White 2

NEW Chapter 2: Into the Black Room

"No, Persephone, no!"

Zania's hands flew up in frustration as Persephone made yet another mistake in her water-twisting. "You're supposed to turn the tide! It's simple water-bending!"

Persephone shook her head and tugged off her virtual reality helmet.

That's right. Virtual Reality Helmet.

One of Zania's Gifts was Technology. She had amazing ways with computers, and had hot-wired her microwave, phone, toaster, and all other appliances to warn her when one of the four wards protecting Queenstown from The Evil had broken. She had even made an army of great robots she used when all else failed.

So, virtual reality helmet? No biggie.

Zania tugged her helmet off too. "Don't give up now. You are the only Queenstown Warden in a generation after me now. Tammy and Regina left to help in other towns, where Wardens are already battling. You must master each Gift and all of their Tributaries."

Persephone had recently discovered that her Communication gift had two Tributaries. One of them was Protection, the ability to prevent The Evil from getting into an animal's mind and soul, and the other Tributary was Illusion. Illusion meant she could cast a special charm over objects and animals, which meant that all other beings would see them doing one thing, something that she controlled, whilst it was actually doing something else. It was quite rare for someone to have two Tributaries stretched over two Gifts, and rarer still was it to have three. Persephone was special.

Persephone sighed and pulled her helmet back onto her head, envisioning a "Plains Zoo" - one where all of the animals roamed free. Soon she was there, and Zania was by her side.

"Okay, so now we're focusing on your Communication Gift? Well, go up to that elephant and ask it where the nearest peanuts are."

Persephone walked over to the elephant and smiled at it. "Hello," she said, but she could hear it in English, so she sank her mind down, into an elephant's perspective, and tried again. "Hello."

At this, the elephant looked up. "Oh, hello! You are not an elephant!" was what it actually said, but Persephone heard it like, "Hello. Elephant not you not I."

Persephone shook her head and tried again. She meant to say, "What was that?" but instead she said, "Cars are fast?"

The elephant said a very simple term, "Yes, they are."

"I ask 'What was that' and you answer with 'Yes they are'?" Persephone was careful to differentiate between 'Cars are fast' and 'What was that'.

The elephant nodded. "Sorry, you aren't very fluent, are you?"

"No."

"Alright. Did you want to ask something?" it said very slowly.

"Yes," Persephone replied, equally as slow, "where are the nearest peanuts?"

"Oh, they're-"

The virtual world flickered and switched off, Persephone's ears filled by a woman's voice saying, "Mission completed."

Zania nodded haughtily. "Thank you, Persephone. One hour of free-time is yours."

Persephone smiled and walked over to the virtual world programmer, where she tapped in, 'Begin programming: Virtual War Game.'

Zania smiled and sat in a chair nearby, her helmet still on, just so she could watch her granddaughter have fun in a virtual world.

Soon, Zania left to go and make lunch, and Persephone was alone. She tiptoed over to the programmer and typed the words,' Begin programming: Time With Penelope.'

The virtual world changed. Persephone was now on the beach, and she was laughing, along with a girl who was running away up ahead. Persephone didn't start running. First she had to see this girl's face.

The girl stopped. "Aren't you coming, Sis?" She turned, brushing her hair out of her eyes, and Persephone saw her face. Tears began to well in Persephone's eyes. She knew that face. That face would never be forgotten.

The face of Penelope.

Persephone picked at her mac-and-cheese, not hungry enough to eat, but not full enough to leave. She had eaten some of the rubbery pasta and tasteless sauce which was meant to be cheese-flavoured, but not much.

Zania hovered in the kitchen, watching her granddaughter move the elbow macaroni around, before tugging a roast chicken from the warm oven. "Chicken?"

Persephone felt bile rise in her throat at the thought of eating an animal. "No. I think I'm going vegan," she whispered, suddenly realising that she didn't want to eat from the bowl in front of her because the sauce had cheese in it, made from milk - which had been stolen from cows - and the calves as well seeing as the calves were the ones that drank it.

Zania smiled and said, "I should have guessed. Vegetarianism and even vegan-ism isn't uncommon in Communicators. They seem to get a connection to the animals they relate with."

There was a big, fat silence for the next five minutes as Zania prepared some sort of vegan dish.

"Here we are!" she said cheerfully, replacing Persephone's mac-and-cheese with some sort of vegetable mash. It definitely had potato, beans, sweet potato, peas and carrot, and underneath that was some tofu, and underneath that was some wheat noodles.

Persephone spent two minutes surveying it, looking for any sign of cream, butter, milk, egg or, worst of all, meat. But none of these ingredients were found, so Persephone began eating with relish.

"Oh my god," she whispered, mouth full of veggie mash, "this is absolutely amazing!"

Zania beamed, her face literally lighting up - as one of her Gifts was Fire - and she clapped her hands. "Oh, I'm so glad you like it, dear. It was a bit of an experiment, as I've never cooked for a vegan before, but, if you like it, tonight you can have the noodles in a tomato sauce, with the tofu, some onion and some mushrooms."

Persephone wasn't sure on mushrooms, but she knew they were nicknamed 'Vegetarian's meat' so she just nodded and stuffed more mash into her already-full mouth.

**In case you can't tell, this is where the story begins to differ. I cut this part from chapters 2 and 3, but now it will be really different! Except for when the 'Dreaming of Death' chapter comes in... not sure when it'll be seen yet... talk to ya later!**