Shadow Land

Blank for Blank

                “You’re sick. How could you do that?” Jessica demanded when Alycia finally stopped. Jessica was panting now; it had been hard to keep up with Alycia as she walked so fast and never slowed down. And they had been walking for nearly half an hour making Jessica completely lost and wondering just how big this labyrinth of hallways and offices could be. A couple of times, Jessica had felt the unseen silver bracelet thing in her wrist buzz because she was getting too far behind the other girl. That made her stomach flip upside down and freeze all the way through with terror as she sprinted, pushing the other people in the hallway out of her way, to get close enough to Alycia.

 Alycia had been striding through hallway after hallway with the occasional flight of stairs. They were all white walled and filled with people that watched the two girls. All of them were wearing the black outfit of khakis and a plain shirt. Occasionally, someone would walk next to Alycia and start talking to her about one thing or another. Jessica could tell that she was important in this place by the way everyone tried not to draw her attention and spent most of the time they had talking to her trying to say what a good job they’d done and only spent a few seconds describing the problem they had to tell her. There was also the fact that Alycia never slowed down and always talked to them in a cruel voice. It reminded Jessica of what she did when she wanted to teach someone she was better than them and then get rid of them. Except this time, if Alycia didn’t look pleased with the person they would start to tremble. Trembling was something Jessica had never been able to accomplish.

Jessica did notice, however, that the further they walked the less populated the hallways were until they climbed another flight of stairs and came to a completely empty hallway.

Alycia sighed, “Are you going to keep saying that? Because it’s going to get boring pretty quickly. You do realize we are going to be living together for a while. This will be our bedroom, by the way.”

Jessica looked around. This wasn’t a bed room. It looked like someone had taken one of those hallways, made it a square, and shoved two beds in it. Even the beds were neat white rectangles with a pillow sheets so flat and well made that she was convinced they had been painted on the bed. Each bed had a white big chest at the foot of it. Jessica had a suspicion that those chests contained neatly folded black khakis. A square white room with no windows and no decorations. This is a prison cell, not a bedroom. Jessica decided.

There was a doorway to Jessica’s right that led to a bathroom. Well, it had a white toilet, white sink, and a silver showerhead coming out the middle of the ceiling, but that was the only thing that distinguished it from the hallways and bedroom. Jessica looked at it for a second before realizing that the shower head would pour water all over the room. And there was no drain.

“It doesn’t mean you’re not sick. I don’t know how you’re going to live with yourself,” She persisted, going with her personal motto: when life is too confusing to think about, make someone else feel bad. It usually worked and made them want to make her life less confusing.

Alycia sighed, falling down on one of the beds and leaning against the wall, “I had to do it. I work for the kind of people that really don’t appreciate failure.”

“But he was…like…your brother!” Jessica cried, refusing to move from the doorway.

“No he wasn’t!” Alycia snapped, suddenly in Jessica’s face, “Do you want to know what happened to my real brother? They killed him! They won’t kill Alex; they’re just using him to get to Miranda anyway! Trust me; he’s the only person in this universe who they won’t think about killing. So excuse me for trying to keep myself alive in this godforsaken world I was dragged into!”

Jessica stepped back carefully. Alycia looked close to tears. The skin on her face was becoming almost transparent and occasionally flashing like a bad TV, revealing a network of streams of light behind it. Little sparks were flying out her fingertips and her now glowing silver hair. The two girls locked eyes for three tension filled seconds before Alycia turned away, her shoulders shaking.