Akina's Reflection

XVIII

At the bottom of the dim stairwell, Alex opened the door at the bottom. This door was not locked. As he opened the door, I was almost blinded by the light of the room.

It wasn't really that bright, but the mix of me being in the dark so long, and the white room, forced me to squint.

The white room was rather plain, but for the desk at the other side of the room. There were two computer monitors on the desk, one facing towards us, the other facing the woman behind the desk. There were also screens above her, showing surveillance videos.

The woman looked up from her computer. She had kind of long black hair, which was tied up in a ponytail on the side of her head. Her piercing, pale hazel eyes looked almost golden in colour.

I decided she was a secretary, but she did not give us any greeting. She was dead silent.

Xela walked up to the desk.

"Alice." She said, staring back at the secretary.

Alice looked at her, then back down at the computer screen. I stared at the screen facing us, where words were now forming on the blank screen.

"Welcome back, Miss Xela. I see you have Mr. Farsdale's patient?"

"Yeah, here's Akina. Where's Farsdale?"

Farsdale? I already had the slight assumption, but was the Dr. Farsdale I met on the street the same one who Alice referred to as 'Mr. Farsdale'?

Alice smiled.

"An uncle should be proud of his niece's fine job."

Xela stared at the screen, then slammed her fist on the table.

"Shut up, mute! Where's Farsdale?"

"You don't have to be so harsh." Alex said, quietly. Xela glared at him, probably keeping him silent for a while.

Alice appeared to have sighed.

"Mr. Akina should be brought to containment room 2E, on the west wing. Mr. Farsdale will see him shortly, I would assume he is resting now. Mr. Farsdale has had a long day, Miss Xela."

Xela huffed, then tugged my hair.

"Come, Mister Akina." She said, very sarcastically. It was not too hard to tell that Xela probably disliked Alice. Xela dragged me along, Alex followed silently.

MIRROR was huge. We passed by empty hallways, but with glass walls, you can see scientists and doctors at work in labs. Most were working on...

I walked as fast as I can go with Xela gripping my hair. I kept my eyes looking forward, not wanting to look into the labs.

Many were doing experiments on live people. Some looked like typical doctor's visits, but others, like the ones we were passing now, were brutal.

If the glass in these labs weren't soundproof, you would need earplugs to walk through such a hall. There were people being dissected alive. Various electric experiments were going on. In another hall, eye surgery after eye surgery. It was terrible.

"What... what are they doing?" I asked, horrified.

Xela stopped to look into a room, where another eye surgery was taking place.

"Probably testing the iris, or trying to mess with genes. You're going to be here a while, so don't bother to think about it unless your surgery day comes."

She pushed me forward, making me keep walking.

Down an elevator, we were in another hall. A hall of containment rooms.

Frightened eyes watched me, frightened eyes, and sad eyes, even angry and crazed eyes, they all watched me pass. I only glanced at them once.

A young man, about Antonio's age, perhaps younger, stared at me. He seemed both interested, and sad. I stared back at him. Even at his age, his shaggy, dark brown hair looked familiar, as was his single, deep blue eye.

Xela kicked my heels.

"Move, Akina!"

Alex opened up a cell, and Xela pushed me inside.

"You don't have to get comfortable," She sneered.

"You wouldn't be in there long anyways."

Xela laughed, her voice bouncing down the empty halls, then she walked off, Alex following close behind her. I looked around my containment room. It wasn't all that big, more a cell than a room. It was meant to be a cell, just they call it a 'containment room' to sound polite, or something, I guess. There was a bed in the cell that didn't look too comfortable, and an opaque wall hiding a toilet. Opaque, because all the other walls were made of glass, the back wall being a large, ominous mirror.

Around me, there were a couple other people held in such cells. To my right, there was the blue eyed man, with his hair covering his other eye. He watched me from his cell with a sad expression.

I gazed back at him, sitting down on the bed.

"These glass walls are soundproof, aren't they?" I asked myself, rather loudly.

I turned around, facing the mirror. I could see myself, my clothes dirty, my eyes a little sunken in. I haven't slept well in a while, not with the dreams and nightmares I have.

Others might find it strange, but sometimes, I think I could dream of my past, and even my future. But, almost every such dream I have, is a nightmare.

My entire past, was a nightmare. So I could not sleep off living nightmares, such as now.

I looked back to the guy next to me.

"What is going to happen to me?" I asked, longing for an answer.

The man in the other cell turned back towards me, sadly.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you, not because I don't want to, but because I have no answer to tell you."

I actually heard him though the glass. I stared, not believing that such a secret place wouldn't have soundproof glass.

"Only this outer glass is soundproof." The young shaggy haired man said, rapping his knuckle on the outer glass, facing the hallway.

"They are confident, and have no problem with the inmates chatting. I'm Cody, nice to meet you, despite our situation."

He put his hand on the glass separating us, I'm guessing this would be the replacement for shaking hands, since we can't phase through the glass.

I carefully placed my hand on the glass, where his hand was across from me. Cody's hand was larger than mine, and he was a little taller than me.

Then it suddenly hit me.

"Cody....Cody?!" I looked up at him.

"Cody... Umm, Cody, do you know an Aubrey?"

"Aubrey...?"