Alice

Chapter 3- The room, and cake?

Chapter three****

.......

Ms Sokolov leads us to a table located in another room.

This room is different from the one I was just in; it has a colder feel about it. The ceiling was slightly taller than the previous room, there are tables and chairs clumped together and scattered across the floor, the lights in the ceiling were high up- a bright white, but instead of floorboards covering the area beneath our feet, there are rows and rows of tiles.

It's like a cafeteria.

Why was it like a cafeteria?

There are still windows inside the large room, but these ones were separated by sections of wall with certificates on them. The windows have larger framing surrounding them as well.

Ryu walks over and claims one of the many tables- not that anyone else was in there- by slamming his hand against the hard surface, and calls us over with the wave of his free hand.

He pulls back my chair for me, with a gentlemanly smile as he does.

I smile with no sign of happiness and reply with a sarcastic 'thank you,' as I sit down.

Ryu pulls out the chair next to mine and softly places his behind down onto it.

He then looks at Ms Sokolov, an impatient look grows in his eyes.

He starts searching around the room for something-anything, to look upon; when he couldn't find something to focus on, his gaze directs to me.

He smiles at me, his eyes closed. Pure contentness smothers his face.

Suddenly feeling somewhat uncomfortable, I decide to break the awkward silence.

"Why are we here?" I question Ms Sokolov.

"Oh, was I doing such a bad thing? I just wanted to celebrate your arrival here at the institute."

She places her elbows on the table, with her fingers interlocked underneath her head, holding her face up.

"I made a request for some cake, vanilla."

Ohhh, so that's what that scent was earlier...

"I hoped that we could eat some together. No?" The increase in the thickness of her accent was noticeable.

Does her accent thicken when she's happy? Or is she scheming something?

A man, with his entire attire consisting of white, accompanied with a large, white chef hat walks into view, holding a cake.

"Are you sure there was no ulterior motive here? Scheming perhaps," I ask her as the man gently places the cake down onto the table.

I look into her eyes and ask again.

I can always tell when people lie by looking them in the eyes when I talk.

"Maybe, maybe not. I'll let you decide that."

Curse her, she's totally unreadable.

I pick up the teaspoon that was placed down on the table before we walked into the room and I start to eat the cake with it.

I notice Ryu doing the same thing.

"Hey. If this was supposed to be a celebration to my arrival or whatever, then what's HE doing here," I say as I point to Ryu.

Ryu gasps in disgust, his hand placed over his chest as if to protect his heart from being offended.

"Rude. I'm your friend now. I get to celebrate with you."

Ryu then places a piece of cake into his mouth and slowly chews it. Taking in as much of the flavour as he can.

How often do they get to eat sweets like this?

Once we all finish our slices of vanilla cake, Ms Sokolov decides to talk to us. Well, mainly me.

"You're probably wondering where you are right now Alice, aren't you?"

"No shit Sherlock."

Ms Sokolov glares at me, her intense blue eyes staring straight into mine.

"This institution you are located at is called 'Silverside',"

Silverside? That sounds familiar....