The Confined

15. Violet (Part 1)

2302. 04. 20

Larry and Tasha. They were my father’s best and most trusted friends. They would help me for sure. Larry and Tasha are the CEOs of LT robot corporation, the largest robot industry in the world. Their house took pride because it was the biggest house in the whole RL. You may have thought that the biggest house was my house when I was in the RL, but no. We didn’t want a house too big. Big houses always had too many secrets that even the owners didn’t know. Larry and Tasha did have so many secrets. They told my father about half of them. And I had overheard that they had more private access to robots than the government did. They could surely help break my parents out of the prison.

I quickly ran across streets, swung around corners, dashed down roads. I never looked up while I was running because I was afraid of becoming frightened again. I was afraid that everyone would recognize me as Violet Crowe, the once-spoiled girl who only knew herself, but now full of fright that I might see one of my friends from the past. I was scared I’d see Natalie. As long as I didn’t look up and see anything familiar, I would be fine.

The way to Larry and Tasha’s house seemed to be a million miles. It was actually about 15 minutes away from Polly’s, but I was terribly tired when I got there. The weapons were as heavy as carrying six Anya’s in a laundry cart. I was panting hard when I reached the enormous gate. I steadied my breathing and rang the bell robot.

The robot’s red eyes grew wide when it fixed them on me. “You!” it screamed, but the lights in its eyes quickly turned green. Green eyes meant that the owner was on the other side of the bell. “We’ve been expecting you, darling Violet. You’re earlier than we thought,” Tasha’s familiar voice spoke into my ear. “Come in.”

The gates clicked open and I urged myself to go inside. There were so many memories here, almost as many as at Polly’s house. I used to come here almost every day when I was a child to play with the new kinds of robots. There were all kinds of robots in Larry and Tasha’s home that were being tested before release to the public. I had never seen one that had side effects. They always worked perfectly.

Larry and Tasha were waiting in front of their front door. They hadn’t changed much. Maybe that’s because I haven’t even been gone for ten days. Larry and his bald head still didn’t seem to have grown any hair at all. He didn’t have a beard, but tiny stumps of hair were growing on his chin. He was wearing his orange golf t-shirt with tan shorts that looked new. I wanted to laugh when I saw Larry, because he looked like a funny man just by standing there. But when I saw Tasha, I wanted to cry all over again. Tasha’s beautiful red shiny hair glittered in the bright sunlight. Her wise smile seemed to look straight through me and understand what I’d been through. Her eyes looked at me like she knew everything. How much I had been destroyed. And how much I had grown up. I ran into their arms. They made me sad and happy at the same time.

“We missed you darling,” Tasha said. “You’re probably worried about your parents.”

I nodded fiercely. They knew how they were. They had been waiting to show me.

Larry opened the door and a wide hallway opened up to my sight. Things had changed in here. In fact, everything had changed in here. The floor, the lighting, the walls, the height of the ceiling, everything. Now that I looked at them, Larry and Tasha seemed to have gained a little more weight. There were three chairs right in front of the door in the hallway. “Sit,” he ordered me. “We’ll take care of your hidden weapons and put them somewhere safe.” He winked.

I sat in the middle chair while the both of them sat next to me. At first, I didn’t understand why there were three chairs such an awkward place. But when I sat down, I knew instantly that these weren’t just fixed chairs. They were built into the floor to move to every place in the house. And then I understood why Larry and Tasha looked fatter. They didn’t walk around the house.

“Better buckle your seatbelts,” Larry chuckled. I laughed nervously and fastened the seatbelt. As soon as it clicked, the chairs shot down the hall in incredible speed. I didn’t think I could even hear myself think because of the wind in my ears. “ARE YOU SURE THIS IS SAFE?” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

“ABSOLUTELY!” Larry shouted back to me.

“AHH!” I yelled when we turned a corner sharply. We went up the stairs at a dangerous angle. Doors flew open when we were about to crash into them and closed right after we passed through them. Then the chairs seemed to slow down and it seemed like we were in a totally different house. This place looked like a secret lair in sci-fi movies. There were around five thousand computer screens covering the whole round wall of the room. On the ceiling was a dimly lit chandelier and wires hanged in an orderly fashion.

I gasped.

On the other side of the room from where I was standing were two single beds, and my father and mother were lying in them, looking tired and messy. They were both fast asleep, but it didn’t stop me from going to them. Whether they were tired or messy did not matter. The fact that they were asleep and probably needed more time to sleep, also did not matter to me at that second.

I sprinted. It wasn’t that far, yet a few yards away, since the room was totally huge. I sprinted with all my might. I didn’t think about Larry or Tasha or Polly. I didn’t think about Eva and Finn or even Ego. Nothing. All I cared about was getting to them.

“Mom! Dad!” I shouted as I ran to them. And then I realized it wasn’t real. The bed was hovering in the air. I slammed into a transparent wall that was blocking the way for me to enter the hologram. I banged ferociously because I wanted to go in. From here I couldn’t see their faces. I wanted to see my parents’ faces even if they were holograms.

“I love you!” I screamed. Tears were already streaming down my face as if my eyes were waterfalls. I’d kept them inside for quite long, but now I couldn’t bear it anymore. “Mom! Dad! I love you!” I kept banging on the wall. They couldn’t hear me of course. They didn’t even move. Both of them were lying still on their beds. They didn’t know that I was standing right next to them right now in a virtual world hidden underneath the CCTV. They were right in front of me and I couldn’t even see their faces. It made me feel invisible, hopeless, and like I was too small to fight against the world of robots. My heart was feeling so much pain that I almost thought it was being shredded into small bits of paper.

Tasha wrapped her arms around me as if she understood me more than anybody else in the world because she had done the same thing many times. “It’s okay, sweetie. They are okay,” she reassured me. They did seem okay.

It was just that I wasn’t okay.

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Hello my loves. Sorry that this chapter was late, I was busy last week and couldn't update!

So, what do you think about Larry and Tasha? Are they to be trusted?

If you enjoyed the chapter vote and comment because I love to see your thoughts!
Thanks for reading!