Enhanced (first draft)

Chapter 6

"You and I are going to go in there. We will both have to disguise ourselves. You need to make me look Enhanced and nobody can be able to recognize you. We will just wander around the city. Is it a city? Well anyways, we are just going to be looking for any place that he could possibly be hiding. We are just scouting for now. If we find any places where he could be hiding we can check them out tonight. How does that sound?" Trace looks expectantly at me. I honestly do not want to go back to the Inside, to what I escaped, even though it will only be for a little while. But it will be helping Trace. Doing this will make him trust me, and I need somebody that I can rely on.

"It sounds good." I say as all of the problems we may encounter go racing through my head. I block them from my mind. Everything will work out fine.

I open up the makeup kit and grab what I need to disguise Trace. I have him sit down right in front of me. His brown eyes are staring expectantly at me, making me uncomfortable. My hands fumble to open the eyeliner.

"Eyes are a prominent feature. They need to stick out. Usually they are vibrant colors, things you wouldn't usually have when you are born, but there are people that like the natural colors. Your color is something that I personally would love. It looks like how my daughter's would," I say as I gently put the eyeliner around Traces eyes.

I am about to go to work on the rest of the face when I notice something I had totally ignored. Nearly all Enhanced men are cleanly shaven. There are a few exceptions, but I would rather not try to imitate an exception. Anyways, Trace's facial hair is unruly.

"Damn!" I say, causing both Trace and Cyrus to look nervously at me. "I don't have a razor. Enhanced men don't usually have facial hair."

Trace frowned, meanwhile Cyrus grabbed a bag and started to rummage through it. After a minute Cyrus pulls a small razor out and hands it to me.

"I have many random things in this bag," he says as if that explains why he is carrying a razor around.

I slowly work on shaving Trace's facial hair. Without any cream I am afraid that I will cut him. It is a long, laborious effort, but I finally feel satisfied when I finish it. The smooth face now makes Trace look almost like a child.

I then get to work on the makeup again. I use my memory of Soren's face as a template for Trace's disguise. Most of my time is spent making certain features of his more defined. I also have to make everything look smoother for a while. Even though it seems to be taking forever, Trace consistently has a calm composure, his breathing is steady. He is patient.

I take a step back from my work and observe it. Trace looks different, practically unrecognizable. He looks like he could be considered Enhanced, although he does look different than your regular person. His eyes are not as large as those of the Enhanced and his nose is just a little too big.

"Perfect," I say, holding out the pants and button-down shirt I took from Soren. Trace grabs them and begins putting them on as I turn to Cyrus. He looks bored, as if none of this really concerns him.

"Have you ever done makeup before?" I ask, seemingly startling Cyrus.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I have," he says with an arrogant smile. I wasn't expecting that answer, but it's better that he has.

"Okay, so you can disguise me then." I say, observing something similar to anger flash through Cyrus's eyes.

Cyrus starts to get to work on me, and I just sit there in silence, trying to ignore the fact that he is staring right at me. I don't really know what to think about Cyrus. He always seems a little hostile and tense.

My eyes shift over to Trace. Our eyes meet for a second. I quickly look away. He is probably wondering why I was looking at him. I am glad that I met him. He seems to be trustworthy and I'm almost certain that he is determined to protect me, despite having only recently met.

I take a deep breath and try to clear my mind of any thoughts while Cyrus continues to put makeup on me. It is no easy task though. Having cleared my mind of Cyrus and Trace, I instead start to think of the task ahead of me. Going back to the Inside. I though that I would be leaving it for good. There are so many things that can go wrong: I can be recognized, Soren can see me, Trace's disguise can be seen through, we can be discovered as imposters. If any of those things happen, everything will be lost. But I won't let them happen, Trace won't let them happen.

Finally Cyrus says, "Done." He lays down the makeup.

I turn to Trace expectantly. "Well?"

His lips turn up into a smile. "Perfect. Great job, man!" He walks up to Cyrus and gives him a pat on the back. Then he wraps his arm around mine, out elbows are knotted together. "Let's go!"

We quickly walk together through the forest. I have to labor to take steps as big as Trace's, but I don't complain.

"We need to be inconspicuous when we get to the Inside. We will leave the forest up ahead a little bit, arriving at a pathway that is seldomly used. Try not to make eye contact with other people and whatever you do, don't talk to anybody on your own free will. If anybody talks to you, you may talk back. Don't rely on me to do the talking because I am subordinate to you. Remember, these people are stupid for the most part. They are hung up on materialism and appearances."

Trace shakes his head slightly. "If I didn't feel so obligated to be in control of the search for Xander I would have had Cyrus come with you rather than me."