White Rabbit

Chapter 10: Where Sweden and Ireland Meet Athens

JACE

I follow Juniper up the stairs, the others trailing behind us. Once we reach the top of the stairs, Juniper leads me down a hallway to the right, which is lined with glowing wall lamps that shine dimly like a soft fire. The walls themselves are a dark grey and made of cement, but somehow they seem inviting. The floor is also made of cement in certain areas, but this hallway is made of black and white checkered tiles.

"This is the area that's considered the dormitory hall," Juniper explains as she walks beside me and gives me a soft smile, twiddling her fingers together in a somewhat nervous manner, "We each have our own rooms, and they're kind of grouped together in a sense."

"Did you guys build this entire thing yourselves?" I ask, arching my eyebrows slightly.

"Well, we found the building and when we found it it was abandoned, so we decided to make it our base, considering the location is discreet enough. We added on to it, of course, but only to add on things we needed or to make it a little more like home, ya know?" Juniper explains, "I mean, we do spend most of our time here, after all."

"I see," I say and we reach the first set of dark brown, wooden, oak doors.

"Yeah," Juniper nods and smiles once again before gesturing to the door on the left side of the hall, "This is Indigo's room, and on the opposite side of the hall is Ink's room. My room is beside Indigo's room and across from my room is Katsuro's."

"And the four of you seem close from what I've observed," I say as Juniper continues to lead me down the hallway.

"Yeah," Juniper says and blushes slightly before we come to more doors, "And beside my room is Reece's room, and Clattonia's room is across from Reece's room. And beside Reece's room is Labyrinth's room. Then Caliber's room is across from Labyrinth's room."

"Reece and Labyrinth?" I raise my eyebrows in surprise, "I guess I see the similarities...but still..."

"They're cousins," Juniper laughs softly, "That's why her room is next to his. She doesn't really get along with anyone well besides Reece and Clattonia -- sometimes Caliber since Caliber is always so calm and never bothers her."

"Oh," The realization shouldn't have came as such of a surprise to me, but somehow I find myself being a little surprised.

"Yeah," Juniper nods, "Even still, we're all really close here, despite how it may look sometimes, considering how Aeryn and Labyrinth act."

"I can tell," I say as we continue to walk, "You seem especially close to Reece."

"Well," Juniper starts and almost stops walking as she gets lost in her thoughts, "I suppose, yeah. Reece is like my big brother. You see, all of us here went through something, many things, that most people wouldn't be able to cope with. I felt alone for most of my life, despite being gifted with lots of attention for my talents with nature and healing. I was placed on a pedestal and people constantly thought they weren't good enough for me, but all I ever really wanted was for someone to truly love me, to allow themselves to love me. I was glad people recognized my talents and abilities, but I didn't want people to think they weren't equal to me. And so, I thought, if all I want is someone to love me and think they're equal to me and that's all I ever desired, then how would I ever get that if they kept pushing themselves down and placing me on that lonely, cold pedestal? I was so lonely. I felt like it was cruel, in a way. All they wanted was to make me feel special, they thought they were making me feel adoration and love, but they weren't. They were doing the opposite. I felt isolated and lonely for a long time, but then I met Reece, Clattonia, and Kaden. I met them before I met Katsuro, and then I met the others. After meeting them, I was so happy. I was happy because somebody saw what I actually wanted and not what they thought I wanted or what they thought was best when it actually wasn't. I'm sorry, I'm sure that's a lot to take in. I didn't mean to drop my life story on you."