White Rabbit

Chapter 21: Vertigo

JACE

"This sucks," I sigh as I sort through papers next to Asylum.

"Hm?" Asylum raises a brow at me from over at the other end of the table where he's sorting through boxes that carry new packets of information, "When doesn't it?"

"You have a point, but..."

"But that's not what you were talking about, right?" Asylum asks before sighing, "Yeah, I kinda figured. Whatever it is that's troubling you, just know that you can talk to me about it anytime, no matter what it is. Even if you can't discuss it here."

"Yeah, I know," I nod and sigh under my breath, "Thanks."

"Sure thing," Asylum nods and throws a packet on the table with a loud thud, making the other packets that it landed on spread out a little bit, before grabbing the box and throwing it to the back of the room with the rest of the empty boxes, "That's what friends are for."

"Heyo," Aether announces his presence as he swings himself in the room and teeters off of the door frame, hanging halfway in the room, "I need file XO37ML."

Asylum nods wordlessly and slides off of his stool before heading over to the rack of files on the right side of the room, grabbing the ladder that's attached to the middle shelf by clamps and wheels and hopping up on the lowest step before sliding it backwards several rows with his momentum as he leans backwards. He stops at X and his eyes scan through the files before he pulls one off of the shelf and throws it to Aether, who catches it with ease.

"Thanks, man," Aether grins wolfishly, "I bet the ladies dig that agility."

"Sadly, not as much as your rotten personality," Asylum snorts and crosses his arms against his chest.

"Don't hate the player, hate the game," Aether laughs as he walks away with the file in his left hand and waving sharply with his right.

"I'd rather hate the player," Asylum mutters under his breath before going to the stack of new boxes and grabbing one off of the pile.

"I don't blame you," I scowl, "I can't stand that prick."

"He acts like he owns the whole damn city," Asylum says as he opens the box on the table after sitting back down on his stool, "And he acts like he's the face of White Rabbit. Granted, I don't give a shit what people think of me and I certainly don't want to be the face of this company, but he acts so arrogant that it drives me up a wall."

"He doesn't take into consideration the feelings of others, either, and he just assumes that all Supernatural are bad," I shake my head, "I'm not surprised though, considering most people at this organization are the same way."

"I know," Asylum nods and sighs in frustration, "Well, I just gotta keep paying my college bills and then get out of here after I graduate, but you, Kid, you've got a long road ahead of you."

"Aw," Misa says as she appears in the doorway with a hand on her hip and the other dangling by her side with an amused expression on her face, "Play nice, boys."

"Hey, Misa," I smile, "What's up?"

"I need you to do a favor for me," Misa says as she pulls a flash drive out of her pocket and waves it around, "Can you run this down to the restricted floor and hand it to your father? He asked me to transfer information from our files onto this and for me to give it to him, but I have another crucial task to get done for the medical sector in order to help one of our injured members, so could you run it down to him? I already put everything on it that should be needed."

"Sure," I nod and jog up to her, "Anything for you."

"Aw, thanks, little bro," Misa beams and ruffles my hair as I take the flash drive from her, making me scowl slightly.

Behind me, Asylum chuckles and tries to hide it by coughing, to which I glance over my shoulder at him and narrow my eyes, making him glance away innocently and shove his hands in his pockets.

Misa heads back to her work room as I go down the hallway and continue walking straight, heading towards the elevator and pressing the button to open the doors once I come to it. I wait a few seconds before the door opens and once I step inside I press the red button in the middle of the bottom row that has the letter R printed on it. After going down a few levels, the doors open and I step into the restricted sector, glancing around at the glass windows that frame the metal walkway where you can see inside the rooms, each door to each room being placed after the gigantic, plexiglass windows.

As I keep walking, I notice my father in the fourth room and enter the door, making all of the workers turn their attention to me, aside from a few who didn't care or had headphones in, and my father raises a brow in curiosity.

"Jace? What're you doing here?" He asks.

"Misa sent me to hand you the flash drive you wanted," I explain, "She finished working on it and was going to give it to you, but she had to attend to a critical matter in the medical wing, so she had me deliver it instead."

"Oh," He sighs and his expression visibly relaxes as he takes the flash drive, "Thanks."

"No problem," I say and turn to leave, however, as I'm walking to leave, I catch a shock of blond hair out of the corner of my eye and I glance over to find Aether talking to one of the female workers.

I almost snort and keep walking, but it occurs to me that he shouldn't even be down here, and I slow my pace as I continue watching him talking to the redheaded woman, waving the file that Asylum gave him carelessly in his hand as he continues making gestures towards the woman. The woman shakes her head, her long red hair flowing around her shoulders and she pushes up her black glasses as another girl with long hair the color of pink taffy with dark mocha forming up the other half and two streaks of blue up front by her face in the left side of her hair walks up to them. The strange girl places her hands on the hips of her fitting, mocha jeans and I notice that she's also wearing a fitting, white shirt that has flowing sleeves, tall, stone grey boots, and a stone grey musketeer hat with a giant white feather. She yells at them with a strange accent that I recognize as French and she seems around Aether's age, if not younger.

"Minjonet, always such a pleasure," I hear Aether's voice trail over to me.

I frown as I push the door open and walk out into the hallway, that scene still not sitting right with me. I walk up to the elevator and press the button to open the doors, pulling my cell phone out of my pocket and dialing Clattonia's number as I step inside and my phone finally stops dialing as she picks up.

"Yeah, I need to talk to you," I say as the elevator doors shut.