»» BOOK #3 of the X-MARKS: Shadows Series «« Valen and her friends have ended their long journey but all isn't as it seems.
In the care of their new hosts they find riches, fame and the watchful eye of Genevieve Vossler, the beautiful and mysteri...
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I waited in the windowless white room just like I had been for weeks. Numb, restless and my racing thoughts yearning to spill.
This morning I woke up with a dull ache in the back of my head. I moved the firm pillows of the bed and looked down at a new set of white clothes on the steel tray next to me.
Whoever these people were, they couldn't keep me locked in this white room forever. Or should I say, wouldn't let me? The truth was I didn't want to leave this room if I had to see them again.
I reached for the loose white shirt, pulled it over my tangled hair and the baggy shorts up my stiff legs. At the door, a tall woman with short, sleek black hair and pale skin watched me. I glared my tired eyes in her direction hoping she would notice my disdain but she continued to stand there watching me undress.
"So," I said flat, "Where are we going?"
The woman's pale lips broke into a smile as she extended her hand out the door, "To welcome you and your friends."
"I -," I whispered through my dry lips, "I don't have friends."
The woman's faint smile flattened as I joined her at the door. Once on the other side, it was no wonder why I was so confused when I had woken up. The blinding lights and winding white halls outside the room were so much like the center it was as if I was waking up from a dream and the meeting travelers or the hosts had never really happened. I wished I could believe that was true. It made my eyes swell to realized how much I wanted this. For her, at least.
This place was similar, but not entirely the same. The people here dressed differently. Their long shirts and pants were as straight as the corners of the walls and without fastens or button. Their faces were not cold or unfeeling like the nurses, but they passed by with their noses high and eyes forward. It was as if no one else existed in their world.
I followed the woman with the sleek black hair until I saw them at the brightest end of the white hall. My jaw dropped faster than I could pick it back up.
"I can never find anything that fits," Evee said and tugged on the long hem of her white shirt as she walked towards us.
"Why don't you grow a couple of inches?" Mat groaned.
"Why don't I slap that grin off your face," Evee growled and stood taller on the tips of her toes.
"Please refrain from any slapping," another young woman said and ran her hand through the silver streak of her hair that hung from the bangs of her ponytail.
"I wasn't, really gonna" Evee whispered and looked onto Nate.
Nate was silent, watching the crooks and creases of the walls as we passed like we were going to be tested on it.
The young woman with the silver streak turned to us as she continued to walk, "Our open-framed elevators do not allow for rough behavior," she said.
"Opened elevators?" I said aloud.
But, before I could finish, we had arrived at a pair of tall doors each with a set of glowing blue arrows. One arrow pointed up the other down.
The young woman with the silver streak pressed her slender finger on the up arrow and looked back with a tilted smile at Evee and Mat. Soon after she pushed the arrow, a delicate sound chimed from the doors.
"Please step into the elevator and remain still," she said with her hand stretched into the doors.
We stepped into the door in pairs. Once inside I could see what the woman had meant by open. From the nearly invisible glass of the capsule, we were looking down on the entire compounds outside. The uniform gray towers and roads of lush green gardens were only seen at their tops from this view. It was a dizzying sight and made the capsule feel as if it were tilting forward towards our decent. I had no choice but to stand still.
The others no doubt felt the same. I saw each of them reach back and clutch the flat steal handle that lined the capsule.
As the elevator began to climb and the view began to shrink everything in sight, I fell back and clutched the handles as well. I could see we were rising higher and higher, even catching glimpses of sleek bullet like vehicles that hovered in the sky but I could not feel the ground under my feet. It was as if I was flying but in a dream.
It wasn't a long climb, which was okay with me. I was beginning to feel the walls of the capsule pressing onto me, getting tighter and tighter with each breath I took.
The delicate chime sounded again and the door released.
"Please follow me," the woman with the silver hair said and walked out of the elevator.
We followed her, each bumping elbows to be the first out of the nauseating ride.
The woman with the silver hair stood with us in a bare dark room. The room had no seams to separate the corners or the ceilings and painted a dark gray. It made it appeared as though we were buried beneath the ground although I knew we weren't even close to being underground.
The woman with the silver hair reached out her hand and placed it on the wall in front of her.
"Clara Clearborn," she said, as the wall beneath her hand turned a bright blue.
"Initiating optical-identification," a voice came from the wall.
I flinched and noticed the others did the same as we looked at the walls and the source of the sound. Nate did not wince, he had been focused on the walls all along.
The wall in front of Clara beamed another bright blue light that fanned out from the wall and around Clara's face.
"Optical-identification successful," the wall continued, "Additional identification required, please provide a plasma source to any surface."
Clara held her hand up to the wall. As soon as it touched the wall, it turned a deep red that outlined her hand. After a few moments, Clara released her hand, drops of her blood spilled onto the floor before it was absorbed like a sponge into the dark gray floor.
"Genetic-identification successful," the wall said.
Clara stood back as the walls of the room disappeared as if they were melting. I looked forward, my arms stretched wide as the dizzying feeling returned to my shaking legs. I felt a just as shaken hand on mine. It was Evee.
"Where are we?" she whispered.
"Welcome, guests," a woman's breathy voice said, "It's wonderful to finally meet each of you."
I turned and looked at a woman leaning against a long desk. I lost all breath at the sight of her tall, slender body and pure white hair.
"Who, who are you?" Mat said, his eyes wide and hungry.
"Genevieve Curie Vossler, founder of the Vossler Union," she said and walked forward on her tall heeled white shoes,
"Welcome children."
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Thank you, everyone, for being so patient with the updates! Sooooooooo last week my house got struck by, and it caused a fire near MY bedroom of all places. So I had to live back home with my mom, and this is my first weekend back. Luckily everyone is okay and no damage (except for my wall which was broken in by the fire department). But needless to say, I had trouble focusing on the book while waiting for my landlord to give me my wall back lol. Thanks again for reading and I promise I'm spending the whole long weekend to get these updates for you.
