THE KEY (book one)

|eight|

I'm instantly wake when I realize and remember where I am. I wish it was a dream. "How much longer?" I ask looking out  into the heart of the city.
"Three minutes." The drivers thick accent fills the space. Those are actually the first words he's said to me. I check my com for the time; nine o'clock. It's only been an hour and a half. The mobile jolts shaking my body in the process. Slowly landing he parks in an alley.  "Whenever you're ready, It's on the right with the red light." He informs me without looking back.
"Okay." I let the word drag clicking my tongue at the end. I open the door stepping out into the humid air. My eyes spot the red light, and I begin walking without turning around. Here standing before the door with the red light above it. I finally look back to where I hoped the driver would still be, but he's no longer there.
"No turning back now" Wrapping my hand around the rusty metal doorknob I take a deep breath a pull it to open. A musty damp smell fills my nose when I peek inside. I scrunch my face together and quickly get in. It's pretty dark inside; it would pitch black if there wasn't a blue neon light at the top. It shines down on a staircase that leads to another door.
Not wasting another second I grip onto the railing and begin walking up the metal stairs. With every other step I take the  stairs makes an uncomfortable creaking sounds that echoes throughout the whole building. I stop in my tracks and take yet another deep breath, then make a run for it to the top. I don't look back down and wrap my hand around the door handle. Immediately a blue laser scans my body.
"Errana K.T Paxton confirmed." A computer speaks; voice echoing off the walls. The light bulb turns a dark green color and blinks three times before unlocking. I pull it open slowly and peek my head in to see a fairly large loft. A stale stuffy smell slaps me in the face but I can bare it. Pink and blue neon lights surround the room  giving enough light to see. The lights from the city that shine through the two large windows do the rest. In the middle of the room are two black leather couches one on the left large enough for at least five people in the shape of an L, and one on the right that sits under the window. . You can tell the couches are old by the rips and peeling in them. I walk over running my hands over the larger couch, and admire the hologram projector that's placed in the middle of it all. It's grey, a little rusty, and designed to look like a table. I guess we'll be using it to locate The Keys. In the far left corner of the room next to the window is a screen set on top of a black wooden desk, and a grey cushion chair that spins. There's a clear glass mug sitting at the edge of the desk filled with what smells like vodka; someone must be here already. Right when the thought crosses my mind the sound of shuffling footsteps fill my ears. It's coming from the dark hall where I'm sure our bedrooms are. My stomach clenches and I quickly grab the mug, which is a poor choice for protection but I hold onto it anyway. The footsteps stop their shuffling and I slowly backup. Not even a moment later the entrance door swings open.
"Hey guys I think she's-" A girl yells. My heart jumps out of my chest and drop the mug. Her wavy ginger hair stops right above her shoulders. She's a little short but has a strong figure. Her eyes widen in what looks like disbelief, but is definitely happiness judging by her growing smile. She closes the door quickly and rushes over to me.
"Oh my gosh we do have another girl, thank God!" She yells like she just won tons of money. Her eyes are a beautiful green like the trees during spring, and she smells damp like she's been outside for a while.
"I'm Phoebe one of the now five! You must be Errana Paxton." She says. She speaks so fast like there's no space between her words.
"Erra please..." I frown and ask the first thing that comes to my head.
"Are you're eyes naturally that big?"  They look like they can pop out of her head at any second. She laughs pushing her bangs out of her face.
"Ye-" She's about to answer but is quickly cut off by a male voice. 
"Nah she's just always in shock." He chuckles and jumps onto the couch. He's definitely taller than me, short messy brown hair, dark brown eyes that tug at the end, and a deep scare on his chin.
"Shut up." Phoebe responds. I frown and look down at the mug that is now shattered on the concrete floor.
"Hey don't worry about that I'll clean it later." The smell of the vodka is more present now. "That's Luke Wire." She states pointing over to him.
"Hi." I say keeping my voice low. He smiles and nods.
"Drew's in the showers. Bastard beat me to it." That's probably what all the footsteps were about.
"I thought there's supposed to be five of us." I say sitting on the small couch; that's surprisingly comfortable.
"There is." Phoebe drags the last word and looks at Luke who is standing now.
"He's still in the gym." He explains pulling off his shirt exposing his physique. It gets silent for a moment I can see why she's so excited. She's been the only girl for however long shes been here.
"There's a gym?" I question breaking the silence. How big is this place?
"Yes, yes there is." She confirms grabbing my hand and pulling me up.
"Let me show you around. I'll give you a tour."
"You don't have to try to make this enjoyable." I don't mean to be the downer. Usually I'm the opposite but there's nothing to look forward to being here.
Her smile falls. I've crushed her soul it seems. "A tour wouldn't hurt."
"That's my cue, I'm gonna hit the shower." Luke says balling up his shirt and walking off into the hallway.
"Okay so you've seen the living room obviously." Phoebe skips a little, her grip still firm on my hands.
"Down this way are the rooms." She leads me down the dark hallway, and in the process flipping a light switch I didn't notice before. Red lights flicker on from the ceiling creating a dark ora. We walk through a curtain of wooden beads that hang from the ceiling and into another hallway. This one's larger same lights with black doors on both sides. Two on the right and three on the left.
"These are our rooms." Phoebe explains releasing my hand. I admire the graffiti symbols that cover the stone walls tracing the outlines with my index finger.
"This room is yours." She says hopping in front of the first door on the right. Just as I'm about to open it she stops me.
"Um no I'm not done with the tour." I glance at her and frown slowly moving my hand away from the door knob.
"What's next?" I ask trying to keep a good attitude. She smiles and starts walking again. We stop at small flight of concrete stairs leading up to what you think would be an attic, but it's just another floor. I hesitate before following her up the stairs into a kitchen.
"This is the kitchen." It's dark in here also.
"You guys are living like vampires." I would think if  this place was provided by The Pexagon it would be better than this. 
A orange light bulb flickers from the ceiling, but the white led lights on the floor make up for it. A white rusty fridge sits in the left corner of the room. Next to it a black stove and a marble black counter filling up the rest. Above are just dirty white cabinets with metal handles, and in the middle a metal table with two black chairs.
"We don't spend a lot of time in here. We usually go out and eat or they ship food to us." Phoebe explains walking through a rectangular opening in the wall to the right. I follow  her into a hall with orange lights on the ceiling and on the ground. To the left of me there's a glass panel that lets me view into what I assume is the gym.
"That's the gym I'm guessing?" I ask readjusting my top. It's fairly large with a good variety of workout equipment. I notice someone inside, he's sitting down a bench with his face down in the palms of his hands. He has a strong figure that you can kind of see through his black shirt.
"Who's that?" I ask and phoebe looks over and frowns.
"That's Levi, Levi Parrish. He's the oldest... just turned twenty I think. He's also been here longer than any of us. He doesn't really talk much but he leads well." He turns his head and catches me staring at him. My stomach clenches from embarrassment but I don't look away. Frowning he places his bottle back on the floor, and sits back down without losing eye contact.
I pull my eyes alway and focus back in Phoebe as she continues down the hall.
"On the right  are the showers." She explains opening a black wooden door at the end of the hall to a room with about four showers and the same orange lights all around the ceiling.
"We refuse taking showers at the same time because the water gets so cold." She explains and I chuckle.
As she's about to close the door a male voice calls out.
"Hey hold it open, hold it open!" He yells.
"That would be Drew." She says smirking and out walks a tall male with a grey towel hanging dangerously around his waist. He's gotta be around six feet tall. Curly dirty blonde hair long enough to put a short ponytail. His skin tan and built, thick eyebrows with deep brown eyes hiding under them and slight facial hair.
"You must be Errana." He holds out his hand, but I don't take it.
"Erra please..." I crack a smile and he slowly puts his hand down glancing at Phoebe.
"I see Phoebe gave you her well known tour of The Hole." He smiles, his teeth straighter than a line.
"The Hole?" I look at both of them.
"This is what we call this place, The Hole." Phoebe says like I was supposed to know.
"Nobody calls it that!" Luke shouts from the showers, and I bite the inside of my cheek to hold back a smile. Drew chuckles he gets more attractive the more I look at him. The glass door to the gym swigs open, and out walks Levi. We all snap our heads to look at him. He glances at me and nods his head but no words exchanged, then makes his way down the hall.
"This should be fun." Drew says with a smirk on his face.
"You should go put some clothes on." I add, his smirk grows.
"Yes ma'am." He nods then walks away.
"Okay sooo this is it!" Phoebe says rocking back and fourth from her heels to her toes.
"This is it." I repeat looking around at my surroundings. It's nice but it's not home.
"I'm gonna head over to my room, thank you." I say pointing down the hall and forcing a smile.
"Okay see you later." She replies walking into the showers. I let out a heavy sigh and pull my hair over to one side. It's gonna be a long week. I turn around myself and begin to walk down the hall slowly. In the kitchen Levi throws out his old water bottle and reaches in the fridge pulling out a new one. When I walk in we both freeze and make awkward eye contact again. I bite the inside of my lower lip and raise my eyebrows, he doesn't react though. Just takes a chug of his water and walks back down the hall towards the showers, slightly brushing his shoulder against mine. I just stand still like a fool. Shaking my head I retreat. down the stairs and walk to my room.
"First door on the right." I whisper to myself remembering what Phoebe said. Wrapping my hand around the handle I push the door open with my shoulder creating a thud sound. I step in to see a surprisingly nice room. I should've expected it though, this was all personally set up by the Pexagon.
Blue neon lights glow from the floor on each side of the bed. The bed is covered in a all white  bed spread and comes with two pillows the same color. On top of it is a drying off and bathing off towel with a tooth brush and toothpaste on top. Next to the bed is a huge tinted window that looks out into the city. The wall to the left isn't even a wall it's just one huge mirror. In the in front of the bed is a black three row drawer. I walk over to check if it provides me with the things I need.
"Underwear, bras, cargos and tanks...nice." In the corner is a small metal sink where I can brush my teeth and wash my face in the morning. I sigh a plop down on the bed. I'll take a shower in a few, but for now I lie on my back and close my eyes. So much has happened today it doesn't even feel real. I hope my mother's okay, my heart would  fall out if anything ever did. I check my com and try to dial Eli again but there's absolutely no service here. I sigh and cover myself with the sheets. Tomorrow's a new day and one step closer to everything I need. With that I take a few deep breaths and fall into drift into oblivion.