Efficient Perspective

Part 2: Expelled

The walk to the main office was cold, and silent. Nothing but the sound of Mr. Antrall's and his men's black dress shoes lightly tapping the cold stone floors as we walk. He leads me and the pack of henchmen that surround me to the office. My mind is constantly buzzing from one thought to the next, each getting progressively worse... Without my hair pin, the thoughts are overwhelming and hitting like a wrecking ball against card board, my anxiety flaring with each hit... If I get expelled, what do I do then? What do I tell My parents? ... In what feels like an eternity, we finally reach the main office, to where Mr. Antrall guides me to the room where no student wants to go... The expelling room... Once we enter, his men close and lock the door behind me, and he takes a seat in his sleek black chair, at his cold black desk. He stares at me, crossing his legs and folding his hands together. That cold, dead stare, boring into me. "Well, Ms. Aloenet. I am sure you understand why you are here." He gestures to the seat before him, to which I regretfully sit in, with a small nod. He shakes his head. "Tsk, Tsk. And you were doing so well. About to graduate and go to college. You would have been so successful. But." He holds up my hairpin and looks it over. "Well, those stubborn thoughts keep persisting, don't they?" He glances towards me. I'm frozen like a deer in headlights, un able to move. Somehow, someway, Mr. Antrall always seems to know what is going on with you, even when you do not. It is scary...

At the top of my peripheral I can see him set the hair pin aside and grab a check board. He flips through it. "Let us see... Our total count of space outs you have had for this week alone is... 50. Astonishing." I tense more at his calm yet cold words. He flips the papers a few more times before returning them to their resting place, and setting the board down. He looks to me. "Now Ms. Aloenet, you already know how this works as you were briefed on it when you applied for this school. Any loss of focus, any out lie of action that goes against our rules is punished. Now, naturally we give students a device to try and help them focus better or stay in line. But, when some things persist even beyond the device, I am afraid that means there is no place for you here at this school... We train students to be the most in line and focused they can be, and if that does not work for one student then..." He shrugs. "You need to be let go." I shrink in my seat; This is the last thing I wanted... To get expelled from the top school in all of Anhaden, is the worst possible thing that could be marked on your record... The worst kind of disappointment you could bring your family... I failed, So close to the top.... The hot feeling of tears creeps into my eyes and I fight the urge to cry. I can feel Mr. Antrall's cold eye's scanning me over, as if, reading me... I hate it... "Oh come now Ms. Aloenet. It is not all terrible." I clench my seat at his words. I know they are mocking me... "Your parents have already been called, they do not feel any disappointment." I look up at him when he speaks these words... My parents banked my whole existence on this school... How could they not hate me at the moment?... I watch Mr. Antrall flick a dust spec off his pristine desk. "Well. Not that they can even think to be disappointed right now that is." Confusion fills my mind... What does he mean 'Cannot even think'..."Well. Ms. Aloenet, I can assure you that your parents will have no worry of you stirring in their tiny minds anymore." He shoots me a cold smile which triggers a chill to go down my spine. What does he mean?... What has he done?!... Starring on in a frantic confused manor, I watch him grab a black cellphone from his pocket. He turns it on and starts going over some things. Some... Files?... "Actually, I am sure by now they will cease to know you even exist. Same for everyone you have ever known." I feel a stone form in my stomach, still like and heavy. Forget me?... How could They Forget Me?! He makes an amused sound. "Oh sweetheart, there is no point in asking questions that will never be answered." He smiles coldly. I feel cold as death... "Well Ms. Aloenet, I must be honest. You were not told everything when you came into this school. Well, not even when you came into this world. You see, when there are people like you in this place, people with visions... People with abnormalities about them... It threatens this city as a whole... So yes, you will be expelled... But you will be expelled from this entire city..." My eyes widen. What does he mean?... "You are a threat I cannot risk to keep here... And so, with solemn woe... I bid you. Fair well, Young Aloenet." He shoots me a smirk and hits a button on the phone. I shoot up. "W-Wait, What Do You-" Before I can finish speaking, I feel the floor slip out from under me, sending me spiraling down a dark cold tunnel. My heart feels as if it leaps from my body as I spiral down this dark abyss of nothingness, Screaming, lashing, grabbing, grabbing for anything to stop my fall but there is nothing... Faster and faster, spiraling and spiraling, everything slips away, all light fades... What is happening?... Where did the floor go?!... In mere heart beats, I feel my head bounce off something, and an even darker blackness consumes my rushing mind, and shuts it off... Stillness.... Nothingness.... It is just, cold...

. . .

I wake to a sharp throbbing in my head.... 'Thum Bum!' 'Thum Bum!'.... Red shoots through my vision. shattering stars through the darkness... 'Thrum!' 'Dum!'... It causes me to wince with a hiss, and slowly, open my eyes... I am met with a dark space, drenched in a foul smell... The smell of rotting garbage and food... A smell of death... I hold back the urge to vomit and cover my nose and mouth... Looking around as best I can... I am in a dark metal room it would appear. With crevices and breaks in the wall leaking in a dull light. 'Where Am I?... What is this place?...' The few thoughts I am able to muster, and that is all they can come up with... Slowly regaining myself, I stand... My body creeks and aches intensely, as if it were smashed by large stones... An uncontrolled groan escapes my lungs... 'It hurts...' Blindly, unevenly, I start moving off of the pile of garbage I have landed on... Looking around with my pulsing vision, I spot what looks like a hall and start slowly heading down it.