Elcon City (ON HOLD, Rewriting)

Chapter Two

  She was disappointed. She had wished for Rosa to be the one who was going to enter her room, not a woman in a lab coat. She wondered if they recognize her, or if Rosa knew that she was there. Even though she realizes that Rosa might not know that it was her in particular. Rosa might only know her as 'a girl' or something.

The woman turned the lights on. And Trisha closed her eyes reflexively. She was used to the dark surroundings, and now she needed some time to get used to the blinding light. She saw for the first time that the walls were painted in white, and the tiles, they are also white. The woman-which she assumed to be 'Professor Rainfield' from her name tag-, asked her a question which she didn't quite hear. She was too distracted. Where was Rosa?

"Miss, I will ask you this question one more time. Why did you leave Elcon?" Professor Rainfield repeated. Her voice was stern, yet it was so comforting. She knew she would be safe in the professor's hand.

"Rosa Hartley." Trisha breathed.

"I'm sorry?"

"Call Rosa Hartley, bring her here. She knows me. She knows who I am."  She replied.

The professor looked, no, more like examined her face, as if she was trying to make sure of something. Then it seemed to Trisha that realization hit the Professor hard.

"Wait, you're Trisha Greene, Rosa's best friend. She told us specifically we need to save you and your parents." said Professor Rainfield.

"Yes, but a little too late for my parents, I guess." Trisha whispered.

"Oh dear, I am so sorry. We were near the gate that night we caught you because we were planning to save you and the rest of the imps still in the city. I am sorry. At least you are safe with us."

Trisha kept wondering what would have happened if they had come sooner, if they had saved her parents, or if she had come with Rosa that night two years ago. Would her parents still be alive?

"Where is she? Rosa, where is Rosa?"

Rainfield stared sadly at Trisha. And she noticed it right away. Horrible thoughts filled her mind. Where is Rosa?

"She's alive, isn't she?" she continued, her voice was trembling terribly.

"We don't know." Answered Rainfield, her eyes were filled with sadness and pity.

Trisha's head snapped towards Rainfield, her eyes were starting to water.

How does she not know whether or not Rosa is alive? That's impossible unless she isn't here.

"What do you mean?"

"Rosa went missing on her last mission with all the people who went."

Trisha's voice was caught in her throat. The words hit her like a train. She felt as if there is nothing left to fight for anymore. Rosa isn't here. Her parents are dead. And what does that leave her? She wanted to go back to Elcon, admit she was wrong, and lives her life normally (Like they're going to let her do that. They'd probably kill her on sight). But then that would mean she had let her parents down, and she would let Rosa down again. And she didn't want that. She wanted vengeance and she wanted to show Rosa that she is going to be beside her until the very end.

"You mean, there's a possibility that she's, she's dead?" her voice came out in a squeak; she was trembling more and more by the second.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean you have to lose hope. We'll find her. In fact, we had scheduled our team to look for her team in a few weeks' time."

"I would like to go." Trisha whispered.

Professor Rainfield's eyes snapped towards her, she looked like she didn't believe what she just heard.

"I would like to go. I would like to help find Rosa and the rest of the people in her team." She repeated, this time louder.

"You just got here. Your ankle is still healing and you want to leave to find Rosa?"

"It's the least I can do for her. She came here two years ago without me. Imagine everything that she had went through all alone. And all that was because I was a selfish, naïve, fifteen years old girl. I can't let her go through it all alone again."

The professor was silent for a few moments. Trisha was praying to god that she would let her go find Rosa. She wanted to save Rosa. No, scratch that. She needed to save Rosa. After a few more moments, Rainfield finally spoke up. Her voice sounded unsure.

"Very well then." she said. "Here's the deal, you'll go with the second extraction team if the first one fails. Take it or leave it."

She was pretty disappointed Rainfield didn't let her go, but she agreed. Better than nothing.

***

They moved her to another room that night, a real room with an actual bed, couch and wardrobe. And it was not a room with absolutely nothing in it just like the one she was in earlier. She laid herself down on the bed. It felt nice. It has been a while since she last slept on an actual bed. And this probably would be her last. Who knows what would happen after she leaves then? She might not come back. She might end up being a prisoner. She might end up dead.

She was confused. She didn't know what to do. Well, actually, she did. But she didn't know whether or not she should do it. She had no idea what's out there. She knew one thing though. She knew that those things; the things that has been hiding behind the walls of Elcon City, are out there. She felt sick when she thinks about those things. For all she knows, all of her friends in Elcon are one of them, one of those things. And she felt so sick of herself because she was actually walking alongside them for seventeen years. She laughed with them, and she had sleepover with them, and did basically everything with them.

Trisha closed her eyes. She had expected a worry-free sleep when she got here, because she thought that Rosa would be here to comfort her, to tell her that it's okay. Well, she felt okay earlier. But she knew that things weren't okay and that made her feel not okay.

She thought of how painful and hard knowing is. People were right. Ignorance is bliss. But then she felt something in her chest. She knew where true bliss lies.

Vengeance. She thought.

That's what she needed to do most. Avenge the people S.C.A.R.S had killed; the people who protected the citizens of the Elcon City from the inside, the imps.

Trisha wondered how many imps lived in Elcon. She remembered what Rosa told her that night, that her parents and Rosa's parents are humans who are slowly spreading the truth to the people of Elcon. She knows now that she is human. And she will fight for her kinds.

She was wrong when she thought there was nothing left to fight for earlier. Rosa might still be out there. And there are still humans left to fight for. And that's exactly what she's going to do. If she finds Rosa and live, then she will live to serve mankind. And if she dies then she will reunite with her parents. So she had nothing to lose, right?

She was deep in thoughts when she felt that she was starting to fall in a deep sleep. And eventually as seconds turned to minutes and minutes to hour, she fell into the very bottom pit of the land of dreams.