When The World Burned

Chapter 2

Moaning as she shifted in place, Rue blinked a few times and held up a hand to ward off the light around her. Everything was blurry, slowly clearing up as she kept blinking and moving her head from side to side.

Lowering her hand, she pressed down on the soft fabric beneath her and pushed up. Sitting up, she looked around to find herself in a white room lit brightly from above. Across the room from the white bed she sat on was a door with no handle. To its left was a desk with a simple white chair sitting in front of it. Against the left wall was another door, only this one had a handle and a plaque across it that read bathroom. To the right of the room was a dresser and another table that did not have a chair this time.

With a look down at herself, Rue realized her clothes were all gone, replaced by some type of white gown.

"Where am I?" She whispered and slipped her legs from the bed. They were mostly dark skinned with streaks of alabaster pale swirling down toward her ankles and feet. Being born in a lab left her far more different than having an odd blood color. Touching her feet to the cold floor, she stood up and looked around the room again. There was something odd and black in the top right corner from her with a flashing green light on it. She had never seen something like it before and decided to ignore it for the time being.

Hugging her stomach, the girl walked toward the door opposite from her and looked it over. There was, as she had observed earlier, no handle on the door. With a hand she rubbed her fingers along the crease and frowned. It was as thin as a hair and she could not even dig a fingernail between it.

Stepping back, she looked up at the door. "Hey," She called out and banged on it with a fist. "Is anybody there?! Hello?"

Standing there for what felt like a full five minutes, she looked toward the black object in a corner. What was that thing? Why was no one answering her? The last thing she could remember was the large hulking figure grabbing onto her, dragging her from the cellar of that building. Whatever it was had brought her here, right? She could only assume as much, but where was her brother? Where was Benjamin?

A loud clicking sound brought her attention back to the door as it slowly opened inward. Taking a few steps back, she watched as a man walked in wearing a clean black suit with a white-collar shirt and a red tie. Body structure and his dark-skinned face told Rue he was human, but his ears were off and there was something mixed with his hair that should not quite make out yet.

"Hello," He said.

Gasping, Rue stumbled back and fell to her side. Smacking her hands along the floor, she crawled away, looking back for only a moment in attempt to escape this stranger. She had never met anyone else – Benjamin was the only other human she had ever met. A part of her did not even want the stranger to look at her with those strange yellow eyes of his. The sclera was black, an odd coloration.

"Oh, dear," The man chimed as he stepped toward her. "Please, do not be afraid, child. I'm not going to harm you."

At the bed, she sat up and clawed at the sheets, slender legs splayed out behind her. Looking back at the man with yellow eyes, her curly hair falling from her shoulders to shield half her face, she whimpered. "What do you want?"

"I want nothing, child." He answered with a sweep of his hand as three other people walked in. They appeared as human as Rue did and wore grey outfits. Two of them were male while one was a pretty blond with pale green eyes. She smiled at the sight of Rue and walked forward, only to be stopped by the man with the man that seemed to be in charge. "Not yet, Elizabeth."