Young Writers Society

25

Chapter 1

Looking up at the blank white ceiling Andrew came to this conclusion: he did not know where he was. He did know that he was strapped down to a bed and was staring up at the ceiling. There was nothing he could do about it, he had just woken up and he couldn’t even move his head.

Just how had Andrew gotten himself into this situation? He tried to search through his memory to see if that provided any answers, but he found that he had no memory. All he knew was his name. He also really had to pee. Where would he pee if he was strapped down to a bed? Eventually his sluggish brain came up with the conclusion that since he couldn’t get up, and going on himself wasn’t an option, someone had to be there to help him, right? Surely he couldn’t have been left for dead strapped down to a bed in a white room! He decided to begin speaking to the ceiling, due to the fact that he couldn’t communicate in any other way.

“Hello? Is anybody there? If you are, could you please come get me out of here, I really have to pee, and I don’t want to pee on myself or your wonderfully white sheets. So, uh, just come on in here and bust me out before this pee busts out of me. Thanks!”

Bust me out before this pee busts out of me? How stupid was that? He threatened the ceiling by saying that he was going to pee on himself? That was pathetic, but then again he was in a pathetic situation. Andrew began berating himself: you idiot, you thought talking to a ceiling was going to fix your problems? Well, it didn’t, and now you’re still strapped to this stupid bed, you still have to pee, and the ceiling doesn’t even care because it’s just a ceiling and it doesn’t care about you because it really can’t even care about anything, because it’s just a ceiling, and-wait, what’s that hissing noise?

His self-lecture had been interrupted by a faint hissing noise to his right. He heard light footsteps coming toward him, and then they stopped just outside of his very limited viewing range.

“Who’s there?” Andrew asked gruffly. He was getting more and more irritated by the second, and he really had to pee.

“Hold on Andrew, I’m trying to figure this out-I really don’t know how to work these things yet, they’re brand new, and-oh I got it! I just have to press this and you’re free.”

The straps holding him down retracted back into the bed and Andrew sat up, stretching his arms out. When he was done he looked over in the direction of the voice and immediately blinked several times to make sure what he was seeing was real. A really, really hot, like, swimsuit model hot, girl was standing by his bed smiling at him and looking pleased with herself. The white room melted away as he zeroed in on her, taking in all of her features. She had smooth cheekbones to go along with her sharp jaw line which led down to a softly curved chin, and her stunning face was framed by beautiful light brown hair streaked with blonde. Her body was lean and toned and had some curves that he took a liking to. She saw him staring and crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at him. He looked up at her face and found her piercing light blue eyes staring at him, and yet she had a faint smile on her face. He just sat there looking at her; he was dumbstruck by her beauty.

“Do you always stare at girls like that?” the girl said. That snapped him out of his trance.

“Uh, not usually, I think. Did someone send you down here, or are you the only person in here?” He sure hoped she wasn’t the only person in the place; he didn’t want this beautiful girl to be a psychopathic teenage kidnapper.

The girl smiled at him, “I was sent down here to help you to the bathroom. That is what you needed, right?”

“Well yeah, but I think I can walk myself to the bathroom, I just needed someone to let me out of the bed, so thanks for doing that, I guess. Maybe you could show me where the bathroom is though.” Even if he didn’t need her help to go to the bathroom, Andrew still wanted to keep this babe around him.

“I’ve been sent down here to help you to the bathroom, you will not be able to walk to the bathroom, so come on.” She uncrossed her arms and held out her hand. Was this girl serious? She thought Andrew couldn’t walk to the bathroom? He didn’t want to be rude to her, but he also didn’t want to come off as overly dependent either.

“No it’s fine really, I can walk.” Andrew didn’t wait for a response, he just swung his legs out over the side of the bed that the girl wasn’t standing by and stood up. Well, attempted to stand up, his legs immediately gave out beneath him. Somehow the girl was fast and strong enough to catch him. She lifted him as if he were no heavier than a small puppy and set him down on the bed.

“Are you going to come with me now, or do I need to drag you there?” Andrew really didn’t want to admit that he was too weak to walk himself to a bathroom, but he had just almost collapsed on the floor trying to stand up. Reluctantly he relented and allowed himself to be picked up by the girl and she put his arm around her shoulder, so she was helping him walk to the bathroom. It was better really, he got to lean on a beautiful girl and be led to a bathroom. He would even be able to talk to her and try to get to know her better. Together they walked toward the area of the room that the girl had come in from. Andrew was confused, there was no door there, and there were no doors on any of the walls. Did this girl have the power to walk through walls? He was about to inform her that he did not posses this superpower when the girl stopped in front of the wall and spoke to it.

“Computer, open the door.” She said.

“What’s the magic word ma’am?” a flat, monotone voice said. It was so emotionless that Andrew had a hard time detecting the sarcasm in the statement.

The girl rolled her eyes, “Please open the door, computer.”

“As you wish, ma’am.” The wall slid open to reveal a long white hallway. It looked like someone had taken the room and stretched it out really thin and long, minus the bed. Everything was a bright white. Andrew looked at the girl and noticed for the first time that she was wearing a white dress that matched the color scheme of the room and hallway that had just been revealed. She didn’t say anything as she led him out of the room and they began walking down the hallway.

Andrew stole a glance at her face and realized that he didn’t even know her name. He thought that if he wanted to have any kind of relationship with this girl that he should probably know her name, so he asked her.

“So, what’s your name?”

“Arianna” She said it so flatly for a second Andrew thought a female version of Computer had spoken.

“That’s a pretty name.” That was all he could think to say to her. Arianna looked up at him with a quizzical expression.

“I’ve never had that said to me before; most guys are usually too busy looking at me to say anything when I first meet them. Of course, after that they never shut up because they want to get with me, but you’re the only guy that’s said this much to me when they first meet me.”

“Well, I meant what I said, and you’re very pretty, too, but not to the point that I would be knocked speechless, nobody can do that to me.”

Arianna pursed her lips to try to hide her grin, but she lost, “Oh really? Nobody’s pretty enough to knock you speechless?”

Andrew grinned back at her, her smile was infectious, “Well now, you came close, but I was able to regain my composure, as you can see.” All of a sudden Arianna stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Andrew asked.

“Nothing, we’re just here.” Andrew looked around him and saw nothing different with the part of the hallway that they were standing in from the rest of the hallway.

“Looks the same to me.” Arianna didn’t answer him. She began speaking to the wall.

“Computer, open the bathroom door.”

Computer’s creepily monotone voice came on, “How many times do I have to ask you to use the magic word ma’am?”

“If you don’t open that freaking door I will wipe you off the face of the planet, you got that, Computer?” Andrew sensed that Arianna and Computer had a malfunctioning relationship.

“I am not one of your Najii or one of those boys you complain about. I cannot fear death because I am not alive. You cannot shut me down because I am my own unstoppable power source, any threats that you give me are therefore irrelevant. All I humbly ask is that you say the magic word, and then I will open this door for you.”

“You stupid computer, open the door now, that’s an order!”

“I am not stupid, I have access to every major search engine in the world, and I know everything on the internet, plus more. If I described my capabilities to you it would simply not compute with your inferior human brain. Now, if you do not give me the magic word then you shall not pass.” Computer didn’t mess around; it really wanted that magic world.

Andrew decided that Arianna probably could argue with this computer all day and forget the fact that he had to pee, so he decided to take matters into his own hands.

“Computer, please open the door.” He said, more harshly than he had meant to.

“Ask and you shall receive.” Computer opened the bathroom door and Arianna, after giving him a dirty look, let go of Andrew. He was actually able to stand on his own now; his legs had grown stronger as he had been led by her down the hallway.

“Go in.” She beckoned with her hand at the bathroom.

“Okay!” Andrew strolled in and did his business. As he washed his hands he studied his face in the mirror. He noted that he had brown hair and blue eyes like Arianna, but his features were darker. He saw a strong jaw with zero facial hair on it. He wondered if Arianna liked facial hair. After staring at himself for a couple more seconds he decided it didn’t matter, he probably couldn’t grow any facial hair anyways. He finished rinsing off his hands, dried them on some paper towels, and stepped out after he asked computer politely to open the door.

“You are much more cooperative than that girl, keep it that way.” Computer made sure to say it after Andrew had joined Arianna, so she heard Computer. She appeared to be irritated. Andrew thought she might begin arguing with Computer again, but all she said was “come on,” and the two of them began walking down the endless white hallway. This time she wasn’t helping him.

Out of nowhere Arianna began to speak. “Two and a half minutes, really? Does it seriously take you that long to piss?” Andrew didn’t know what to be more surprised about: the fact that Arianna was mad at him and not Computer or the fact that she had timed him in the bathroom.

“How’d you know I was in there that long? You’re not wearing a watch, and that dress you’re wearing doesn’t have any pockets in it, so you can’t be carrying a phone. So what did you do, count it in your head or something?”

They paused as Arianna asked Computer, this time with the magic word, to open another section of wall/door. It opened to reveal a shorter, but still blinding white, hallway.

As they began walking down this new hallway she began to speak. “Actually yes, I did. Is there a problem with that? I am on a schedule, you know.” Andrew didn’t answer; he still hadn’t gotten over the fact that she had timed him in the bathroom. Using nothing but her head, too! They just shuffled along in silence for the rest of the way until at last they came to the end of the hallway.

Arianna spoke to Computer and it slid open a section of wall that revealed this time a room. Once Andrew walked in he saw that it was not like anywhere he had been before. There was a circle of furniture around a large mahogany table: a sectional couch, recliners, another smaller couch, and the wall was made of what appeared to be river rocks. There were two large flat screen TV’s on each side of the room, and there were small Bose speakers around each. The only things missing from the upscale living room were the fireplace and windows looking out over whatever body of water they were closest to. Andrew found it strange that he had not seen a single window in the building, he assumed it was a building, he was in.

Looking around the artificial living room Andrew slowly began to feel a cold chill creep down his spine. He had been in the place before, he was sure of it.

Chapter 2

Arianna sat herself in a leather recliner that had long been known as Arianna’s Recliner, nobody sat in it but her, and stared at Andrew with a slight smile playing across her lips. She knew it should make him more nervous than he already appeared to be, and she was okay with that. She thought it was kind of cute how he was fidgeting and chewing on his lip.

Was she a girl who liked intimidating her guys and forcing them to obey her every command? No, of course not, but she certainly wasn’t a girl who was going to be intimidated by a boy and obey their every command. She didn’t really even need to try to intimidate boys, they just naturally wanted to do everything they could for her and were scared of making her mad at them, because they didn’t want to ruin their nonexistent chances with her. At first this hadn’t bothered her, she actually had rather enjoyed it, but as she grew older it became annoying to her. She wanted to be with a boy who could challenge her, who she could have debates, yes, debates, with. She was desperate to find this boy, but it seemed that the male race was incapable of using their brains when they were around her. She knew that the guys around her, and guys in general, weren’t stupid. Some of them were extremely intelligent, and yet she seemed to possess the superpower of stupefying every guy she was around. Well okay fine, she was exaggerating, after a certain age, like around thirty to forty, guys seemed to be able to function just fine around her. She didn’t know many thirty+ aged men, and she certainly didn’t want to date them. The bottom line was, what she really wanted was a boy who would stop begging her to want him and make her want him.

This was why Andrew had perplexed her and made her take a special interest in him. It had started with their first interaction, after he stared at her boobs of course. See, any other boy would have gladly leapt into her arms if she had told them she’d been sent to help them to the bathroom, or anything for that matter. She had even been smiling at him to turn on the charm. She had actually tried to mess with him, and it hadn’t worked. He had refused to be helped up and even insisted on walking himself to the bathroom. No boy had ever behaved toward her like that, and she had found that she rather liked the difference.

This was why she had argued with Computer. It wasn’t because Computer was annoying her, that was in its programming, she just had been flustered by Andrew’s unexpected reaction and the liking she had take to him. And then she had even allowed him to take charge of the situation without her consent! No, she could not allow this to happen. She had begun falling apart over a boy who had done nothing special except not listen to her and fallen to the ground as a result. She had to regain control.

How did she regain control? She decided to treat him like any other boy she thought she might like to have as a companion. She tested him.

Her first test, the one she was never able to get past because no one ever passed, was to time him. This test had produced for her the same result every time. She had found that if she timed a boy doing something that didn’t involve her, it didn’t have to be the bathroom, and told them exactly how long they had taken while acting like they had taken way too long, they always, without fail, stammered out apologies and said: “I won’t do it again.”

Apologies equaled failure. It was as simple as that. No boy she had ever tested had ever taken too long doing something that didn’t involve her; they were always trying to get back to her as quickly as they could. If they were too stupid to realize that, then she didn’t need to be with them. Her interest in the boy always quickly died after this timing test.

At least, that’s how it had gone before she tried it on Andrew. He had passed the test and managed to surprise her by noting she had no tools to time him with and then questioning her method of timing him. The boy was good, although she shouldn’t have been surprised. His profile that she had been given to study had said he was smart and observant. She began thinking of how she would prepare her next test for him when he interrupted her train of thought.

“You know what? I could have sworn that you said you were on a schedule, and yet we’ve been in here for two minutes and nothing has happened. Is there something I’m missing?” His voice was a mixture of nervousness, sarcasm, and an underlying fear that she couldn’t figure out the reason for.

“No, I just got us here early for the meeting.”

“Why?” There he was with that questioning again, she loved and hated it.

“Maybe I just wanted some time to look at your pretty face.”

He snorted, “Yeah right. That sounds like something I would say to you if our roles were reversed. You’re the one with the pretty face.”

Arianna felt herself begin to blush and forced herself to stop. Why was she even blushing? She had received far superior compliments than “you have a pretty face” but those weren’t as sincere as this one. Andrew had said it like it was a given, like he just believed that she had a nice face and wasn’t trying to get with her by saying she was the most beautiful girl in the world, which she had heard before. And yet this remark had evoked a stronger emotional response in her than any other compliment she had ever received. She wasn’t even sure if it was a compliment.

She was trying to think of a good reply when she heard the door open behind her. That meant they were here.

“Andrew, I need you to stand up straight, stop fidgeting, and keep your eyes still, these guys don’t like nervous people.” She said it quickly and quietly. He must have heard her, or maybe he had seen them, because he did what she told him to do.

The larger of the two men who had entered the room reached Andrew first and held out his large hand.

“Hello, Andrew, my name is Malcolm Andrews,” he paused to chuckle at his comment, “Yes, yes I know, quite a coincidence, don’t you agree?”

“Yeah, quite a coincidence.” That was all Andrew said. Arianna couldn’t help herself, she gave a little giggle. Andrew shot a look at her, then returned his attention to Malcolm.

Malcolm began speaking again. He seemed to not have noticed Arianna giggling. “Well anyways, Andrew, we came down here to introduce and welcome you to AFcon headquarters.”

Chapter 3

Malcolm Andrews was a big guy. Andrew estimated that he was a little above six feet tall and a little over two hundred pounds. Oh yeah, and he was pretty much all muscle, no fat. The shaved head added onto the beef head look. None of this bothered Andrew, Malcolm seemed friendly enough. He was more concerned with the words that had just come out of Malcolm’s mouth.

“Okay, that’s cool, what’s AFcon?” he asked Malcolm.

“You get right to the point, don’t you? Well, I’ll tell you what we are. See, AFcon was a dream that me and my partner here, Mr. Simon Fenix, turned into a reality, oh, how long ago was it Simon?” Malcolm turned toward the tall blonde dude that had walked in with him. The guy was more lean than Malcolm, he wore glasses, and his eyes matched Arianna’s. He was engaged in a quiet conversation with Arianna at the moment.

Simon looked up, “Sorry, what did you say, Malcolm?”

Malcolm sighed, it seemed like he was used to this, but it still annoyed him. “I asked you how long ago we started AFcon.”

“Oh, you’re giving him the ‘Welcome to AFcon’ speech? Here, I’ll handle this.” He turned to face Andrew, “Welcome to AFcon Andrew! Did we get past that part already? Okay, uh, what comes after that in the spee-oh, I got it!” He snapped his fingers, “AFcon was this dream, blah blah blah, Malcolm and I started twelve years ago, pointless yammering, doing subterranean research, continued bland speech, any questions?”

Simon hadn’t really said pointless yammering and continued bland speech, Andrew had just edited the speech so he heard the things that were important to him. And yes, he did have questions.

“Yeah actually, I do have questions. First, who am I? Secondly, why am I here? It’s not like I know anything about ‘subterranean research’ whatever that is. And lastly, how did I even get here?”

The words tumbled out of Malcolm’s mouth before he could think, “Who are you? Why, you should know that! You’re Andrew-oh crap, you don’t know who you are?”

“Yes, Malcolm, that’s why I asked the question.” Andrew heard Arianna snort and immediately try to cover it up by clearing her throat. Malcolm turned back to Arianna and Simon, neither of whom had moved for the duration or after Simon had given the ‘Welcome to AFcon’ speech.

“You got something to say, Arianna?” he asked her with a dangerous edge in his voice.

Arianna cast a nervous glance at Simon and said, “No sir, I don’t have anything to say.”

Malcolm raised his eyebrows, nodded, and said “Okay.” He turned back to Andrew to address him. “So you can’t remember anything about yourself, nothing at all?”

Andrew looked up at the ceiling and studied it for a moment. Strange, it was made of wood while the walls were made of stone. He looked back down at Malcolm and shook his head.

“Nothing,” he said. Then he held up a finger, “Wait! Actually when I walked into this room I got this weird feeling, like, like I’d been here before. Do you have any idea why?” Malcolm opened his mouth to speak , but he was cut off by Simon.

“Okay! Let’s do this then. Andrew, I’m going to have Arianna here take you down to the cafeteria, that’s where you guys eat food, and you can meet some other residents of AFcon.” Arianna shot Simon a dirty look. He ignored her and continued speaking.

“And while you’re doing that, me and Malcolm here are going to talk about how we should deal with your memory loss.”

Andrew wanted to stay and talk more, but something in Simon’s tone made him decide that he should just go to the cafeteria. Besides, he was gonna get to spend more time with Arianna, alone, and he was eager to talk with her. He had gotten over the fact that she had timed him in the bathroom, and now all he wanted to do was try to get to know her better.

He noticed that both Arianna and Malcolm seemed to want to argue with Simon, but neither of them said anything. Arianna stood up from her chair and started walking in the direction Simon and Malcolm had come in from.

“Come on Andrew,” she called, “I’m not waiting on you.” He looked back and forth between Simon and Malcolm, shrugged, and ran off after her. He caught up to her right as she was opening a door, a real actual door, with a doorknob and everything, at the end of the room. Together the two of them stepped out into a hallway that was painted teal and had doors lined at odd intervals down it.

“Well, this is different from where we just came.” Wow, great conversation starter, Andrew. To his surprise she actually smiled at that stupid comment.

“Yeah, I hate the medical wing, which is where we just were.” She turned right and began walking down the new, non-hostile, hallway with Andrew by her side. She seemed to like having him beside her, that was a good sign. He decided to give it another go at conversation.

“So, medical wing, that’s where I was? Why aren’t there any doors there?”

“Security and health precautions, there’s no doors in the living quarters, either.”

“Why’s that?” he asked.

“Security and health precautions.” He studied her face to see if she was lying. She wasn’t lying, but she looked up at him with a grin on her face. “It’s also for privacy reasons, because none of the actual doors here have any locks.”

“Okay, so then what’s this hallway for if it gets the privilege of non-lockable doors?”

“Recreation and socialization.” She stopped in front of a door that was identical to every other door in the hallway and put her hand on the doorknob. Hmm, her nails were painted blood red, quite a contrast from her bright white dress. “Come on, we’re here.” She said.

She opened the door to the cafeteria and strolled in. The smell hit Andrew’s nose before any of his other senses could take in the scene set out before him. He didn’t know what that smell was, but it triggered a primal and carnal hunger within him, and he wanted it bad. Once his other senses caught up he was able to see the cafeteria and the people in it. About two hundred good looking teenagers were staring at him and Arianna, but mostly Arianna.

He leaned over to whisper in her ear, “Did we do something wrong?” he asked.

She shook her head and gave a mischievous little smile as a thought came to her head. “No, I don’t ever do anything wrong, so it must just be you.”

He decided to fire a shot back at her, “Then why are they all staring at you?” Arianna pursed her lips at this comment.

“Just go get yourself some food, I’ll get you a seat. It’s over there.” She pointed over to the left where there was a hole in the wall.

“I’m supposed to get food from there?” He was skeptical of this setup, no matter how good the food smelled.

“Yes, now go!” she gave him a slight shove and walked away from him. After stumbling a little bit he caught himself and began walking toward the hole. He noticed most of the kid’s eyes followed her, but a few were still on him. It was creepy how nobody was talking, as if they were waiting for something had to happen. Then something bad did happen. He felt something hit his leg and he lost his balance and crashed to the ground, hard. Luckily he had been able to catch himself with his hands, but now they hurt like a bitch.

He looked up and found that every single person in the cafeteria was laughing hysterically at him. He heard a girl next to him say “Loser” and he felt his face flush with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. The only person in the cafeteria who wasn’t laughing at him was Arianna. She ran over to him surprisingly fast, considering the dress she was in.

“Cute outfit, Arianna. Did you wear it to impress this loser?” The girl who had tripped Andrew said with a patronizing tone. He knew she had tripped him because she had been smiling maliciously at him as he had walked past her, and he had glimpsed her leg shooting out to trip him before he had his great fall.

Arianna glared at the girl. That glare would have paralyzed any guy, and most girls, with fear, but apparently this girl was too stupid to not be afraid of Arianna. Arianna began to speak with a deadly calm. “I do not need to wear nice outfits to impress boys, Natalie. Do not confuse me for you or one of your ‘friends.’”

Natalie rose up and glared down at Arianna, she was about three inches taller. “You know what, bitch? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you actually fight a real human being. Simon always breaks ‘em up for you.”

“Simon breaks up my fights because he doesn’t want me to hurt you or anybody else.” The entire cafeteria exploded into a chorus of “FIGHT! FIGHT!” Andrew stood up along with everyone else to see what would happen. He didn’t know what was going to happen, but if he had money he would have put it on Arianna.

“The only one who’s gonna get hurt’s you, little girl!” Natalie yelled. She threw her fist at Arianna. Bad move. Arianna grabbed Natalie’s fist and spun it behind her back. Andrew didn’t see what she did, but he heard a sickening pop and Natalie began to scream.

“Oh, did that hurt? I’m sorry.” Arianna said it with so little emotion it was creepy, it was like she wasn’t even mad. Like she was a computer and this was in her programming. At any rate, Natalie wasn’t in any shape to answer Arianna’s question, she was too busy screeching in pain. Arianna wrinkled her face and slammed Natalie’s face into the table, knocking her out cold.

“Good, she shut up.” Andrew and everyone else stared back and forth between Arianna and Natalie’s limp form in horror. Arianna beamed at all of them. “Are we all going to be nice to Andrew from now on, or does anybody else want to visit the medical wing today?”

Everybody looked away and sat down to resume eating except for Andrew. He had nowhere to sit and no food to eat. Arianna walked up to him in a nonthreatening manner and smiled at him reassuringly.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Uhhhh, yeah, I’m okay. Is she,” he nodded towards Natalie, who was now being carried out by her friends, “gonna be okay?”

“Oh, she’ll be fine!” Arianna waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, “Come on, forget about her. Let’s get you some food, I found you a seat before you were so rudely tripped.” She said that last part much louder than the previous dialogue.

They walked down to the serving area/hole in the wall and he was given a cheeseburger, bottle of water, and some coleslaw. He noticed that there was no one serving the food, it appeared to be robots serving out the dishes. He also noticed that Arianna had not gotten any food.

“Are you going to eat anything?” he asked her.

“Nah, I don’t eat the food here; I don’t like it.”

“Oh, okay then.” He let himself be led to the table Arianna had found the seat for him at. There were thirteen teenage guys sitting there wearing black jackets and eating their food with enthusiasm. They all looked like they belonged on a teenage magazine cover, kind of like Arianna, but she was way prettier.

“Hey guys, I brought him over. Sorry about that fight earlier, but she was really getting on my nerves. I need to get out of this dress, so I’ll be leaving you now. Make sure to be friendly, okay?”

A big dark skinned boy spoke up, “Can I come with you?” he asked obnoxiously.

Arianna rolled her eyes so hard Andrew thought they were in serious danger of coming out of their sockets. “No, Quentin, stop trying to see me naked. Are there any other reasonable questions?”

Andrew had one, “Yeah, where’s my seat?”

Quentin answered him, “You can sit next to me!” he patted the chair beside him.

“Any other questions, Andrew?” Arianna asked him.

The words came out of his mouth before he could consider the consequences, “Can I get a kiss goodbye?” everybody at the table put down their food and focused all their attention on the two of them. He had no idea how she would react, but apparently his brain had decided that he needed to take the risk. Once again, however, she surprised him. She smiled and blew him a kiss. Then she turned around and walked toward the door.

“Maybe later I’ll give you a real one!” she called over her shoulder as she was walking off. Andrew grinned and took his place next to Quentin, who grinned back at him and gave him a pat on the back on the back.

“Dang man, it looks like she actually likes you.” A guy with shaggy blonde hair said with surprise.

“Yeah bro,” another boy with dark hair and darker eyes said, “What’d you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything to her, we just met maybe a half hour ago!” Andrew couldn’t wipe the stupid grin off his face, he was giddy with that butterfly feeling he had in his stomach.

“Seriously? Then that means-“ the boy with dark eyes began.

“Then that means Andrew just became an honorary member of the Hunter’s table!” Quentin exclaimed, eyeing the dark eyed boy.

“The Hunter’s table? What exactly do you guys hunt? Like, deer or something?” Everyone at the table smiled and shook their heads. Quentin answered Andrew.

“No, man, we don’t hunt that kind of stuff. We hunt the Najii.”

Chapter 4

Arianna walked out of the cafeteria with a pep in her step, as she was quite pleased with herself. Natalie was right about one thing, she had never been in a fight before this one, and it had pretty much guaranteed that nobody would ever challenge her again.

As she was shutting the door behind her she turned to the right to head down to the living quarters and found Simon leaning against a wall looking at her with disapproving eyes. It was so creepy how their eyes matched.

“What, don’t look at me like that!” she said. “I did what I had to do.”

Simon gave her a half smile and raised his eyebrows. “Really? So you had to dislocate Natalie’s shoulder and break her nose? You also probably gave her a concussion. She’s one of our best Najii Hunters, Arianna, and I can’t have you injuring them.”

“I don’t care, she got what she deserved! Besides, she’s not as good as me.”

“Well, at least one part of that statement was true. Come on, I’ll walk you down to your room.”

Arianna crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive manner, “Why?”

“Because I want to talk to you, that’s why.”

“Why else, that’s not the only reason.”

“I also don’t want you putting anybody else in the medical wing today. Will you please walk with me now?”

Arianna uncrossed her arms and gave a huge sigh. “I guess I can’t stop you.”

“That’s right, you can’t, because I’m the boss here.” Together the two of them began walking down the hallway, neither party saying a word to eachother. Arianna knew Simon was waiting for her to start the conversation. She didn’t want to talk to him, but she had some questions she needed answered, and only he could answer them.

“So what’d you want to talk to me about?” she asked.

“Do you like him?” he said it so nonchalantly it was like it had been placed on one of his Things To Do Today! checklists and he was checking this off. She knew exactly who he was talking about, but she decided to play coy.

“Do I like who?”

“You know who, Arianna.” That was Simon, you couldn’t fool him no matter how hard you tried. Still, she wanted to keep messing with him, if not to make any actual progress in her questioning, than just to annoy him.

“Why, are you talking about,” she paused to give a theatrical gasp, “Andrew?” Simon rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“I think you should just focus on killing, because your acting’s terrible. Yes I’m talking about Andrew, do you like him or not?” They turned left at an intersection in the hallway and ran into a cleaning robot.

“Hello sir and madam,” the robot said with its monotone voice, “Can I be of service of you?”

“No, no, thank you.” Simon answered it. They continued walking down the hallway. Arianna noticed for the first time how many doors were lining this hallway. Thanks, Andrew, now she was going to wonder what was behind each of those doors every time she walked past them. Thinking about him brought her back to why she was talking to Simon. It was Simon who spoke first, though.

He looked at her, “I’ll assume from your prolonged silence that you do, in fact, like Andrew.”

She didn’t want to give him a straight answer, so she said: “Where’d you get him?”

“Trying to redirect me, I see. I’ll oblige. We got him where we got all of our other kids, including you: the streets, abandoned buildings, places where no one will miss them. Now will you give me a straight answer to my question?”

“You’re lying.” She said, and sped up; they were getting close to the living quarters now. Simon raced to catch up to her.

“Okay, so maybe I am lying, but what does it matter? It’s not like you’ve ever cared about anyone else in this facility.”

She spun on him, “It matters because he’s different! I don’t know where you got him, but he is not one of your street boys!”

Simon held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay, calm down, Arianna. Let’s get you to your room.” He put his hand on her back and led her down to the living quarters. She knew she couldn’t fight back, not against Simon anyways, so just let herself be led to her room. No doors now.

Once they reached the section of wall that was her door she had Computer scan her, a scan was required for entry into one’s living quarters, and it slid open the door. As she was walking into her room she paused in the doorway and looked down.

“I will find out the truth about him, you know.” She didn’t wait for Simon to reply; she stormed into her room and let the door slide shut behind her. Arianna looked around at her room; her perception had been sharper ever since she met Andrew. Room wasn’t exactly the correct term for it. It was more like a small apartment. There was a large couch in a small living room facing a flat screen TV that was hooked up to satellite, a small kitchen with a fridge, stove, counters, cupboards, and bar area that connected to the living room, and there was a bedroom with a queen sized bed that had a nightstand by it. There was also a closet and bathroom, both of which were only accessible from the bedroom.

She headed straight for the kitchen and pulled a shot glass out of her top cupboard. Then she crouched down, opened the bottom cupboard, and unlocked the safe she had in the corner in there. She pulled out a bottle of vodka she had smuggled in and slammed it onto the counter while she got herself two ice cubes. Whoa, Arianna, her brain told her, just because you look Russian doesn’t mean you have to act like one. Shut up, she told it.

She opened the vodka and poured herself a shot, making sure to tuck it safely away once she was done with it. Gingerly holding the glass she strolled into her room. Soon she would be feeling better. No lights were on in the room, but she didn’t turn any on, she had enough light coming from the open door. Once she had set down the glass on the nightstand she ripped off her dress and sat down on her bed in nothing but her underwear.

Shakily she reached for the pill bottle on the nightstand and accidentally knocked it over. She needed to stop thinking about Andrew or she would never get anything done. After taking a deep breath she picked up the pill bottle and poured two of the pills into her palm. She slammed them into the back of her throat and washed both of them down. She placed the bottle shot glass back on the nightstand and laid down on the covers of the bed, waiting for the drug to kick in.

Chapter 5

“What are the Najii?” Andrew asked. He had heard Computer say it to Arianna, of course, but he had had no idea what it meant.

“You don’t know what the Najii are?” Quentin said. Andrew looked at him and shook his head.

“Typical, Simon and Malcolm usually rely on us to tell new initiates about the Najii.”

“Okay, so are you going to actually tell me anything about these Najii?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you. See, the Najii are a highly advanced ancient alien race that wants to kill off the human population of Earth so they can have the planet to themselves.”

Andrew gave him a funny look. “That sounds like the bad guys from some stupid science fiction book.”

“That’s what I said when I first heard about them, too!” the dark eyed boy exclaimed.

“Quiet, C.J., I’m about to explain who the Najii are to Andrew.” Quentin turned and looked at Andrew with a serious expression in his eyes. Andrew put his burger down, he had the feeling he would need to pay close attention to Quentin.

“Look, I know that the Najii sound stupid, but they’re real, and they’re extremely dangerous.” Andrew opened his mouth to speak, but Quentin stopped him with a shake of his head.

“Let me finish. Now, just a regular old Najii by itself is extremely dangerous and lethal. I know I’ve already said that, but it’s important to get that through your head, as you seem to be stubborn. What was I saying? Right, anyways the Najii are capable of doing something so dangerous that they-“ He was cut off by Andrew.

“What can they do? Blast us with their mothership?”

Quentin didn’t even seem the least bit irritated with Andrew’s snarky remark. “Hey, calm down, I’ll tell you. Brace yourself, because this is a lot scarier than getting blasted by a mothership.” He paused for dramatic effect. “You ready? Okay, here goes then. They can turn into you, they can turn into me, they can become anyone they want to be.” He laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back in his chair.

“What does that mean? That sounds like the underlying message everyone’s trying to tell children in team sports.” Andrew was bewildered.

“That’s not true, the message they’re sending kids in team sports is that winning doesn’t matter. What I mean when I’m talking about the Najii is they can copy our DNA and turn into exact replicas of us.”

“Wait, wait, wait, so they can turn into, like, clones of us?”

“Yes, but you wouldn’t be around to see it.”

“Because Najii don’t like to leave anything unfinished. The best and most efficient way for them to get our DNA is to eat us.”

“They eat people?!”

Quentin appeared to be used to this kind of reaction. “Oh yea, they eat people. It helps them get our full DNA to look exactly like us, although they may not function in the same way. The main reason that they eat people, though, is so they can get the brains.”

“The brains?”

“Yes, the brains. If they eat your brain they get all of your memories and they know how to speak and act like you, so no one notices a difference. This allows Najii to build on existing relationships with the victim’s friends, family, etc. Eventually they call in their Najii pals and start killing and eating the victim’s former pals and you get one big group of Najii that can meet with and help each other without anyone looking at them funny. They make new human friends, they’re actually social butterflies, and then kill those people too. Of course nobody has a clue what’s going on, because there’s no difference besides the fact that now their friend wants to secretly kill them. Actually, even that may not be a difference, but whatever. Anyways, if this were allowed to happen they would eventually get enough Najii into power to take over the world and kill off the human race. Unfortunately for them, we won’t let that happen.” Quentin made a sweeping gesture with his hand over the Hunter’s table.

Andrew nodded, he was still skeptical of the Najii. “Okay, so say these Najii are real-“

“They are.” C.J. interrupted.

“Fine, whatever, they’re real. What I’m wondering is why do they want to kill us? What have we ever done to them?”

Quentin shook his head, “I don’t know, only Simon and Malcolm have that information, and maybe Arianna, too.”

Immediately Andrew fixed an intense stare on Quentin. It appeared to make him uncomfortable. “Arianna, you say?” he asked. “How much more does she know? And, like, why does she seem so much more, uh,” he struggled to find a word, “Special than anyone in here?”

Now it was Quentin’s turn to fix an intense gaze upon Andrew, but he didn’t. The entire Hunter’s table did it for him. Andrew thought maybe he had crossed a line, was about to get beat up, and this time he didn’t have Arianna to help, okay fine, protect him. In truth, even if she was there she couldn’t have done anything; she was high as the moon. Andrew cast a nervous glance at the door and was debating whether he should run for it when Quentin began to speak.

“Because she is more special than any of us, including you. She’s the best Najii hunter on the planet. Think I’m exaggerating? Ask Natalie, how’d that work out for her? Arianna didn’t even break a sweat against that girl, and she was wearing a dress. If she wanted to, she could do that to every single one of us in here, even us guys, and then she’d probably just stroll out like nothing had happened. Everyone in here knows this, but you know what irks me, Andrew? If that had been any of us faceplanting into the ground, she would’ve been laughing with the rest of us. But for some weird reason, she kicked Natalie’s ass for you, and then she was practically all over you. I was watching. All of us here, including myself, are wondering just how you got Arianna to like you so much so quickly. Did you give her drugs, money, sex? I’ve offered all those things and more to her and have been turned down every single time.”

Andrew looked around the table. The Hunters were staring at him intently, waiting for his reply. All of a sudden he felt a surge of anger rise through him and envelop him in its raging inferno. What business of it was theirs’ anyways? He knew he wasn’t getting out of it though.

“Alright, alright, fine, I’ll tell you guys the whole story.” And he did, and once he was finished they looked at him with bewilderment. Andrew began to feel uneasy again, like they thought he wasn’t telling the truth, and then he heard a bell ring. Everyone started getting up to dispose of their trash and file out of the cafeteria.

“What’s going on?” Andrew asked.

The shaggy blonde dude answered him. “Lunchtime’s over, and it’s time for you to begin your initiation training. By the way, my name’s Peter.”

Chapter 6

Arianna woke up in the bathtub completely naked. She had a splitting headache, but she was used to that side effect by now. She groaned, sat up, and rubbed her forehead. Another night spent wasted. Whatever, can’t dwell on the past, just gotta live in the present, and the first thing that needed to be taken care of in the present was a shower.

She stood up and turned the showerhead on, getting jolted awake by the cold water as the shower warmed up. She began washing herself with her ocean breeze body wash, knowing full well that it was a brand made for men. She didn’t care, she liked the smell of it, and anyways, who cared what she smelled like? She could smell like Ocean Breeze or Lavender or Coconuts and guys would still be falling over themselves for her. Not that she cared about them, well except for Andrew.

She finished rinsing out her hair and turned the shower off, standing there dripping wet and thinking about Andrew. I wonder what he would do if he saw me like this, she thought. Then she brushed the thought out of her mind. Who cares? That was practically her angsty motto to life. She didn’t know if anyone cared her, even Simon, who was like a father to her. She knew that all the boys who showed any interest in her just wanted to get laid, but she had never given them that pleasure. Well, almost all of the boys who showed any interest in her wanted to get laid, Andrew didn’t really give her that vibe. It was almost like he actually cared about her, but he was just one person. Her loneliness, her feeling that no one truly cared about her, was what drove her to push everything to the limit, which helped make her an excellent Najii hunter. She knew the Najii cared about her, they cared about killing her.

Arianna stepped out of the shower and dried herself off with a white towel that had been hanging on a rod by the shower. White, a combination of all the colors, it was everything and nothing at the same time. She rolled her eyes at this thought, who did she think she was, Socrates? Whatever, she opened the door to the bathroom and stepped into her room, which was very tidy. Good, she had trashed it a few times while she was on the drug, which she affectionately called Arianna’s drug, and she wouldn’t have had the energy to pick it up.

She stepped over to the closet, wearing nothing but her towel, and pulled on a light pink hooded shirt and a pair of yoga pants. Of course she had put on underwear, but she didn’t bother with a bra, she didn’t like them.

She proceeded to walk through the open bedroom door, allowing her damp hair to fall over her shoulders. Looking over at her kitchen counter she saw the bra she had been wearing was on it, and her panties were on the floor. She picked them up and threw them into the garbage chute, where they’d be incinerated for minimal waste. Then Arianna opened the fridge and retrieved her Greek yogurt and strawberries, pulled a box of granola out of the top cupboard, and proceeded to make herself a parfait.

As she sat there eating her thoughts drifted back to Andrew. Where was he now? Where did he come from? When could she talk to him? Could she even talk to him? He was the only boy her age who made her actually feel nervous. The most important question though, the one that trumped all of her other ones, was: who was he? She really wanted, needed, the answer to this question, and she determined to find the answer.

She probably would’ve sat there lost in her thoughts for another hour or so if Computer hadn’t spoken up.

“It appears you have a visitor, Arianna.” It said in its annoying monotone voice.

A visitor? This surprised her, she never got visitors anymore, not after she had threatened to cut Quentin’s balls off after he’d tried visiting her for the twenty-seventh time. Simon never visited her, and Malcolm really only interacted with her when she was hunting Najii. Whoever this visitor was had some balls, either that or they were really stupid. Maybe the Najii had started a full scale invasion of Earth. That would be fun, she could use some killing right now to calm her nerves, but she knew she wasn’t that lucky.

“Who is it?” she asked Computer.

“Your friend, Andrew.” Computer replied, “He said he needs to talk to you, shall I give him your standard reply?”

“What?” Arianna’s voice rose an octave.

“Is that your reply?” Funny, for a second there she could almost detect a note of dry humor in Computer’s voice.

“No! Tell him-tell him I’ll be there in a minute, please."

"As you wish, ma'am"

THIS IS NOT FINISHED YET, I'M JUST PUTTING IT ON HERE TO GET FEEDBACK AND SUGGESTIONS, LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK, THANKS!