Ash Ketchum: The Prisoner Of Cell 25

Ch. 25 Selene

   Serena was sitting on her bed eating supper when she heard her door unlock. A voice from a speaker said, "Enter."

   The door opened, and Selene walked into the room. She was smiling. "You finally got some food, huh?"

   Serena looked up. In spite of her mistrust of the place, she felt a natural kinship to Selene. "Yeah. What's with all the bananas?"

  "High in potassium. It's good for us." She shook her head and her smile grew. "Crazy, huh? You must feel like you fell down the rabbit hole."

  "The rabbit hole?"

  "You know, Alice in Wonderland. But really, it's not as bad as you think."

  "I've been kidnapped, tied up, tortured by some deranged Goth chick, and locked in a cell, and you say it's not so bad?"

  "You're right, Marnie's pretty awful, isn't she?" She swayed a little. "As far as the cell, it's temporary. It's just until you see that they mean you no harm. They have a lot of experience with this."

  "Kidnapping?" Serena asked.

   Selene shook her head. "Look sis, I understand why you're so upset. I really do." She walked over and sat on the bed next to her. "And I'm sorry if I don't seem more sympathetic, but I'm just so happy you're here. My own sister. I've waited for this day for so long."

  "How long have you known you're a twin?" Serena asked.

  "Nine years—since Dr. Cyrus found me. He promised me that someday he'd find you. And he did."

  "I didn't even know I had a sister."

  "It's kind of cool, isn't it?"

   Serena pushed away her tray. "I'm sorry, I'm just scared and I don't know what I'm doing here."

  "I really do understand," Selene said. "But it will be okay. Trust me. They just want to know why we're so different. And they take really good care of us. Really good care. We even have our own concierge service."

  "What's that?"

  "You know, like at fancy hotels. You can ask for pretty much anything and they'll get it for you. Clothes, front-row concert tickets and backstage passes, gadgets—almost anything, within reason. I mean, if you asked for a jet, they'd probably say no. But I asked for a diamond bracelet once and they got me one."

  "Why would they do all that?"

  "Because we're the special ones. Out of billions of people in this world there're only seventeen of us. Well, actually, thirteen of us now."

   Serena wondered what she had meant by that.

  "We're like royalty. Try it. Just ask for anything."

  "Okay. I want to go home."

   Selene sighed. "Except that. Serena, give it a couple weeks. If you are still so unhappy, then I'm sure they'll let you go."

   Serena looked at her with surprise. "Really?"

  "Of course. I don't have a lock on my door. I come and goad I wish. The thing is, they have to protect themselves, too. They have a lot of money invested in all this and they're working with kids. It's a big risk. Does that make sense?"

Serena looked down for a moment. "Yeah, I guess it does. But then why did they kidnap me?"

"They didn't want to. They invited you to come to the Galactical Academy, didn't they? And everything they promised was true, the best schooling, and the college of your choice. In fact, when you turn sixteen, you can have any car you want. A Ferrari, a Rolls-Royce, Maserati, anything. But your adopted parents wouldn't let you go, would they?"