Amiss

Chapter SIX

"Stop shining that stupid thing into my face, I'm like a bat down here, ya know!" Was the only thing that came out of my mouth, and for a second, I almost felt pity when they stepped back shortly, in light steps.

Shortly afterwards, the light finally tilted back to the ground, and a small, cute voice apologized with multiple apologies.

I mean, yeah, I appreciated apologies for any sort of wrongdoing, but when someone repeatedly apologizes several times?

Now you're becoming annoying and upsetting me.

Finally, it set me off so much that I just stepped up over to them and hugged them. Immediately, they shut their mouth and I felt them tense up, but then they relaxed, and I felt a soft sigh encounter my shoulder. Slim arms wrapped around my waist, and I just noticed how they were shorter than me by at least four inches. I'm 5'4, how can you be shorter than me?

Anyways, when they pushed me away gently, they looked up at me and said in a quiet tone, "Um, hello... Why are you here?" I thought that it was a strange question. I mean, what are they doing here? Can I request for some lights? May I get back up to the other level? How should I respond? Should I introduce myself? If I do, how can I do it? Oh, I think I'm stressing out.

"Er, hello. Imma start out basic: my name is Faith. I have faith that someone will turn on the lights. Do you think that you can put on the lights, so that I can see you properly and it won't feel weird to talk to a shadow?"

A stuttered 'sure' echoed quietly throughout the hallways, and a hand grasped onto mine, roughly pulling me along with them. Stumbling, I did my best to stay onto their tough pull, although it was pretty challenging since they were walking at such a fast pace.

For a few minutes, the only thing that interrupted the silence were the pads of our shoes, and confusion sprinkled across in my mind. There were other people, alive and breathing? What were the shakes earlier, and that dimension-twisting thing, with the vision stuff? Is this person shorter than me? How is any of this possible?

Finally, after passing by corner after corner, we arrived at some room that were vibrating like crazy, and deep purrs rumbled throughout the walls. Although I wasn't quite sure, it felt as though the room was pretty big, and the sounds might have been generators. All of these questions and theories were diminished when the person flicked on some lights.

I was right: it was a pretty big room. Excuse me; it was similar to that of a library, at least the size of the room. There weren't any shelves lined with children's books and stupid novels for adults, no desk with a cranky person who shushed you for breathing every minute, and no creaking chairs from people who couldn't get in the right position next to their table.

In the far back side, there were two generators that made it to almost the middle of their wall together, growling away. They looked pretty rad – does anyone remember this old word? – and had a bunch of wires sticking out of them everywhere. Lightbulbs hung on the ceiling, slightly twirling in rotation, and drawers, which were frozen next to metal chairs, had their mouths opened either halfway or completely. Paper lined the floor; it looked as if there was just a giant stack in the middle of the room, and a big, angry fan just waltzed up and phfblsh! The papers went flying.

Okay, okay, I know that 'phfblsh' is not a word, and I'm going to get screamed at by the police of literature. I'm just making a sound effect. If this is being written on paper for whatever reason, maybe, oh, I don't know, just do your best to pronounce this. Please. Oh gosh, I'm chuckling at myself. All right, all right, back to my fun novel.)

Besides from all of the messy things littered as if a child had a temper tantrum, I noticed the figure besides me. Oh jeez, they were smaller than me! Smaller than 4'9 me? Yeah. Yep. It happened. I am no longer the smallest person in my world.

This person (I hadn't realized at that time that it was a female) had brown hair pulled up into a messy bun behind her head, the pins sticking out from the sides. Thin, metal pink glasses stood on top of her nose, shielding her strangely orange eyes; her lips were pursed, and she seemed tense and nervous. A lab coat hung from her shoulders, although it was scratched and rugged near the tip and bottoms, which, by the way, slung down all the way to her ankles. She was wearing black pants and a black sweater underneath, with brown boots accompanying her feet. While she held up her hand to scratch her ear, I noticed that her hand was gloved, tightly, at the same time being very short. Altogether, she seemed to be in a stark posture, fidgeting from time to time as I gazed at her, probably looking a little weird, to be frank.

"Uh... Can you maybe just... Stop staring at me so intensely..." She faltered slightly, and I sighed and turned my head away.

"Who are you, and what happened to you?" I questioned, tired of all the mysteries that were happening. I had to continue on this journey, or if this is even a thing anymore. It just kind of felt so.... Fake, and played out, you know? It almost doesn't feel shocking anymore, and that was the scariest thing of all probably. But I'm not sensitive, and I'm not going to cry over the little things. At least, I hope not.

Mumbling so quietly at first so that I couldn't tell what she was saying, she finally raised her voice to answer, "Well, I am, er, I'm Sila Paige, and I uh, I'm one of the botanists here. A plant scientist..."

Sila. Sila Paige. I thought I had remembered reading her name in the e-mails, talking about the... the disappearances of other people there, I was pretty sure. But why would she be down here in the dark? Where were the labs?

"What happened down here?" I queried, and I could feel my eyebrow rising slightly in suspicion. I couldn't care less if she noticed that, however.

"I-I don't.... I don't know. I can't remember."

"What the hell do you mean you don't remember?! You've been down here for some reason, why? What is going on down here?"

I demanded answers. I was growing very impatient.

"Maybe... Yeah, I think... Yeah."

Sila kept uttering to herself, repeating those words over and over again, in a fast pace. After a few seconds that seemed like forever, she turned back to look back over at me.

"I think... Yeah... I think they got kidnapped. Maybe murdered. My peers, that is."