Reflection

PROLOGUE

"IT'S GOING TO TAKE HOW LONG?!" yelling, the tall, short- haired brunette girl turned her back on the man standing in front of her and marched through the doorway exit, "To Hell with you," she said flipping him off, "You didn't tell me any of that!"

The man chased after her down the metal corridor, "Adeline, you are not turning back now. You are the only one who can do this."

Adeline instantly stopped walking and turned back to the man, "Screw you! I've changed my mind! I'm not trapping myself for weeks inside that Frame when you don't even know if it will work for me! You've said yourself, people can get stuck in that thing!"

"You have enough food and water in here to last you several weeks, Adeline."

Adeline looked down at the backpack she was holding in her hand, then back at the man, and dropped it heavily onto the floor dramatically.

The man took in an irritated breath then walked towards her, "Yes, we are still working on a way to get you back if it doesn't work. But you've seen it done. You know how it works. You'll be fine."

Adeline turned angrily, walking back towards him. "You'll be fine..." she glared at him, "YOU'LL. BE. FINE?! Are you kidding me!?" She stopped right in front of him, "How easy it must be for you to sit back and say that to every person who goes into the Frame. I've seen the swap between those who succeed, but what about those who don't- come- back? What happened to them? Are they stuck in there forever? Did they die of starvation—"

"Adeline, that's what the food is for—"

"...Do they have to wait months until they come back into this world? You said you had it all sorted. You said you knew how to get me back if it didn't work. That's the only reason I agreed to do it in the first place! But now you're telling me you don't actually know and that I could be in there for weeks! You lied to me!"

The man scowled at her, "That's what we do Adeline!"

Adeline took a small step backwards at his raised voice. If he had of seen it he'd have punished her for her cowardice towards him. But he seemed to miss the movement completely. Either that, or he had dismissed the movement because he needed her to do this job for him.

"Who the Hell do you think you are talking to, Adeline?" He lowered his voice, "I'm not your baby sitter. I'm your father. Your father from this world. We're all liars here!"

"I know that! I just thought if I was going to do this for you, the least you'd do is tell me what I'm getting into! You already tell me nothing about why we keep using the Frame like this. It's clear you need the Mirror and the Key for any of this to work properly, so why do I need to be a lab rat when this might not work?"

"It will work, Adeline!"

"How do you know!?"

"Because I think your Alter might have the Key!"

Adeline stood silent for a second her interest now spiked, "How can you be sure...?"

"You may not understand yet, but you will."

"Understand!? You never tell me anything! How am I supposed to just understand?" She replied, the anger rising again in her voice.

He gave her an annoyed look, "That's just it, Adeline... the questions-"

Adeline frowned in response at his puzzling choice of words.

He came down close to her face, "There's always an unknown question isn't there? Something that keeps those imprudent Others going. It gives them a purpose in life- finding their answers. And once they have the answer they move onto another question and then another; what is the purpose of one thing compared to another? What does it mean by this compared to that? Where will I be in ten years? Will I like it when I get there? Who? What? Why? The general and stupid questions that arouse from nothing important, yet those Others need answers to them just to help them sleep at night."

He glanced at his watch that read 11:00pm and sighed. Then he walked behind Adeline and picked up her discarded backpack, "We, are not like them..." his voice suddenly became deep and warning as he walked back to her, "We know what we want. We know how to get it. It's a foolish way of thinking, Adeline and I won't tell you again... Don't. Ask. Questions."

She looked down towards the backpack before glancing back up, silently challenging him with a glare.

The man took a step around her heading back towards the doorway, but stopped again in front of her, roughly handing the backpack towards her to take. "If you pull out now, we have to wait longer, and either way, you're doing this. You're the only one who can. And if you walk away from all this, you don't want the MA's chasing you down now do you?"

Adeline looked away, defeated- not by his argument, but by her fear. She knew the Master Assassins were not to be messed with. But if she wanted to join them, she had to do this. And she did not want to be on the wrong side of their hunt.

With that thought, her fear was quickly replaced with sudden determination. If she joined the Master Assassins she could leave, and cut all ties with the man standing in front of her. She knew she could do her job, it came down to whether the others in the lab would do their part. And then she'd be free to join the MA's. No one would tell her what to do ever again.

Adeline snatched the backpack and pulled it towards herself with haste, "I won't mess this up. I know what I'm doing," She responded and brushed past him, heading back into the room, "But you better damn know what you're doing!"