The Others

Chapter Four

It had been like this for a while now. Same routine. I'd wake up, she'd come in around an hour later, give me some breakfast, compliment me and then go again until she came back for lunch around four hours later.

But never had she once talked to me.

Yona smiled and leaned forward a little, her face inches away from the cell bars.

I spoke after a long while of trying to formulate my words correctly.

"Come on Yona, I know this isn't you. I know this isn't you. This isn't the Yona I know. What happened to the girl I first met? The woman who made me sit in the middle of the crowded atrium that day? The woman who could outsmart just about anyone she came across. I know you're in there. What happened to the woman I loved?" I looked at her straight in the eye and took her hand.

"Love?" she sniffled as she squeezed my hand.

"Yona... come on... you know I do... I always have... so let me out and we can be a normal couple," I gave a weak smile.

Yona looked at me as though she was proud of me and after a few moments rose to her feet.

"All I've ever wanted is to be loved," she whispered and pulled out a key from her back pocket and poised herself ready to insert it into the lock.

"I love you too," she looked me in the eye as she put the key in the lock.

I smiled.

I was going to get out.

She turned the key slightly in the lock but before she could open it fully she was interrupted.

BUZZ. BUZZ. BUZZZ.

She stopped in her tracks and pulled up her sleeve revealing a watch with a purple strap. She tapped on the screen and immediately pulled the key out of the lock.

"Shit!" her calm and child-like expression changed swiftly to a serious one as she hurried to the door. "Gotta go, be back soon," my heart sank as she continued out the door and I dropped to my knees.

What the hell was I doing here?

***

In the words of Nicholas Cage 'every great story seems to begin with a snake' and that was exactly my thought when he walked in.

He wore a white t-shirt coupled with blue khaki shorts and black shoes. His blue and pink streaked hair was scruffy with a pink butterfly clip attached to his side fringe.

"Hey Sav," he spoke as if he had just seen me.

"Chuckie! What the fuck is going on here?'' I exclaimed as I clutched to the metal bars that held me captive.

"Sav, we need to talk, and I don't have much time," he crept closer to me and pulled up the white stool that sat in the corner of the room.

"Talk then," I rolled my eyes as I stood facing him.

"I know a way to get you out," he gasped for breath.

He looked at me straight in the eye, his eyes a deepening shade of red. I grabbed him by the wrist pulling him closer to me.

"What do you mean? How? What is going on?," I shuddered as I wiped a tear with my free hand off my face.

He leaned in closer and brushed his fingers through my hair, his touch as light as a feather, but did not say anything.

"Sav, I can't say much now but just know, there are others," his voice cracked.

He paused for a few moments, before sliding back the stool he was sitting on.

Just then, a loud beep echoed through the room and Chuckie immediately rose from the stool. He quickly heaved the stool back to its original place making sure it was in the exact position he had found it and turned back to face me.

"Listen Sav, I gotta go, but I promise I'll be back," he said as he rushed toward the door.

"Wait!" I cried out as I saw him place his hand on the handle.

"Chuck! Chuckie! Come back! Wait!" I cried out.

It was too late.

He was gone, and I was alone again.

I dragged my feet back to the bed, and lay face-up looking at the clean white ceiling that was above me.

There are others.

The words repeatedly chimed in my head.

What did he mean by others?

Others like me?

I had to piece it together and quick.