Bliss

two

"Interesting." I responded, and I could feel my eyes getting wider, like somehow if I lifted my eyelids high enough, I could get more information faster. "So why are we here?"

"Well, I want to show you as much as I can about this place before you start going to school, and as your technical-father, I want you to know the truth as soon as possible." I tried not to giggle at 'technical-father' and focused on the task at hand. "Let's just say, you're going to be glad we went shopping for new clothes even though it's so late."

I looked down at my new outfit, which was just a simple grey t-shirt, blue jeans, and black and white tennis shoes. I had my hair up in a high ponytail and it still hit my shoulders. "Can I get a hair cut tomorrow?"

"I'm so glad you said it." Felix replied. "Okay, when we go in here, we're going to go down into the basement to meet a few friends of mine." 

I nodded, and he opened the door very slowly. He peeked around the corners of the door and then went in, holding the door for me and closing it softly behind us. The place was bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside, even though I could barely see anything except for the size of the room and the outlines of chairs and a reception desk. I wanted to ask about the place, but I decided to wait until I knew it was okay to talk. 

Felix waltzed in front of me and into the hall behind the desk, waving for me to follow him. We walked down a dark hallway, to the end of it, and then opened the door to go down the stairs. I held the railing and scooted long the wall to find the next flight of stairs. And then finally, when we got to the bottom, Felix pulled out a key from his pocket, shoved it into the lock, twisted it, and revealed an amazing room full of people who looked like superstars. 

The room was warm, not physically, but if I were to describe the energy and the atmosphere of the room, warm and inviting would be the first two words that would pop into my mind. The walls had beautiful red walls and mocha-colored flowers painted on them, identical wood panels framing different sections of the walls all lined up next to each other. There was a beautiful stone fireplace in the back with about three girls hovering around it, all of them holding wine glasses and chatting, but none of them sipping on it. Felix finally announced our presence. "Alright, everyone. Settle down."

When the whole room turned to look at me, the air was cold. All that talk about auras before we came in here was starting to get to me, because I saw different auras surrounding people's bodies, some were white, some were deep red, some were blue, but one, way in the back corner, was black. "I'm just going to warn you, Alphonse - she can read auras."

The boy with the black aura chuckled, then leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "Of course she can. Just my luck."

"These are getting really annoying." I said, and the whole room exploded in laughter. Even Felix chuckled a little bit. 

"We know." Felix said. "We had the same problem. You can turn them off, though."

I glared at him like he was insane. "Are you kidding me? Why would I turn them off?"

He seemed confused and stumbled on his words a little bit. "W-Well... You said they're.. annoying, right?" He scratched his head, ruffling his blond hair.

"I can deal with it if it means I can get an inside look into someone's subconscious personality before I even talk to them. That's what it is, right?"

"Nice try, pipsqueak." Alphonse, the Black Aura, called from the back. He stood up straight and walked over towards me, everybody made room for him as he walked. When he got up close, the top of my head was at the bottom of his chin. I frowned. "An aura is somebody's mood. It's how they feel in the moment, not their true nature." His aura became wider and darker, not more black, but less faded. "And your's is certainly interesting."

"Al, knock it off." A girl with long, purple hair stormed up to him and punched his arm. Alphonse didn't even flinch. She gripped his bicep and mumbled into his ear, "Keep on her good side, will you? She could rat us out at any moment."

"I'm not worried about her snitching," Alphonse said, rolling his eyes. They were a weird color - dark blue with traces of light brown in them. In the silence, all I could hear was the sound of fire crackling. "But I am worried about something."

"My aura." I replied. I held my hand out in front of me and looked at it. What does that color mean?

"Bliss, Al is the only other person in this town who can see auras." Felix said. "When you told me you saw a pink aura around Lily's number, I knew I had brought you to the right place. But the reason we came here to begin with is because we want to talk to you about something very important. We want to talk to you about the true intentions of this town."

"And what would that be?" I asked curiously.

Felix looked at me with hesitation, then turned to the room. "We all think that this town is keeping people here hostage. Wiping people's memories and emotions towards The Lab, replacing them with positive feelings. The older folks here are the parents of the people in here that are your age, and they were smart enough to hide their children so that when they were born, they wouldn't have to be injected."

"Injected?" I asked.

"Yes, it's when-" Felix began, but then the energy suddenly changed, like a very dark presence entered the building, and I looked back at the door.

The room went silent, except for Alphonse. "Huh. So pipsqueak can read auras."

"Stop calling me pipsqueak, bigfoot." I retaliated. "And somebody put out the fire. Something or someone is in the building. And they don't feel too friendly."