With Fear or Without

25- Demons 101

Cleo returned the woman's smile with a hesitant one of her own and entered through the door held ajar.

The room she arrived in was a long rectangle, just like the shape of the building suggested. It was only dimly lit by a circular ceiling light in the center, revealing a standing desk at one end and an odd glass chamber at the other. Of the surface of the desk was a pad resembling some sort of tablet set into it, the screen black and dormant. There was nothing else in the room except a door on the left wall that stood shut, faint light streaming through the crack near the floor.

Cleo took a couple steps into the room before turning back to the woman who had greeted her. She stood a couple inches taller than Cleo, with perfect posture that made Cleo self-conscious of her own slumped shoulders. The woman clicked the door closed behind her and the room darkened further.

She turned to Cleo with that same bright and kind smile. Despite the darkness, Cleo thought the woman's eyes seemed to glow like dim amber fireflies. She held her hand out. "I'm Remilda. You can call me Remie."

Cleo shook her hand, feeling the cool touch of multiple metal rings adorning Remie's fingers. "It's, uh, good to meet you," Cleo said.

Remie let her fingers linger in Cleo's before pulling away, running her hand through her thick, pale, almost white hair that fell just past her shoulders. "Look, before we start I just wanted to say something," Remie said, her voice light and less formal than Cleo had heard it the other day. "I know everything you're hearing must be a lot to process, and just so you know- I know we just met two seconds ago," she admitted with a chuckle, "-but if you need to talk, you can always come to me. I'll do my best to answer any questions you have. I know there are a lot."

Cleo was slightly taken aback by Remie's straight-forward nature. She was also grateful to have someone offer to answer her insane amount of random questions. For some reason, Cleo just knew she meant it. Cleo trusted Remie. Against her better judgement, she found herself completely trusting this person who she knew nothing about.

Cleo smiled back, more sure this time. "That's an understatement. But thanks, really."

"Of course," Remie answered. She turned and glanced at the glass compartment nestles into the far side of the room. "We should get started. I'm gonna be your... mentor, I suppose, for the week."

Cleo eyed the odd contraption warily. It already gave her the creeps. "For what, exactly?"

"Well," Remie said, strolling over to the desk with the screen, "I dictate from here what goes on when you're in there," she pointed back at the glass box.

"Okay..." Cleo said slowly, still not understanding what was going on.

"Like a simulation, for practice."

"Practice..." Cleo mused. "Practicing what?"

"Fighting the Alumarian."

Remie must have read the shock on Cleo's face as clearly as if it were written in sharpie across her forehead.

"I'm so sorry, I just assumed someone gave you more information, that's my fault."

Cleo didn't know what to say. Of course no one explained what she'd be doing, because throwing her into the deep end with a blindfold on seemed like a fantastic idea. It wasn't Remie's fault. It was Maedrian's fault, it was Cassian's fault, it was the fault of everyone else who had the chance to explain.

"No, they didn't. It's not your fault, I mean, surely someone should of... I don't know what I expected but..." Cleo stared at the glass box with newfound terror. The seemingly harmless chamber now looked like a prison. "But it wasn't that. Not on my first day."