— Ayra —
That day had been full but a lot of fun; I'll never forget the underwater view, even if it's just a pool with colored lights. Inside, the water resembled the sea, the movement of the water inside felt a lot like the sea, and that sensation of weight being completely different from on land was marvelous.
After the bath, I didn't even look at myself in the mirror; I was too happy to look at the monster that I am. Can't I be happy once in a while? That was my moment, and not even my reflection in the mirror could ruin it. After my shower, it was Lina's turn; there was a TV in the room, and I got excited. I knew TV, but what I wanted was to see places from around the world. I grabbed the remote and pressed the plus button. I had increased the volume. Then I pressed the up arrow button and changed the channel. I kept wandering until I found something interesting—a movie about princes and princesses. I left it there because the kingdom looked beautiful.
I kept thinking about that day and how it had been. Many people in that place had abilities, and I observed each one of them, wondering what the limitation of my ability might be. I only knew of one until that moment, but there could be more. I had always been grateful to have the ability to see what others could do; without it, I would never have been able to escape so easily.
This reminded me of the past—the day I found out I was one of the people in the world with a special ability. It had been many years; I only remembered being there with Reid and my younger brother playing in the garden. The day was beautiful, I think; I'm not sure, but something happened, something was not normal, and...
"Wow, what a wonderful shower," Lina said, pulling me out of my reverie. "Did you turn on the TV? Is there something good on?"
"There's this Kingdom movie playing. It seems good; twin princesses have to solve problems in their own realm," I explained from what I had read in the synopsis.
"Oh, this movie was widely talked about when it came out. I loved it. I even bought the book—a marvelous, charming trilogy."
"If I find the book, I'll read it too."
"I see it's already past 9 p.m. Do you want to finish the movie and then sleep, or do you want to finish the movie and go downstairs to do something else?"
"Either way," I said, but I wanted to go downstairs; I wasn't ready to sleep yet.
"Let's finish watching, and then we decide. This is the kind of movie that, once started, has to be finished."
That's what we did, but the decision was made as soon as the movie ended. It was already past 10 p.m.; unintentionally, I had chosen a movie that had just started. But the thing was, when the movie ended, Lina closed her eyes and dozed off. She had watched the whole movie, but as soon as the credits appeared, she couldn't keep her eyelids open any longer. It was kind of funny.
But Lina slept, and I was alone at night, thinking about life. I had always thought a lot, maybe because I had no one to talk to, nothing to do, and was always in the dark. I didn't want to stay there anymore; I could be in my pajamas, but it was very dark, even with the lights, and I missed Eyder. It was easy to sleep when he was by my side.
I went down to the lobby and walked to the poolside mats, looking up at the sky. The stars shone like never before that day. I remembered the past, a more distant past when I was still a child, not that I was very mature at that time.
Many of my memories were not very clear, as if they had been deliberately erased. I didn't remember arriving at the dome or my initial tests. I always thought it was normal because of my age. Then I realized there were much more recent memories that were blurry, like their faces; I couldn't remember them well. Had I seen them? I thought so, but they rarely took off my blindfold, only occasionally and when they taught me to read. Why did they teach me to read? Why were there no guards in the second escape? Nothing made sense.
What wasn't I seeing? What was missing from the puzzle? Was it just one piece, or were there more missing? Something didn't fit; I couldn't remember correctly, but I knew I saw my reflection in the mirror with brown hair halfway down and white at the rest. I remembered that my eyes weren't the color they are now; they lightened, first the eyes, which lightened until I was 7, and then the hair. The hair finished lightening a year or two at most before I escaped, but I couldn't remember. The memory was blurred. A theory began to circulate in my head: I would have to ask the others; I needed to know. I hadn't realized it until I saw myself out of that place and started thinking the way I did.
"Hi," someone said next to me, making me jump in fright. I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn't see him coming.
I looked at him; it was Eyder.
"I thought you were sleeping," I said.
"I was on my phone, then decided to come down for two minutes to stretch my legs, and then I'd go back to sleep."
"Understood."
"What were you thinking about?"
"How long were you there?"
"In the dome?"
"Yeah."
"A week. My first day was the day we first saw each other—the bath on Friday."
"Ah, did you ever feel forgotten or that your memories were blurry at some point?"
He looked at the sky; you could see what he was thinking.
"I don't know. My memories were confusing when I arrived because I didn't remember how I got there. I knew I had surrendered, and they put me in a car with handcuffs, and then I only remember Lina talking to me, as if everything were a blackout."
"I'll have to ask the others."
"Are you uncovering something?"
"It may be, but it may also not be," I chuckled.
"Can't you remember anything?"
"I don't know if it's because of me, but I can't remember my visual memories. The auditory ones are normal, but the few visual ones I had are mostly blurred, sometimes to an unrecognizable level. Before, I thought it was because I arrived there at four years old, but now that doesn't seem normal."
"We'll need more evidence to draw a conclusion, so let's check with the others. I think I spent too little time there to tell you anything."
"Sorry to say, but I'm jealous."
"I can imagine. Being locked up in that place, I can't even imagine how it was."
"Don't even try. But I can tell you how it was for me, but I already warned you; everything was very dark." He laughed, and I laughed, and I told him about my captivity and how some things were. I even told him until I saw that he started yawning. "Go to sleep."
"I'm fine; I want to hear more from you."
"No, I'll tell you more another day, but now go to sleep. I'm going to bed too."
His yawn caught mine. I looked at the time; it was almost 2 a.m. We were tired, and tomorrow we could see if my theory had any basis or not.
"All right," he said. "But can I at least accompany you to the door?"
"You can."
We went up together, saying good night and wishing each other a good night. I entered my room and saw Lina, who seemed to be in her tenth dream; she didn't wake up at any moment. So I lay down, but my eyes didn't close until exhaustion took over, and I passed out.
Too bad I woke up with the sunrise. But this time, I lingered in bed since I wasn't in a hurry to get up, and everything was bright. The idea of being locked in a room wasn't favorable to me, but being in the dark and opening my eyes and not being able to see was much worse. I waited for time to pass there, looking and observing things around me.
It was after lunch when I saw Reid, and he called me and asked me to go alone with him. So that's what I did; Lina and Eyder couldn't come with us. We went to the building next door, which they said was the town hall. It was a place worthy of an exhibition; the entrance hall was completely modernized but still had its works of art, in addition to an aquarium that went from ceiling to floor. It was all very beautiful, mostly in metallic gray and the finest and darkest wood. Extremely elegant and sophisticated, nothing like the prison I had been in.
We went to a black elevator, which was wonderful, making everything even more sophisticated. He pressed the up button.
"First, we're going to my office. I want you to know the place and know that whenever you need it, you can come down..." He cleared his throat. "Go there whenever you want."
"All right. Thank you for everything you're doing for me. You know, I thought I had no family left."
"Ayra, you will always have me. I never forgave our parents for what they did to you."
"But I feel like I had guilt, didn't I?"
"No, you didn't. I'll tell you how everything happened."
"At first, I would say I didn't want to hear it, but now I feel I should, even if, in the end, I still believe it's my fault."
He caressed my shoulder; it was comforting—the consolation of a family member—and things were a bit surprising. The elevator arrived, and we walked down a corridor; it was as sophisticated as the rest of the place, and we reached a dark wooden door with a sign that read "Boarf." He laughed when he saw the sign and looked at me.
"Since you didn't go to school, you won't understand my joke with this door sign or the preference for people to call me director," he said, still laughing, as if telling a joke to himself many, many times, and it never lost its charm.
"Are you going to explain it to me?"
"Of course, but first, come in." He unlocked the door with the key he took from his front pants pocket; he was wearing a suit. He opened the door and guided me inside.
There was no way to say that place was ugly; basically, the moment I entered, I was greeted with a beautiful view of the panoramic city. Everything was made of glass in front of me—a gigantic window to the world, to the island that became the world for people like us.
His desk was the same color as the door; it had two beautiful black chairs positioned near the table but not in front of the table. In front of the table, there was nothing, as if the person who wanted to talk to him had to stand. I thought it was very possible, and the chair behind him was one of those office chairs, with a cushion behind and black, very padded, very rich people's chairs. There was also a sofa to the left facing the window, as the table faced the door, so he could see who came in. The sofa was also black, very padded, and looked very comfortable. I noticed that on his desk, there was a metal plate with his full name, and in front of his name, it said: director.
Then he dragged a chair in front of the other, sat on one, and invited me to sit on the other, gesturing with his hands. I sat down and looked again at everything; he had closed the door behind me.
"First, the joke," he said. "Being called director is a joke because everyone is afraid of the principal at school. If you are called to the principal's office, it means you will be punished or suspended, and your parents will punish you for what you did wrong at school. So most people are afraid to go to the principal's office and talk to the principal, even if he is calm. That's where the joke comes in because most people who come to my office aren't afraid of me or anything like that but pretend to be because of the name. It's a school joke, very childish, to lighten the tension for the person who's going to talk to me because they will understand the joke."
It didn't seem very funny, and I doubted that people laughed as much as my brother spoke. I looked at him and smiled. I wouldn't spoil his fun; let him laugh alone at the unfunny joke he made for himself.
"Understood," I said, but just not to leave him in the dark. "So, this is your office?"
"Yes, the place where I handle problems, solve others, and see the next missions. Now, I usually meet the protectors through my phone, as I always have it with me."
"It's very nice here; I loved the view."
"I'm glad to know. I always wanted to show you this place. Now let's get to the point."
"Yes. Tell me what I don't remember."
Hi guys, how are you? I brought you another fresh chapter!
What did you think of the chapter? Don't kill me for ending it right when he was going to say it 😅, if not who's going to update the book, just kidding.
Tell me your theories! And what do you think of the book so far? I apologize for this being a chapter just about Ayra...
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Have a good weekend and see you next Friday!