When I awake, I can't see a thing.
My heart starts beating fast and my face feels flushed. Where am I? Picking myself up off the floor, I take deep breaths to keep from panicking. I feel my way along the walls, which doesn't take long. The room is small, maybe ten feet by ten feet. Suddenly I'm glad I'm not claustrophobic. After retracing the first wall, I feel a small bump a few feet in from the corner. Frantically, I start placing my hands on all areas of the wall and find what I think is a door, except with no doorknob. Of course.
Thinking there might be more to this room, I feel the second wall again. Nothing. However the third wall, the one opposite the first, seems to also have the weird door-with-no-knob- shape in the middle. I'm just scanning the forth and final wall, with no luck I might add, when the room is suddenly cast with an eerie red glow. I look up to see the whole ceiling is some sort of light with what looks like a cage protecting it. As if the whole place being a dull red isn't enough to make me wonder what's going on, a siren suddenly starts, the lighting pulsing with brightness to every tone.
After what I'm guessing was twenty or so alarms, the room falls quiet, the ceiling's light turning to a normal white colour.
"Brenda Abbatelli, code O-4."
Where did that come from?
"Please wait for further instructions."
"Further instructions? I haven't gotten any instructions!" I yell upwards, though I'm not sure why. Suddenly, my mind focuses on the voice. That mature, female sounding voice. It belongs to the same woman, or women, who brought me here.
A few seconds later, I hear her again. "Brenda Abbatelli, please step outside."
"What do you mean step -" I cut myself short when one of the doors opens, surprisingly smoothly. Tentatively, I walk out into the new room.
The door opened to a ninety degree angle before it had to stop against the wall, which is perfectly white, with a brick pattern to it. The room is a fair size with a large black desk atop an ever so slightly elevated platform from the floor, which is plain white to match the ceiling. I have no idea where this room is getting its light from, but I feel blinded all the same.
Behind the desk is a big black chair that appears to be able to roll. Although the back is faced towards me, I can see someone's arm along the armrest. Before I can say anything, I notice a white door in the same place as mine, except directly opposite from it. A moment later, an Asian lady walks out backwards, filling me with anger. I hate her. I hate all them. I stand here and watch as she pulls something out of the room - a wheelchair, with someone sitting in it. When I look closer, I realize it's not just anyone. It's Genevieve, except, not the Genevieve I know.
As the lady wheels her to the middle of the room and situates her to face me, a chill runs down my spine. This Genevieve doesn't have that fired up look in her eye, doesn't have gum between her teeth, or a smirk on her face. This Genevieve looks lifeless; eyes closed, expressionless. I notice metal cuffs attaching her wrists and ankles to the chair, like some sort of prisoner.
"What did you do?" I scream, too afraid to move. What if I run over to her and her eyes don't open? What if I find no pulse under her jaw?
I can feel the tears behind my eyes and a lump forming in my throat, though I will them both to go away. I will not show weakness to these people. She looks gorgeous, as always, except right now she has an enhanced beauty to her. She sits there with her hair perfectly curled, dress on, makeup done. She's missing what be the most important date of her life because of these people.
"I can assure you she will be all right," I hear a deep voice say, "as long as you cooperate, Miss Brenda."
After my name, the chair turns towards me and I see the man behind the the chilling words. He's big, muscular and has no trace of facial hair. His dark skin looks like a mix between African and Hispanic. He wears a dark suit and an ear piece. I notice a smile creeping up from his lips, as if he's proud of his dramatic chair turn.
"What did you do?!" I demand again, my breaths getting heavier.
"Please, I assured you she will be all right." The man lets out a small, barely audible sigh. "You two aren't much alike, you know that?"
"How would you know? You... Oh my god, Genevieve," I finally run over to her and kneel by her legs. "Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up," I will her, but to no avail. I hear a chuckle from the man and snap my head around, giving him a dirty look, one that I hope tells him I hate him.
"That's not going to help, Miss.Brenda."
"Then what will?"
"Cooperation."
"With what," I say with a tone that makes it sound less like a question.
"Our Test."
"Okay fine whatever I'll take your stupid test, just undo this!" I say, standing up and gesturing towards my seemingly lifeless best friend.
"Hmm. You know, you're a lot more willing than she was," he says to me. I feel my face drop and my eyes narrow. Probably thinking he's oh-so-powerful by being all vague, he smirks again. "Do you want to know what happened before you woke up in that room, Miss Brenda? I'll tell you what happened. You were sitting in that chair, while she was standing over there, looking at you, thinking you were dead." He talks in a way that puts emphasis on the fact that we seem to have switched roles.
I look at my best friend, then back at the man. "We're not inhumane, Miss Brenda; we would never take the life of another individual. She isn't dead, but that doesn't mean we have to return her to the life she had before, understand?" I slowly shake my head in response. He sighs and says, "We figured she'd be harder to... Agree with, so we talked to her first. We have oral consent from Miss Genevieve here that we may have full control over what happens to her if you refuse to take the Test. I will have you know she did agree to take it. "
Genevieve agreeing with an adult? To take a test? That can't be right. I can't even imagine what they threatened to do to make her say yes.
"What'll it be, Miss Brenda? Walk out of here and leave her with us? Or perhaps you'll agree to taking our Test."
I take in a deep breath, then exhale slowly, trying to stop my hands from shaking. "Fine. I'll do it."
With that he grins once more and says, "Right this way please," gesturing me through a door behind his chair that I failed to notice before. Keeping my head leveled, I take one more look at Genevieve and walk through the door.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Once again, I find myself in a plain, white room with two door opposite each other. When I stepped in, the man from the previous room shut the door behind me. I haven't even bothered trying to open it up - something tells me it won't budge. Besides, I don't want to go back there. I want to finish this stupid 'Test' so me and Genevieve can go home. All I can do now though is stare at the door in front of me.
Suddenly, four lines appear to the right of the door, each joining to make a square-like shape, maybe a foot on each side. The top part of the shape falls down to reveal a computer screen in behind, which smoothly comes forward to give me a better view.
It turns on and I'm not surprised to find an Asian lady broadcasting to me from a desk in what looks like a very plain office. "Hello, contestant. My name is Ms. Lin. Welcome, and thank you for choosing to take part in our Test." She offers a slight smile and I roll my eyes away. Like I have a choice. "The rules are simple, but listen well because they will not be repeated, and violation of these rules will result in disqualification."
Something seems different about this Asian lady than the rest. This one has more expression, more variety in her voice. She seems... Real. Now that I think about it, the other one's didn't seem as real. They all sounded programmed, like they could only say a line or two. But that can't be.
"You are on Position Side Two. Your objective is to get to you Position Side One's partner." Just following her last words, Another set of lines appear on the wall to my left, the two horizontal ones being significantly smaller than the vertical ones. The rectangle opens to the right this time, followed by a tight purple top with mid-length sleeves and a pair of black capris with the same purple shade running along the sides. A pair of running shoes roll out beneath it, these being all black.
"Put Outfit O-4 and Shoes O-4 on please. Knock when you are ready to continue your instructions."
And with that, the screen shuts off and retracts back into the wall, the wall flipping up shut and closing it, leaving me in this locked room with some clothes and new shoes.