*Bored to death- Blink 182
*Into you – Ariana Grande
*Mr. Brightside- The Killers
*Paradise- Coldplay
*Castle- Halsey
(Mares pov)
It's dark all around me when I wake up. My vision is blurry, so I close my eyes for a couple of seconds. But when I open my eyes its pitch black again, like I never opened my eyes. I sit up and put my hand in front of my face, but I can't see it. Am I dead? Did Maven find me? Is the Scarlet Guard caught? I put my hand down, and try to look around to see if I can see anything, and I fail. I shift my legs to where I'm kneeling down, and try to stand up. I am almost at full height, until my head hits something, and hard.
"Ow" I hiss, and put my hand above my head to feel what I hit. As my hand closes around it, and I feel it up and down, but then realize I don't feel it on my hands. There is something between my hands and what hit my head. But from what I can feel, it feels like… A pole? No, I think, as I feel around some more. It feels circular, and has different levels. Like a half of a ball, but smoother… Maybe it's a… ceiling fan? I put my hand higher to feel for the fans, but then I hear a noise.
I freeze and look around, and then realize, "oh wait I can't see" I say under my breath, but something is wrong with my voice. It sounds not like my voice, but more mechanical. Like a robot. But I'm not a robot. I lift my hand to my face and feel my face. I don't feel my face, but I think I feel… A mask?! Why do I have a mask on? "What the-"but I'm cut off by another mechanical voice.
"Hey. Hey you. Are you there? Can you hear me? Where are we? Who are you? What's going on?" Another… person? That person talks a lot like Cal, asking questions first, friendliness later. No- this person is not Cal, Cal is safe with Farley and the Scarlet Guard. But still… I'm not alone? Where am I anyways? Am I the Bowl of Bones, without lights and in a costume? But, who are they?
"Who are you?" I ask, my voice cracking. I hear a shift of what sounds like clothing, and then the voice again.
"I could ask you the same thing. I will not say my name but I will tell you anything else, if you do the same for me. Maybe we can figure out a way out of here."
"I wasn't asking for your name, although that would have been nice, but I wouldn't have given you mine, either. So glad we are on the same page. I have no idea where I came from, do you?" I ask, realizing I really had no idea where I came from.
"No I don't. Where are you, can you see?" The voice says. I internally roll my eyes. Of course I can't see or I would be out of here by now, I would think. And I voice my opinion to them.
"Of course I can't see or I would be out of here, wherever here is. Where are you? I'm by this circular thing on this really low ceiling, I have to crouch down. Are you hurt, whatever your name is?" Let's face it, if this person is hurt, well. No way are we getting out of here.
"I'm not hurt, do you want me to come over there? Can you move? I have no idea where I am, but I think we are in a basement or something." That's something Cal would know… NO HE IS NOT CAL! Ugh! I need to focus. I twist around and hesitantly put my hands forward, moving them around. I don't feel anything but air, so I start to take baby steps to the voice.
"Nah, I'm trying to come over there. Can you keep talking so I can find you easier? I really think we shou-AH!" I interrupt myself when I trip over a wire. The wire catches on my foot, and pulls straight out. As I am falling, I try to regain my footing, but fail miserably, landing in an uncomfortable position. As my head hits the ground, my helmet slightly bounces back up, hitting the hard concrete floor twice now.
"Hey! Are you ok what happened?" The other voice says. I hear a shift of clothing, and I can tell they are moving. I move my head around, and winch. I can feel blood pooling on the right side of my head inside the helmet.
"Sorry, I tripped over what felt like a wire and hit my head. I'm ok." I say, as I slowly sit up on my hands and knees. My head is throbbing, and the world spins. My arms start to shake, so I sit on my knees. I am breathing heavily when they say,
"You sure you are okay? You don't sound ok. I'm coming over there." They state with determination. There's no use stopping them, I guess.
I sigh and say, "Fine, I guess. I am okay though. Just follow my voice over here and maybe we can figure out how to get out of here." I hear them stand up, and shuffle the opposite direction from me. "No no no! Not that way, person. Turn around. I will just keep talking so you know where to go, ok?" I hear the shuffling again and a muffled okay. "Okay. So now that you are moving let me tell you something. I am so confused right now I can't even think straight. I mean, I tripped over a wire. A WIRE! I mean, even in the dark I can usually avoid those things pretty well. I guess my mind was just on other things that I shouldn't be thinking of right now. I mean, I'm trapped here in some kind of basement and I'm thinking about that one thing. And it's so frustrating because I can't stop thinking about that think, ya know? No you probably don't. You're probably a robot recording everything I say for Mavens sick pleasure in seeing me broken. But I have got to stay strong, right?" I hear the shuffling again, this time much closer, and I inwardly groan. "Are you here yet or what?" I'm getting super irritated at everything, maybe it's the fact that I am losing a lot of blood in my head, or that I just shared my feelings to this… thing.
"Yes, I'm here" The voice says. Right behind me. I scream and turn around, forgetting I can't see. I whip my head back as I turn, but everything stays the same. Black. Just black. Not even those red and blue dots floating around when I close my eyes. Nothing. Just black. Pitch black.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Anyways, why don't we sit down so that we don't get hurt and we figure out a way out of here. Or at least a light or something." That sounds like a good idea, but not like I would tell them that.
"OK, yeah. Maybe while we are sitting we can find a flashlight! SO, where exactly are you now?" I say and hold up my hands blindly. I take a small step forward and stretch my hands out as far as I can stretch them, feeling around for a wall. Instead, I feel a moving big thing. I yelp and jump back, afraid of what it may be. What if it's-
"Oh, ha! Sorry, again, that was my arm. I guess you found me!" the person says, hints of laughter in their voice, and I let out a whoosh of air.
Thank God it wasn't what I thought it was.
"Ok, now let's sit down and hope we don't sit on a nest of snakes or something." I say, only half joking.
"Woah, um, thanks for that. Where are you now?" The thing says, and I roll my eyes. I haven't moved much at all because of my head, so where does he think I would be?
"The same place I was before. You?" They moved before, so what's stopping them from moving now? They don't have a head injury.
"I'm looking for you, so then we can help each other sit down. Well, considering you tripped on a wire doing baby steps, that is." The guy says, and I can tell that he's are mocking me. That dirty—no. I need to keep my opinions open about them. Breathe in…breathe out…try not to punch this sucker in the face.
"Okay, you do not get to talk to me like that! Just because I tripped doesn't mean you get to make fun of me! And maybe I can look out for myself! Just so you know, you're so lucky that I can't see. I'd be punching you over and over! Now I hope you sit in a nest of snakes, maybe they'll teach you how to talk to a lady!"
My threatening is cut off when says, suddenly, "Wait, you're a lady?"
Crap. Well…should I confess now, then? Oh, what the heck, what difference would it make?
"Yes? And what are you? I accidentally said my gender, so now you say yours." I say, feeling quite proud of myself for getting this thing to confess something. I still don't know where they are or if they are a robot or not. I hope not.
"I am a robot. Beep boo."
Wait, what?!
"No!" I scream and try to move toward them without them knowing. They're going to get a handful if they are playing with me.
They snicker and say, "Yeah, beep boo, I'm a robot working for Maven."
They did not just say that to me! I'm already hurt, and they need some scars, too. I finally reach the spot behind them, I think, and I count to three. One, breathe in, breathe out. Two, breathe in, breathe out, three breathe in…breathe out...go! I jump on their back and we fall to the floor. They scream in surprise and I slap their helmet.
"Ow!" They shout and push me off of them.
I hear them charge and I say, "Artificial intelligences can't feel pain or emotion, you're obviously not a robot. Liar, who are you really?" At that, they slide to a stop in front of me and I hear they sigh in annoyance. They just got busted.
"Fine, oh smart one. I'm a guy. There, you happy now?" He says, and I can tell that he rolled his eyes.
"Whatever, glad to know. But it takes a lot to make me happy, Mr. Robot. Now, I'm tired, so where are you? We need to make sure we aren't sleeping on something bad, like the snake's nest." I say and start to move around.
"Wait," he says, "Is there an actual snake's nest in here?" He shuffles beside me, and holds on to my arm. Whether it's so that we know where the other is, or because he is scared of snakes. I think it's the first one, because he is not cowering like a scared dog.
"I don't think so, or, at least we haven't found one yet. Now let's sleep." I say as I start to slowly kneel down. He kneels down beside me and then pulls me down to the floor carefully. We feel the floor with our hands to make sure we are the only living thing here, and then finally lay down beside each other. I turn my back to him and scoot farther away because I don't want him to think that I will just sleep with any guy. He is lucky it's dark and I have on a mask or I would be on the other side of this place already. Speaking of the mask, this is getting really annoying.
"Hey, guy, do you know if we can take off the masks? It's hard to sleep with it on." I say to him, turning back around and hitting something. That something rolls away, and I bolt up. What on Earth was that? I get on my hands and knees and crawl quickly over to it, and picking it up.
"Yeah, I think we can, where'd you go? He says, and I can hear him rolling around.
"I found something, and I'm coming back." I say back to him before I crawl back to him. I sit where I think is beside him, and hold this thing out. I feel it up and down and it's a cylinder kind of shape. I hand it to him and I can hear him feel it, too. While he is doing that, I try to take off my mask, but then I remember I need to take off my gloves first. I take them off and set them on the ground beside me, and then I get to work. I press my hands against the top of the helmet, and all I feel is smooth plastic. I move them behind my head and I can feel a latch. I pull and the back of my mask splits in half, allowing me to take it off. But, I realize, if I take it off, the voice alternator will be gone and he will know who I really am. And I will know who he is. At least we can't see. That is until that cylinder thing erupts into light, shining right at me.
"Ah!" I shriek and fall backwards. Am I blind?!
"Oops! Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Says the guy and the light vanishes.
"What was that?" I ask him.
"Our light source, a flashlight!" He says excitedly. "How'd the mask thing go?"
"We can take them off." I say, my voice neutral.
"Great! How?" He says, excited and then confused. He doesn't understand why I'm not excited. What if he turns me in when we get out? I need to make that point across to him.
"Look dude, I am not a good person. If we take these off, you're going to know who I am, or at least who I sound like. So you better not rat me out, got it? I won't rat you out, so I expect the same from you." I say to him, crossing my arms and waiting for his reply.
"Got it, now who goes first?" He says simply back to me. I'm not going first. I doubt he will want to go first either. How about…
"How about on the count of three we take them off and say hi at the same time?" I say, my hands starting to shake.
"Ok, that sounds good," he says with a waver in his voice. "Now, how do I take this off?"
"Put your hands behind your head and feel around for the latch, flip it, and the back of your mask will break in half. Then we count to three." I say, shaking harder as I hear him follow my steps.
"Okay, done, you ready?" He says, and I can tell he is worried but trying to sound strong. I wonder what he has to hide. Or maybe he is a robot…
"Okay…ready." I say as we start to count together.
"One..." Breathe in…breathe out.
"...Two..." Breathe in...breathe out.
"...Three!" We shout together, and pull our masks off.
I gasp at the pair of eyes I meet staring back at me.
Review what to do next! Thanks ShadowhunterLuv for beta-ing! Who do you think it is? Posative feedback and any ideas will help me update faster!
-Emotwin03