Tyana sat silently on her single sheeted bed with her legs hugged to her chest, her chin leaning on them with a melancholy expression etched on her face. There had to be a way. She couldn't be stuck in this place forever. No matter how sad she was and how desperate she was to make it over to the other side some how, right now all she wanted was to be let out of this place. This disinfected blank. This huge bank of silver technology. Of lonely empty rooms. This grey, grey room. She wanted out. Even though she knew staying here was her only connection to figuring out a way to cross over. Her conflicting emotions battled it out as she sighed and got to her feet to pace.
On the one hand she was miserable. She needed to see Jeff even though he wouldn't remember her. She needed to speak to him, to hear him. She just wanted the chance to at least try to jog his memory, no matter what a lost cause it would be. And staying in the vicinity, staying here where monitor's and chaperones could watch over every single step she took and move she made was the only way. On the outside, that was where she would be alone and forgotten.
But then again, being cooped up inside just because she was love sick was driving her insane. As if being tired and broken and lost and unloved wasn't enough, the last thing she needed was people asking her if she was ok, if she needed anything, how she was feeling. She needed to be outside to see the sky and hear life. She needed to breathe in air that hadn't been filtered hundreds of feet into the ground layer just so she could respire. She needed to find a huge crowd, where she was just another face, and slip into it unnoticed. She needed to disappear so that she could cry and whine and ache without someone trying to comfort her. She needed freedom.
Tyana scoffed at the irony of it. She had joined the mission to give freedom to the man she now loved and in return she had ended up sacrificing her own freedom. She was locked up because she had become too close to someone. And she wouldn't be let go until Bretski could go to the head of operations and truthfully say that she was as well as she was when she had joined up; that she was ready to be introduced back into society. That she was done with being a hamster, locked up, nothing to do but run wheels in the stupid fitness room.
"I hate being a hamster" Tyana muttered, still taking the room that was her night quarters in her sure stride. And then it clicked; Bretski. He was her ticket out of here. He understood her. He understood that she needed to heal. So surely he would understand that she couldn't heal, not here, not shut away from humanity. She had been their conscience; now let them repay her. Let them continue with their cruelty so she had no chance but to toughen up and pretend with them that love wasn't real. How she longed to be in that denial with the rest of the masses hundreds of feet above her. She left the room with a clear destination and soon found herself standing in it, staring down at the man who could help her help herself.
"Bretski" she began, sitting down across from him with her face a mask of seriousness, "I need your help"
The next day Tyana looked at the pale green haired man with a smile.
"Thank you so much Bret, I could have never gotten out of that place without you, I owe you a huge one"
He shook his head, "Think nothing of it, I'm glad you can get away from it all now."
Tyana smiled gratefully and then hugged her friend. When she pulled back she looked down at the tiny set of communicative devices he had set in her hand. In her luggage she already had the two communicators she had been given on the mission and now in her hand she held a tiny pager, a cell—a more efficient and modern version of one than the other dimension used—an earpiece and a radio. Obviously they were preparing so that should Tyana need immediate contact with someone from the mission she could get it instantaneously. Tyana packed away the devices into her bag and then nodded and hugged Bret one more time.
"You take care now, you hear? And give a guy a call every once in a while too, yeah? Oh and remember if you need anything material then just use that credit slip we had set up for you, and Ty please just—"
"—Bret, calm down, I will be fine. I have the card, the address to the apartment you had set for me and I have a strong mind on my shoulders. You don't need to worry about me, k?" she cupped his face in her hands, assuring him in a stern but gentle voice. He nodded. "Good, now, I'm gonna walk out that door, run up those steps and burst into the big wide world and do you know what the first thing I do when I get to my new place is?" she shook his head for him, "I'm going to call you. Ok?"
"Ok"
"Good, ok, then I will speak to you later, bye bye" she kissed his cheek.
"Bye Ty"
Tyana picked up her case, waved to him one last time then passed through the door. She looked at the staircase in front of her, the over her shoulder back at the door that had led her to her fate, and then back up. She thundered up the stairs full of hope and excitement and then through the doors that led her out into the real world.
It took her hours to find humanity away from the secluded area of mission head quarters and took her yet another hour to find her apartment. And the first thing she did when she closed the door behind her…
Was cry.
***
The days slowly passed Tyana by but she spent a great percentage of her time locked up inside the flat that the mission had rented for her. On her first day out she had eventually calmed enough to phone Bret but not before she had made sure it looked like she hadn't been crying. After all, this realm didn't have telephones, instead they had large screen that would shoot down from the ceiling so you could see and talk to the person you wished to contact. And knowing seeing her so miserable and wet would upset Tyana she took a little time to fix her appearance and then made out that it simply took her a little longer to find her apartment than she had thought. Bret snapped up the fib without a second thought—wishful thinking she supposed—and after a brief 'how's it feel?' chat she was alone again with her thoughts. And her tears.
But she had been free—in some sense of the word—for 4 days now and Tyana had only eaten once. Her stomach was shockingly angry and its hunger was stated every few seconds with a large snarl. Sighing, Tyana realized not only did she need to eat but she needed to get outside and interact with people. She showered away the tears and dirt and sadness and then dressed in the clothes Bret had insisted be made for her. Her wardrobe was full of custom made replicas of all the clothes she had bought while on the other side as well as some of a similar style that she had never actually purchased. That day she was wearing a pair of baggy blue pants and a mid-rift white shirt. She knew she wouldn't fit in outside of her apartment, outside of her place of solitude, but quite frankly she didn't care. She intended to be in a place where she did fit in rather soon. A specific place that is. The other dimension.
Sure, the matter of crossing over was still one she had yet to find an answer for, and hell, she didn't even know how she was supposed to survive on the other side if she ever actually got there. She would figure it out though. As soon as she ate.
Tyana grabbed her credit slip and re-read her new identification card, memorizing the details in case she needed them, and left.
