Chapter 4~Missing
It came out of nowhere. The feeling of abandonment, of loneliness that seeped into her. She was trapped, in a strange place with no one to help her. A situation she had never been faced with.
But shouldn't she have felt fear?
She sighed, thinking back to the events that led to her present state. She couldn't remember much of what had happened. Only the dreams. They kept on coming back, no matter how hard she tried to bury them inside her.
And the scene of her mother being shot kept replaying itself like a broken record. She was forced to relive that tragic night, to see once again how her mother's eyes had slowly gone blank, her mouth carved into a frozen smile and her hand grasping tightly to the pearl hairclip that she promised to give to her daughter.
Most of all, she remembered red against white.
Neon hugged her knees even tighter around herself and saw the tall skinny person sitting opposite of her stirring slightly by the rustling her skirt made. She stuck out her tongue at the sleeping man and turned her head away.
There was barely any light inside the small room. The only source of light was coming from the tiny hole on the wall and even then, there's only a small sliver of it coming through. It illuminated a dusty, dirty cement floor and muddy brick walls. The room was small, the size of an elevator perhaps. The only other occupant inside it beside her was the black-suited man who had not woken up from his sleep ever since he was brought in. his hair was longish, covering half of his face and he had a crooked nose that made him look like an oversized crow. His head was leaning heavily on his right shoulder and saliva was dripping from his mouth to the floor.
Disgusting! She thought.
A few minutes later, the door opened, revealing a bulky man wearing a pair of ratty old jeans and plain white shirt. He sneered at the sleeping man and turned to give an appraising look to Neon. The latter raised an eyebrow.
"Gettin' comfortable, lass?" he leered.
"Who are you?" she immediately demanded. She scrambled up, dusting herself up and crossed her arms at the man.
"Easy does it, missy. Our boss just wants to have a little…talk with you. C'mon! Gi' up!" the man said and roughly pulled her up by one arm.
"Get your filthy hands off me! I can walk quite well by myself!" she snapped irritably, wrenching her arm free. The man growled unintelligibly and pushed her out of the room.
She was led to a room a few doors away from her previous one and found that it wasn't in much better shape. It was only slightly bigger and contained only of an old cheap study desk and an uncomfortable looking rattan chair. One man was sitting on another ancient cushioned chair on the other side of the desk and he was puffing on a cigarette coolly while surveying her from top to toe.
"Ah, Miss Nostaroid. How nice of you to join me." He said in a false sweet voice.
"Don't you have any food? I'm hungry. It's been hours since I last ate. And I need a bath. How dare you put me in that smelly, dirty room with that beggar! It doesn't even have a couch! My back is killing me! I swear, when I get out of here, I'll sue the lot of you!"
"Tsk, tsk. Feisty, aren't we?" he said, grinning like an idiot and waving one finger at her, as if reprimanding a child.
Neon wanted to scream. Hunger and pain always made her cranky. And it annoyed the hell out of her when the man on the chair kept saying lines that can only be heard on old movies or TV sitcoms. He was perhaps in his early twenties. His hair was a mop of copper curls and his eyes a dull grey shade. He was dressed in a plain white button-up shirt. Neon couldn't see what pants he was wearing but she was willing to bet that it was as plain and drab as he was.
"I want food. And a bath. And a change of clothes." Neon whined.
"Look here, missy. In case you haven't noticed, we're in charge here. You're not in any position to make any demands." Sitcom Boy warned.
She shrugged and proceeded to sulk as the two put their heads together to confer. She'd have eavesdropped but honestly, all they do was grunt. Especially on the gorilla side while Sitcom Boy waved his hand around like a hippo swatting a fly. Talk about inconspicuous. The two definitely held new meaning to the word.
"Okay listen here, missy. The boss wants you to write a prediction."
"Forget it!" Neon stuck out her tongue and leaned back. She crossed her arms to emphasize her words.
"Charming." Sitcom Boy interrupted. "You weren't listening very closely, Miss Nostaroid. I wasn't asking, I was ordering."
Neon scrunched up her nose. "I don't take orders." She replied stubbornly.
Sitcom Boy scowled and shot a 'look' towards Gorilla. Obediently, he grabbed Neon by the hand and shook her until her teeth chattered. When he finally put her back down, Neon had to grab the wobbly chair's hand so as not to fall.
"If you think I have time to deal with your silly, childish attitude, you are seriously wrong." Sitcom Boy said calmly. He grinned as Neon glared venomously at him. "Now, would you predict something for me?"
Neon was getting more and more annoyed by the minute. Why would they want her predictions? Haven't they heard that she had lost her nen? What was their problem? Were they just being stupid on purpose?
"Haven't you been listening? I don't want to write anything! I want to get out of this horrible place! I don't care if you want a prediction! I'm not giving you any if I don't get food and a bath! Soon! How many times must I tell you this?" screamed Neon and began thrashing around.
Gorilla moved forward and tried to take hold of her but was stopped by Sitcom Boy. The latter watched Neon with distaste and muttered, almost reluctantly, "We're not allowed to harm her, remember?"
"Well what should we 'bout 'er then? She didn' want ter listen to what we say."
"The boss said to do whatever it takes to make her do a prediction for us. If force is out of the question, then we can only use persuasion."
"y'mean…?"
Sitcom Boy sighed. He turned to Neon who was pouting and kicking the table with her boots.
"Tell us what to do." he said tiredly.
AN: some might notice that this is a repost. I just realized that Neon was being way too catty and had to redo this chapter.
p/s: sorry about the Gorilla's accent. I'm so bad at those! ^_^
