As we're jostled down the street in the evening rush hour I hear several people comment. "Watch it shrimp,"
"Shouldn't you be with your mommy?"
All coming from above me. Why am I so damn short and thin?
Sher hears and wraps her arms around my waist as we follow my directions away from the city's hustle and bustle and toward an emptier warehouse district. "Don't worry about them." She says, as we walk. "They don't know you. To me, you're perfect." She kisses me to reassure my hopes, and perhaps her own.
I follow the number/letter combinations on the warehouse doors. As we continue they get shabbier and shabbier. We finally come to our stop. The paint of the door is nearly gone, but we still can make out that it's the right one. The metal frame is rusty and it hardly seems to be standing up.
There's a crack in the door, I slip through and Sher follows, our hands still clasped.
It's pitch black and I feel my way forward, holding onto Sherin's hand tightly. Suddenly the lights in the warehouse jump to life. The cavernous room is lit with a gray gleam and I blink and clasp Sherin's hand tightly as my eyes adjust. Trinity is standing in the corner.
"Hello Em." She says.
"Trinity," I nod. I grip Sher's hand and then clear my throat. "This is Sherin."
Trinity's nods and a sad smile passes over her face for a moment, but is gone so quickly I can't tell if it was really there or not.
"Follow me." Trinity says softly. She leads us out of a door in the back and into a musty old office in the back. It appears this warehouse was completely abandoned. There's still mildew-encrusted furniture and water stained wood desks scattering the room, but my eyes barely acknowledge these compared to the other things in here, that most obviously are not left behind. There is a variety of very high tech looking computer screens and other devices strewn about atop the table and desk-tops. There's a man with a black ponytail at one computer, and a girl beside him with very short white blonde hair.
"He's bugged." Trinity says as the two in the room rise to acknowledge us. "Sherin?" Trinity says, "Have you had any nightmares lately? With men in suits?" She looks puzzled. "No. not that I remember."
"Good." Trinity says.
"Where do they have him?" the blonde girl says, nodding to me.
"Tooth." Trinity grimaces.
"Are you telling me that dream was real?" I say to Trinity, shocked.
"I'm afraid so. And now we have to extract it or it could alert others of our presence. The man with the ponytail shakes his head. "Tough break, man." He says, patting me on the shoulder.
I'm laid back in a chair and Trinity has a very official looking pair of pliers in her hands. Now I know what he means by tough break.
"In most cases getting bugs out is relatively painless, but this new one they've done with the tooth is ugly. There's not much I can do for it. Will you be alright?" Trinity says, looking sympathetic, but also with a tone telling me I don't have much of a choice.
"I will." I say bravely, and point out the tooth to her.
She puts the pliers in my mouth and closes it around the tooth. I grasp Sherin's hand tightly, and with a disgusting squelch tears the tooth out, root and all. I cry out and blood floods my mouth. I clench my mouth shut as soon as the tooth is taken out in the grasp of the pliers and groan, turning my head down toward the floor I spit out a mouthful of blood and saliva on the floor. The blonde girl hands me a chunk of white gauze which I put in the hole where my tooth was gingerly, and squeeze Sherin's hand. She looks pale.
Trinity places the tooth on a hard metal desk and then smashes it with the head of the pliers. It breaks into a few pieces and a disgusting little worm slithers out. Sherin shrieks. It writhes for a moment and then falls still and shrivels back into a little metal ball. A little light at the head of blinks for a moment then fades. Trinity smashes it as well, just for good measure. I shudder.
"This is Switch." Trinity says, of the girl who handed me the gauze. "And Apoch." She adds, nodding toward the man with the ponytail.
Sitting in one of the filthy old chairs, but with the posture of a king upon his throne, is a large bald man wearing a long leather coat.
"And this is Morpheus." Trinity says.
He smiles as I gape with the utterance of his name, the pain of my tooth for an instant forgotten.
"Emerson." He says in a deep slow voice. "It's good to meet you at last."
