I own nothing except this Soul Scepter thingy and Julie!
Finally, the debut of this story's featured original character- Grand Mistress Julienne! Her name was originally going to be Jill, but I thought I'd lay off on the Mother Goose references for now, and Julienne sounded fancier than Jillian, anyway. And if you're wondering what in the world she keeps sniffing, don't worry, it's only spices. This story is rated PG! I think I made Jack a little too nice in this chapter. It was probably because I couldn't wait to write about Julie… aw, well. Oh, and the dancing thing is weird, I know, but I always include some kind of dance in all of my fanfictions…it's a habit. I know I also imply in this chapter that Jack's pastiness is actually white face paint, but this was written before I had seen that the rest of him is white too. Maybe he soaks himself in white dye… I also say something about him having freckles underneath, because for some reason, I can easily picture him with freckles… Yeah…I'm weird. ;
Oh, and I forgot it before, but here's the recitation of the ages for this story-
Jack (and Rai, if he's in this story later): 14, (in the future, 44)
Kimiko: 13 (in the future, 43)
Omi: 10 (in the future, 40)
Clay: 15 (in the future, 45)
Katnappe (yes, she'll show up later): 15 (in the future, 45)
Meagan (so will she): 7 (in the future, 37)
Julie: nonexistent (in the future, 14)
Dojo: 1,500 (in the future, 1,530) ;)
…So many reviews! This is actually the most reviews I've ever gotten for only two chapters, so I want to thank everyone who reviewed! Please go easy on me for this chapter, I know it's got a lot of errors, but better stuff is coming, I promise.
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Chapter 3: Like Family
It's so dark… It's been a long time…too long. It's so cold… I want my blankie. I want my computer. I want my robot army. I just want my world back. The other one. Not this nightmare… I'm dreaming, that has to be it. Any minute now, Wuya will come screaming at me for falling asleep at the desk again…and I haven't really won a Shen-Gong-Wu. That part's a drag… This is a nightmare. Maybe if I complain that I just had a nightmare, she'll let me stay at the base… Nah, that never works… It's weird, I've never had a bad dream about me ruling the world before…
---
Suddenly, a pair of ice-cold hands clamped themselves over Jack's shoulders and tore him away from his internal fantasizing. "Room 566," a female voice droned in his ear.
"Occupied," a male voice drawled in response.
"Grand Mistress Julienne," a second male voice specified.
"No vacancies," a third male drawl, this one with a bit of an accent, said.
"Visitor!" the female computerized voice said, with an actual hint of enthusiasm. Those icicle fingers stabbed Jack's back with coldness, even through his trench coat. At the emotionless exclamation, they pushed against him, and with a panic rising in his chest, he realized that he was falling forwards without knowing how long it was to the bottom.
I'm going to die! He thought in his panic. But he only got the chance to let out a slight squeal before he hit the cold, stone floor of a new room. Everything was dead silent, other than the slight tapping of eight uniformly covered feet marching back to their chambers.
Where am I? Jack wondered. They said 'room 566'…that's where I must be. …Who's 'Grand Mistress Julienne'? Those lifeless Xiaolin showoffs are trying to play a trick on me, aren't they? Convinced of this conclusion, Jack at last lifted his head from the floor to get a look at his new environment. It was very dark, just like the rest of the castle, but illuminated by several candles, placed strategically around the room.
"Well, this isn't so bad…" he decided, talking aloud to himself, now knowing that he was alone. "I wish it were a little brighter, though…"
At that moment, an unusual, strong, yet pleasant odor reached his nose and he glanced around to find its source. "Now what's that smell? It's like…tacos or something…weird."
As if in response, a light suddenly sparked on in a darkened corner of the room, revealing the source of the strange smell. A teenage girl was sitting on an ornate stool, holding an opened bottle of unidentifiable substance.
Startled, Jack jumped back from the area. There was another person in this room! Another person that had just heard him talking to himself! The girl turned her stark white painted face towards him and blinked a little, probably confused. That's right. They said, 'occupied' and 'Grand Mistress Julienne'. Occupied by Grand Mistress Julienne! Why didn't I realize that before?! "Oh…um…I didn't mean to bother you…you're Grand Mistress Julienne, aren't you?"
There was no response from the young lady; she simply corked the bottle in her hands and placed it back on its shelf behind her head. She was surprisingly pretty, with long, straight, shiny black hair, large reddish eyes, and a slim figure. She wore a long, tissue-like black chiffon dress with a purple dress underneath to match. The hem, along with the long, dangling sleeves, ended in petal shapes. Around her neck was a necklace with a dark bluish-purple pendant in the shape of a swirl. She stared, almost meekly, at Jack and clutched the pendant around her neck.
"Well…I really don't know what I'm doing in your room… I guess they couldn't find any other space for me…" Jack continued on, trying to get some positive reinforcement on her part. "So I guess I'm going to be your roommate until I can find a way out of this world…the name's Jack Spicer, by the way."
Grand Mistress Julienne stared in shock and amazement. Then, she abruptly turned and tried to cover her elated expression.
"Are you okay?" Jack asked, slowly approaching her. The last thing he wanted to do was harm this beautiful, delicate creature, and then get in trouble with the law again. Even though he wasn't sure of her actual status, he knew she had to be someone important in the castle with a title like Grand Mistress.
The girl at last made her first reply. Softly, in a low voice, she whispered, "No."
"What happened?" Jack asked, desperately searching for whatever it was that he did wrong. "Was it something I said?"
"…No," Grand Mistress Julienne said again. At last, she turned around again, pointing to the left.
Jack followed her finger to a bunk bed set up in the corner. From the rumpled look of the bottom bunk, that was where she always slept. He glanced at a nearby digital clock shining through the darkness near the entrance to the room. 11:30, PM. Time sure had flown…Well, it was getting late. Maybe she was trying to tell him that he should get to bed.
"Yeah…" he said, without even completely sure of her message. "You're right. I am really tired." With that, he climbed up to the top bunk and fluffed the pillow. Before he lied down for the night, he looked back over at the mysterious girl in the small area surrounded by canisters. "Well…hope you feel better. Maybe we can get along, and…be friends…or something. Grand Mistress Julienne is kind of a long name for a girl like you. Could I call you by a shorter name? Maybe…Julie? Would you like that?" Watching her face carefully, Jack thought he saw a bit of a smile appear on the delicate girl's face. "I'll take that as a yes. Good night, Julie."
Meanwhile, from her perch on the intricately woven stool, Julienne quickly checked for hidden cameras, and then broke into a full-fledged grin, reading her labeled jars and scribbling in her diary excitedly.
---
The dark, silent halls of the mansion spread for miles on end. It seemed like they would never end…like he would be lost forever in their cavernous depths if he dared venture into them. Thankfully, the door to the master bedroom was only on the other side of the hall.
It seemed to take a lot longer to get there than he had expected. Reaching up, his small hand at last grasped the smooth, cold surface of the doorknob. The shiny gold reflected a light on the other side of the hall. The gleaming metallic light seemed to comfort him somehow.
"Daddy?" A gigantic bed stood just behind the door, where his father was snoring, contentedly. "Daddy!" Reassured by the appearance of a familiar person, he scrambled up on top of the bed and shook the man in joyful recognition. "Daddy! Daddy! Get up!"
A pair of angry, flashing red eyes drove back at the happiness that had once warmed his heart. "Jack…" the familiar voice, made unfamiliar in its hardening replied. "What are you doing in my room?"
"I…I had a bad dream…" those visions were creeping back into existence again, and instinctively, he began to shiver, nudging closer to the familiar entity. "…I'm scared…"
The hard voice began again, but this time was the hardest of all. "Get. Out." Just those two words. That was all it took to make him feel and almost believe that he had just been punched in the face.
---
Poke…poke. Poke, poke, poke! "Okay! Okay, I'm getting up! You see me moving?! You know, I have my own evil duties to attend to, and…" Jack at last opened his eyes, and saw instead of a floating purple hag with swirling eyes, a pretty girl with long black hair and face paint matching his. Well, this certainly was an improvement.
Julienne continued to stare, absentmindedly at him. Then, she reached out and poked him again.
"What do you want?" Jack complained. "Can't you just tell me?"
Julienne stared, and at last lowered her head back down, stepping off the ladder leading to his second bunk. She retreated to her dark corner, marched around, lighted all the candles, and then sat down to contentedly sniff her jars of unidentifiable substances.
Jack sat up and looked himself over. "Oh darn, I fell asleep in my jacket again…but I didn't bring a change of clothes with me!" He smacked his own forehead. That's right, stupid! You're still in that weird future world where you're a murderer and the Xiaolin Dragons are zombies… He carefully climbed down the ladder to ground level, gripping the sidebars tightly. It had to be that dream, he decided. I usually only have dreams about my childhood like that when I'm at home. Finally, he reached the slippery, dirty marble ground of Julienne's room.
Checking a mirror that was hanging on the side post of the lower bunk, he realized that his hair was a bit flattened and his face paint had been rubbed halfway off in the night. He groaned in frustration, realizing that he hadn't brought any hair gel or makeup with him either. This bothered Jack the most, since he never wanted anyone else to find out that underneath the pasty vampire powder and brick-red spikes, he was really a carrothead with freckles. "Oh…darnit…" he muttered to himself, desperately trying to spread whatever was left of his face paste over the hideous blemishes. "Hey…" he asked, stepping up in front of his mysterious roommate. "You wouldn't happen to have any…"
Getting a look at his face, Julienne let off a small squeak in alarm and smacked Jack in the face with a powderpuff full of white makeup.
"Well…thanks," he said, looking happily at his now white face in the mirror. "Now I just need some…"
Instantly, Julienne produced a stick of black face paint and swiped the two black lines under his eyes, and the curve on his left cheek.
"Aha!" Jack said, looking satisfactorily at his familiar face. "I got it! I know your secret, Julie. You're a mind reader!"
Julienne actually looked a little happy at this statement.
"Uhh…" Jack asked, looking slightly embarrassed as he turned around. "…Where's the bathroom?"
Julienne stood up from her little stool and pointed towards the door and then to the right, and then the right again.
"So…down the hall on the right…and…first door on the right?" She nodded. "Alright. Thanks."
A minute later, Jack was trudging down the dank, shadowed halls of the castle. It was so dark, on both the inside and the outside, that he had no idea what time it was. That didn't really matter, anyway. The time in this dimension, or future, or whatever, could be totally different than the time back in China. The atmosphere of these gloomy halls much reminded him of those long, shadowed halls in his own house that he used to be so afraid of…and that he was still so afraid of. At last, he spied a wooden door on the right.
Finally! This must be the bathroom… Funny, it doesn't look like a bathroom… Jack at last stepped up and opened the door a little bit, peeking in just to make sure.
Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream erupted from around the corner. He couldn't really see what was going on, but he thought he noticed the shadow of a man in the distance, reeling back a long, whip-like object…
Jack quickly closed the door as the same scream broke out again. Slowly, he backed away from the door. "…I don't think that was the right door," he managed to say, finally turning to continue down the hall. Thankfully, the next door he tried was the right one.
---
Getting lost can be an adventure in itself. For the entire day, Jack had been lost in the Hill Castle, wandering around the endless corridors, one identical to the other. Occasionally, he passed neurotic, frantic-looking servants rushing through the castle halls with packets of papers or trays of food, but they just stared at him like he was a madman when he asked for directions. After six hours wandering through these same exact hallways, he was beginning to get frustrated.
"I hate this world!" Jack suddenly cried, kicking the wall with his black rubber boots. "It's so boring! Come on, there's got to be an evil laboratory around here… How about a video arcade? An ice cream parlor? …table tennis? I'm getting desperate here!" So far all he had seen were offices, kitchens, quarters, and a bunch of creepy dungeon chambers. "This can't be true," he decided for himself. "Because if this were really my castle, it would be full of robots, video games, ice cream…and you'd have to get around by those rodent tube things…and the prisoners would be in a gigantic ball pit, suffocating under the plastic…" Jack suddenly stopped his fantasizing again, as he caught a snatch of a conversation between two of the castle's servants.
"Yeah, I know what you mean…" the first one was replying, checking himself in a nearby mirror. "There's only one thing in the world that scares me more…"
Normally, Jack wouldn't give a Fig Newton about what that person was afraid of, but after having that same "fear" dream from his past as he always had, he decided to stop and listen to the guy's fears. After all, he had to differ from his insensitive father, right?
"…the dragon."
"The dragon?" the second servant asked. "You mean that one they've got locked up at the electric plant in Hilltown? Yeah, I'm afraid of him too…"
"If he got loose, he'd probably destroy the whole planet!"
"Nah, I don't think so. The Master would capture him and then make it look like he'd slain him."
"Shh! Do you know what that kind of talk could do to you? You never know if they're listening in on you…"
As the servants broke back into the everyday jibber-jabber, Jack walked away back down the familiar old hallway. "Dragon? They can't mean that dragon, right? Well, maybe it's that other dragon…" he shook his head and continued concentrating on the path in front of him. "Oh, well, I shouldn't worry about that…right now, I need to find something to do!"
At that exact moment, a resounding gong echoed throughout the castle.
"What the…?" Jack looked frantically around him. Droves of people were rushing out of their dormitories, hidden under black cloaks. They surrounded him at every turn, swarming like a bunch of black bees. With nothing else to do, he decided to follow the crowd for once and find out where they were going. Stone columns, walls, and various paintings flashed by his face as he rushed after the cloaked figures.
They were filling up the central room, just in front of the entrance where the guards had first dragged him in. The people naturally fell into formation, circling around the spiral in the center of the room, some branching off and forming their own little spirals. The crooked big hand on the colossal clock above had just entered the red zone.
"Hmm," Jack said to himself. "Well, I asked for something interesting… Guess I'll stick around and see what these crazy guys are going to do…"
Suddenly, every single one of them fell to the ground, kissing it in reverence, while still standing in formation. Looking up, Jack finally noticed the source of their humility. The Ultimate Master had appeared again, standing on a balcony sticking out of the side of the wall. Why hadn't he noticed that balcony there before?
If it weren't shock enough just to see the older, bearded version of himself step up on that balcony, the real shock came in the appearance of the figure sitting, gently on a stool next to him.
"…Julienne?!" Indeed, the quiet, willful teenage girl was up on the balcony beside the Ultimate Master Jack Spicer. She didn't look too pleased with this duty, but then again, she never really looked pleased with anything. That was right, she was "Grand Mistress Julienne". That couldn't mean…
As if on cue, all of the cloaked people popped back up into position. Mechanically, they all began to move at the same time. The group of people, in their long flowing robes, more resembled monks than the Xiaolin Warriors ever could. They shuffled down the line, hands in their sleeves, chanting in unison. With their identical robes and white painted faces the only things visible, it much resembled an army of clones.
"Whoa…" Jack whispered to himself. "It's like a cult or something… Cool!"
By the nature of their actions and constant bowing, it was easy to observe that they were performing some sort of worshipping ritual to the ultimate master. The dance continued on, as they walked in perfect sync, returning to their spots and starting the routine all over again.
Jack yawned and sat down on the cold marble floor, resting his back against an equally cold marble pillar. "How long are they gonna keep that up? I know I wouldn't be able to walk around and chant like that for an hour…" In fact, he couldn't imagine bowing and submitting like these Jack-monks were doing for even a minute. What lowlifes…he found himself thinking. Guess they've got nothing better to be doing… Seeing as how this castle is so boring!!!
The black human figures returned to their positions on the spiral design for the umpteenth time, and Jack, sick of their repetitive act, closed his eyes to think some more about this.
So I rule the planet…and I've got this huge castle, and servants, and these worshipping Jack-monks… At last, a slightly evil smile appeared on his pale face as he turned over to take another nap. …Eat my dust, Xiaolin scum… Everything was starting to feel normal again, and perhaps if he just concentrated on the present, and stopped trying to analyze this warped dimension, everything would eventually return to the way it was…
"My most humble servants!" The icy blast of Jack's own futuristic voice immediately snapped him out of his quiet concentration mode. Oh well, that wasn't going to work, was it?
Ultimate Master Jack had risen from his other throne on the balcony to address the crowd below. "I thank you for another wonderful Respect Hour. My daughter and I have been most delighted…"
As soon as Jack recognized those two significant words 'my daughter', he jumped back up to his feet. "So Julienne is his daughter…which would make her the princess! And…if this is the future…" Jack suddenly felt sick and lightheaded, and he knew it couldn't be motion sickness this time. "My…daughter?! But…I can't have a daughter! I never even wanted kids! I'm only fourteen! …who's the mama?!?!" By now, he was nearly tearing his hair out just thinking about it.
While Jack was freaking out, he missed the second half of the future self's speech, and just managed to catch the last couple of words. "…resume your regularly scheduled session."
The obedient Jack-monks rose from their stooped positions and once again began to promenade around the central chamber. The Ultimate Master had disappeared from the balcony, however, along with Julienne.
Jack promptly resumed his panic. "My roommate is my daughter! My roommate is my daughter! OhmyGod!!! My roommate is my daughter!!!" If he hadn't reached out and rested his hand against the cool, soothing pillar, he probably would have fainted at that moment. Unfortunately, since Jack made such a big scene out of realizing that Julienne was his future daughter, it was impossible for him not to be noticed.
"Hey…" the gruff voice of one of the palace guards spoke out, at last noticing the flailing arms and panicked gestures of his future master, "There's someone over there behind that pillar." The palace guards were different from the guards that had originally arrested Jack, these ones wearing special silver armor and no swirl shoulder pads.
"Aw, probably just another rowdy resident getting too close to the respect area…" his partner replied in a bored tone. "C'mon, let's go take care of the riffraff…"
"OhmyGod!" Jack cried again, still not believing what had just been confirmed in front of his own eyes. "What am I going to say to her?! I have to get out of this place… That's not right; you're not supposed to know what your child's going to look like before you even consider having a child… If she found out I didn't want to have kids, then she'd think I hate her…but, I really don't. She's really gorgeous… If she weren't my daughter, I would…"
"Excuse me, young man…" Jack squealed again as three gigantic armored palace guards suddenly popped out of nowhere. "Just what are you doing out of your chambers?"
"Uh…" he stuttered in their intimidating presence. "I came to see the show! Or…the performance…or…the worshipping ritual?"
The third guard promptly punched him across the face as if he were performing some routine task. These guards, like all other workers in the palace, had no fire in their actions at all. The second guard grabbed him to prevent him from escaping. "Don't you have some job you should be doing?" the first guard asked.
"Uh…no…"Jack replied, now dangling in the grip of the second guard. "I was just bored and happened to wander over here. I don't have a job. I'm too young to get a job, anyway. I'm only fourteen…"
The third guard was just about to punch him again, when that familiar icy, demanding voice broke out from the distance. "Unhand him!"
The second guard immediately released Jack, and he fell to the marble floor again.
The Ultimate Master appeared again, his long royal purple cape fluttering in his hands. Julienne followed closely behind, expressionless as always.
"Master!" the guards cried in astonishment, dropping to the ground and kissing it, according to custom.
"That's quite enough for now," the future Jack told them. "Now, listen to me. This boy is a special guest. He is permitted to go wherever in this castle he chooses. Make sure he is not wrongly convicted again. Do you hear me?"
"Yes, yes, Master!" the guards replied in unison. "We'll spread the word around!" "Of course!" "Never again!" Then, they all hurried off back to their secret little guards' chambers.
"Wow…fank you…" Jack muttered, rubbing his swollen jawbone and sitting up on the floor. "I…mwean…fank me."
The Ultimate Master placed his hands squarely on his fancily dressed hips. He scowled down at his former self, but also displayed a strange kind of determination in his red eyes. "You know…I've been thinking about this…and I think I realize your reason for coming here."
"Oh, reawey?" Jack asked, sitting up a little straighter. "Begause I doan shee it…"
"Just shut your trap and listen to me already!!!" future Jack snapped back. "Geez, I was so annoying as a teenager…"
Now Jack was the one scowling, but that was partly due to the fact that his stretched cheek skin wouldn't allow for anything else.
"Although I remember nothing of the sort, I believe that you may have come here to learn a lesson. Perhaps you have twisted space and time so that this world will someday come about in your own world. We are existing right now, so that we will exist in the future…of sorts… I've always had some trouble with the whole time travel concept…"
"I know what you mean…" Jack replied. He chuckled a bit at this statement. "Well, of course I know what I mean!"
"Get serious," future Jack said, plainly. "That should be step one of your enlightenment." Then, leaving his former self with that statement to mull over, Ultimate Master Jack jerked himself away and hurried back down the corridor towards his comfy, golden throne room.
Jack sat for a while longer in a state of utter perplexity. He tried to ignore the painful throbbing of his right jawbone, but only ended up focusing on it more.
Slowly, Julienne, who had been hiding in her father's shadow all this time, gracefully stepped forward, bending down to tend to his injuries.
"J-Julie…" Jack's body froze as she touched her white powdered hand to his cheek. Even though he knew it was ridiculous, he almost felt…afraid of her. It just wasn't right. She was the same age as him, yet she was his daughter… Julienne remained as stony silent as always. Did she know that he was her father from the past? Jack wondered.
He felt a worse, pressing, throbbing feeling in his cheek, and tightened all the muscles in his face as a response. Julienne was holding an ice pack to the bruise, though no one knows where she pulled it out from. Jack tried to talk to her, but she just pressed her finger to her lips, calling for silence, until she felt he had healed enough.
When she at last removed the ice pack, he had a flood of things he wanted to say. He wanted to thank her, first of all, wanted to ask about the strange chanting rituals he'd seen, and wanted to ask if she knew who he really was, but all of the planning was blown out the window as soon as he opened his mouth.
"You're my daughter!" he cried, without even realizing it as first, and when he did, covered his mouth in surprise. How would she react to hearing the truth? Jack held his breath and stared up at her.
Julienne just blinked, seemingly unaffected by the statement. She held out her small, delicate hand, and Jack found it strange that a hand like that would be the one to help him up again.
---
"I'm bored." How many times had he said that today? Fifty? One hundred? Julienne paid no attention, of course, writing in some kind of notebook or diary with a quill-styled pen. She'd been in her little corner ever since they'd returned from the castle's main hall.
Jack sat on one of the bunk ladder's rungs, resting his chin in one hand, and if not for the glazed look of his eyes, would have looked to be deep in thought. Finally, he couldn't take the silence anymore, and decided to take his HeliPack off and maybe play with the propellers for a while. He unhooked the Heylin-themed fastener on his chest and slipped the pack off his back. Suddenly, Jack received a ray of hope as he noticed that he had stuffed a few of his belongings into the extra pouches under the propeller holes.
"Hmm…let's see," he talked to himself as he rummaged through the pockets. "A few batteries…some pens…house keys…a Game Boy…but no games…a CD…but no CD player… Hey, that's what I should do! I'll make a Game Boy that plays CDs! …And that comes alive and attacks people!" Jack's excitement quickly wore off as he realized that he didn't have the equipment or the space to do anything like that.
"Oh, well… Hey, a communicator thingy!!!" Perhaps hope was in sight after all! Now he could call his evil operatives and they could figure out how to bring him back from this nightmare of a future world. Jack eagerly pressed a button near the top. "Calling Wuya…" he said into the receiver at the bottom. "This is Jack Spicer." Both the screen and the speaker remained crackling with static. "Come in, Wuya!" he tried again. Nothing changed. "Come on, I know you don't have hands, but just…use my Dad's body or something!" More static.
Jack sighed and tried a different evil ally. "This is desperate, but…Katnappe! Katnappe, come in! It's Jack Spicer!" Even more painful, crackling static greeted him. He growled in aggravation and shoved the communicator back into the pocket on his HeliPack. Turning towards Julienne, still silently scrawling in her diary, he tried to involve her in a conversation. "I don't suppose you have any Game Boy games, CD players, magical portals, or…"
Just as Jack was about to add "robot parts" to that list, Julienne suddenly turned around in her stool, holding a small, flat device with speakers, covered in dust.
"What's that?" Jack asked, standing up and softly approaching her to get a better look at it. Surprisingly, it actually was a CD player! In this age, CD players weren't manufactured anymore, but Julienne had managed to find this old, unused one thrown in with her furniture. "Yes!" Jack cried, seizing it, boldly from her hands. "Now I can finally listen to some music! Gee…it doesn't look like you've ever even used this thing. Don't you like music?"
Juliene just blinked again, a slightly questioning look appearing on her face.
Jack set the compact CD player on the rocky ground and blew the dust off the top, then rubbed it a bit with his sleeves to eliminate the stubborn film. "Okay, we're all ready!" He hurried over to the HeliPack's pockets and pulled out the CD, its black-and-silver label design glittering in the candlelight.
Julienne interestingly watched him as he hurried back and forth from the CD player, to the pack, and to the CD player again. "There. It's got brand-new batteries now. It should work…" At last, he pressed the "Play" button on the right of the control panel, and a few seconds later a determined female voice cried out amongst the drumbeats and guitar wails. Jack smiled and crossed his arm satisfactorily.
Julienne's eyes widened a bit as she listened to the sound. She'd never heard such a wonderful, appropriate song in her life. It was as if someone were playing the soundtrack to her own life. Slowly, she chanced to stand up, and make her way over to where the mysterious, outdated machine was producing the gripping noise.
Jack cocked his head to look sideways at her, still smiling a strangely different smile. "You like it?" he asked. "They're one of my favorite bands. The lead singer is really gorgeous…kind of like you, actually. I mean…if you weren't my daughter…"
Julienne just ignored him for the moment, closing her eyes and swaying gently to the music. Pretty soon, Jack was caught up in the music too, and instinctively launched into a dance sequence that he had made up. Julienne stood back and observed him for a while, and when the next song came on, began to try to dance herself. She glided gracefully around the room to the tune. Jack glanced over and found her dancing with the exact same grace that she had shown in the center room. It actually wasn't that strange to see her dancing. She was a pretty good dancer for someone who'd never danced before.
Soon, the two of them began to blend their movements and before they even knew it, they were dancing together. It felt surprisingly comfortable. The small chamber became a totally different world with the music. It was like some kind of wonderland, just blending and mixing together into a sparkling, swirling, comfortable world within this cold nightmare. The dance seemed to last forever, and although Jack was beginning to feel tired, he wished it would never end. Julie grabbed onto Jack's hands, and the two swung each other gracefully around the room. At last, the final notes began to fade away, and the CD player made a beeping noise as it came to a stop.
"Aw, well," Jack said between gasps. "Looks like…that's the last song…"
Julie took a deep breath and gingerly sat back on her decorative stool. Her rosy cheeks were beginning to show through her white face paint. Her happiness and ecstasy wore off in an instant, and she returned to dabbing her face, worriedly.
Jack gulped the air around him as he glanced, discontentedly sideways at her. He had assumed that after an experience like that, the cold girl would spectacularly break into a conversation with him, but no such salvation came. Gradually the sparkling wonderland was melting back into the same, dull, drab dormitory. Jack sighed and got up to remove the CD from her old CD player. He shoved it back into the pocket on his HeliPack and sat back on the ladder rung where he had been before. It was almost like none of it had even happened.
But, it really had. He knew it had. It was too late, it had already been revealed. Julie's not like everyone else here, he realized. She's not like those zombie guards. She has a personality. At that moment, Julie stepped up to the bottom bunk, back to her normal, cold self.
"You know, you can talk to me," Jack told her. "I know you might feel awkward because I'm your father, but…"
Julie simply turned from his gaze and paraded around the room, extinguishing the glowing candles.
"Hey!" Jack cried, gripping himself fearfully as it grew darker and darker around him. "Can't you just leave one of them on…in case…well, in case one of us has to get up in the night?"
As Julie made her way back to the bunk, holding the last glowing candle, she glanced over and raised her eyebrow at him. She set the candle down on a tray nearby in compliance before slipping into her bunk and flipping the covers over herself. Did nobody wear pajamas in the future?
Jack mulled over this odd fact for a while longer before finally deciding to go to bed himself. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. As Jack placed his head on the puffy pillow of the top bunk, his mind returned to the events of the day. The screaming in that unknown room…the Jack cult worshippers… "my daughter and I…" …dancing with Julie… She's not my daughter, he made himself believe. I'm not in the future. She's not my daughter. She's my sister. She's my best friend. Not my daughter. And with that decision firmly made, he closed his eyes to forget everything and delve into the very different world of his own mind.
