A Little Different Point of View…
I flipped my tie as neat as can be. But I never accomplished the task perfectly. Ugh, I've always hated these ties.
I was in a hurry to get to the Facility. I had always hated the Facility, too. Hated a lot of stuff, for that matter. But in the hating the Facility thing--I was not alone.
And so, my tie and I (don't get me wrong, I was wearing other stuff than a tie, like maybe a suit. I just don't want to elaborate) stepped out of my car--my lovely, navy blue Acura. My hair was almost the same shade as my Acura. It was lightly brushed by the sudden breeze. My face was as cold as stone.
Many people actually respected the Facility. It was where all the top-rate Seekers played. Only the top-rate Seekers were allowed to enter. So much for an equal society.
I swapped my all-access card across the tiny pad on the door. A robot hand appeared out of a metal flap above the tiny pad. The hand faced me, palm towards my eyes. A light shined. I didn't flinch.
Maximum security-measures. No idea why they were being so secretive.
When the door had finally opened, I was greeted by pitch black. They often did this to confuse people who were not familiar--people who did not belong. If you indeed had worked here, you would know not to even think about going forward--you'd fall of the ridge. But instead, take an immediate left. Three steps forward and there should be a stairway. A long stairway that zigzagged. It was very hard to not run into the walls. But the Seekers made it slightly easier. Whenever a step was too long, it meant a turn--either left or right, you had to decide. Well, you'd still have a fifty-fifty chance at running into the wall. But as long as you memorized the way, no problem. I hadn't quite figured that one out, I realized, when I ran face-first into the wall. Oh yeah, that was supposed to be right.
Finally freed of the dark and exposed to the light always made me flinch. It looked so…homey. The floor looked like a chessboard. Black and white tiles were seen below all feet. There was a large, wide, white table that centered the room. A flat screen TV, currently on "Channel 2 News," was at the right of the table. There was a large white screen behind the master chair. That was the messy center and the only place that looked like an actual office; there were scattered papers on the floor and pictures of maps posted all over the bulletin board and sometimes on the white screen. There was a bar no one used to the further left corner. Lovely satin sofas, that no one sat on, lounged near me; south of the building. How ironic that such a lovely home would be hosted by such a vile pile of creatures.
I stopped in my tracks. Get a grip, I told himself. My hands fisted and unfisted. It took me approximately 9 seconds to control that anger. I was improving, I thought with a wry smile on my lips.
And speaking of those vile creatures, they were sitting down at the table, talking a little too quietly for my taste. My lips perked.
"Elise," I said, making my presence known.
A woman there turned to look at me. I guess she was beautiful; I never really paid attention. She looked very average. Her hair was wavy and shaded into a light brown. It was scattered very neatly around her face and ended near her stomach.
Her brown eyes brightened a tad. She ran up to me and kissed my lips. I held her cheek as I kissed her back. With her back to the other Seekers, she smiled brightly and whispered my name; "Rivers."
I merely looked at her. I have no idea why she'd fallen in love with me, maybe it was an act. ...No, I've seen her act and she was horrible.
She gripped my hand and her smile faded as she lead me towards the others.
In case you didn't know, Elise was my partner. No, I did not love her…, but there was something about her… I don't know why, but I don't trust her. She's kind and would never cause damage to anyone.
And that bothered me.
I had married her to keep a close eye on her. There was something that didn't seem right.
My pointless assumptions were put aside when I sat down. I had taken my seat at the end of the table--the master chair. There was 6 of us. To my left there were three and to my right there were two. Those that were on my left I didn't know. Those that were on my right I did not trust for an instant. I watched them extra closely. Even Rodgers, the soul who had been in here before, hadn't trusted them. Well, he didn't trust one of them. And as for Rodgers…I'll get to him later.
Cloudy Days was a big, black man. He didn't look friendly. He looked kinda alert. I knew he was a soul, but he had been the one who had dealt with the worst of the resistant humans. It would be shocking to go through that and not be scarred.
Bridging Across was peppy. He was practically bouncing in his chair as he looked at me with those blue eyes full of life. He was very, very, young. I think he was 10 years old. But he had a knack of getting the humans to follow along with pretty much anything. I think he was a hypnotist.
Alarms Aloud was not what you'd think she'd be. The name of a soul always told her story or personality, mainly personality, but Alarms Aloud was pretty much the opposite of what her name meant. She was always sleeping and as a matter of fact, she was sleeping right now. If it weren't for her hawk vision, she'd be kicked out instantly. No seriously, she had vision that surpassed normal. She would take one look at the eyes, about a mile away, and know what we were dealing with.
"Alarms! Wake up!" someone shouted.
Her hair was long and sleek--pitch black. She was the same age as Elise--both of them were twenty four. She had fair skin and she looked like a ghost whenever she woke up. She looked so confused.
The person who had woken her up was sitting on the right side of the table. He nodded to me and said, "Head Rivers is here."
His name was Above. I think that was just a nickname, though. No one used his real name. I hardly had any info about him. But according to my "expert" analysis, he looked about eighteen years old--barely an adult. He looked like he could be Alarms Aloud's brother with the short black sleek hair, the fair skin, and the hazel eyes. He obeyed all orders and did what was needed to be done quickly and skillfully.
That also bothered me. And as you might already know the only person sitting next to him, sitting close to me actually, was Elise.
"So R--Head Rivers. You're so early today. Is there a certain reason?" she asked, her eyes wide and innocent.
After taking a look at them all, I stood up and walked to a certain cabinet. I was tired. I hadn't slept in days and my head was aching…but I was almost done. I had nine more letters to go. I was standing in front of the S cabinet. I had finished the R cabinet last night.
There were so many cabinets they took up the entire outlining of the room. I opened the S cabinet and picked a file that held the names of several parasitized humans whose last name had begun with an S. I noticed then, that I still hadn't answered Elise's question.
"No. Does it bother you that I came so early?" I answered with my eyes on the papers I was looking through. All I had to do was find the eyes--those eyes that were so recognizable.
"Not really." She stayed quiet. I turned around and noticed she was perking her lips. I could tell there was more she had wanted to say. I beat her to it.
"Yes," I said slowly. I took my file with me and sat down on the table. I continued to look through the eyes of the souls, picture after picture. "There is a reason for me being early."
I was nearing the end of the file and had struck nothing, as always. When I reached the last page…I took a bit longer than one second to turn away.
It was a picture of a girl. She had long, pretty, dark brown hair. Her face would be pretty if she had only smiled. Her skin was tanned to an olive color. In my opinion, she looked like a desert empress. But it was not her glorious looks that had stopped me.
Those eyes. They were dark. I think they were brown, but the light from the camera kinda faded it out. There was a silver lining to her eyes. All souls had that, of course, but it just seemed familiar…
I closed the file and slammed it on the table. DAMMIT! I screamed in my mind. It was amazing my face wasn't distorted from all that anger. I'm so desperate that I'm imagining things!
Although I had not screamed in anger, the file making a thud on the table was enough. They all wore a wary look.
Maybe if I got out and did my job more often, I wouldn't be so frustrated in not finding her. Maybe if I saw more people, I could forget about her…Maybe if I saw more people, I could find her.
A brilliant thought came to my mind., but I kept all emotion off my face. If I was going to be seeing people, I would need to see them all. Even humans.
"Do you remember a few months back when Suzanne had been going on about a human resistance?" I blurted out. Suzanne was crazy and stupid. She was always searching for this group of human resistance she thought was in Arizona. And while searching for them, she stuck to the stupid decision of wearing all black.
"I know that I might be just thinking too hard…but what if there really was a human resistance? And what if it was a large one? How do you think they'd be able to survive?" I asked while narrowing my eyes at them all.
"Are you saying…" It took Elise a while to finish, "…Are you saying that you found proof of the human resistance?"
"No," I said while shaking my head. "But it makes me believe there might be souls working with humans." I was making this up as I went. I really didn't care about the rumored human resistance, but if there was a chance she was there…
"I have an idea to solve this," I continued. "Maybe we should interrogate them all. Band together all the seekers, but tell them nothing but what is necessary. If the souls act normal, set them free; if you have the slightest, slightest, suspicion of them…send them to me."
I stood up, ready to leave. The group was about to continue on with their debates but my hesitations stopped them. "Ah…I would like to add something. For each person you interrogate, both safe or suspicious, send them to me here. At the facility. I will be putting a very tiny chip into a bracelet that will be mechanically chained to their wrist. We will have a computerized map that will tell us where each soul is." I saw them all beginning to gape. "There will be no privacy concerns, the map is very vague. Just says how much souls are in a city. If they're in a city."
"This is an outrage!" Alarms shouted. Her fist pounded on the table and she looked at me. She realized she had just shouted and gasped a little. She controlled her emotions and looked at me again with a tight face. "Are you really going to go this far?"
"Of course. We need to get to them all." And with that, I took my leave.
They really thought I was doing this to get rid of the humans. All I wanted was to find that precious lifeform that had saved me so long ago--nearly five centuries. No, I didn't care of the humans. All I wanted was to find her.
Silver Flames.
A/N: I simply love to throw people off! Don't get me wrong, the real reason I throw peope off is because my storyline's complicated. Just ask me questions and I'll try to answer. Let me answer what's obvious first, well, not so obvious, but I'd like to answer them anyway.
--Yes, this is Rivers Soothing speaking. And yes, he is the top seeker. Wonder how he got there…
--The girl whom Rivers saw at the end of one of the files really was Melanie.
--The Suzanne that Rivers had mentioned was indeed Wanda/Mel's seeker. She never had a name, so I figured I should give her one.
--The map that I envisioned was one of those green map with blinking lights. I think the government uses them...
Anyway, hope I didn't confuse you too much. Throw me thoughtsies; even if they such. Oh, I should say that I usually update on the weekends. Just so you know.