1 ONE : THE ESCAPE

Her eyes are open and the wall by her right is moving again. She rises from her bed to wake Rosie up. The dark purple flower she picks up every morning never showed up.

She taps Rosie. "Rosie". She sits down on her bed. "Wake up. This is not our paradise, remember".

Amalya straightens her milk-colored gown. Rosie yawns. "Amalya, there is nowhere else to go. We don't even know who we are. I don't know my age and neither do you. We don't even know how we look! They said it is wrong to look at the mirror even after wiping away all our memories''.

"You're giving up already?''.

"There is no giving up because there was never hope. I wonder if it is time for breakfast''.

It is obvious Rosie doesn't want to talk about it. "Almost, the walls are moving. Sit up. Let's eat".

The usual woman that brings in their foods comes in with the covered tray. They hardly ever eat the same thing in a month. She sets it on a center table in the room and starts walking out in her usual silent manner. She would never talk to them and they wouldn't talk to her.

Rosie and Amalya eat in silence having nothing to say to each other.

What could they possibly talk about? Rosie looks at Amalya at some point like she wants to say something. Amalya notices and drops her cutlery; already tired of eating.

"Rosie, what do you want to say?'' Amalya asks looking straight into her face. Rosie raises her left eye brow and keeps silent.

"I've known you long enough since we've been here. Something is eating you up. Spit it out, Rosie," Amalya persuades. Rosie puts down her cutlery, wipes her mouth clean and clears her throat lightly, making Amalya impatient.

"I think we both know there is no escape and –,"

Amalya sits up. "Rosie, we -,"

Rosie cuts in. "Allow me, Amalya.'' Rosie continues, "And it's obvious you're older than me and capable of escaping. We have both lost our memories but that doesn't mean we are stupid. All I need you to do is to promise me that you will do anything to come back and save me when you escape. Please.''

Amalya couldn't bear to see the sadness in the eyes of someone who has been nothing but a sister and a friend to a person she didn't even know. "I don't know why you asked that but I think it is obvious that I wouldn't leave you in here to suffer. Look at us! We don't learn with others, we do not communicate with others. How are we even sure there are 'others'? Of course I wouldn't leave you, Rosie as either would you.

There is a beeping sound but they cannot tell where it us coming from exactly. It is all over the room. It stops and Rosie and Amalya look at the wall by their left expecting the walls to be moving again but it is just the same as before. Amalya turns slightly and finds a door in the middle of the room. Rosie sights it too. "The door never shows when we are awake.''

Amalya is still staring. "I know, right? It's quit… odd, a lot more of odd than unexpected.

"Do you want to go in first?'' asks Rosie

Amalya stands up. "Yeah, actually, I feel dirty.'' She grabs cloths and towels from the brown bag they were given and dashes into the bathroom. The water isn't hot or cold as before. This time it is unusually warm. Something lands on her shoulder; around her collarbone and her neck suddenly starts aching. She dresses up and leaves the bathroom for Rosie. Rosie frowns. "What's wrong with your neck?"

"I don't know. It's aching and itching at once. I think you should go and shower too." Rosie nods and leaves the room into the bathroom and she comes back normal. Amalya hardly eats her lunch when it comes. Her head and neck just go on aching but worse than when they try to remember something from their past.

Then, night comes and it takes hours before she falls asleep when Rosie is already deep into the dream world. Amalya finally drifts slowly to sleep and another odd thing happens. She dreams. Considering the fact that they both never dream, Amalya is shocked when she starts dreaming.

Everything around her feels real but deep inside she knows something is wrong somewhere. It is as thought she is watching herself in her own dream. She is also sleeping but in a smaller bed than hers in reality. The bed sheets are white and scattered. At the foot of the bed are vines; gray vines with thorns and the exact same dark purple flower that she finds in their normal room every morning.

Her eyes flick open and she starts writhing and screaming on the bed, unconsciously pulling the sheets of the bed. She can feel her unsteady heartbeat.

The vines with the thorns start encircling her ankles and finding their way up her leg to her waist. It tightens over her waist and she knows she cannot escape.

The thorns prick her, and blood and pain get involved. It continues growing over her but faster than slow. It strangles her at the neck and it becomes too hard for her to breathe.

It starts at her jaw and she gives up trying to fight it and lets it grow over her face, pricking her cheeks, and into her hair. Suddenly, darkness settles over her.

Back in reality, Rosie and Amalya are both in deep sleep but Amalya is deeper. There is a loud thud and a crack from behind the walls.

Another crack is heard with the continuous sound of something hitting and fighting to break through the wall. Rosie's eyes flick open with the tenth loudest hit.

Who would want to break through their own walls? She sits up in her bed to look at the wall to her right and see it is already coming down. She starts waking Amalya up but she might as well be lifeless because she doesn't even move a bit.

About four men burst into the room through the broken walls. Rosie cannot see their faces because they are fully covered in black and some purple. Rosie taps Amalya. She even tries to shake her awake but Amalya was hardly even breathing.

The two men in purple began pulling Rosie from behind as she struggles to pull her hand from their grips. The two men in black cover Amalya in a black blanket and carry her by her arms and legs out of the room with Rosie following behind.

Then it occurs to Rosie that something was really wrong. What if Amalya was dead? Her eyes start filling up with tears.

She makes another attempt to pulls her arm out of their grip. But it couldn't be possible. 

The men take them down a hall of pull walls with no shiny color. They go up a few flights of stairs into a colorful corridor.

Maybe just a little too colorful to confuse the eyes, It pains Rosie to know that there might be more innocent children surrounded by those dull walls down the stairs.

The men in purple force Rosie into a different room from Amalya. They push her onto a laid back but comfortable chair and leave her locking the door behind them.

Oh! So they have rooms with doors all of a sudden, she thought.

Rosie doesn't even bother standing up as thick vines wrap her wrists to the arms of the chair. She tugs and tugs but her wrists are stuck. She gives up trying. She looks around and studies the room. It is not that spacious like her own room. It looks like a mini lab.

Beside her, at her right, are shelves of chemicals and containers and stuff. At her left, is clear as crystal glass. A plain transparent glass. Through it, she sees Amalya on the other side. They are pulling her onto a type of recliner. Just black and simple. She is still deep in sleep and still.

They lay her down on the chair and the same vines encircle her wrist but it is all the way to her elbows.

The men go down to a security screen at the other end of the room and type in something and everywhere in Amalya's room gets filled with a fog that blurs up everything.

Rosie knows that by now she should be soaked in tears but she has to be strong.

After an hour of sleep, Amalya wakes up. She jerks her head off the chair in a weird way like she was drowned and just resuscitated. She is breathing really fast unlike the hours she had been asleep.

"What?" She asks in a whisper as she takes in the larger and huge lab. She looks to her right and there is glass but everywhere is blurry and it is hard to tell what is behind the glass but she could always recognized Rosie.

Rosie looks like she has been staring, thinking too deep and waiting for her to wake up. Rosie starts talking but is seems like mouthing words to Amalya. Rosie is literally screaming in the other room. Amalya notices when Rosie turns angry. She mouths to Rosie that the glass is sound proof and Rosie nods to show understanding. Amalya goes on tugging on the vine. She suddenly stops and realizes that those are the exact same ones she saw in her dream.

Then, there is  crack followed by a really loud sound like that of an explosion. The door flings open to reveal… a boy? Maybe, Amalya wasn't really sure that they look like but for the fact his hair is not as long as hers, the person was probably a boy. He had curly dark hair, a nice body figure but the strong eyes of teenagers.

He isn't smiling; he looks angry and stressed out. He goes to the security screen and touches something and the fog starts clearing. He runs towards Amalya with a short dagger the shape of a knife in his hand and Amalya is frightened.

He stops in front of her starts cutting the vines from her wrists to her elbows. She looks at Rosie one more time and sees the excited look on Rosie's face.

"Rosie. Help Rosie," is the only words she can say to the bot.

His voice comes out harsh and tired.

"We don't have time for that".

"We?"

"Yes. We are leaving immediately".

"Why can't Rosie come with us?"

The boy looks impatient. "I have my reasons, Amalya".

He grips her wrists. "Now, let's go".

He knows her name. How? She tugs her wrists out of his grips.

"No. Not without Rosie." Amalya stands up and walks to the glass. How was she going to break through? She punches the glass and hears a crack.

She punches twice and sees the edges break. She keeps punching but it's too late when she realizes that the glass isn't falling in her direction but in Rosie's direction. It was going to kill her.

Amalya steps back and the glass comes crashing down on Rosie.

Tears brim Amalya's eyes. The alarm in the lab rings loud enough for any other person to hear. Her savior pulls her by the arm towards the door but she refuses to move.

"Amalya, run!"

"No. Not till I' m sure that Rosie is alright unless I will never forgive myself". Amalya's blood is already oozing from her knuckles as a result of punching the glass.

"Rosie?" No reply and she calls out again. "Rosie?!"

A sad, tired but urging voice comes through the shattered glass.

"Amalya, go!"

"But –

"Amalya, go and remember the promise we made to each other. Run and stop standing there. They are coming. You' ll see a bag right in front of my own door. Pick it and run!"

The boy doesn't wait. He just pulls her along as he runs. She grabs the bag when she sighs it right in front of a door. The usual gray bag used to give them clothes. The bag is filled with all the dark purple flower she has been gathering for days.

Each day, they appear in the middle of the room. They don't come in a bouquet or with the stem. They come already plucked off the stem.

He pulls her and continues to run. They can hear footsteps behind them but there is no looking back this time  even with a boy she didn't know.

He runs head-first into a wall and Amalya think he is stupid until he pulls her along.

Her foot is hot and dry above the surface they land on. She realizes she is bare footed.

Amalya looks down at her feet and below it is grain like brown particles.

"What is this?'' she asks him

"Sand"

"Where are we?"

He looks at her "Me and my friends call this place, sand tunnels."

She arches a blow. "You and your friends? This place is empty and we just jumped through a wall!.

He looks annoyed. "Has a desert which is why it looks empty but isn't entirely empty. Let's continue walking."

He wants to pull her arm again but he sees her knuckles bleeding and retreats in silence.

They walk a long distance3 with wind, dust and sand all going through their hair.

He suddenly stops and she follows suit. He taps his left foot on the sand thrice his right twice, left twice again and right once.

Amalya just stands behind him just right in front of them, a thick line appears and slowly the ground in front of them starts to separate from the ground they stand on. It slowly moves away till there as a large rectangular space in the ground.

There are stairs right below them and at the foot of the stairs are three people. A girl and two boys.

The girl is really pretty in her warrior stance and so are the two boys. They are teenagers all of them. The brown –haired boy in the middle grins foolishly.

"Oh, Daleth, you are back. How long will it take you to bring back a sixteen –year old?.

Amalya is pretty sure the brown haired boy is referring to the guy that saved her. She hadn't even known his name Daleth. She didn't know any of them.

What if they were just another group of people going to rewipe her memories and cage her up again. Daleth start moving down the stairs but stops midway, realizing that Amalya isn't following.

"Aren't you coming?" asks Daleth but Amalya isn't even looking at him. She is faced in the east. Her arms are folded.

"No. I don't know you. At all and neither do I trust you."

"No?" Daleth asks" No! Really? Is that the only word that comes from your mouth. Why are you so full of negativity? So all the way here you never said a thing about this until now! I'm sick of this"

The girl at the foot of the stairs frowns.

"Daleth stop".

Daleth raises his left hand towards her direction. "Oh, shut up, Jael!"

The girl (probably, Jael) looks shocked and gives an angry pout.

Daleth faces Amalya." I'm sick of this shit! You want to go? Go! Do what you like." He turns on his heel and walks down the stairs till he is right in front of Jael." You want to handle her, sweet heart?'' he asks her she glares at him and he whispers "Go ahead.'' He goes past her and turns left into a dark corridor. Jael watches him go and then she smiles at Amalya.

"Why don't you come in? I'm Jael, the bastard is Daleth. He is frustrated.'' Jael points to the guy with brown hair beside her.'' This is Jael.'' She points to the last guy. "And this is Luke

Let's go inside and give you a room.'' Jael says to Amalya.

They walk into the dark corridor with pictures on the wall. They are so beautiful. Amalya badly wants to touch everything but she feels like can't.'' what colour is this?

Amalya asks.

Jael answers.'' Peach.

Jared is surprised. "You don't know colours?

Amalya says a simple "No.

Jael leaves Jared and look in the kitchen when she goes to show Amalya to her room. They enter a specious room with all necessary furniture present. A huge bed in the middle directly in front of a window.A closet at the other end of the room beside the second window.

Few feet from the closet is the bathroom with the door wide open. Amalya drops hr bag of dark purple flowers on the bed, the only thing she is familiar with. She goes round the room to touch stuff. Jael looks amused and is about to open the closet when – "Jael!''.

It is quite obvious it's Daleth that would scream that way. Jael exchales. "What!" she goes all the way to Daleth's room leaving Amalya alone. Amalya touches the closet and it burns her finger. She steps back. She feeds like it was just in her head.

She reaches for it again and nothing happens. She opens the closet and looks to her left. She can see herself?.

"Ah!" her neck, her head. Everywhere is aching. It feels like her entire world is rotating. A mirror… she was a little boy standing in front of a house clutching blood-stained rags. He is crying … she sees herself running in a burning house. She feels like the fire is burning her skin from inside out… "Ah!" The scream is coming from both Amalya in her real form and the Amalya in her head… she sees a woman lying lifeless on the floor, the woman looks exactly like her ….. She sees herself trying to touch the woman but ….

Then pain shoots up into her head from her neck and she slams into the wall and crashes to the floor. The power goes out.