4 3: Cave 23

To kill time before Jay's performance, they went to an arcade, a candy store, a pet store, and then to see a movie. Not only was the movie in 3D (without needing glasses), but it was extremely hard to follow since it was supposed to be science-fiction. On Dremel, everything seemed fictional to Evelyn, so she wasn't sure what was supposed to be unrealistic and what was just normal by Dremel standards. Nevertheless, Jewel wasn't kidding when she said this would be the most fun day of her life.

Unlike hanging out with Julia, she didn't have this nagging feeling of them wanting her to join them. They told her that she'd be safer around them because her face would surely cause a stir, but they also said since she doesn't know magic or martial arts, it'd be perfectly fine to just lead a normal life until she wanted to go home. These people just wanted to treat her nicely-- not for something in return and not to look more diverse. They really just wanted her to be happy.

By the time 7:00 pm came around, it was half an hour until Jay's performance so they decided to head to this mysterious "caves" place that Evelyn still didn't know about. Raul claimed he was too young for this tomfoolery and drove back to the campsite, so she and the two sisters went there on foot.

Evelyn walked in between Zara and Jewel, one on either side of her and both of them linking their respective arm with hers.

She looked to her left where Zara walked next to her and lowered her voice, "So what exactly are the caves?"

"A place to hide from the government, and government officers. As you can probably tell, life outside of the house doesn't feel very safe," Zara explained, "With kingdom officers at every corner and terrorizing anyone for seeming even just a little bit suspicious."

"The KO's are the worst," Jewel growled on her right, "They let all their power get to their head and abuse the citizens, and then use that same power to get out of trouble. Disgusting."

"Sounds the officers on the planet where I live too," Evelyn grumbled.

"Then you understand," Zara nodded, "So the bureau, with the help of some very skilled magic users, created a handful of little pocket dimensions throughout each kingdom. You go to these pocket dimensions by checking into a hotel and going through a portal. There you will find an alternate hotel that mirrors the inital one, except it's completely hidden by the royal family since KO's and anyone affiliated with the royal family can't access it."

"In the lobby of cave hotel, there are shops, restaurants, stores, museums, you name it," Jewel grinned, "They're basically like little towns and cities inside of a hotel, and each one has a different amount of people."

"There are actually a lot of undocumented people who just strictly live in the caves," Zara added, "Since they're on the run from the royal family. Or they just can't stand being around here."

Zara pulled out a smartphone and checked the time, "We should pick up the pace. I didn't mention this, but all residents of Dremel have to be in their houses by 9:00 unless they have a work permit or there's a royal event, so I'd like to leave before then."

They picked up the pace, still keeping small talk and still linked by the arms all the way into the parking lot of a hotel. The hotel looked like a normal beige block building. The only noticable things about it were the orange accents and the downward-facing arrow that was graffitied in dark green spray paint on the bottom of one of the pillars in the front.

"See that arrow," Zara leaned in to whisper in Evelyn's ear. The sudden proximity caused Evelyn to shiver and her face heated up, "That's the sign of a cave hotel."

When they entered, Zara finally unlinked herself from Evelyn's arm (which she was not very happy about) and leaned over the registration counter. Staring back at them was a bored red-headed man with brown eyes and freckles littering his face.

"Hello, how may I help you?" he drawled.

"I'd like a room that leads to another lobby please," Zara asked, lowering her voice.

He nodded and began click-clacking away on his computer. Zara looked back at Evelyn and smiled with her eyes.

"Phone number please?" the employee asked, sliding two key cards her way. She swiftly pocketed one and handed the other to Jewel while reading out her phone number. The man gave a half-hearted smile, "Thank you so much, your room is 223."

The rest of the hotel seemed normal. The hallways, the elevators, even their room was very normal as far as she could tell. Their room was a regular, two bedroom with a flat screen TV at the center of the room. What excited Evelyn the most, was the closet.

"Don't get your hopes up just yet," Jewel said opening the closet doors. She gave Evelyn a little hip bump into the closet and, as expected, she looked up to see herself in a nearly identical room as the one she was just in-- but it was mirrored. A few seconds later Jewel then Zara emerged from the closet as well.

They hurried her into the hallways and over to the elevator so that she could finally see the famed cave lobby.

She was practically bouncing in the elevator. "If I'd known you would get this excited, I wouldn't have hyped you up so much," Jewel said, patting down her skirt, "The caves are cool, but I don't want your expectations to be too high."

It was then, while they all stood on either side of the elevator, that Evelyn got a good look at Jewel. She was much much taller than Zara and her long, brown legs took up most of her body. Unlike Julia Anderson of Earth, Julia Aina had a jet-black Hime haircut. That day she wore a golden bikini top for a shirt, blue high-waisted bootcut jeans, and then completed the look with some brown wedges.

"So is this spell like the same one you used on the tents?" Evelyn asked, looking to Jewel. She just assumed Jewel was the one who did the spell because she was a fairy and to her, fairies were like the most magical thing in the world.

Jewel, who was rifling through her pink clutch with gold chain straps raised an eyebrow, "Me? No, I didn't do the spell, but yes it's the same one. Just, like, super advanced. Let me show you," and Evelyn gasped as she pulled an entire three-foot-tall umbrella out of her little clutch purse and then stuffed it back in, "It's called a pocket spell. It's where you take a container or room or whatever and turn it into its own little mini-dimension. The bigger it is, the longer and/or more powerful the spell needs to be. I've been curating this pocket spell on my bag for about three years, so it's huge. But the super powerful people at the bureau probably made the spell for those tents in like three days."

When the elevator lurched to a stop and the doors slid open, Evelyn gasped again.

It was no longer the dinky creme-colored lobby with couches and a reception desk. Now it was an entire plaza. The floors were a solid reflective black that remained shiny, seemingly by magic, despite how many people probably should've scuffed it up by now. The ceilings were high and rounded, painted a muted gold with a string of very bright white lights lining the perimeter and the middle of the makeshift boardwalk.

Evelyn could barely see what shops and restuarants were around them because people, mainly young people, flooded the plaza. In the middle, a tall sign could be seen above all of the people standing and chatting. The sign was black and bright, with glowing neon lettering that listed all the shops and restaurants around in the cave, including the location of each. Evelyn managed to read the signs and see they were next to a tattoo parlor with red wooden accents and gold paintings. To the left, was a bakery with a pink awning, massive wedding cake designs in the windowed walls, and a little boy in an apron and comically large chef hat handing out samples right outside the door.

"Welcome to Cave 23," Jewel gushed, texting away on her smartphone, "But you can look around later, Jay's set is about to start."

Before she could analyze another shop, Zara linked arms with her and they tried to keep up with Jewel, who had already scurried down the boardwalk without them.

"How come there are no old people around here?" Evelyn asked, "Or middle-aged?"

"This is middle-aged for us," Zara shrugged, "People don't live long on Dremel. But there are a few oldies, they just prefer to be in bed by now," Evelyn could see the crinkle around her eyes again and knew Zara was smiling behind her mask. For some reason, that made Evelyn smile too.

They stopped at a bar and grill with tinted windows and a black wooden awning with the words, "The Nanny" scrawled across it.

A figure who was previously leaning on the window of the bar, stood up straight as they approached and raced to catch Jewel in a massive hug.

Zara bent down to whisper in Zara's ear, "That's Jay. Jewel's in love with them, but those two have been playing the friend-zone game since we were kids,"

Jay was a skinny figure, around the same height as Zara with very light brown skin. Their hair, was ear length save for a bit of a long fringe in the front with a very high undercut around the mid-to-lower half of their head, separated only by the long curly, fuzzy antennae that stuck out from their forehead. They looked towards Zara and Evelyn and (even though she didn't want to be rude), she flinched and instinctively grabbed on to Zara at the sight of Jay's eyes. They were big and bug-like, pitch black.

Zara snorted, "She's never seen an insecta before," she explained. Jay just smiled, not seeming to be offended, and walked over to the both of them, Jewel following behind. They stuck out a hand to Evelyn and beamed, "Hi, I'm Jay. Z kinda explained to me who you were and hopefully, she gave me a bit of an introduction as well," they said in a very soft voice, "Me and these girls go way back."

"Oh, I'm Evelyn. Nice to meet you," Evelyn nodded, shaking Jay's hand. She didn't mean to, but she flinched upon contact again. Jay's hand, as well as the rest of their body she realized, was coated in a very thin layer of fuzz.

Jay just laughed, "You've never heard of an insecta, right?" They sighed, trying to explain, "Let's say... I'm a hybrid between a human and a moth. I'm harmless, I swear."

Evelyn just nodded again and felt a pair of big hands on her back. Turning around she noticed Jewel had somehow gotten behind her. "Now that we're done with the introductions," she squeaked, "Let's get going. This place has the best drinks!"

"And the best music," Jay winked, "Hope you enjoy the set!"

The crew filed into the bar and Evelyn was suprised at how packed it was. It was dimly lit, with brown walls. Evelyn supposed there were usually tables to sit around, but they were stacked over in the corner, probably to form a concert-style setting for Jay and their band's performance. Towards the back was a slightly elevated little stage with a bunch of instruments already set up and being practiced with by who Evelyn assumed were Jay's bandmates.

As they made their way toward the front, Evelyn bumped into more people and soon Jewel's hands disappeared from her shoulders. She looked around shouting the names of both Jewel and Zara, but couldn't find either of them, not even Jay.

She huffed, fighting her way through the crowd in a random direction, and found herself at a creaky wooden bar. There were only about three people actually seated at the bar, everyone else standing and waiting for the performance to begin, so she easily found a stool to sit at.

Almost immediately, a tall wide-set man with pitch-black skin and a platinum white buzzcut appeared in a bartender uniform. He had monolid eyes with soft black irises that held no pupil and a large round nose just above his plump black lips that he smiled at her with.

"Can I get you anything?" he said in a fitting deep voice, "Or are you just here to watch the show?"

"Um, my friends were going to drink with me, but they got lost in the crowd," she explained to him, "I, um, I'm not from here so I don't know any of these drinks yet."

The bartender nodded, "Well, my name is Will. If you figure out what you'd like to order, I can give you a tourist discount," he smiled, "Where are you from?"

"Far away," Evelyn sighed and leaned forward, "To tell you the truth, I don't even think you have the same alcohol as where I'm from."

Before the bartender could reply, Evelyn felt another big hand on her shoulder and turned around to see a smiling Zara, her mask discarded. Evelyn figured she should probably still keep her mask on, considering she was the parallel version of this world's dictator and she didn't want to cause trouble.

"I see you found the bar no problem," Zara nodded, sitting upon a stool next to Evelyn, "And you've even met William. You probably don't have angels where you're from, huh?"

Evelyn's eyes widened and she turned back to the black man, "A-angel? You're an angel? Like with the big white wings and everything?"

"Only some angels have wings," Will smiled and leaned against the bar on his elbows, "I've never met a mage who's never seen an angel before. Your friend is really funny, Engels."

"Isn't she cute?" Zara smiled back, "Can you get her an Octavia but with more juice than alcohol? I'll have a Summerset, no ice."

Will nodded, "Coming right up, Engels and co." he hummed and walzted to the other side of the bar to get their drinks ready.

Evelyn turned to Zara, "I'm glad you didn't go too wild on the drinks. I've only ever drunk a few glasses so I don't really know my tolerance,"

Zara leaned her elbow against the counter, letting her chin sit in her palm, "I figured since you said you didn't really go to parties and stuff," she sighed, "Truthfully, I'm kinda the same way. Will is nice to me just 'cause he's a nice guy and all, and a few people are chill, but most people avoid me like the plague."

"What, why?" Evelyn frowned, "But you're so nice to me. Everyone in your team is."

Zara preened at the compliment, but gave a sad smile, "That's nice of you to say, but remember, my dad was a KO," she explained, "I used to work for the royal family and... let's just say I was pretty deep on the other side. So most people still don't trust me. I switched to the right side when I was about eighteen because of Jewel and personal reasons."

Evelyn nodded, "So you were a KO?" Evelyn had never seen Zara fight, but she seemed formidable. She could only imagine how terrifying Zara was, working for the kingdom. She wondered why, if the kingdom was so awful, Zara would ever work for them for most of her life, but decided not to ask. Not only did she not wanna sound nosy, but she also supposed that Zara grew up being told a different form of history since she was raised seemingly by her dad, who favored the royal family. Evelyn suddenly wondered what happened and, most importantly, what happened to her dad.

Just then, they heard the sound of Jay's bandmate tapping the microphone. People erupted into cheers, but Evelyn was able to catch Zara mumble, "Something like that, I guess."

"Hello, Everyone, sorry to keep you waiting. We had a bit of a disaster," the person who Evelyn guessed was the lead singer said with a nervous laugh, "But we've got everything together and so I hope you're ready to get absolutely insane!"

The crowd broke out into hysterics again. "We are 'Not Afraid' and I hope you're ready to go with us until the sun comes up!" the lead singer shrieked and they began playing an opening song.

When she looked back at the counter, she realized their drinks were in front of them, ready and prepared. Zara was sipping on a bright orange drink with a garnish that looked like a lemon, but it was bright blue. In front of Evelyn herself was a small round glass of a thick purple liquid with a very thin layer of frothy white foam on top. Around the rim of the glass was a neon, almost glowing green dust. She lifted her mask slightly so that her face was still not seen, took a tentative sip, and her face broke out into a smile at how delicious it was. She could definitely still taste the alcohol, but it wasn't strong at all. She took another big sip and heard Zara giggled next to her.

"Funny," she commented, "The princess likes sweet things too. I suppose you are a little similar. But it's not as Raul says, you're not exactly alike. You don't even really look that much alike now that I see you up close."

"Really?" Evelyn sipped her drink happily, "Do you know her well? How are we different?"

Zara set her drink down and looked Evelyn up and down with her brows furrowed and her arms crossed. The attention made Evelyn self-conscious and her face heated up, so she brought her attention back to her yummy drink. The tangy green dust around the rim made it so much better, she was tempted to just lick it off.

"I feel like you're shorter?" Zara answered in an unsure tone, "Also..."

Evelyn turned to Zara, wondering why she didn't finish and her sentence, and nearly jumped. Zara was practically nose to nose with Evelyn, still squinting at her skeptically.

She reached out her left hand to slightly lower the right side of Evelyn's mask to reveal what she was looking for. "Yeah..." she mumbled to herself, "Eve's mole is on the left cheek. Yours in on the right. That's weird," she said, giving Evelyn space again and going back to her own drink.

"Do you want another drink? I can order a virgin one if you'd like?" Zara asked, now a breathable distance away.

Evelyn looked down to realize her cup was empty and nodded. She didn't know if her head was swimming because of the alcohol, the crazy day she was having, or the fact that she couldn't shake the feeling of Zara's breath on her face. She looked back at the stage her eyes locked on Jay.

They were singing into a mic along with the main vocalist but mainly jumped in for harmonies. They had a wide smirk and sweat coating their fuzzy face.

She turned back to Zara who was telling Will to get her a virgin version of her drink and Will, in turn, swiped her old glass away with a smile.

"How long have you guys and Jay known each other?" she asked while Zara sipped her half-full drink.

The other woman looked up at the ceiling in thought, "I wanna say when I was like five?" she hummed, "I can't quite remember. When I was younger, my dad didn't let me hang out with Jewel and Jay very often because our mom didn't agree with the royal family and raised Jewel with the same beliefs. (They had already divorced by then.) But I would always try and sneak out to hang with them anyway because I always thought they were so much older and cooler than me," she grinned at the memory.

Evelyn smiled, "Do you think Jay likes Jewel back?" They definitely seemed close but Evelyn couldn't tell if it was in a coupley way or a sibling type of way.

"Probably," Zara nodded, "But they also probably don't realize it. I mean, they act like they're dating. As you just saw, they hugged like they haven't seen each other in years when it's only been a few hours. But Jewel is just a bit more obvious and clumsy," her grin widened.

"That's cute," Evelyn sighed, just as her drink arrived, "You should help set them up for Jewel's sake."

Before Zara could answer, she reached into her sweater pocket where her phone was, probably feeling a notification buzz against her, "Yeah but I'm terrible with that stuff, I'd probably ruined things. Maybe you can play cupid on my behalf," Zara snorted, pulling out her smart and unlocking it seemingly without having to touch it, "You know, we should really get you a phone too. Do you have phones on your planet?" She asked, opened up her messages.

"Yeah, they actually look pretty similar to-" Evelyn's sentence cut off at the sight of the text on Zara's screen:

"TRANSIT OFFICERS HAVE ENTERED AND ARE INSPECTING THE INN. WE ADVISE ALL RESIDENTS OF THE HOTEL TO GO INTO THE MAIN ROOM AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTION OR CHECK OUT IMMEDIATELY.

OFFICER GLORY ODONATA AND SEVERAL OTHER OFFICERS ARE INTERROGATING CERTAIN RESIDENTS. PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS AND ACT ACCORDINGLY."