Chapter 7: Castle Part 1

A table.

Just out of the sun's reach, it sits on a square porch under a tin roof. Three glasses drenched in condensation sit atop the table's plastic yellow cover, a black ashtray in the center. A pair of slender fingers flick a cigarette, releasing the ashes before bringing it to her mouth. She inhales and the tip lights up orange. Her black hair is swooped up in a red bandana and large squared frames block her eyes.

The scene fades and is instantly replaced by another - an older woman staring straight at me with long, white, billowy hair breezing around her. With silvery glass eyes, she pierces me, looking through me, searching. She calls my name but her mouth never moves, never opens.

Fallon!

She's shouting for me. Shouting for me to hear her, to see her. Her eyes flare wider, ghastly, overpowering everything else.

FALLON!

I'm awake.

Everything's bright. Open. I'm on a flat, hard surface but it's not the floor. A table? I roll my head to the left and find four endless rows of metal, rectangular surfaces built five feet off the ground. They disappear into blurs on the opposite side of the space, lost in the streaming sunlight. I look to the right. Same. Except there's half of a wall that divides my row from the others. I kick my head back. A solid pane of glass stands behind me, reaching from floor to ceiling and follows the tables in both directions. It's like a strange hospital with too many beds and no sign of doctors.

How did I get here?

The last thing I remember...

...are his brown eyes. Burning. Alive. He'd stilled, completely flabbergasted to see me too. His jaw dropped to speak, but then it went dark. As if I fell asleep. As if someone turned the lights off and now, however many hours later, they're back on. And here I am, alone again with no clue how I got here.

A pounding in my temple erupts and I bring my hand to my head, massaging the curls above my right ear. This surprises me. Bending my knee, I get further proof and sit up - no restraints are tying me down. I kick my legs off the side of the table and notice my Converse have been replaced with powder blue slippers. They're made of some scratchy, near-cotton material. I resist the urge to touch them but look down and find I'm dressed in scrub-like pants and a mid-sleeve top, both fitted and made of the same itchy, sky blue fabric.

Jumping down, I land on my toes without making a sound and make my way toward the wall-length window. The afternoon sun greets me, casting light on the cracked dirt below, offering more warmth than yesterday. The jungle glistens on the horizon across, but sits barred by the immense wrought-iron gate.

My stomach knots.

There needs to be a door, an opening - something. I need to get out to the jungle again and find the ruins. I need to get back out there and figure out why it's so familiar. But the gate's larger than I originally thought. It skyrockets, nearly reaching the height of this glass wall with rods peaking into sharp triangular points, dotting around this structure in a giant semi-circle. The only way past the gate is through it, and though I'm thin, I'm not sure I'll be able to fit through the railings.

There's movement below. A mass of blue blurs slowly disperse around the Castle, carrying or dragging similar objects as before. I press my forehead and fingertips to the glass to get a better view.

"Lovely afternoon, isn't it?"

I spin, finding a tall man with long, shiny black hair. His cascading locks are pulled into a half pony tail, falling just past his shoulders and onto a custard robe that reaches the floor.

"My name is Jeb. I'm the Guide," he walks towards me, his hands behind his back, "and you must be..."

I retreat a step, back toward the pane of glass, intuition constricting my voice. There's plenty of room to run if need be, but if he's anything like Clarence, I'll get nowhere quick.

Jeb pauses with a frown. "Haven't you remembered yet?"

If I was on the ground, I could make for the gate. I could hide among the other blue blurs and dash toward the jungle when no one was looking. But how to get down there? Right now it's just us. And that fact raises a sickly feeling in my gut.

"Clarence tells me your name is Fallon."

"Where am I?"

"In the medical unit on the top floor of this base. You were brought in yesterday and left to recover. Please," he advances a cautious step, "how are you feeling?"

There's a pounding in my head, but whether that's from blacking out in the jungle or something that happened since then, I have no idea. I have no idea about anything anymore. And I'm not keen on him knowing this.

He frowns. "Not well?"

I bring my fingers to the back of my head, cautious about any information divulged. "Dizzy."

"That would be the Pill."

"Pill?"

He produces a small vial of glistening lavender liquid, pinching it between his finger and thumb. "Medicine. To keep our humans happy and healthy. After what happened to your planet, we must take every precaution available. I do apologize about the Pill... it does tend to have a bit of an after effect. Shouldn't last long."

"So you're..." I gulp as images from yesterday flash by. "What are you?"

"A Dofinike - a separate species, though not entirely dissimilar from your own. But, I suppose your term for us would be... alien."

So it's true, then. Everything that happened. That's happening. But if he's the alien, what were those creatures yesterday? How many different extraterrestrials are here?

"I saw two... things at the gate," I round the closest table, keeping it between us. "What were they?"

"You must be talking about Yerza and Norpe. Yes, they shouldn't have been messing around like that. I can understand why you ran off," he walks to a half wall and presses a tiny button no larger than a fingernail. The outline of a square appears and suddenly, a glass box emerges to fill it. He dispenses the vial onto a shelf in the box, presses the button again and the box disappears back into the wall. He turns to me. "There weren't supposed to be any more drops yesterday - Clarence brought you in by complete surprise. Usually, they take their human form when our guests arrive. They, shall we say, ‘didn't get the memo.'"

"You can change back and forth?"

"Pardon?"

"From human to Dofinike?"

"Human form. Yes, we find it helps ease the transition, especially in our younger guests. Seeing familiar faces - so to speak - expedites the trust and that's why you ran. You didn't know it was safe."

"They were carrying weapons."

"Hardly," he laughs, walking past me to peer out the window again. "What Yerza and Norpe carry are staffs. Sure they can wound and probably in the hands of someone with a bit more intelligence, they might cause significant damage. But at best, they're for show."

"To show what?"

"Well," he sighs, "as you can see, Harrizel can be a dangerous environment if not well navigated. What's the point of saving your race if you escape out there only to be killed by sheer curiosity? The staffs are intended to keep you rounded up, keep you where it's safe. Now come with me," he hooks his hands behind his back, walking away from the solid pane of glass. "There's much to go over."

"You're taking me downstairs?"

"Eventually," he turns with an odd expression. "There are a few things I need to show you so you can adjust to this new environment quickly."

What kind of things do I need to know before we're on the ground? Will I even survive that long? What if those blue blurs aren't even people? What if they're just robots or other Dofinikes posing as similarly dressed humans so we'd go willingly with Jeb? I just need to make it to the ground. Then I'll have a chance. I'll find the door to the gate - or some other break in it - and I'll flee again.

Just make it to the ground. Make it there and you'll be fine.

"I can't wait all day, Fallon."

There's no choice but to follow.

Just make it to the ground.

Reluctantly, and fighting every intuition boiling through me, I join Jeb's side.