I blinked.

"What?"

Regila took a step forward, and I totally did not take a step back guys. "I think you heard me."

"I did, but what do you mean they told you about me." I choked. "How are you guys even legal?"

"In time you will learn to support our ideas and beliefs." Captain "Bos" said.

"Yeah, like kidnapping me and telling me all about this weird voodoo snitchel stuff is going to make me believe that you guys actually don't want to hurt me and that I want to follow blindly in what looks like a cult."

"We'll give you some time to think over what we've said." Regila said soothingly, she nodded to Xavier.

"No! I've already made up my mind. And it's a no." I yelled, wiping my face of the mascara tinted tears. I knew I needed a shower and makeup wipes.

I felt a hand touch my upper back, I whirled around and saw Xavier. He moved his hand to my lower back and gently pushed me out of the room.

"Sorry about last night." Xavier said quietly, he had a voice that was sorta higher pitched but not noticeably so no one would take too much notice.

I kept walking, choosing to ignore him like probably any other girl would do. Just say something Celeste! Say you hate him and how dare he lead you on. Just slap him and run off! But my legs or arms or tongue wouldn't listen to me, so I walked with Xavier's hand burning a hole in the small of my back.

∆

We walked for about a minute, his hand still at the small of my back. My face wouldn't go back from it's cherry red hue to the pale skin I have a love hate relationship with.

What was weird about these hallways were that there didn't appear to be any doors, there were these little squares big enough to fit a hand inside. So I'm guessing that there are doors next to the squares?

Xavier stopped behind me and I turned, putting his hand inside this little white box he did a side glance in my direction. The box turned a pleasant green and out of nowhere a doorway sized door appeared in the wall.

Wait, what? I thought, not quite expecting the door to appear quite like that.

"So dinner is in three hours, There are clothes in the dresser for you to change into, and the room has been slightly decorated to your observed liking." Xavier said in a monotone, like this was memorized and said this everyday.

"Uh . . . okay-y-y?" I said, weirded out by the whole 'decorated to your observed liking'. I was already not too crazy about the whole "observing thing" going around here.

"Rosalva will most likely pay you a visit, so don't be too surprised if you see her entering your room unannounced." Xavier smiled weakly and motioned for me to enter my "room."

I nodded and cautiously and entered the room, "So—" I said as I turned around, but the door had already shinked closed ridiculously fast and cut Xavier out of my view. "Oh well, I guess I'll just wait then." I said to myself.

I turned and looked around. My room was fairly nice. It was all white except a large- teal- fuzzy fur rug that was so comfy. The bed was in a little alcove and the bedsheet was a light grey with another teal fuzzy blanket to match the rug, so it wasn't the end of the world. I can live with it . . . if you consider being kidnapped and taken to a place you've never been before by creepy people with even more creepy powers and your family and friends memories of you being wiped from their minds and all the other crap that's happened to me in the past twenty four hours then yay for you!

I am not crazy about it and I sort of feel this empty feeling in my gut, so I do what most people would do when they see something super fuzzy— I laid down flat on my back on the super fuzzy carpet. Frankly, I could sleep on this rug. It is heavenly.

I don't know how much time passed, but I was woken up by the magical door behind me swooshing open. I sat up quickly which resulted with stars blinding my vision and a dizzy spell. I turned and saw— just like Xaviers prediction— Rosalva.

"Hey. If you're here to spout words about this place I don't wanna hear it." I grumbled to her stumbling to my bed and sitting down.

"Don't worry! I'm just dropping off some clothes that are better than those boring grey ones in the dresser, plus some makeup wipes and other makeup products that I got but never used." Rosalva said, her voice in this girly talkative kinda way.

"Thanks." I replied, massaging my temple.

"So, uh... what were you doing on the carpet?" She asked, her arms moving around as she talked.

"Just resting. It's a very cozy carpet." I answered as she started laying out some shirts, skirts, and two jackets.

"So-o-o . . . I went through your file and looked at your style and picked out a couple things of mine for you to borrow till you get to order your clothes. You sorta have this cute hipster vibe." Rosalva continued rambling about other things and I toned her out as I looked at the clothes.

There were two graphic tee-shirts, two chunky sweaters, one pair of ripped shorts, a pair of ripped high waisted boyfriend jeans, a thin plaid shirt, a jean jacket, one black beanie, and a pair of black high top chuck taylors.

"So, do you usually do an extensive stalker process before kidnapping people?" I ask casually.

"Oh." Rosalva said, turning from the closet. Probably unnerved by the way I phrased the question. "Um, yeah . . . we do." She said biting her lip.

Rosalva move to sit down on my bed and started folding my sweaters and the graphic tee's. "Okay, so I know this may seem like a lot of information to take in . . . but once you look at the big picture, it's really not as bad as it seems. You should have seen Alysia's reaction to being "kidnapped" to use your use of words, screaming and not listening to us. I didn't even get to have my little pep talk with her, she was like 'go the hell away, take me back.' and everything."

I stayed silent, if this was the "pep-talk" she said she likes to give to "newbies" like me . . . I was in no mood for it and it looked like I sorta had to listen. After all, she's already in my "room."

"But I'm going off on a rabbit trail. So your reaction to our powers were just as we expected them to be. You may be wondering where we got these powers, now you only got to Pippen's powers. Mine is earth, mainly plants and vines and everything. Here." She said softly, she held her hand out palm up and a little daisy grey lazily out of her hand. She then closed her hand loosely then opened it again and the flower had disconnected from her palm.

"Here." Rosalva said. "Let's do this." She walked to the small little door in the corner of the room, opened it, and came back with a paper cup filled with water. Placing the daisy in it, she then placed it on the little bookshelf by my bed inside the alcove.

"Now, dinner is in 30 minutes. So if you want to get out of that dress you can, I'm going to get out of mine and change into something warmer. The nights get cold here." She said standing up, the dark green dress suddenly making sense to me.

"Okay . . ." I said, still a little stunned by this whole experience. "Thanks . . ."

"Totally, I'll come by to get you in twenty minutes to bring you!" Rosalva smiled as she placed her hand on the clean square and the door shinked open.

I closed my eyes and fell back onto the bed as the door closed. Taking a deep breath in and breathing it out, I let everything that had happened to me in the past twenty-four hours wash over me.

It was around 10 minutes later when I sat up and grabbed a graphic tee, the thin plaid shirt, and the high waisted boyfriend jeans. Quickly hopping into them, I grabbed the makeup wipes and walk to the bathroom and cleaned my face. Coming back I looked in the closet and saw a pair of slightly newer combat boots, I shrugged and laced them up.

I explored my "prison-of-a-room" and waited for Rosalva. The door opened when my head was in my closet.

"Ready for dinner?" Rosalva asked her voice in this super peppy way. I turned and rammed my funny bone on the dresser somehow.

I put together a very creative string of flowery language, while I clutching my elbow.

Rosalva let out a sharp peal of laughter that didn't help with the pain. "Did I startle you? I'm sorry."

I glowered and walked over to her, "Let's just go eat." 

Ack! This is so exciting! *squeals* I can't wait to publish the whole thing for you guys to read!  And remember, if you have any suggestions, theories, or ANYTHING. Let me know below! 

- Olivia Koepp