Planet Expo: Origins [Book One]

Chapter Eight

[A..K.A. Back to the Main Events]

    “Ha!” Lisa shouted in James’ face as no alarmed sounded as they walked out of the bedroom door. With his hands up, James nodded in defeat. “Excuse my nerves,” James said as he stood behind Lisa, feeling sure that if they were caught, they wouldn’t shoot with Lisa in front since she’s has very notable familial connections.

    “Alright, alright, you were right,” James said as they slowly walked through the corridor, surprisingly it was empty as it could be. Dim lighting guided them as they slowly strolled, taking small conscience steps, eyes all over the place as they went. Lisa concluded that it was so deserted due to the fact is was very late into the night. Or very early into the day depending on your life choices. “Lis, do we really have walk down this hallway? Let’s just convince your aunt to let us go home when she wakes up.” 

    “Jem why don think we’re walking down this spooky hallway?” At the mention of spooky, James became to notice how half of the hallway’s walls were decorated with wallpaper of a pattern of the cult’s logo. While the bottom half of the walls had dark wood paneling. The old fashioned hallways reminded James of houses that were built almost three centuries ago. “There is no reasoning with a so-called family member who abducted us. We find a way out, run like our lives depend on it because it does, and then find a way to contact the cops.”

    “And where will he run to, Lisa?! What then? We were knocked out, we have no idea of the surrounding landscape. We could be in an underground bunker in Province Charted for all we know.” Lisa had never before seen James so scared before and it worried her. She just wanted to go home, the longing to see Ares and her parents, the anxiety of being in a foreign place overwhelmed her to the point of immediate action. For James, it seemed to be the opposite. The feelings he felt seemed to overwhelm him into the point of pure panic.

    With softened eyes, she tried to be more understanding, to be more catering to help ease him, even if it was only slightly. “I can’t sit here and watch you get traumatized by all of this. She was after me and you just got roped in. Even if we are in Province Charted, we have to be near the border of it at least. No one knows what lays beyond what little of it we explored and developed. Also, it’s obvious they need us, or maybe just me, for some greater plan. They’ll probably want people to witness whatever they have in stored,” Lisa whispered-ranted as they turned a corner, the lights suddenly growing a little brighter for some odd reason. “And if they want people here then they need to ensure that no one would get too lost and make the place somewhat easy to find.” Lisa nodded in agreement, her loose hair swaying in the movement. ‘When did she untie her hair?’ James thought to himself as they continued to search for any means of a way out.

“Lisa?” She then turned around at the whispered call of her name. “Is it me or is it getting brighter?” 

“No, it’s definitely getting brighter. Perhaps it’s an exit?”

    Looking at each other in the eyes, the duo nodded before breaking eye contact and running toward the now blinding light. As they turned the corner, as their eyes adjusted, they once again felt their hearts plummet to the depths of space itself. 

    It is at this point that I remind you this journey is not and will not be an easy one. There are many instances in which I regret not taking a better course of action. This particular situation that James and I found ourselves in is exactly one of those instances. If only we stayed in the room and never went into the hallways. If only we decided to turn back and flee from the brightening lights. But much to our dismay we didn’t do either of those options. To any future persons reading this journal, I deeply apologize for any emotional turmoil that this part of the story brings you. With that, I’ll go on to say what happened next.

“You have now entered the blank room. Your attempt to escape has been recorded and nearby guards have been notified. There is no escape. Enjoy your time in the blank room.”

    The female sounding robotic voice halted and a tune to signal the end of the message played. Lisa and James looked up towards the white ceiling, where the voice had come from, but there was no speaker or anything to indicate the actual source of the audio. Suddenly, heavy white metal doors thudded down. “JAMES! THE HALLWAY!” With panicked expressions, they tried to outrun the doors, to try to escape to the next hallway, to try to escape the soon to be blank room. But they were too late. A door of sorts thudded down, ensnaring James and Lisa within a purely white room.

    Pounding the walls and the doors that sealed them, Lisa shouted as she tried to make as much noise as possible. She wasn’t going down without a fight. She would pound and pound, scream until her lungs gave out, would be an inconvenience to the people that turned her life upside down. It wasn’t until James put a hand on her shoulder than she slid her bruised hands down the wall; a sure sign of being exhausted especially when she was also trying to catch her breath after shouting for her aunt to come and let them go. Lisa clenched her teeth, biting into her lip. She felt so useless in this situation. She had no clue what to do. She didn’t know how to help James; didn’t even know how to help herself. She just wanted to go home and pet Ares again. To go home and have a nice family dinner. To have a nice outing with friends. She wanted to be anywhere else but here.

    She felt James’ other hand wrap around her, and she was then being turned around and pulled into his chest. She didn’t realize she was crying until she felt her own tears wetting the soft cotton shirt he wore. As her sobs lessened, and as she regained her breath, James’ hold loosened. Unshed tears clouded his own vision but right now, he needed to be there for Lisa. But he couldn’t help it. With her crying, mixed in with his own feelings of fear, some tears ended up in her hair. It was now her turn to provide the same strong hold he provided her with. They both needed to let each other know that they were there for each other, no matter what. That they were in this together and that they would get out of this together. 

    “James… can you promise me something?” Her voice was hoarse from her crying and from being tired. Being locked in this room, with no visible way out, with no reassurance that they would live to see tomorrow, this blank room was their breaking point. They failed at running away and now they could be trapped in here forever or eventually killed in this room. They had no way of knowing. 

“Anything for you Lis”

“Promise me, if something happens to me, you’ll run away and save yourself. Don’t come back for me. Just run and tell my family I love them. Give Ares a hug for me.” 

James didn’t know how to react, much less how to feel after that sentiment. How could he just leave his best friend here? Was she planning to stay here in favor of him escaping? “Lis-”

“Just promise me that. Please.”

    “Ok. I promise. But, just promise me that we won’t do anything stupid to get out of here.” James said as he and Lisa sat on the smooth white floor. “We? Don’t you mean me?” Lisa questioned with a broken smile. “Nope. Like it or not, we’re in this together, kid.”

    “We’re the same age, what’s with this 'kid' stuff?” Lisa said while laughing, to her, it sounded as if he was quoting a lame old movie from a century ago. “I heard it in a movie,” James said bashfully, his ears becoming red as he felt his face burn. “B-but I mean it. We’ll go home together, alright?” 

Lisa gave him a watery smile, she felt tears coming back up again but she blinked them away. “Alright. We’ll go home together.”

“But can we sleep now, I’m exhausted.”

“What a way to ruin the moment.”

“Oh so we were havning a moment, Jem Jem?”

“Shut up and go to bed, use your arms as a pillow or something.”