The House of Fire and Bones

The Red Carpet

   "Ah...Ah!" With a hard rock in on the road, Axel awoke to Rose glaring right across from him. She had her bright red phone in her hand, and she swiped endlessly Up and down the screen. As his vision adjusted, he felt hands brush gently against his head as something cold stuck to his his hair.

   To his side, he noticed Sonia applying a stiff, blue hair gel, with the container in her left hand. She and Mikel, who was sound asleep, must've switched places for her to be right next to him. As he watched her, she seemed to notice he was staring.

   "When you were sleeping," she began, fluffing his hair into a more suitable appearance. "I didn't realize just how many bags there were under your eyes until I was putting on your makeup to cover it up. You don't get much sleep do you?"

   "What? Surprised?" He muttered, a slow yawn escaping his mouth as Sonia handed him a mirror, "You probably think someone like me, who's sat tied to a chair by himself for countless years, should do nothing but sleep." Examining himself, Axel turned his head in different angles and lifted his hand to feel under his eyes. He didn't remember the last time he'd looked this clean, and he even found himself a bit attractive.

   Touching up his hair, Sonia took the mirror, and put her supplies away. "You like it right? I'd be offended if you didn't."

"I would guess so..."

"What? Guess? If you don't like it just say it."

"I never said that. I'm not sure how to feel so back off." Axel crossed his arms and turned to Rose still glaring his way as she typed on her phone. Grunting, he slouched in his seat. A tap graced his shoulder, and he turned to Sonia. "What?"

   "Here," she stuck a new phone in his face, and Axel took it with hesitation. "You'll need this if we're gonna communicate. It's already set up with your face recognition, and your password is 2847. Make sure to remember it. Also, our numbers are already in there with our names... and caller ID and stuff, soo... that should be it, yes?"

"Caller... ID? Face... recognition... passwords...?" Axel stutter, completely struggling to grasp any of what she had just explained. "You're telling me... This phone will recognize my face and only work for me? And what's caller ID? what the good of the password if there's this face re-cog-ni-tion?" He interrogated, tilting his head in annoyance while he curiously poked and pinned the phone lying in his hand. As a little kid would, Axel struggled to wrap his head around the new technology he held.

"Haha, well I, uh..." Sonia laughed awkwardly. She didn't know where to start with such a difficultly clueless man. It really must've been an ignorant curse to be locked up without awareness of just how much has changed. "You go here and..." pressing on the message app, she pointed to the icons with their names next to them. "See there's Mikel and me... and Rose is down here."

"Who are those three people above her, huh?" Axel questioned.

Rose perked quickly up from her phone, "What three people? Sonia it should only be us!" He eyebrow furrowed, and Axel noticed her lean in a little. "Sonia-!"

"AH! O-oh, well don't worry about that, heh!" Sonia roughly snatched the phone from his hand and began deleting them one by one.

Axel quickly started memorizing the numbers of each contact one by one, making sure he'd recall every number from memory if he needed. He crossed his left leg over the other, watching her stress bubble up as Rose pressured her to hurry up. 'What strange body language.' Axel pondered to himself, catching a glacé between the three of them.

"O-ok, I fixed it for you so you should be all set! Don't lose it please." Sonia coughed.

"Mmhm." Stuffing the device into his pocket, he stared out his window. Lights lit up the now purple-orange sky, and people dressed in various fancy attire walked and trotted in the same direction they were driving. Looking closely he noticed other limousines doing the same, so he shifted his gaze up ahead.

To say his jaw dropped would be a understatement. The building up ahead seemed to stretch past the clouds with its large futuristic stem poking out. Like a castle, medium buildings were attached to the main one, shaped like bells stemming out. The multicolored windows reflected the lights, and many plants grew from the bottom of the building. It even had three huge pale pink fountains at the front, and a circle drop off too.

   "Stop it, you'll droll on the door." Rose said, amused by Axel's shock. Turning to the boy passed out next to her, she slapped Mikel awake. "Wake up, darling, we're here!"

   Rubbing his eyes groggily, Mikel glanced out the window and deadpanned. "I was hoping I'd die in my sleep before we got here..."

   "Oh don't be like thaat, this'll be fun! Your first time at a ball should be wonderful!" Rose gleamed, almost creepily. "This is the dance of the century! The Monique Ball is really special, and plenty of famous guests, ambassadors, celebrities, and news organizations come from all over the world to be at this event. And with people like that, there's always something valuable at play. They also hold auctions for rare items worth millions!" Rose explained giddily. "Axel, please tell me, does this excite you at all? Doesn't this make you happy?"

   "You sound almost desperate for my approval..." Axel sneered, watching as the neared closer to a large red carpet leading inside the building. 'So this is the red carpet. Is this what I heard those correctional officers talk about?'  He thought. "Disappointed. I'm very underwhelmed." When the limousine came to a stop, a nervous tension settled between the floor. Many people were outside waiting for Them to step out so they could capture every angle for the press. Those pictures would most likely be on magazines sold just about everywhere. But Axel was nervous for other reasons. Not because he hated the press, or attention, or even having to put on an act even though he hadn't a clue what was happening.

   It was his face. Axel was less an inmate. A wanted man who's on the loose. Even if he was arrested decades ago, he was still dangerous. "I'm sure people will recognize me. This is asking for me to get caught!" Axel sweated, pressing himself against his chair.

   "Hm, well I guess we'll have to see if that's true then."

   "You're crazy!"

   "No, I'm your psychiatrist, silly."

  The doors rolled open smoothly, but Axel had a feeling this was going to go the opposite way. A clump of nervousness settled in his throat. 'Please don't let anyone recognize me.'