The Normals | ✓

T W E N T Y

"You're Different?"

"Unfortunately."

I get up and stand at the wall separating us. Arden stays on the floor, not looking at me. "You don't look Different," I say, studying him. "Usually it's easy to tell a Different from a Normal."

"Yeah, well until now I didn't know I was Different either," he replies bitterly. "Guess they come in different shapes and sizes."

I step away from the wall and walk around the room. "Have you-- have you ever done something like this before? I don't understand. You live in your perfect little city because you're supposed to be Normal. How have you been there all your life if you're Different?"

He shrugs, looking annoyed. "I don't know. I guess science can't detect everything."

There's a muffled clunk on one side of the room, and both mine and Arden's heads turn to the sound. A portion of the room slides open on each side of the transparent wall and before either of us can make a move toward it, a Mask steps into each of the openings. They hold no weapons, but I know them too well to let that fool me. There's probably a gun tucked away on the back of their belt, and several daggers hidden in their boots.

The one on Arden's side, a tall, powerful-looking woman with rich dark skin and a deep voice, addresses both of us. "We're nearing our destination. You two are to spend no more than fifteen minutes eating and then you will be given time to change your clothes and do whatever you need to." Arden gets up slowly, looking unsure of what to do, and the two Masks enter the room and attach some sort of restraint to our hands. The Mask guarding me leads me out of the room when she's done and down a hall stretching out from the doorway. Like the halls I grew up with at the Core, this one shows no trace of doors lining it except for a simple metal label where each door should be, and when I turn to see where we had come from I see the wall slide back in place as if it had never existed.

The Mask stops at a point near the end of the hall and swipes their wristband. The wall slides open, revealing a spacious room with several tables scattered around it. I look to my left as we enter the room to see Arden, following the tall Mask, entering from another door.

We're led to a booth by a large window and our restraints are removed, but the Masks stand by the door, keeping a constant eye on us as we wait for our food to arrive. After a few minutes, a compartment in the table slides open and two plates rise out of it. We each take one and start on the food -- fruit, some eggs, and a bowl of hot grain with some sort of sweet-tasting syrup. We're about halfway through the meal when Arden finally speaks.

"Did you know that Lyra pretended she didn't know anything?" he asks. "My own sister, who was closer with you than anyone else, pretended she didn't know anything. About you, about me taking you in, nothing. They didn't give her a punishment at all. She's still back there -- back home -- walking around like nothing happened." He stops shovelling fruit into his mouth and leans back in the seat with a huff. "At least Gwen isn't completely happy. She wasn't expecting me to get taken away. She tried to argue me out of it, but it didn't work. So at least there's that." He laughs to himself. "Now she's probably gonna get assigned a husband since there's barely any time to find someone else before she has to start a family."

"Serves her right," I say, swiping a few grapes from his plate.

"Although," he continues, his expression souring at the grapes I took, "with the amount of guys she would stare at while we were together, I'm sure she'll have no problem finding someone in the span of ten minutes."

"Let's not talk about her," I tell him. "I don't want to waste time on someone who ruined so much."

"The thing is, I didn't even want you around!" Arden continues on, like he never heard me. "I would've preferred to live with Gwen even though she was manipulating if it meant you weren't there. But no matter what I told myself, I couldn't make you go away. I kept making excuses like 'oh but Lyra wants her to stay', or 'but she has nowhere else to go', but now I'm just deeper into this mess you've brought onto me--"

"Arden!" I interrupt. He looks at me with surprised eyes, like he didn't know I was there. "Let's... let's not talk about the past, okay? We're here now so we just have to deal with it."

A throat clears on the other side of the table, and I look around to find another Mask above us. It takes me a moment to recognize Captain, holding a small box out to me. "For your leftovers," she says. "It's time to go."

I take the box and open it, but instead of finding it empty, there's a book at the bottom. My heart lurches as I recognize Sniper's sketchbook, and then I feel a stab of pain as I realize I no longer have my backpack, so it must be the only thing that made the trip from Pacifica to Cordillera and back. Captain must've saved it before they got rid of my stuff. I look up to thank her, but she's standing where one of the other Masks was before, wearing a cold expression.

Arden doesn't seem to notice the sketchbook at the bottom of the box, so I carefully put our plates on top of it and seal everything up. Maybe I can thank Captain later.

Maybe.