Panic Room

Part two; the fourth

This used to be quite a short chapter, but after I edited the living hell out of it, I think it's finally reached a stage where it's ok to publish in the book. 

Wednesday; 1998; Luna; S.P.I.D.E.R; 13:09 pm

Luna stared around the small, white room that she had been told that she would live in for the remainder of her life. After the men behind the glass had revealed to her that she was indeed part of S.P.I.D.E.R, Oliver had been called away on an urgent matter, and Luna had been led away by a tall man with dark hair. He had walked her through the hallways, not one word escaping his lips, and had stopped at the room. He had explained where everything was, and left promptly. She hadn't even caught his name. She had been given some clean clothes, a light blue blouse and a pair of long, black trousers, and had changed into them the first chance that she had gotten. Luna had found out that the small room she was occupying possessed a small bedroom and bathroom with a cupboard full of the same blouses and trousers. She had a small bed and a large desk. Luna had perused through the drawers and found a button. She had pressed it and found that her bed had begun to flip up into the wall. Luna let out a gasp of shock and horror and ran over to where it was. She leaped up onto the bed and tried to pull down but whatever mechanism was pulling the bed was far stronger than her and she was forced to let go before her fingers were crushed between the mattress and the wall.

Once the bed had finished its rotation, Luna saw that it had transformed into a mahogany bookshelf. She walked over to the bookshelf and pulled down the first book that she laid her eyes upon. It was titled, 'symbols and runes translated.' Luna opened the book at random and saw a page of perfectly ordinary numbers and letters. Luna frowned and flipped back to the index of the book. She scanned for the section she had been looking at and found that it was called, 'complicated runes and their meanings.' Luna's brow furrowed and she flipped back to the page. She read it again and frowned even deeper. The page was simply full of letters, dashes, and the same repeated letter. It looked like this:

A-A

B-B

C-C

D-D

Luna jumped as the bedroom door opened and the man who she had met in the hospital, and who had introduced himself as Oliver Reath, walked in. Luna felt the tension leave her body and she relaxed a little. Oliver moved over to where Luna was standing and she smiled at him. He smiled back and Luna asked him to come and take a look at the book. Oliver walked over and took the book out of Luna's hands to get a closer look.

"What's wrong with the book Luna? It's exactly as the title reads. It's just runes and their translations. Look at this one," he pointed to the one that said: A-A and asked Luna. "Can you see that one that looks like a spiral?" Luna shook her head and understanding flooded his face. "Oh, yes, sorry Luna. I completely forgot. You can't see the symbols and runes, can you? You see ordinary letters and numbers don't you?" Luna nodded and Oliver began to explain. "Luna, did you know that you have a gift?" Luna shook her head again. Her vocal chords weren't working very well. "Your gift is a talent that we were looking for. You are able to translate symbols and runes inside your head, and so, instead of seeing pictures, you see the usual, english alphabet." Luna looked back at the book and tried to imagine how Oliver must see it. He must see it as an entire book of little pictures and symbols, with adjoining letters. She handed the book back to Oliver and her vocal chords seemed to unstick.

"Why have I never known about this?" Luna asked, looking over the page again. Oliver opened his mouth and then closed it again. He bit his bottom lip and, at Luna's prompting look, spoke.

"Luna, we at S.P.I.D.E.R have only recently discovered your talent. Before us, no one had any idea of the power that you possess." Luna's eyes widened as Oliver finished talking and she thought about it. How many people were able to see symbols as letters and numbers besides her? Luna closed the book and placed it down on the desk. She walked over to the bookshelf as Oliver turned to leave and Luna looked back just in time to see him disappearing behind the door.