Panic Room

Part three; the second

Agh! I feel so bad for Oliver at this point. I imagine this as that sucky feeling of having something right on the tip of your tongue but not being able to remember quite what. And now I have that icky feeling of thinking about uncomfortable stuff. 

Wednesday; 1998; The secret room; Luna; 14:00 pm

Luna sat on the hanging chair, tissue in hand, wiping her streaming eyes and sniffing. She stood up and went over to the book shelf, kicking off her shoes as she went. Luna felt the soft fluff of the carpet engulf her feet and stood on her toes to get a book that was on the top shelf. She grabbed a leather-bound volume with swirling gold writing down the spine. Luna took the book and walked to the door touching it absent-mindedly and not even noticing when it melted away. She moved up the stairs, and only stopped looking at the book when the light disappeared. She noticed for the first time a soft thudding coming from above and looked up curiously. Was somebody knocking on the door? She continued to walk, listening out for any indication that somebody was up in her room. She walked up a few more steps and stopped when she heard the thumping again. It was louder this time and Luna began to jog up the stairs, book in hand. The thumping sounded again, much louder and she heard a voice.

"Luna? LUNA? Are you there? It's Oliver. Can you hear me?" Luna relaxed and hurried up the stairs to let Oliver in. "Luna? Can you please unlock the door for me?" She ran over to the door and reached for the lock. It wasn't shut. The door was unlocked and Oliver couldn't get in. This was rather odd for he could normally get in, even when the door was locked, and now he was banging to come in, when he could just push the door open.

"Oliver? Just push the door." She felt movement on the other side of the door and heard Oliver's voice, oddly flat and bored sounding

"It won't open Luna. Please can you open up for me?" Luna pulled at the door handle, but found that she couldn't open it. She supposed that, if she could open the door whenever she pleased, she could have escaped and gone home. Luna stopped thinking about home abruptly because it hurt to think about the life she had left behind.

"Oliver..I..I'm sorry but the door won't open. Can't you open it from your side?" Luna heard Oliver raise a hand to the door again and give it a shove before lowering it and answering.

"No Luna. Sorry. I guess I'll see you." Luna heard him stumping away and felt very confused. Oliver was acting very oddly. She heard the thumping moving further away and thought that something must have happened. He had never stumped before. He had always moved very lightly. Now he sounded more like a troll than an agent. He had also sounded a little bit dimmer than usual, and why hadn't he been able to open the door? It had been unlocked after all and he had always been able to open it even when it had been locked. Luna let out a small sigh and walked over to the uncomfortable bed. She had a feeling that it was so uncomfortable because all the books on the other side were pushing into her back when she lay. She jumped onto the mattress and heard thuds as several books fell from the shelf and onto the floor. Luna groaned and opened the book that she was holding to the first page. She raised it to her eyes and looked for words, but there were none. 

The book was entirely blank. 

She flipped through it, rifling hurriedly, and then carefully, through the pages, but there was no sign of a word, symbol of otherwise. 'How odd.' She thought as she moved through the book. 'Who would bother shelving an entirely blank book?' Luna turned the pages once more, and then she saw it. Scrawled in the top left hand corner of the first page, were the words, S.N.A.K.E headquarters. Luna frowned, looking at the page, and then, suddenly, it transformed into a sort of miniature television screen. She raised the book and pressed it to her eye, and looked into a deserted corridor. It was made of rough stone and had torches in brackets all along the walls. There were no windows, and the ceiling was further up than Luna could see. As she watched, two men walked into view, each wearing a long cloak of red and black material. They were talking in hushed tones and apparently did not want to be overheard. As they walked, a third man came into view, walking toward them from the other side of the passage, wearing billowing robes of deepest purple. The men stopped talking at once and both sank into identical deep bows, before straightening up. The man on the left spoke in a deep Irish accent.

"Good afternoon, Salron. What brings you down a hallway so deep as this?" The man named Salron spoke, but in a much higher tone than the man before.

"Well Nicholas, If you must know, I am here, to speak with you." He punctuated the last word by jabbing Nicholas in the chest with one long, bony finger. Nicholas looked down at the finger and then back up at the man. The second man was skulking behind the first, keeping absolutely silent.

"And why are you so quiet, Abigor?" He asked the second man, who hid behind the first and spoke very quietly. "I'm very sorry, Salron, I am not well, but that is no excuse for my silence. I hope you are fine." Salron returned his gaze to Nicholas as he spoke again.

"Nicholas, why didn't you attend my last meeting? We were discussing Luna." At this point Luna pressed the book more firmly to her eye and looked very intently.

"Really?" Nicholas asked intently "What were you saying about Luna?"

They looked at each other and Salron spoke quietly as if he knew that somebody was listening. "We were talking about whether we could get her into the agency or not. As you know, we have been-" But he was suddenly cut off by an outburst from Abigor.

"Salron, I realise that we want Luna in the agency, but why do we need to have her? Wouldn't it be so much easier if we could get a less guarded agent. She is so heavily protected, and besides, we don't even know how to get into her room. I heard from our spy at S.P.I.D.E.R that Luna can't open the door from the inside, so that rules out breaking in and tricking her into opening the door from the inside, and we also know that we need some sort of key" He waved his hand angrily, "To get the door open. We have almost no way of getting into Luna's room, so wouldn't it be so much, so very much, easier, to just, get a different agent." He said all of this, as if it were all extremely obvious. Salron raised a hand, as if to hit Abigor, but seemed to think better of it.

"Fool!" He hissed angrily, "We must use Luna, because of her," he leaned closer, "powers. You know that. Don't be an idiot. We need Luna because we need to use her powers! If you are going to be stupid, then I suggest that you turn around and leave while you still can." Abigor shook his head and Salron, looking satisfied, spoke. "Now, Nicholas, I need you to take Luna from S.P.I.D.E.R, and bring her here to me by next week. No later. Is that understood?" Nicholas bowed deeply and Salron gave a small nod. He turned to face Abigor, and spoke in a much stiffer tone. "You, Abigor, will help Nicholas to attain Luna, and bring her to me. You will perform this act alongside Nicholas. Not taking charge, but not lagging behind either. I expect you to deliver Luna to me, by next week Wednesday. Understand?" Abigor nodded and Salron turned to leave.

"Wait." Abigor burst out, and Salron turned to face him. "Never mind" He muttered and Salron turned again, shaking his head and muttering under his breath.

"Well." Nicholas said "We should be off then." And they turned to leave talking again. Luna was just lowering the book from her eye, when Abigor turned toward where she was looking and gave the smallest of nods, as if he knew that she was there. He then turned back to Nicholas, and together, they walked away.