They look like people

06

The room they had left me in, looked like it was coming straight out of a psychiatric hospital.

The four walls, the door I was facing, the few empty seats in the room... everything was white, and for an unknown reason, it was creeping me out. My right leg was shaking uncontrollably and Will's words were engraved in my mind. They want me to forget.

I still wanted to run out of this building, to flee from this new reality, but as I had tried to open the door where Fernanda and the others had gone through, it had stayed desperately closed even after my multiple tries to pull it open. The last few minutes, I had nervously paced back and forth, until I had sat down and waited for something to happen.

My gaze wandered across the room, trying to find something helpful, any clues to what would happen next... Nothing.

The locked door I had tried to open to my left, the whites chairs and seats facing the opposites walls, the geometrical tiling on the floor that gave me headache... everything was so immaculate and bright that my eyes were hurting.

The neat room and the silence were in complete contrast to the chaos in my head. Hazy pictures of a scorpion-like monster purchasing me and Rachel's blood blending in her red curls wouldn't stop playing in front of my eyes. Her screams, my thoughts, the knowledge that Monsters existed... Everything was mixed together.

I was attempting to organize my thoughts, but too much questions were popping up in my head.

Since when did the Monsters and Monsterhunters exist? Were the Monsterhunters human? Why were Rachel and I attacked? What would they do to me?

The last question was the one that was troubling me the most. They had locked me in that white room like a prisoner and hadn't given me more information. How long was I supposed to wait? All this white and the thoughts in my head were making me crazy.

My phone, that was miraculously working again, told me that it was around midnight. One hour. Those sixty minutes just turned my world upside down.

I pulled my knees to my chest and anxiously played with my shoelaces. I had nobody I could write to, nobody that would notice my absence tonight. The fact that I was an orphan since I was four, eliminated the possibility that I could alert some parents or family. In addition to that, the fact that I was so silent and discreet around other people had almost made it impossible for me to make friends. The last thought made my heart tighten. I was maybe not a person who loved talking, but friendship weren't always about talking about everything. I missed company, even silent one.

Even If I had had someone I could ask for help, they would've stopped me from reaching out to someone. It was more than obvious that the society of Monsterhunters was something nobody should've know about. I could easily imagine some cameras and microphones hidden in the room... In the other case they would've taken my phone away.

After a few other minutes, I heard muffled voices behind the door in front of me, and the clicking noise of someone unlocking the door made my muscles tense.

An older men with grey hair that was meticulously brushed to the side and with deep wrinkles on his face showed up behind the door. "Hi. May you come in, young lady?"

I tried to control my breathing with regular inhales and stood up from my seat, as disturbingly white as the rest of the room. The man's face was serious and controlled, his lips pressed in a thin line and he gestured me to go in the room behind him. Something about him was...familiar. It triggered something I couldn't quite name, like a word on my tongue I was on the verge of saying but forgot it.

Show them the tough Nea. The one that isn't afraid.

I straightened my back and lifted my chin in a motion of confidence and entered the room. If you believe it, they will believe it too.