The Variants

Chapter 6

Michelle's POV:

I stared up at the mansion. Its sprawling building stretched almost 45 feet with windows almost every 7 feet. The brick red paint was complimented by white windowsills and a sky blue door. I had a flashback of when Roy first brought Jerry and me here.

Roy stepped forward and knocked on the large blue door. Jerry and I stood huddled on the steps, trying to keep the cold out of our jackets. The door opened, and before us stood a tall, blond man with extremely bright blue eyes. He frowned in disapproval at Roy, but when he saw us, his face split into a big smile. Tentatively, I waved. He laughed, and the sound tickled my stomach. 'I might actually like it here,' I thought.

"Is anyone in there?" Kelsey interrupted. She snapped her fingers in front of my face. When I blinked, she laughed. Then she stopped and stared at me. "You remembered something, didn't you?"

I nodded. "From when Roy brought Jerry and I here the first time."

Kelsey smiled. "That was a very happy day. Now, come on! It's time for another happy day."

Something Sarge said the first day we all met together came back to me. "It'll be a happy day when we are back on Roth and The Hunter is gone."

Kelsey giggled. "My dad said that, didn't he?" I nodded.

Together, we linked arms and headed to the large blue door.

"That's an interesting color," I noted.

Kelsey nodded. "It's arctic blue," she explained.

She knocked on the door. Almost immediately, the door was opened. I gasped. "Carter?!?!"

Carter grinned, his eyes twinkling. "Carter Zanaria, at your service," he said, bowing slightly. Kelsey giggled and slapped Carter on the head lightly. Straightening, he turned around. Just before he yelled our arrival, Kelsey tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and she pointed at a nearby intercom. I snickered. He grinned shyly and spoke into it.

"Sarge, please come to the front hall. Our guests have arrived."

He turned back to me. "Welcome to the Roth Mansion. I am genuinely excited about your being here. I hope you have a better time here than at the hospital." Kelsey nudged him, and he grinned widely. "May I show you our entrance hall?"

"Sure," I said, "And I promise not to run away again," I teased. He blushed and Kelsey snorted. Carter held out both of his arms, and Kelsey and I each took one.

"Now, as we walk forward," Carter said, imitating an announcer, "We enter the Synopsis Hall."

"The what hall?" I interrupted. 

Carter frowned, obviously not enjoying the interruption. "If you would listen for 5 minutes, you would understand. Now, the Synopsis Hall is a hall-"

"Obviously," I said. Kelsey smiled a little as Carter's face grew red with annoyance.

"It's a hall where-"

"You do realize that synopsis means to give a general overview of the subject, right?"

"Yes," Carter said in a strained voice as he tried to keep from yelling. "As I have been trying to say-"

"So I'm expecting a story from a building?" I snorted. "Ookaayy." I rolled my eyes.

Then, someone up above us chuckled. We stepped forward a little, and Jerry stepped down a set of stairs into our line of vision. Carter sighed with relief, obviously glad to have some help. I snickered.

"Carter, you do realize that Michelle is egging you on, right? I mean, look at her!" Carter turned, and I gave his my best innocent face. He sighed and Jerry chuckled again. He stepped towards us with a smile. His smile made me remember something else.

I put my arms down and looked around the barn, panting heavily. The formerly chaotic barn was now in neat order, with an organizing system for all the tools. Jerry grinned at me and then turned back to his psychedelic wall of colors. Sarge stepped forward, clapping his hands. "That was very impressive Michelle. You are getting much stronger."

"Great," I said sarcastically. "So, are you going to tell us what's really going on, or does Jerry have to search your mind for the answer? I mean, you get a phone call and then just send us in here without telling us why?!?! Where's Roy??"

"Michelle, calm down," Jerry said, trying to step in between us.

"No, you need... you deserve to know what's going on," Sarge said. Sighing, he sat down. "We had planned to leave for Roth tomorrow night, but...something bad happened."

Both Jerry and I sat down next to him and waited for Sarge to continue.

"So, you both know that Roy took the shuttle for a... a test run, to make sure everything is set and ready to go." We nodded.

"Well, about 2 hours ago, the ground crew lost all contact with him. They thought it was just a technical difficulty, but when he didn't return, they followed the shuttle's GPS. When they found the shuttle, it was destroyed, and Roy was nowhere to be found. They did, however, found blood."

"Now that everyone, meaning you, Michelle, is caught up on why we call in Synopsis Hall," Jerry said, bringing me back to the present, "Sarge is waiting for us in the situation room."

We headed up the stairs and down a number of twisting hallways.

"Hey Kelsey," I whispered when Carter and Jerry weren't looking.

"Yeah?" We froze when Carter looked back at us in curiosity. 

"What were you guys talking about back there?"

Kelsey snickered. "Meet me later in the hall and I'll tell you about it."

"Okay."

Carter looked back at us again, and when he turned back we giggled. Jerry snorted ahead of us. He stopped in front of a tall metal door.

"Before we go in, I'm going to have to ask you to keep your gasps of surprise to yourself."

I nodded. That seems logical.

"I'm looking at you, Michelle," Jerry continued. Carter snorted and I kicked him.

Then he pressed his hand on the door and unlocked itusing bio-metrics. We stepped forward and, against my twin brother's wishes, Igasped.