Immortalys

Chapter Eight: A Second Entrance

Friction awoke suddenly after a troubled sleep; he had been dreaming a very strange dream, but could not recall what it was. The room was dark, especially since there was no window, but it wasn't entirely black; small blue lights illuminated each corner near the floor and the ceiling.

He rearranged the blankets that had become bunched up around him as he slept, but he didn't get out of bed. He yawned, wondering exactly how long it had been since he and Willow had first been put into this room. He had lost track of time since the first moment he had been strapped to the table and knocked out. But he was pretty certain that it had been exactly a day since that officer Todd had spoken with them; it was still a little difficult to trace time in a lonely room with no outside view.

Since Todd had left, Friction had busied himself with his gaming system and whatever else he could extract from that screen in the wall; he figured out that it could give him anything he wanted pretty much instantly, so he ordered more cookies, a delicious hot dinner for the both of them (although Willow ate very little of it) and a box of chocolates that had a label on the front reading "proudly produced and packaged in E'chtėrough," which was a random name that Friction had never heard of in his life. It was then that he realized that everything he asked for had been food... but what else did he need, really? He had Willow, he had this cool gaming system to distract him, and... well, he didn't have anything else to keep an eye on since he had lost all of his possessions, so why not? His connection to the outside world had been completely severed.

Friction thought that for once, he was being the more productive out of the two of them. At least he was becoming proficient at this new game, while Willow sat around, occasionally pacing, glaring at the ceiling and periodically complaining about and abusing the Immortalys officers. He knew she was frightened, and he also knew that she hated being in enclosed spaces for a prolonged amount of time, so both of these things put her in a very bad mood. Friction was nervous too, and he didn't fully trust Todd or the other officers yet, but was able to take advantage of the benefits of being in this room. As of now, they hadn't been killed, they hadn't been hurt at all (although he knew Willow would beg to differ, as she kept scratching feverishly at her upper arm), and they had gotten good food. So far, they seemed to be liked by the officers. Friction just hoped that the apparent future meeting with Immortalys' dictator, whoever he was, did not change how they were treated.

Todd had not returned since his first visit, and neither had any other officer, but Friction was assured that they hadn't been forgotten: yesterday morning, some music had been turned on somewhere and broadcasted into their room. It was strange, futuristic music that Friction had never heard before, and it very much had a synthetic, electronic sound to it.

Friction couldn't decide whether he liked it or disliked it, but Willow had flat-out said, "I hate this music."

He figured it would start playing again this morning, once more people had gotten up. Friction stretched and sat up in bed, wondering what he should order for breakfast. He rather wished he had his phone, so he could look at something while he waited for Willow to wake up. He shrugged and retrieved the gaming console again, figuring he'd play one of the new games he found yesterday. There were a lot of different games on this thing, and they were all in such good quality.

He was about five minutes into a racing game when he heard the music turn on from somewhere near the ceiling. It was some lively tune that went really well with his game, so he continued that for a couple minutes before deciding to order something to eat. Friction got out of bed, switched on the light (which was a little screen on the wall that said either "on" or "off"), and then chose some waffles and blueberries from the digital menu.

As he started eating, he heard Willow turn over in bed; he looked at her and found her making a very disgusted face at the ceiling as she shielded her eyes from the light.