The Bookworm

8. The Door and The Key

(This is loosely based off of Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy. It's a really good book that I've read a couple of times. Check it out if you're interested!)

The teenager sighed and pushed a strand of their blonde hair off of their face. Their whole life was one big attraction, a freak show. As a baby, their parents signed them up for an experiment too, in a way, ignore their gender, so they weren't exactly a 'he' or a 'she'. After it proved successful, they were sent out into the world, to see how hard it would be for them to fit in.

Well, it didn't take long for people to find out. The people hated them, calling them 'it', 'freak', telling them to "go back to the test tube they came from and die", and now they're locked inside a room in a museum. One of the many exhibits in this hell-hole.

Their room was blank and empty, holding only a mattress for a bed and a side room for a bathroom. The walls were cold, and there was dust settling everywhere, and no matter how hard they tried to clean it always re-settle. The only visitors they had were the occasional janitor that cleaned to their end of the hallways, and the kind man who gave them food three times a day. They had a small window that was too high for them to climb, not that they would want to try and jump out from there.

The museum was 8 floors high, and they were kept on the 5th floor, at the end of the hallway. They shared a floor with the dinosaurs, Science throughout Time, the Times of the World clock (all it did was tell the time for every major city in the world, why was it even here?), a room full of mirrors (...Why?), and a room full of taxidermied animals, but they could swear that on nights with a new moon or a full moon, they could hear the animals moving around, scraping on the walls and door. There was an old painting on the wall near their door, and they could see it through the keyhole.

The painting was meant to go with the Science throughout Time exhibit. It showed a man and a woman, both wearing lab coats, connected by a strand of DNA. The DNA strand also connected to a baby, who was curled up into a ball similar to how a fetus might look. The teenager had overheard the museum curator talking to a group once about how it's meant to symbolise the evolution of humans, how "our children are our future". They thought it was all a bunch of stupid stuff based on a stupid painting.

The child leaned against the door, tears slipping out of their eyes. They took a shaky breath in before they heard someone else sob. They looked out through the keyhole and saw a young girl around their age there, wearing a light blue dress and with long, black hair tied back into a braid. "Hello?" The girl turned towards the door.

Amanda was lost. She had come to the 5th floor because she had heard there was a science and dinosaur exhibit, but she stayed too long and her parents had gone out for lunch. She had tried calling them but they didn't pick up. She had started to cry, but then she heard a voice. "Hello?" Amanda turned to where she heard the voice, a door at the end of the hallway. She walked towards it sniffling and wiped the dust off of the door. There was no label on the door that could tell her what was in it. She tried the door handle carefully. Locked. She crouched down and looked through the keyhole. Her green eye immediately met with a dark brown one. 

The teenager peeked through the keyhole and saw a bright green eye. They blinked in surprise, they didn't expect the girl to come over. People usually left after they were done with the other exhibits. The girl backed away slightly. "Are you ok?"

Amanda shook her head. "My parents left the museum while I was still up here, and they won't answer their phones..." The person on the other side of the door gasped slightly. "Do you want to stay up here? It's almost the time that Mr Sawyer comes up here to bring me lunch, maybe he can help you find them?" Amanda nodded her head slightly. She kneeled on the ground so the keyhole was more eye-level. "Who are you? Why are you kept in here?" They sighed. "I... I don't have a name. My parents made me take part in an experiment to get rid of my gender, and when I was allowed to go outside for the first time, I was a freak. The museum curator found me, and now she's keeping me in here." Now it was Amanda's turn to gasp.

"You don't have a name? What did they call you during the experiment then?" All her fear had vanished by now. "They just gave me a number, I think it was 852. I haven't been called anything for the past 5 years now." Amanda was bewildered. "5 years?" The teenager nodded. "Yeah, I'm about.. 15? I think? I couldn't count the years that easy in the laboratory." Amanda sat down properly, her knees were sore. "I'm 13... We should get you a name." The teenager looked her in the eye. "Are you sure? I can't use it..." "Yeah, I'm sure! I only live a street away from here, I could visit you after school. Now, you don't have a gender, this might be tough... How about Bartholomew?" They straightened up their posture and put on a very snobbish tone. "That's King Bartholomew to you, peasant." Amanda laughed. "Maybe not, it is a very masculine name after all... What about Sky? Or Storm?" The teenager shook his head.

The two of them kept talking about names for a while. "True? What kind of name is that?" Amanda giggled. "Well, I don't want to give you a generic name like Alex or Sam... What about Rowan?" At the sound of the name, they perked up. "Rowan..." The name rolled off their tongue, it sounded right. "Yeah, I like it." Amanda smiled. "Well then Rowan, I don't think I've introduced myself. I'm Amanda. Nice to meet you." Rowan smiled back. They finally had a friend.

Amanda looked towards the elevator as it came to a stop with a ding. A man in his 60's walked out with a tray. "Oh! Hello there. I was just bringing food for my friend in there." He pointed to the door Amanda was leaning against. Rowan perked up at the sound of Mr Sawyer's voice. "Mr Sawyer! This is Amanda, I've been talking to her for a while now." Amanda laughed slightly. "Rowan's full of jokes, I'm surprised nobody else has talked to them." Sawyer smiles softly. "Yes, well, the curator tried to keep them locked away, so nobody else has noticed them. Say, what are you doing up here all alone?" Amanda looked at the floor, her face falling. "My parents went to lunch, and they forgot about me... I tried calling them but no response..." Sawyer sighs. He pulls up a hidden flap at the bottom of the door and passed the tray through. "Come on, let's get you down to the lobby, we can contact your parents there." He held Amanda's hand and led her to the elevator. She turned her head slightly. "Bye Rowan, I'll talk to you tomorrow!" The elevator doors shut on them.

Rowan let out a sigh. They leaned up against the door again. It was nice to have a friend to talk to, but they wanted to be free. They pulled a small box out from a gap between the wall and the mattress and opened the box. Inside was a small doll with a torn dress and matted hair, and a key with an eye carved into it. They inspected the two things carefully, before putting them back into the box. They wondered if Amanda would be the one to free them, the one to stop the clock before they were killed.

Part 2?