Refracted

- - 40 - -

Today was my first day of work. To be honest, I didn't really know how I felt about it. It was like someone had created a hole inside of me and had jumbled everything else up in the process. I felt anxious and happy and angry and scared but on top of everything else I felt numb. It was like a part of me was missing. Like someone had stolen something but I didn't quite know what and I didn't know how to fix it. I didn't know how to get it back... or if I even wanted it back.

Light seeped through cracks in my automatic blinds and eventually woke me from sleep. I hadn't slept all that well after I returned from my meeting with Rachel but I had finally drifted off in the last hour or so. Only to be woken again. Great.

Groaning, I sat up and rubbed my eyes. My room was exactly as I had left it. I wasn't really sure what I expected though: someone to have broken in? Lucas to have snooped through my stuff? A messenger from Rachel to have come this early? My hopes were rising at an alarming rate but I knew that would be my downfall. I couldn't act any different; I still had a job to do.

Swinging my legs over my bed, I stood up and headed over to my closet. To my surprise, an outfit had already been perfectly coordinated and fashioned. It lay waiting at the front of the closet matches with shoes and a little black handbag. I had never been that stylish and clothes were never that important to me, what fascinated me was the mechanics of the closet and the technology that was being wasted on me now compared to the horrible conditions I had to live in regarding both facilities. Donning a white blouse and a black pencil skirt, I made my way to the vast, modern kitchen where I was equally surprised.

Without being told, the food dispenser had prepared a steaming breakfast of bacon and eggs - rare luxuries for the lower classes - and had left it to cool. I inhaled the scent of it all and sat down at the head of my new table. Hungrily, I devoured the meal and was left with yet another full stomach. It was like I was walking in a dream - all of a sudden I was getting everything I had ever wanted but it was still wrong. I shouldn't have been there. I didn't deserve it.

A small beeping from my DigiWatch distracted me from my thoughts.

"Incoming message," a robotic voice warned.

I clicked the green 'accept' button and a holographic display of Lucas popped up.

"Hi Lucas," I greeted though his very name made me cringe.

"Verity," he returned. "Now, instead of you coming to the office today, I have another task for you. Due to some unrest in the districts, I have decided to bring forward the announcement about Project Refracted and I need you as our glorious prototype to showcase to everyone the potential of this project."

"Okay... what do you need me to do?"

"A conference will be held in front of the Atlantis Chambers in approximately an hour and all you need to do is arrive. Hair and makeup will style you before you meet me onstage at which point you just need to answer a few questions and look pretty."

I winced at the "look pretty". I was so much more than someone to be objectified and an advertisement for Lucas' nightmare of a project. What choice did I have though?

"Sounds good to me," I replied with a fake smile plastered across my face.

"Perfect, I'll see you in an hour. Signing off."

The call ended and Lucas' holograph disappeared.

I sighed. It looked like today I would be playing dress up instead of doing something useful for the rebellion. Not what I wanted but at least I was out of the facility. Once I had finished getting ready, I left my apartment and took the elevator to the bottom. There was no way that I could have faced those treacherous stairs again. Then, I boarded the hover car waiting for me and set off for the Atlantis chambers.