*
After a grueling day... I finally made it to night time. I rested for a bit in the afternoon and had to rush to do some of my assigned chores, but I made it...
We met up at the rendezvous point in her room. We had prioritised meeting up for my safety, and as we entered the lift once more to reach the highest floor available to us, the canteen... The lift stopped.
"..."
Dead silence and utter dimness, akin to being wrapped in a blanket of jett black. It was a point to ponder now... Was this an accident or was it intentional? If they could control the lift... Were they simply waiting for this moment? Allowing the lift to function during the night when we were supposed to be asleep... Was it to give this false sense of hope? I had assume Gerald who was at it far longer than I was, would be more aware of this.
First the CCTV cameras and now this... Maybe she was just a kid after all, like any other one of us here in this facility. I could only criticise her naivety now through the lense of the effect, I watched her failure and pinpointed the cause. But perhaps... She was more stressed out than I thought, that she would be surprised by such a trick.
"... Looks like they're playing tricks on us. I was confused for a moment, sorry. I simply didn't think they would use such a petty trick. Or maybe they knew it was petty and did it on purpose...
.... We won't get another perfect moment like this now, I'll have to reveal my cards and use yours when the time is right. Grab on, I'll get us out of here. " (Gerald)
Maybe I was the one in the dark, even if she didn't expect it, it was because she had confidence to succeed even it happened... So her surprise was at her opponent's for pulling it off and not being aware of it. Thinking closely, if she revealed she was a magical girl, it was good for them. If she wasn't, they could just pick us up tomorrow and punish us.
It was cheap to sacrifice the lift, and it got us right where they wanted. Gerald who realised that and made a compromise on the spot was the impressive one. I vaguely felt like my movements were being monitored, but she was a step ahead and knew time was running out. I grabbed her waist and clenched my legs onto her torso, and we were off. She sliced apart the ceiling of the lift, grew sharp stakes of darkness at the ends of her limbs and began climbing the walls at a fast pace. A thin but opague curtain was draped over us so they wouldn't be able to spot us from high above.
We climbed at an exceedingly fast pace, almost as if Gerald was running on the wall rather than climbing. The looming inertia below us reminds me of our fickle state, just the slightest mistake could ruin everything... In that case, at least Gerald should escape.
In the distant opening far above, cones of light peak through the gap likely from the canteen area. At this point we were still many floors below the range of the torchlight, so even if they happen to shine in the right direction, the curtain of darkness conjured by Gerald will hide and protect us. The problem comes when we enter the range of their search lights.
But I struggle to even speak under the violent forces acting on our body right now, it's akin to being in a thin fragile car with no suspension system. It takes all my strength merely grabbing onto her... In this case, shift!
... Bending the light, I fixed the image of their lights facing nothing in the darkness in place to conceal our imminent approach. Gerald on the other hand had a different idea, she conjured more curtains of darkness that would move up at the same speed as us, but were positioned slightly differently. There was around 2 on each side of the lift shaft, with one almost right above us but shifted a bit to the left. If they stare at us from straight above, they wouldn't be able to tell that there were 2 curtains of black, so it was a decoy above a decoy.
As I manipulated the light that was there before the decoys came into play, the illusion I made remained in place and continued to hide us. At this moment they were still sending my guards, so the doors shouldn't have been locked yet. There was hope that the exit is still open... Gerald climbed past the elevator opening connected to the canteen, while extremely risky it was also the safest way... To exit through the elevator opening by climbing the top of the door frame and sticking to the ceiling.
I quickly dispelled the illusion in the elevator and for a few seconds bent the light around the security guards to stay the same. Looking closely, they were all armed with assault rifles and heavy armoured vests, their builds were around twice our heights... It was terrifying, and since we bent light so close to them, it was more noticeable than ever. To go around this, I only made the illusion last for the few seconds gap that we needed to exit the elevator shaft.
She switched from one wall to another and crawled out under the top of the door frame and continued to stick to the wall, eventually curving her dark hooks so she can stick onto the ceiling as well. In the canteen, there were 4 walls with 1 in each general direction of North, South, East, West.
The South Wall was where we just came from and it had a large elevator in the center that led to all the experimental subjects' rooms. There were bookshelves lining it's sides that we could bring back to our rooms, but they only held very elementary content like alphabet learning and children's fairy tales.
The East had a door in its center, on the other side was a large obstacle course. But the course was more like an execution that required consistent and intense effort. It was like an abyss that contained square columns of marble that we have to jump over and land on. Every day, some of the subjects were sent there and were given a task. Tasks such as 1000 consistent jumps without falling into the void below. It was so deep that light did not reach the bottom, so there was no need to worry about a punishment that comes with failing the task. Failing the task itself is the punishment.
The West was the showers and general amenities. It was also where the food collection point was located, we would input our own room number and receive our allocated rations. There wasn't much, just hard crudely mass produced bread and a plain soup of vegetable stock and salt. Other than that, there was a protein bar and a reusable plastic bottle of water. We could always eat in our rooms and freely go to and fro between the canteen and our rooms... So we could refill our water in the canteen on the West Side.
But it would be very lonely to stay and eat in our rooms, or at least that was the rationale. Of course there were others that stayed in their rooms and never came out, we regarded them as dead as we wouldn't be able to verify anyway. Sometimes we would see some peers disappear... Forever... One day we were conversing with them, the next day we were reminded of how fickle our wellbeing is.
The stress from the pressure of this facility was gradually accumulating. Some of those with weak willpower voluntarily jumped down the abyss, others starved themselves in their rooms. Even if they regretted starving themselves or slept for too long out of sloth, they wouldn't have the energy to escape what was now their new coffin. No one would know and no one would find out about them.
The staff personnel completely draped in a white robe, hood and mask would have to collect their bodies and carry them back in stretchers that were covered with cloth. It was rather common place... And I hated that I got used to it. I... Was simply one of those who adapted to the facility, I got used to life here without wishing for more. Everyday was the same monotone drivel, rather...
I didn't get used to out of my own will.
I simply did out of a natural occurrence. It was painful knowing how little I find the facility repulsive now, and how my yearning for sunlight when I first got here slowly dissipated as well. I didn't want it to be ephemeral, rather I wanted to strive and persevere. But my will and resolve bent over. Adapting to this place wasn't something one should be proud of at all, it meant that they lost most of their original self and became empty husks...
The last side was the North and what we were gunning for. A single small door that staff personnel go in and out of, an elusive realm that layed beyond our imaginations of freedom and desire. It was our only objective, and so, if they layed a trap there we would still have to inevitably go through it. When we broke through it, alerting the guards with the chaotic sound of the door's destruction, we saw what seemed to be sprinklers on the ceiling. The sprinklers sprayed a fine must and the door on the other side was opened. It was the only door in this room we've never seen before, so we ran through it...
The next room was similar, there was only one door. We could hear the guards shouting with their hoarse voices and running towards us with thundering footsteps. But faced with such a pressure, even the encroaching guards felt like fighting off ants. On the front of the door, standing right in front of our one and only exit... Was a magical girl.
That's the only way to describe it, her dress of black, forest green and cyan painted a spontaneous wave of disarray. It looked mythical and seemed like something human hands cannot imitate. They wrapped tightly around her waistline, revealing her subtle curves in her silhouette and ended with 2 straps over her shoulders. A large orange flower sat gently over the hip area of her dress which flowed down in an array of transparent gray, flowery black embroidery and dark crimson outlines.
Despite wearing high heels, she took 2 seemingly natural steps towards us and gave off a brilliant smile. A black ribbon sat atop on one side of her jett black glossy hair that was tied into a ponytail. Even as magical girls with practically the least amount of experience in the world, we could recognise the significant threat right in front of us. Her aura thoroughly oppressed our willpower, pushing our heads towards the ground to force a kneel.
It took all we had just to stand up, yet my legs were shaking faster than Jack hammer and were about to collapse. Despite all of these adverse effects of just being near her presence... She opens up a conversation with a tone akin to making a new friend. She can clearly see our legs shaking and struggling to stand, yet she's acting as if everything was normal.
"So, how are you guys today? I'm Vehegian, I'm in charge of this branch of the facility. What are you doing here so late at night?" (Vehegian)
Her pitch was high and rosy, as if it was just a normal girl speaking. But there was this indescribable chill laced in her words, a feeling that I couldn't ignore.
".... We're.... We're..."
I had to made an attempt at conversing, it may buy Gerald some time to think up a plan. Or perhaps we could somehow trick her and try escaping another day. Compared to how long I've really spent in the facility, even waiting a month wouldn't be much time at all.
"We're...?" (Vehegian)
"... We're lost..."
"..." (Vehegian)
The doors shut behind us with a loud thud, and the door behind Vehegian seemed to be barricaded with some unknown substance that was transparent... It was dark greyish and it seemed like it was solidly stuck to the surroundings walls and the door. In other words, we were trapped with her.
"You could make up a better lie, you know?" (Vehegian)
Our bodies tensed up in anticipation. I prepared my own move while relying on Gerald to carry out the actual battle. At this moment, I really could only use illusions and flashbangs. Even then, my illusions had many gaps, just viewing from a different angle would allow one to see through them. Since it would look incredible bizarre to see bent light when it's not observed from the proper direction. It would be as if someone painted a mosaic over reality.
My heartbeat quickens and I clenched my fist tighter to calm it down.