Chapter 5: The Incident

Things start to get weird!

          The hours between breakfast and lunch crept by so slowly that Kye could hardly stand it. He had tried to occupy himself to make time move faster, but he still did not feel much like reading; and as reading was all there was to do in his cramped room, the minutes ticked tauntingly by like hours. He was itching to tell Connor what he had overheard in the hallway. Somehow, it felt like the first step towards understanding what was going on in the facility, despite the fact that what he had heard gave them seemingly no new information whatsoever. It is more likely that he was simply ready to see Connor again…

            At the sound of the familiar click of the door, Kye sprang up, grabbed the surprised animal at the end of the bed, and rushed out of the room and into the corridor.

            He trotted along the hallway, weaving amongst the other people flooding from their rooms. For a split second, he found himself wondering about their fates; their experiments. What were they being forced to do? The entire scene looked strange. It appeared that the younger the person was, the more worried or confused they looked, though some had a subtle look of fiery rebellion about them. The older ones, who had presumably been trapped here the longest, looked almost like robots, as if this were all normal routine. Kye felt that any more time he had to spend here would drive him completely insane. Maybe that’s what was happening to everyone.

            Kye shook these thoughts from his mind as he neared the Dining Hall. He slowed to a walk, and was immediately greeted by Connor in the archway.

            “Beat ya,” Connor teased, with a look of smug satisfaction on his face.

            “I wasn’t aware it was a competition,” Kye replied, raising an eyebrow and smiling.

            “Life is a competition, bud,” Connor mocked.

            “Do not call me, bud.”

            “Whatever you say, kid.”

            Connor smirked, while Kye tried to look angry at Connor, to no avail.

            “Whatever,” Kye waved him off as he began walking over to the food machines. “I’ll beat you to dinner.”

            “I’d like to see you try, Kye.”

            “I hate how my name rhymes with so many things,” Kye groaned. Connor just chuckled.

           

            Connor and Kye collected their food trays and found a table for themselves. At Kye’s request, it was further away so as to be out of earshot of any eavesdroppers, especially members of The Empty. He had to tell Connor about the argument from this morning.

            “So, she’s definitely going to tell Mr. Chernoff about something that Amy said?” Connor asked when Kye had finished recounting the story.

            “It sounded like a threat to me. I suppose Amy had said something insulting about Mr. Chernoff to one of her friends and Genevieve had overheard.”

            “What do you think will happen?” Connor sounded intrigued.

            “How should I know?” Kye responded, stealing a glance in Amy’s direction, and then one towards Genevieve. Genevieve was staring at Amy, a sour expression on her face. Amy appeared not to notice and continued drinking her water.

            “This is insane,” Connor marveled. “Friends threatening to sell out friends. It’s just like I was saying: The Empty are no good. No good at all. And that’s why you have to be careful what you say and d�"“

            At about that time, the sound of shattering glass rang throughout the room. Small screams erupted from corners of the Dining Hall as people jumped at the noise. Kye’s head whipped in the direction of the crash and beheld Amy sitting slumped over the table; her water glass lay in shards around the floor. She did not look hurt, but rather like she was sleeping. She laid motionless while people around the Hall jumped up to rush to her aid; Connor raised himself a little in his seat, trying to peer over the crowd.

            The entire Dining Hall was abuzz with murmurs and whispers, and calls for help. Kye looked around at Genevieve, who was now eating as if nothing was happening, paying no attention to Amy and the crowd of spectators around her.

            All of the commotion was cut short by a voice echoing through speakers in the room.

            “All guests please return to your rooms immediately. Lunch will unfortunately be cut short as we investigate this accident.”

            The room fell eerily silent, but no one moved. It wasn’t until suited workers began to appear and wave everybody away that people began to shuffle out of the Dining Hall.

            Kye and Connor did not get a chance to say goodbye to each other before they were swallowed up in the crowd of people exiting. Kye clutched Shadow close to his chest as he moved along with the flow of people to his room. He jumped inside and shut the door quickly behind him. All was once again quiet; except for his mind.

            His thoughts raced uncontrollably around. What had he just witnessed? Was that Genevieve’s doing? Had she poisoned Amy’s drink? Had she even gone to Mr. Chernoff or had she taken matters into her own hands? But who could do that to their own friend? He needed Connor with him so that they could talk through this logically.

            Nothing made sense, but he felt unsafe, as if the facility had somehow just become a much more dangerous place.

v   

            If the time between breakfast and lunch had been torture, the time between lunch and dinner was absolute Hell, especially owing to the fact that lunch had been cut short. Kye felt as though he had been cheated out of time with his best friend.

            Kye laid on his bed, feeling entirely restless and bored. Shadow seemed to feel the same way; taking this time to explore the room, he began jumping on things, scratching the walls, and sniffing strange places. After a little while, Shadow seemed to take a peculiar interest in the bookshelf. He clambered onto the second shelf and began gnawing on a book, which he eventually dislodged and sent clattering onto the floor. The cover read: Moby Dick.

            Shadow jumped down and pinned the book to the floor as he continued to lick and gnaw at it. Kye raised himself out of bed, pried the book from the cat’s grasp, and placed the book on the desk.

            “What has gotten in to you?” Kye murmured with a half chuckle as Shadow leapt onto the desk and continued his attack.

            Kye walked to the bookcase and began pulling out volumes and reading their titles, before tossing them aside onto the floor or else setting them atop the bookshelf. To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Pride and Prejudice.

            He finally settled himself down into bed with a copy of Fahrenheit 451 and began to read. The time passed more quickly now as he read. Shadow chomped and licked away. It wasn’t long before he fell into a light sleep.

v   

            Kye was awakened by the sound of his door being unlocked, but it wasn’t time for dinner. He sat up and saw the outline of a man’s figure in the doorway.

            “Hello, Kye,” the man said. “How are you feeling today?”

            Kye just stared at him.

            “Do you remember me?” the man asked.

            “Uhhh…” Kye tried to think. He could not place the man’s face.

            “No. I didn’t expect you to…Well, anyways, my name’s Brevyn. I work for Mr. Chernoff.”

            Kye sat still. “And…why are you in my room?”

            Brevyn looked uneasy. “We’re �" uh �" checking on all of the �" uh �" guests here to make sure that everyone is fine. You can understand, of course, why we would be worried. Conducting investigations is necessary to make sure that nothing--,” he paused “--strange is happening.”

            “And why am I supposed to care?” Kye asked placidly.

            Brevyn looked taken aback; perhaps even slightly hurt. Kye wasn’t sure why he was being so rude, but he did not feel that Brevyn had earned the right to be treated respectfully. He had no patience for people that worked for Mr. Chernoff in this awful place. Brevyn stuttered.

            “Uh...er…well, uh, you might be able to help us.” Brevyn stepped into the room and closed the door, taking a seat in the chair in front of the desk. “Do you know anything about what happened? Or do you have any information that could help us?”

            Brevyn’s use of the word ‘help’ was a mistake; Kye would do nothing to help these people.

            “No,” Kye said flatly.

            Brevyn stared at Kye for a few moments, as if expecting him to say more. When Kye did not, Brevyn continued.

            “Okay, well…that’s fine. We hadn’t expected you to.” Kye noted how much it sounded like Brevyn was stalling for time, as if he did not really care about this interrogation, but had something more important on his mind. Nevertheless, Brevyn simply looked around at all of the books strewn about the floor.

            “You’ve been reading, I see?” Brevyn raised an eyebrow.

            “Barely,” Kye muttered. He was eager for this to be over.

            “What have you been reading?” Brevyn asked. When Kye did not answer, he continued. “Have you read Moby Dick? It’s one of my favorites.”

            For the first time since Brevyn appeared, Kye smiled, though it was more of a mischievous smile.

            “I haven’t,” Kye said, “but Shadow seems to be taking a liking to it.”

            Kye nodded his head towards the cat on the desk behind his unwanted guest.

            Brevyn gasped. “No!” he cried as he wrenched the book from the cat’s grasp. “No, don’t let him chew this up!” Brevyn looked distressed.

            “Uh.” Kye stared at the man. He was highly confused. Why did Brevyn care what happened to that book? Brevyn looked embarrassed; he tried to shake off what had just happened.

            “Um…it’s just a really great story, that’s all. You should read it sometime.” He replaced the book on the shelf; Shadow’s eyes followed the book the entire way, still filled with longing and curiosity. “Well, I’ll leave you alone now. I’m sure you want some peace, and I still have others to check on.” He walked to the door, then paused to look back at Kye. He opened his mouth as if to say something, closed it, and then opened it again simply to say “See you around,” and then walked from the room.