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Never in a millennia would Selena had ever guessed that she’d be trapped in a race against time against her own mother, where her only allies were two friends who could barely be called friends on their worse days. Had it not been more than a couple days ago, where she swore that she never wanted to see any of them ever again? And yet, right now, she grasped both of their hands – a friendly gesture that she had long abandoned after being forcefully taken under Mikki’s wing. The warmth of their skin in this cold, icy palace was all the comfort she needed to keep running, no matter if this corridor seemed endless… She’d still get to the end, she knew, and if she didn’t, then maybe Mikki had lied. Maybe she wasn’t meant to help save Pridea…

Torches could be found amongst the cherry-glass walls,  slipped in-between pictures of various important Pridean figures – some long deceased, some still on their council, despite how elderly they had become. Each picture was encased in a dark glass frame, almost midnight black in color. It was not a texture of glass Selena could say she was familiar with… Chandeliers hung overhead, lighting their way, even if the only ‘way’ was forward, at this point. The eyes of the portraits tacked onto the corridor’s walls seemed to be following her, almost laughing at some points, as if they all held a secret that she would never be able to comprehend.

They didn’t talk anymore – the footsteps of Mya’s guards were the only soundtrack to their flight. It came to a point where Selena wasn’t sure how long they had been running, or if anyone was even chasing them. Was it really true that Mya’s guards were behind them? Could they really be in such danger? Selena grasped her small hands together, weaving and twiddling her fingers at the thought, trying to push it aside, trying to fool herself into think that all she was doing was having a run with her friends. They didn’t seem to be as bothered as she was – as if perhaps they had forgotten that they were fleeing for their very lives from the Council of Elders’ base. It was as if the truth of this matter had escaped Mikki and Blake, and were only running systematically  because they had been doing so for so long. She wished she could be that way…

And then again, she was somehow glad that she was driven mad by this inane corridor. Pridea had become so corrupt because nobody never stopped to think that, perhaps, being locked in tradition was a bad thing.  Sure it kept you alive, sure it kept you unharmed, but for how long? Did such a philosophy work in a situation like this?

She stopped, dead in her tracks, which alarmed Blake first, his sneakers skidding across the glass tile at his abrupt halt. “Selena!” he hissed, lowering his head so that his teal blue eyes could cut their way into hers, his anger bubbling to the surface. “Let’s go!” The guards, if they heard them, did not change their steady pace. The rhythmic galloping of their cumbersome trademark boots echoed down the corridor, as a warning to what would happen if they were to stay still for too long. Despite all the warning signs around her, Selena shook her head, flattening herself onto the nearby wall, feeling around it, looking for something, anything that could help her…

Mikki groaned, latching her hand onto Selena’s arm. She was not one for words – Mikki did not believe that speaking was appropriate in such dire situations – and so, only tugged on the blonde’s limb, a silent order to keep walking. Selena pulled herself away, glowering at the brunette, knocking around on the walls, wishing that the torches were not so dim as they were. Despite this, she finally came across what she was looking for – two doorknobs, or rather, two doors. Salvation! For no matter what could be behind either of the doors, it was better than marching down an endless corridor, only to eventually be driven insane.

Did it matter which door she tugged open? Probably not, was her foolish assumption, and was about to open the door to the right when Mikki managed to stop her, shoving her away from the door with a pained sigh. “Fool,” she muttered. “Do you think escape would be so easy, just open any door and freedom is yours? I thought I taught you that life is not so simple.” Selena clenched her hands into small fists, wanting to remind Mikki that it was she who found the doors in the first place – that if not for her they’d still be running to their oblivion – but had to admit that she had a point.

The brunette reached up for one of the torches, freeing it from the wall with a strained grunt. She held the burning flame towards the doors, attempting to ignore the ominous echoes of the guards heading their way. How far away or how close they were was not a matter that could be guessed – or rather, Mikki would not guess, now that they had a choice to make. Squinting copper brown eyes at the doors, the female noticed the doors were of different glass textures… one being a dark charcoal, the other a strange kaleidoscope sort of style, that made it almost difficult to look at, but somehow, it was enthralling just to watch the colors bounce off of one another, as if they were trying to tell a story…There were also words carved into the glass, which made them harder to read, opposed to if they had just been printed onto the doors. She groaned at how difficult this had suddenly become, straining to read the words aloud, a feat she was already horrible at…

She patted the dark door with her sturdy calloused hands, taking a deep breath before attempting to read. “With changes come war and strife, with strife comes death and a void of life. If the key to utopia is perfection, then perfection can only be maintained in repetition.” Mikki frowned at the gibberish – she had never been one for riddles. Lowering her voice, she turned to the kaleidoscope door, which was even more of a pain to look at, never mind trying to decipher words carved into its frame. “Any heart can see the world for what it truly is, but it takes a certain kind of heart to be able to change things.” Displeased with the seemingly useless text, Mikki let the torch drop to the floor, which continued to burn, not effecting the glass that held under their feet.

“It’s code,” Selena whispered, running her hand across the kaleidoscope glass. “It’s asking if we want to change things or not. If we want Pridea to stay the same, or if we’ll do anything to change it.” She watched Mikki nod slightly, as if she was mad that she hadn’t managed to guess that herself. Blake, who had been quiet, kept his expression blank, as if he’d rather not think about having to make an actual choice.

Mikki inched towards the kaleidoscope door, as if choosing that particular door was an obvious choice. Selena nodded along with her decision, whereas Blake’s blue eyes widened, clamping his hand on the charred black doorknob, an obvious sign of disagreement. “Are you mad?” he half-whispered, half-yelled, despite the clanking of boots going off in the distance. “Haven’t we suffered enough, from trying to change things? Look at yourself, Mikki! Covered in scars and bruises… your blatant defiance of the world has put you in death’s path so many times, and yet, you still hold onto this notion that something can be done about all of this?” His breathing was heavy, as if he just gotten rid of a heavy weight that had been sitting dully on his chest for quite some time.

The brunette opened her mouth to retaliate, but Blake was quicker. He ran a hand through his messy, midnight black locks, shaking his head profusely. “Yeah, I know. I’m the reason you guys broke in here in the first place… I had to go and be stupid, had to get caught…” He clenched his fists at his own previous stupidity, not wanting the memories to cloud his present thoughts. “But I’ve learned my lesson now – if you oppose those higher than you… you’ll only… Well, look where we are!” He threw his hands out at his sides, as if he was trying to make the reality of their situation more evident. “And you still want to oppose them? Even though they’re bigger than you, stronger than you, and have far more numbers than you?”

“Do you want other people to be in the predicament you’re in right now, Blake?” Selena mumbled quietly. “Do you really want someone to have to face imminent death because of a mistake they made, or because they let emotions get the best of them? Not all people who commit crimes are evil. Not all people who have spotless records are good. ‘Justice’ is a manmade term – it is not something that can be exacted through any government, but especially not this one... If we continue to sit there and take this…”

Blake seemed to be drowning out Selena’s words, for the dark-haired lad now hand his hand tightened around the black doorknob.

“…If I let you sit here and take this, I know you’ll die!”

Blake’s whole body seemed to curl at Selena’s words, as if the truth was stinging at him, but he no longer wanted to listen. “That door will lead to your death, Blake, I know it! The door stated that perfection can only be maintained through repetition, did it not? You will die if you go through that door… They will kill you as soon as they step in, in order to maintain their preconceived notion of perfection. Don’t let them do this to you, Blake.” He still tightened his grip. “Don’t!”

The young boy smiled, almost laughing to himself. “Did you ever think,” Blake spoke softly, almost as if he was speaking to himself. “That maybe… I want to die?”

The idea struck her cold – the foreign idea of wanting death, instead of life, was not one that any Pridean would run into on a regular basis, or, most likely, in any part of their lives at all. Suicide was a notion that was only mentioned in plays, movies and books intended for adults – for kids to even think of wanting death was almost as taboo as having sex at their age. “You… what?” Selena let the words spill from her mouth without even thinking about them, not noticing Mikki take her by the shoulders, not noticing that worried look dancing in her eyes. Perhaps she murmured for Selena to let him go, perhaps she was trying to console her for once, but Selena could not even feel Mikki’s presence at the moment. They had come all this way, only to find that Blake had wanted to die all along. Selena reached out her hand, as if the notion could save him, but the dark-haired boy only turned away.

She was silent as the door creaked open quietly and Blake stepped inside the abyss, only for the corridor to be engulfed in the ear-splitting noise that was someone’s screams – dare she think they were Blake’s? The blonde felt herself shaking, felt herself needing to cry but could not find the tears. Suddenly, she craved for her mother, but was even more devastated to remember that her mother was still out there somewhere down along the corridor, not knowing that the criminal she was perusing was her own daughter. She turned to Mikki, who was still adamant about keeping her strong, and would not toss her a kind word to make this all better. Her hardened copper brown eyes looked down at her as she grasped her hand around the doorknob of the kaleidoscope door, speaking but one word, which wasn’t one Selena wanted to hear. “Come.”

“Come?” Selena croaked, not caring how close the sound of those boots were. “Come? My friend just killed himself – my friend just committed suicide, Mikki! And all you can tell me or say to me is to come! To go and change the world no matter how many people die in our attempt, just come, and everything will be fine and dandy, right? Come, she says!” Her voice grew louder, but Selena found herself failing to care. In a dramatic fashion, she flung herself to the black door, her hands maddeningly fiddling with its doorknob. “Maybe I want to die too, Mikki! Maybe I want to throw myself into the black abyss as well, then what would you do, without your little puppet? Is that all I am to you, to the world? Just some goddamn….”

She flung open the door, and wished she could erase what she had seen.

“Selena!” Mikki grabbed Selena’s arms, pulling her away from the dark force that surrounded the door. “You damn fool, what’s your problem? Do you honestly wish to die?” Selena didn’t know anymore, was not sure of anything anymore, except that death was easy. What she had seen in that door promised her that death was easy, and suddenly, she was angered at Mikki, for preventing her from walking towards an easy, painless end. Selena yelled out in an unexplainable fury, but the brunette was too strong – years of living in the slums had hardened her to the point where she could drag Selena through the kaleidoscope door with just brute force. “I will force you to the see the truth, Selena, after that – die if you must.”

With these words Selena only struggled more, it was obvious that she was naught but a pawn in Mikki’s mind games. “Maybe you’ve been lying to me all this time, Mikki Rocket! Maybe there is no Flaw, maybe there is no prejudice, perhaps it’s all just something you’ve made up in your head!” She finally shoved the brunette away, her chest heaving up and down with the intensity of their struggle. Selena was not a physical person – no young Talented Pridean was. But Mikki had gone through so much in the slums… Seeing her scars and wounds one more time, Selena instantly regretted her word choice. “Mikki, I…”

“I need you to see this,” Mikki whispered darkly. “Maybe then you’ll finally understand…”

It all happened so fast… Mikki swiftly grabbed hold of Selena with one hand, the door knob with the other, flinging it open as an aura dark as the one from the black door’s burst forth from it. Without giving Selena enough time to scream, she shoved her forward, letting her fall into the abyss. Selena lifted her glassy blue eyes up towards Mikki as she fell, spiraling through the darkness, but could not find her frame there. Had she fallen through here as well? Or had she chosen a different path, the one that definitely lead to death?

How was this free fall any better than death? She recalled what she had seen in the black door, and assumed that death could not be so bad as falling freely through what had to be a bottomless bit. Her insides churned as she fell, and when she screamed, her yelling quickly died out around her. There was no point in wasting he breath anyway – it seemed that no one was here to hear her cries for help. Selena remembered reaching her arms out in front of her, looking for something, anything, to grasp onto, so as to stop this uncomfortable feeling of falling. But alas, there was no help for her –  nothing was here but the darkness.

This was never the sort of scenario the blonde had ever seen herself getting into, and she had definitely not expected the kaleidoscope door to lead her to a place which was so incredibly dark…

“So is this the truth?” she asked the darkness, not really expecting an answer. However, at her words, the shadows moved around her, enveloping her, as if egging her on, to ask them again. “Is this the solution to our problems: nothing? To fall deeper and deeper into our own manmade catastrophe, until we drive ourselves crazy in the end?” The darkness seemed to hiss and slither around her, continuing to wrap and mold themselves about her, as if they were protecting her from a greater evil. She could not understand why the shadows seemed to react to her voice, but had to assume that they were aiding her into finding the answer that was supposedly held behind this door. “Can you answer me that?”

As if the shadows were answering her, slivers of light began to cut at the shadows, promising an ending to this bottomless pit of shadows. Selena smiled sadly, outstretching her arms towards the end of the tunnel, even though she was ultimately unsure of what awaited her there. Death? Heaven? Or was it really the truth, down there? Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to matter to Selena anymore. They could throw anything at her now, and she wouldn’t have any strength left to care. The world was cruel, too cruel –  and the more time she spent falling through this darkness, the more she seemed to understand that. But suddenly, the shadows split at her feet as the light devoured the darkness around her. Suddenly, reality smacked her in the face as the glass tiling that she was going to fall on suddenly become more important in her list of priorities. She was going to die here… She was going to fall to her death, and die…

Selena’s small, fragile body hit the floor with a stunning crack that the young blonde swore could’ve been heard throughout all of Pridea. She had landed straight on her back, and quite frankly, the laws of physics stated that she should be dead by now. In fact, maybe she was. She felt dead, and no matter how hard she tried, her body parts refused to work for her. Selena felt the need to swear, but her lips refused to move, as if her body had been completely shut down. So this is the truth, she found herself pondering bitterly, glassy blue eyes scanning over her surroundings.

The tiles here were dark, almost as dark as the shadows in that bottomless pit she had fell down… There was nothing in this room, nothing here at all, except more darkness and… She craned her eyes towards the center of the room, where a large pool of glittering water shone, the only source of light in this room. Had this been the light that had pierced through the shadows, stopping her freefall? Just seeing it… almost gave her the strength to want to move again… The use of her limbs came slowly, painfully even, as if she was being reconstructed. As if some invisible force was putting her back together again, saving her from death. It was almost agonizing to stand up again, as if her legs had been replaced with paper straws that had to support over one hundred pounds. Now upright, the only thing Selena wanted to do at the moment was leave this place… What was knowledge and truth and the idea of justice when you were trapped in the dark?

But somehow, she knew that in that pool of water lay the truth.  A thought occurred to her – perhaps she was looking into the depths of Pridea’s only water source, that she was standing by actual Water at the moment. She wanted to run her hands through it, wanted desperately to touch it, but knew doing such was forbidden. But if the bottomless pit had lead her to this place, then did this pool of water contain the truth? Perhaps it did. Would she really be able to leave this place knowing that she had avoided learning the truth from the Water? Could she really walk away from such imminent knowledge, and if she did, would she spent the rest of her days in regret? But touching the Water was forbidden for a reason – what that reason was, Selena was not sure. Despite how unlawful even being by the Water’s side was, Selena felt drawn to it, felt a need to envelop herself in it. All the world’s answers and the secret to Truth could be lying at the bottom of this pool… who was she to walk away?

She felt something push her closer to the pool’s edge – perhaps the shadows, or maybe her own sheer curiosity – which made her able to see straight down to the bottom of the pool. Selena gasped at what she saw – Mikki’s body (dare she assume, Mikki’s corpse?) floating at the bottom, being held down by what looked like shadows, as if they were planning to devour her frame. For a split second, Selena was ready to dive in and save her friend, even if it meant facing the consequences of what the Water would do to her, even if Mikki was already dead and her sacrifice was in vain… But then doubt nipped at her heart, and she wondered …what was the point? Hadn’t Mikki gotten her into this mess in the first place? Mikki had led her away from her home and pointed out the cracks in Pridea’s perfect little world. She had shown her what injustice truly meant and taught her what it was like to bleed… Because of her, Selena had seen her good friend walk to his death willingly, she had seen what Pridean Officials looked like when they had an intent to kill… She had seen all these things, all because of Mikki. She had never asked for this… What she wouldn’t give to be ignorant again, to be ignorant and with her friends and with her parents, like every child was supposed to be. Of all the Pridean children, why had Mikki decided to tell these things to her?

Selena wondered if she would’ve cared if she found out when she was a bit older, like when she got to be eighteen or nineteen and already had her life planned out ahead of her. She could see it now – maybe she’d marry Jayke and they’d have a couple of children later on, and Mya would be teaching her how to run the Council when she finally stepped down, which would be years and years in the future, anyway… Until then, Selena wouldn’t have to work because she was a Talented, so she and Jayke could just be on their hover boards sometimes, and they would hang out with their other friends and they would race each other in the skies. Selena would loose all the time of course, but it would still be worth the flight, because even though the clouds were fake here, it was still so peaceful to just soar through the skies… Like how they say birds used to fly when they lived in Pridea… And at the end of the day she’d pass out cups of hot peaches and cream and she and all her friends would sit and watch the night sky twinkle with the synthetic stars shining off their perfect glass buildings, and everything would be perfect.

She clenched her fists at her sides. How selfish she was, to not paint Mikki into her future. But was it her fault that all she had ever wanted was to be normal and loved? She felt a tear drip down her cheek, looking for her reflection in the dark glass tile, finding none. “Why…” she asked the darkness, and as if it pitied her, the shadows moved across the dark charcoal tiling, and a flash of light shone bright at the other end of the room. A door creaked open where this flash of light shone, and Selena saw that outside of that door was Pridea – an easy way back home. The streets were empty – maybe she could run back… She’d lie and say that she had been out with some friends and her mother wouldn’t even know… Who was she kidding? Her mother probably wouldn’t even catch her sneaking back home, since she had been searching for her through this very base in the first place… It was almost perfect – Selena could go back and pretend that none of this had ever happened. She could almost see her perfect future reflected in her glassy blue eyes – a privileged fate that she could lead because of who she was and to whom she was born… It was as if the shadows were telling her that she could still go back to who she was. But, at a price.

Mikki’s body still lay in that pool, her hair matted and torn, already tattered clothes ripped as the shadows swarm around her. Selena could not rightly say that she could sit here and watch Mikki die. She tried to bring up the few good memories she had with her, but they were drowned out by her constantly scolding and demands for Selena to become stronger, for that day when she encountered the truth. She recalled back in the corridor how she had so coldly told her to come along after Blake had walked to his death, and her constantly telling her how much of a fool she was. And yet, despite everything, hadn’t Mikki always been there? When Holly Freya had dubbed her a freak not worthy of this earth, was it not Mikki who threatened to pin her down and rip off her limbs – with a look that seemed as if she actually would? Hadn’t Mikki been the one who dared her to fly higher than she had ever before on her hoverboard, so that she could actually run her hand through their artificial clouds? And when she had crashed into Mikki on that fateful day when they first met, had she not been the one who listened to how freaked out she was about how she had actually drew blood – a feat that should never happened to a Talented Pridean child like herself?

“I’m sorry Mikki,” Selena muttered to herself.

Selena didn’t know how to swim, yet she plunged herself into the Water with a purposeful splash, but regretted doing so straight afterwards. It was as if she were being punished for wanting to deviate from the normal path of life, that to want anything else other than being normal was a sin in this life. The Water filled her lungs quickly, but whether that was because she was too stupid to remember to hold her breath or because this Water wasn’t just any sort of water was beyond her… The Water was bitter and cold, it made ice out of her skin as soon as she stumbled into the it. The substance tasted of pure lemon and other sour components all mixed into one solution – enough to make her gag. She closed her mouth, but the gesture was void, seeing as she had already started to breathe through her nose, and could not find the willpower to stop. There was not one part of her body that stung from the water, and as her lungs began to quickly fill, she wondered if, again, she should be dead. She was not sure what death was like or how someone was even to be killed by something so natural as water in the first place, but it had happened to primitive, stupid people before in the past, so she supposed it could happen to her as well.

As she slipped downwards towards the bottom of the pool, she finally managed to reach the darkness where Mikki lay. The shadows fled as soon as the blonde came near them, but it was all in vain – Mikki was not moving. Selena wrapped her arms around her body, and felt her heart hurt even more, the Water filling her mind and body even more so when she was near her  friend, stuffing her now, like a balloon. One moment Mikki was there, and the next, she wasn’t, leaving Selena alone, in the dark water, with the taste of pure lemon and limes stinging at her throat, never leaving her alone. All she wanted was peace now, if she couldn’t have Mikki. Wherever the brunette  had gone, Selena could only hope that it was more pleasant than this place.

Too long she had lay here, sinking this solution, but as time passed, she began to feel more enlightened. Her heart tightened and constricted, and felt far more fragile now, as if any blow to the chest could instantly put her away. Her mind, which had been swarming with uncertainly and doubt, was now painfully clear. It was as if the Truth had seeped into her mind for a split second, only to leave her presence, giving her a small taste of what it would be like to be absolutely certain of yourself, one hundred percent of the time. She reached out an arm in front of her, wanting that feeling back, calling out for it to come back, but was not given that luxury. Instead, she felt the water disappear around her, like it never existed in the first place…

The water was replaced with more darkness.

Shadows stood her upright, whispered a single demand in her ears.

“Tell me a lie, child.”

The voice had an allure to it which demanded not to be questioned. Selena shut her eyes, groping about for a possible lie to tell. Strangely enough, she could not find anything she could possibly want to lie about. But from the hisses and snarls that the darkness around her was letting off, she doubted that it cared what she lied about, as long as the lie was told. But somehow, the thought of letting a falsehood slip off her tongue seemed repulsive, disgusting even. She opened her eyes, darting them around, questioning. The shadows hissed at her slowness. They snaked their way back into her ears again, more authorities this time around.

“Tell us how much you despise Mikki Rocket, child. Tell us how you’d love it if you never met her.”

She wondered if that were true. Selena could not bring herself to talk ill of her friend, especially not after she had just experienced hell for trying to save her. Where was Mikki now? Did the shadows know? Did the shadows care? Selena shook her head at their proposition, realizing that despite Mikki’s flaws, she could not bring herself to hate her, and therefore could not say she hated her. Why did the idea of lying seem so incredibly wrong to her? Wasn’t she willing to do so not too long ago? Her heart suddenly hurt, and the shadows were making it worse.

“I can’t do that… I can’t… I can’t say something that’s not true…”

Where had this high sense of morality come from? She certainly wasn’t born with it. She could remember how many times she had stolen fruit cookies from the oven when she had been a little girl and blamed it on one of the local kids running around. She recalled how she’d sneak and read her father’s newspaper and accidentally throw it away, and how she’d lie and tell her father the paper never came when he asked. Suddenly, the idea of even telling little white lies – small ones that everyone told to get out of tight situations, maybe even ‘necessary lies‘ – seemed to be naught but sin. But why?

“Lie to us!”

The shadows boomed in her ears and snaked around her mouth, taking control of her tongue, her voice. When she opened her mouth, her voice was not her own. It was dark, tainted with the shadows’ taste, their smell, their presence… The words that flowed from her mouth were not her own as well, for it was a lie. It tasted terrible on her tongue, an immediately she wanted to gag after it had been said. Her mind could barely comprehend her own words, but later on, after the whole event was over, she would remember what the shadows had forced her to say.

“I hate Mikki Rocket.”

Instantly, she felt nauseous, and felt the need to purge her body. Her skin crawled, as if a million bugs were marching on her limbs, while her head exploded in two. It was worse than a headache, worse than a migraine, perhaps the worse pain that Selena had ever felt in her entire life. You could rip off her limbs and stitch them back on and it still wouldn’t hurt as much as the pain that soared through her flesh, her mind, her very heart. Suddenly, she knew she was going to die if she did not correct the wrong she had spoken. Instantly she lashed out at the darkness, wanting to hurt the shadows, but they left her system as soon as the obscenity had been spoken. She took a drunken step forward but only managed to push herself downwards, sinking to her knees, placing her hands on her head.

“I didn’t mean it!” she apologized. “Forgive me! It wasn’t my fault!” Her heart tightened even more than before – she knew placing the blame on the shadows would not help. “Sure it’d be easy to hate to hate her…” Her voice shook, almost delirious with the pain that was raging through her body. “But without her, where would I be now?” She slowly stood up and stretched her arms out towards the darkness. “You could say she landed me here, but I’ve never felt so enlightened!” The shadows buzzed around her, as if they were questioning the validity of her statement. “I’ve never felt so clean! And all of this, all that I have, it’s all thanks to Mikki Rocket!” She laughed, sad and slow, as the shadows buzzed away from her, as if her outburst was good enough for them. “Thank you, Mikki Rocket!” Her delirious cries echoed through the darkness. “Thanks for everything!”

Would she even see Mikki again? Back there, she had been willing to throw away everything for her, to give up all hopes of being normal in order to save her. Or was this even about Mikki? Was this about the world instead? How Mikki had said that she needed to see the truth… was that what this was about? No, Selena knew that what she had said was true – she did not hate Mikki Rocket, even though she probably should. She was everything her mother hated in a person, was everything she had been told to hate in a person… But somehow, they had grown to be friends. She was tough with her, but she had to be. Selena knew if not for Mikki that she would be much weaker than she was now… She had her to thank.

Was that why she couldn’t tell a lie about Mikki? No, the thought of lying… The thought of lying about anything at all make her feel weak inside… Now that she knew what would happen to her if she did, why would she ever do so again? She dropped to her knees once more as a strange sense of burden washed over her. The shadows disparaged themselves as light sprinkled their way back onto Selena’s small frame. The young girl clenched her fists, not wanting to look at the pure light beams, not wanting to look at anything anymore. She felt another tear run its way down her cheek, her heart somehow feeling more fragile in her chest. For some reason, she wanted to cry, long and hard. She had a feeling that she had literally just made life so very much harder for herself, that she would never be able to be the same person she had previously been…

“So, this is the truth?” she asked the disparaging darkness, for what seemed like the millionth time. The shadows did not respond – all they did was flee from her faster, as if the answer was too painful to speak of.

Description
Never in a millennia would Selena had ever guessed that she’d be trapped in a race against time against her own mother, where her only allies were two friends who could barely be called friends on their worse days. Had it not been more than a couple days ago, where she swore that she never wanted to see any of them ever again? And yet, right now, she grasped both of their hands – a friendly gesture that she had long abandoned after being forcefully taken under Mikki’s wing. The warmth of their skin in this cold, icy palace was all the comfort she needed to keep running, no matter if this corridor seemed endless… She’d still get to the end, she knew, and if she didn’t, then maybe Mikki had lied. Maybe she wasn’t meant to help save Pridea…

Torches could be found amongst the cherry-glass walls,  slipped in-between pictures of various important Pridean figures – some long deceased, some still on their council, despite how elderly they had become. Each picture was encased in a dark glass frame, almost midnight black in color. It was not a texture of glass Selena could say she was familiar with… Chandeliers hung overhead, lighting their way, even if the only ‘way’ was forward, at this point. The eyes of the portraits tacked onto the corridor’s walls seemed to be following her, almost laughing at some points, as if they all held a secret that she would never be able to comprehend.

They didn’t talk anymore – the footsteps of Mya’s guards were the only soundtrack to their flight. It came to a point where Selena wasn’t sure how long they had been running, or if anyone was even chasing them. Was it really true that Mya’s guards were behind them? Could they really be in such danger? Selena grasped her small hands together, weaving and twiddling her fingers at the thought, trying to push it aside, trying to fool herself into think that all she was doing was having a run with her friends. They didn’t seem to be as bothered as she was – as if perhaps they had forgotten that they were fleeing for their very lives from the Council of Elders’ base. It was as if the truth of this matter had escaped Mikki and Blake, and were only running systematically  because they had been doing so for so long. She wished she could be that way…

And then again, she was somehow glad that she was driven mad by this inane corridor. Pridea had become so corrupt because nobody never stopped to think that, perhaps, being locked in tradition was a bad thing.  Sure it kept you alive, sure it kept you unharmed, but for how long? Did such a philosophy work in a situation like this?

She stopped, dead in her tracks, which alarmed Blake first, his sneakers skidding across the glass tile at his abrupt halt. “Selena!” he hissed, lowering his head so that his teal blue eyes could cut their way into hers, his anger bubbling to the surface. “Let’s go!” The guards, if they heard them, did not change their steady pace. The rhythmic galloping of their cumbersome trademark boots echoed down the corridor, as a warning to what would happen if they were to stay still for too long. Despite all the warning signs around her, Selena shook her head, flattening herself onto the nearby wall, feeling around it, looking for something, anything that could help her…

Mikki groaned, latching her hand onto Selena’s arm. She was not one for words – Mikki did not believe that speaking was appropriate in such dire situations – and so, only tugged on the blonde’s limb, a silent order to keep walking. Selena pulled herself away, glowering at the brunette, knocking around on the walls, wishing that the torches were not so dim as they were. Despite this, she finally came across what she was looking for – two doorknobs, or rather, two doors. Salvation! For no matter what could be behind either of the doors, it was better than marching down an endless corridor, only to eventually be driven insane.

Did it matter which door she tugged open? Probably not, was her foolish assumption, and was about to open the door to the right when Mikki managed to stop her, shoving her away from the door with a pained sigh. “Fool,” she muttered. “Do you think escape would be so easy, just open any door and freedom is yours? I thought I taught you that life is not so simple.” Selena clenched her hands into small fists, wanting to remind Mikki that it was she who found the doors in the first place – that if not for her they’d still be running to their oblivion – but had to admit that she had a point.

The brunette reached up for one of the torches, freeing it from the wall with a strained grunt. She held the burning flame towards the doors, attempting to ignore the ominous echoes of the guards heading their way. How far away or how close they were was not a matter that could be guessed – or rather, Mikki would not guess, now that they had a choice to make. Squinting copper brown eyes at the doors, the female noticed the doors were of different glass textures… one being a dark charcoal, the other a strange kaleidoscope sort of style, that made it almost difficult to look at, but somehow, it was enthralling just to watch the colors bounce off of one another, as if they were trying to tell a story…There were also words carved into the glass, which made them harder to read, opposed to if they had just been printed onto the doors. She groaned at how difficult this had suddenly become, straining to read the words aloud, a feat she was already horrible at…

She patted the dark door with her sturdy calloused hands, taking a deep breath before attempting to read. “With changes come war and strife, with strife comes death and a void of life. If the key to utopia is perfection, then perfection can only be maintained in repetition.” Mikki frowned at the gibberish – she had never been one for riddles. Lowering her voice, she turned to the kaleidoscope door, which was even more of a pain to look at, never mind trying to decipher words carved into its frame. “Any heart can see the world for what it truly is, but it takes a certain kind of heart to be able to change things.” Displeased with the seemingly useless text, Mikki let the torch drop to the floor, which continued to burn, not effecting the glass that held under their feet.

“It’s code,” Selena whispered, running her hand across the kaleidoscope glass. “It’s asking if we want to change things or not. If we want Pridea to stay the same, or if we’ll do anything to change it.” She watched Mikki nod slightly, as if she was mad that she hadn’t managed to guess that herself. Blake, who had been quiet, kept his expression blank, as if he’d rather not think about having to make an actual choice.

Mikki inched towards the kaleidoscope door, as if choosing that particular door was an obvious choice. Selena nodded along with her decision, whereas Blake’s blue eyes widened, clamping his hand on the charred black doorknob, an obvious sign of disagreement. “Are you mad?” he half-whispered, half-yelled, despite the clanking of boots going off in the distance. “Haven’t we suffered enough, from trying to change things? Look at yourself, Mikki! Covered in scars and bruises… your blatant defiance of the world has put you in death’s path so many times, and yet, you still hold onto this notion that something can be done about all of this?” His breathing was heavy, as if he just gotten rid of a heavy weight that had been sitting dully on his chest for quite some time.

The brunette opened her mouth to retaliate, but Blake was quicker. He ran a hand through his messy, midnight black locks, shaking his head profusely. “Yeah, I know. I’m the reason you guys broke in here in the first place… I had to go and be stupid, had to get caught…” He clenched his fists at his own previous stupidity, not wanting the memories to cloud his present thoughts. “But I’ve learned my lesson now – if you oppose those higher than you… you’ll only… Well, look where we are!” He threw his hands out at his sides, as if he was trying to make the reality of their situation more evident. “And you still want to oppose them? Even though they’re bigger than you, stronger than you, and have far more numbers than you?”

“Do you want other people to be in the predicament you’re in right now, Blake?” Selena mumbled quietly. “Do you really want someone to have to face imminent death because of a mistake they made, or because they let emotions get the best of them? Not all people who commit crimes are evil. Not all people who have spotless records are good. ‘Justice’ is a manmade term – it is not something that can be exacted through any government, but especially not this one... If we continue to sit there and take this…”

Blake seemed to be drowning out Selena’s words, for the dark-haired lad now hand his hand tightened around the black doorknob.

“…If I let you sit here and take this, I know you’ll die!”

Blake’s whole body seemed to curl at Selena’s words, as if the truth was stinging at him, but he no longer wanted to listen. “That door will lead to your death, Blake, I know it! The door stated that perfection can only be maintained through repetition, did it not? You will die if you go through that door… They will kill you as soon as they step in, in order to maintain their preconceived notion of perfection. Don’t let them do this to you, Blake.” He still tightened his grip. “Don’t!”

The young boy smiled, almost laughing to himself. “Did you ever think,” Blake spoke softly, almost as if he was speaking to himself. “That maybe… I want to die?”

The idea struck her cold – the foreign idea of wanting death, instead of life, was not one that any Pridean would run into on a regular basis, or, most likely, in any part of their lives at all. Suicide was a notion that was only mentioned in plays, movies and books intended for adults – for kids to even think of wanting death was almost as taboo as having sex at their age. “You… what?” Selena let the words spill from her mouth without even thinking about them, not noticing Mikki take her by the shoulders, not noticing that worried look dancing in her eyes. Perhaps she murmured for Selena to let him go, perhaps she was trying to console her for once, but Selena could not even feel Mikki’s presence at the moment. They had come all this way, only to find that Blake had wanted to die all along. Selena reached out her hand, as if the notion could save him, but the dark-haired boy only turned away.

She was silent as the door creaked open quietly and Blake stepped inside the abyss, only for the corridor to be engulfed in the ear-splitting noise that was someone’s screams – dare she think they were Blake’s? The blonde felt herself shaking, felt herself needing to cry but could not find the tears. Suddenly, she craved for her mother, but was even more devastated to remember that her mother was still out there somewhere down along the corridor, not knowing that the criminal she was perusing was her own daughter. She turned to Mikki, who was still adamant about keeping her strong, and would not toss her a kind word to make this all better. Her hardened copper brown eyes looked down at her as she grasped her hand around the doorknob of the kaleidoscope door, speaking but one word, which wasn’t one Selena wanted to hear. “Come.”

“Come?” Selena croaked, not caring how close the sound of those boots were. “Come? My friend just killed himself – my friend just committed suicide, Mikki! And all you can tell me or say to me is to come! To go and change the world no matter how many people die in our attempt, just come, and everything will be fine and dandy, right? Come, she says!” Her voice grew louder, but Selena found herself failing to care. In a dramatic fashion, she flung herself to the black door, her hands maddeningly fiddling with its doorknob. “Maybe I want to die too, Mikki! Maybe I want to throw myself into the black abyss as well, then what would you do, without your little puppet? Is that all I am to you, to the world? Just some goddamn….”

She flung open the door, and wished she could erase what she had seen.

“Selena!” Mikki grabbed Selena’s arms, pulling her away from the dark force that surrounded the door. “You damn fool, what’s your problem? Do you honestly wish to die?” Selena didn’t know anymore, was not sure of anything anymore, except that death was easy. What she had seen in that door promised her that death was easy, and suddenly, she was angered at Mikki, for preventing her from walking towards an easy, painless end. Selena yelled out in an unexplainable fury, but the brunette was too strong – years of living in the slums had hardened her to the point where she could drag Selena through the kaleidoscope door with just brute force. “I will force you to the see the truth, Selena, after that – die if you must.”

With these words Selena only struggled more, it was obvious that she was naught but a pawn in Mikki’s mind games. “Maybe you’ve been lying to me all this time, Mikki Rocket! Maybe there is no Flaw, maybe there is no prejudice, perhaps it’s all just something you’ve made up in your head!” She finally shoved the brunette away, her chest heaving up and down with the intensity of their struggle. Selena was not a physical person – no young Talented Pridean was. But Mikki had gone through so much in the slums… Seeing her scars and wounds one more time, Selena instantly regretted her word choice. “Mikki, I…”

“I need you to see this,” Mikki whispered darkly. “Maybe then you’ll finally understand…”

It all happened so fast… Mikki swiftly grabbed hold of Selena with one hand, the door knob with the other, flinging it open as an aura dark as the one from the black door’s burst forth from it. Without giving Selena enough time to scream, she shoved her forward, letting her fall into the abyss. Selena lifted her glassy blue eyes up towards Mikki as she fell, spiraling through the darkness, but could not find her frame there. Had she fallen through here as well? Or had she chosen a different path, the one that definitely lead to death?

How was this free fall any better than death? She recalled what she had seen in the black door, and assumed that death could not be so bad as falling freely through what had to be a bottomless bit. Her insides churned as she fell, and when she screamed, her yelling quickly died out around her. There was no point in wasting he breath anyway – it seemed that no one was here to hear her cries for help. Selena remembered reaching her arms out in front of her, looking for something, anything, to grasp onto, so as to stop this uncomfortable feeling of falling. But alas, there was no help for her –  nothing was here but the darkness.

This was never the sort of scenario the blonde had ever seen herself getting into, and she had definitely not expected the kaleidoscope door to lead her to a place which was so incredibly dark…

“So is this the truth?” she asked the darkness, not really expecting an answer. However, at her words, the shadows moved around her, enveloping her, as if egging her on, to ask them again. “Is this the solution to our problems: nothing? To fall deeper and deeper into our own manmade catastrophe, until we drive ourselves crazy in the end?” The darkness seemed to hiss and slither around her, continuing to wrap and mold themselves about her, as if they were protecting her from a greater evil. She could not understand why the shadows seemed to react to her voice, but had to assume that they were aiding her into finding the answer that was supposedly held behind this door. “Can you answer me that?”

As if the shadows were answering her, slivers of light began to cut at the shadows, promising an ending to this bottomless pit of shadows. Selena smiled sadly, outstretching her arms towards the end of the tunnel, even though she was ultimately unsure of what awaited her there. Death? Heaven? Or was it really the truth, down there? Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to matter to Selena anymore. They could throw anything at her now, and she wouldn’t have any strength left to care. The world was cruel, too cruel –  and the more time she spent falling through this darkness, the more she seemed to understand that. But suddenly, the shadows split at her feet as the light devoured the darkness around her. Suddenly, reality smacked her in the face as the glass tiling that she was going to fall on suddenly become more important in her list of priorities. She was going to die here… She was going to fall to her death, and die…

Selena’s small, fragile body hit the floor with a stunning crack that the young blonde swore could’ve been heard throughout all of Pridea. She had landed straight on her back, and quite frankly, the laws of physics stated that she should be dead by now. In fact, maybe she was. She felt dead, and no matter how hard she tried, her body parts refused to work for her. Selena felt the need to swear, but her lips refused to move, as if her body had been completely shut down. So this is the truth, she found herself pondering bitterly, glassy blue eyes scanning over her surroundings.

The tiles here were dark, almost as dark as the shadows in that bottomless pit she had fell down… There was nothing in this room, nothing here at all, except more darkness and… She craned her eyes towards the center of the room, where a large pool of glittering water shone, the only source of light in this room. Had this been the light that had pierced through the shadows, stopping her freefall? Just seeing it… almost gave her the strength to want to move again… The use of her limbs came slowly, painfully even, as if she was being reconstructed. As if some invisible force was putting her back together again, saving her from death. It was almost agonizing to stand up again, as if her legs had been replaced with paper straws that had to support over one hundred pounds. Now upright, the only thing Selena wanted to do at the moment was leave this place… What was knowledge and truth and the idea of justice when you were trapped in the dark?

But somehow, she knew that in that pool of water lay the truth.  A thought occurred to her – perhaps she was looking into the depths of Pridea’s only water source, that she was standing by actual Water at the moment. She wanted to run her hands through it, wanted desperately to touch it, but knew doing such was forbidden. But if the bottomless pit had lead her to this place, then did this pool of water contain the truth? Perhaps it did. Would she really be able to leave this place knowing that she had avoided learning the truth from the Water? Could she really walk away from such imminent knowledge, and if she did, would she spent the rest of her days in regret? But touching the Water was forbidden for a reason – what that reason was, Selena was not sure. Despite how unlawful even being by the Water’s side was, Selena felt drawn to it, felt a need to envelop herself in it. All the world’s answers and the secret to Truth could be lying at the bottom of this pool… who was she to walk away?

She felt something push her closer to the pool’s edge – perhaps the shadows, or maybe her own sheer curiosity – which made her able to see straight down to the bottom of the pool. Selena gasped at what she saw – Mikki’s body (dare she assume, Mikki’s corpse?) floating at the bottom, being held down by what looked like shadows, as if they were planning to devour her frame. For a split second, Selena was ready to dive in and save her friend, even if it meant facing the consequences of what the Water would do to her, even if Mikki was already dead and her sacrifice was in vain… But then doubt nipped at her heart, and she wondered …what was the point? Hadn’t Mikki gotten her into this mess in the first place? Mikki had led her away from her home and pointed out the cracks in Pridea’s perfect little world. She had shown her what injustice truly meant and taught her what it was like to bleed… Because of her, Selena had seen her good friend walk to his death willingly, she had seen what Pridean Officials looked like when they had an intent to kill… She had seen all these things, all because of Mikki. She had never asked for this… What she wouldn’t give to be ignorant again, to be ignorant and with her friends and with her parents, like every child was supposed to be. Of all the Pridean children, why had Mikki decided to tell these things to her?

Selena wondered if she would’ve cared if she found out when she was a bit older, like when she got to be eighteen or nineteen and already had her life planned out ahead of her. She could see it now – maybe she’d marry Jayke and they’d have a couple of children later on, and Mya would be teaching her how to run the Council when she finally stepped down, which would be years and years in the future, anyway… Until then, Selena wouldn’t have to work because she was a Talented, so she and Jayke could just be on their hover boards sometimes, and they would hang out with their other friends and they would race each other in the skies. Selena would loose all the time of course, but it would still be worth the flight, because even though the clouds were fake here, it was still so peaceful to just soar through the skies… Like how they say birds used to fly when they lived in Pridea… And at the end of the day she’d pass out cups of hot peaches and cream and she and all her friends would sit and watch the night sky twinkle with the synthetic stars shining off their perfect glass buildings, and everything would be perfect.

She clenched her fists at her sides. How selfish she was, to not paint Mikki into her future. But was it her fault that all she had ever wanted was to be normal and loved? She felt a tear drip down her cheek, looking for her reflection in the dark glass tile, finding none. “Why…” she asked the darkness, and as if it pitied her, the shadows moved across the dark charcoal tiling, and a flash of light shone bright at the other end of the room. A door creaked open where this flash of light shone, and Selena saw that outside of that door was Pridea – an easy way back home. The streets were empty – maybe she could run back… She’d lie and say that she had been out with some friends and her mother wouldn’t even know… Who was she kidding? Her mother probably wouldn’t even catch her sneaking back home, since she had been searching for her through this very base in the first place… It was almost perfect – Selena could go back and pretend that none of this had ever happened. She could almost see her perfect future reflected in her glassy blue eyes – a privileged fate that she could lead because of who she was and to whom she was born… It was as if the shadows were telling her that she could still go back to who she was. But, at a price.

Mikki’s body still lay in that pool, her hair matted and torn, already tattered clothes ripped as the shadows swarm around her. Selena could not rightly say that she could sit here and watch Mikki die. She tried to bring up the few good memories she had with her, but they were drowned out by her constantly scolding and demands for Selena to become stronger, for that day when she encountered the truth. She recalled back in the corridor how she had so coldly told her to come along after Blake had walked to his death, and her constantly telling her how much of a fool she was. And yet, despite everything, hadn’t Mikki always been there? When Holly Freya had dubbed her a freak not worthy of this earth, was it not Mikki who threatened to pin her down and rip off her limbs – with a look that seemed as if she actually would? Hadn’t Mikki been the one who dared her to fly higher than she had ever before on her hoverboard, so that she could actually run her hand through their artificial clouds? And when she had crashed into Mikki on that fateful day when they first met, had she not been the one who listened to how freaked out she was about how she had actually drew blood – a feat that should never happened to a Talented Pridean child like herself?

“I’m sorry Mikki,” Selena muttered to herself.

Selena didn’t know how to swim, yet she plunged herself into the Water with a purposeful splash, but regretted doing so straight afterwards. It was as if she were being punished for wanting to deviate from the normal path of life, that to want anything else other than being normal was a sin in this life. The Water filled her lungs quickly, but whether that was because she was too stupid to remember to hold her breath or because this Water wasn’t just any sort of water was beyond her… The Water was bitter and cold, it made ice out of her skin as soon as she stumbled into the it. The substance tasted of pure lemon and other sour components all mixed into one solution – enough to make her gag. She closed her mouth, but the gesture was void, seeing as she had already started to breathe through her nose, and could not find the willpower to stop. There was not one part of her body that stung from the water, and as her lungs began to quickly fill, she wondered if, again, she should be dead. She was not sure what death was like or how someone was even to be killed by something so natural as water in the first place, but it had happened to primitive, stupid people before in the past, so she supposed it could happen to her as well.

As she slipped downwards towards the bottom of the pool, she finally managed to reach the darkness where Mikki lay. The shadows fled as soon as the blonde came near them, but it was all in vain – Mikki was not moving. Selena wrapped her arms around her body, and felt her heart hurt even more, the Water filling her mind and body even more so when she was near her  friend, stuffing her now, like a balloon. One moment Mikki was there, and the next, she wasn’t, leaving Selena alone, in the dark water, with the taste of pure lemon and limes stinging at her throat, never leaving her alone. All she wanted was peace now, if she couldn’t have Mikki. Wherever the brunette  had gone, Selena could only hope that it was more pleasant than this place.

Too long she had lay here, sinking this solution, but as time passed, she began to feel more enlightened. Her heart tightened and constricted, and felt far more fragile now, as if any blow to the chest could instantly put her away. Her mind, which had been swarming with uncertainly and doubt, was now painfully clear. It was as if the Truth had seeped into her mind for a split second, only to leave her presence, giving her a small taste of what it would be like to be absolutely certain of yourself, one hundred percent of the time. She reached out an arm in front of her, wanting that feeling back, calling out for it to come back, but was not given that luxury. Instead, she felt the water disappear around her, like it never existed in the first place…

The water was replaced with more darkness.

Shadows stood her upright, whispered a single demand in her ears.

“Tell me a lie, child.”

The voice had an allure to it which demanded not to be questioned. Selena shut her eyes, groping about for a possible lie to tell. Strangely enough, she could not find anything she could possibly want to lie about. But from the hisses and snarls that the darkness around her was letting off, she doubted that it cared what she lied about, as long as the lie was told. But somehow, the thought of letting a falsehood slip off her tongue seemed repulsive, disgusting even. She opened her eyes, darting them around, questioning. The shadows hissed at her slowness. They snaked their way back into her ears again, more authorities this time around.

“Tell us how much you despise Mikki Rocket, child. Tell us how you’d love it if you never met her.”

She wondered if that were true. Selena could not bring herself to talk ill of her friend, especially not after she had just experienced hell for trying to save her. Where was Mikki now? Did the shadows know? Did the shadows care? Selena shook her head at their proposition, realizing that despite Mikki’s flaws, she could not bring herself to hate her, and therefore could not say she hated her. Why did the idea of lying seem so incredibly wrong to her? Wasn’t she willing to do so not too long ago? Her heart suddenly hurt, and the shadows were making it worse.

“I can’t do that… I can’t… I can’t say something that’s not true…”

Where had this high sense of morality come from? She certainly wasn’t born with it. She could remember how many times she had stolen fruit cookies from the oven when she had been a little girl and blamed it on one of the local kids running around. She recalled how she’d sneak and read her father’s newspaper and accidentally throw it away, and how she’d lie and tell her father the paper never came when he asked. Suddenly, the idea of even telling little white lies – small ones that everyone told to get out of tight situations, maybe even ‘necessary lies‘ – seemed to be naught but sin. But why?

“Lie to us!”

The shadows boomed in her ears and snaked around her mouth, taking control of her tongue, her voice. When she opened her mouth, her voice was not her own. It was dark, tainted with the shadows’ taste, their smell, their presence… The words that flowed from her mouth were not her own as well, for it was a lie. It tasted terrible on her tongue, an immediately she wanted to gag after it had been said. Her mind could barely comprehend her own words, but later on, after the whole event was over, she would remember what the shadows had forced her to say.

“I hate Mikki Rocket.”

Instantly, she felt nauseous, and felt the need to purge her body. Her skin crawled, as if a million bugs were marching on her limbs, while her head exploded in two. It was worse than a headache, worse than a migraine, perhaps the worse pain that Selena had ever felt in her entire life. You could rip off her limbs and stitch them back on and it still wouldn’t hurt as much as the pain that soared through her flesh, her mind, her very heart. Suddenly, she knew she was going to die if she did not correct the wrong she had spoken. Instantly she lashed out at the darkness, wanting to hurt the shadows, but they left her system as soon as the obscenity had been spoken. She took a drunken step forward but only managed to push herself downwards, sinking to her knees, placing her hands on her head.

“I didn’t mean it!” she apologized. “Forgive me! It wasn’t my fault!” Her heart tightened even more than before – she knew placing the blame on the shadows would not help. “Sure it’d be easy to hate to hate her…” Her voice shook, almost delirious with the pain that was raging through her body. “But without her, where would I be now?” She slowly stood up and stretched her arms out towards the darkness. “You could say she landed me here, but I’ve never felt so enlightened!” The shadows buzzed around her, as if they were questioning the validity of her statement. “I’ve never felt so clean! And all of this, all that I have, it’s all thanks to Mikki Rocket!” She laughed, sad and slow, as the shadows buzzed away from her, as if her outburst was good enough for them. “Thank you, Mikki Rocket!” Her delirious cries echoed through the darkness. “Thanks for everything!”

Would she even see Mikki again? Back there, she had been willing to throw away everything for her, to give up all hopes of being normal in order to save her. Or was this even about Mikki? Was this about the world instead? How Mikki had said that she needed to see the truth… was that what this was about? No, Selena knew that what she had said was true – she did not hate Mikki Rocket, even though she probably should. She was everything her mother hated in a person, was everything she had been told to hate in a person… But somehow, they had grown to be friends. She was tough with her, but she had to be. Selena knew if not for Mikki that she would be much weaker than she was now… She had her to thank.

Was that why she couldn’t tell a lie about Mikki? No, the thought of lying… The thought of lying about anything at all make her feel weak inside… Now that she knew what would happen to her if she did, why would she ever do so again? She dropped to her knees once more as a strange sense of burden washed over her. The shadows disparaged themselves as light sprinkled their way back onto Selena’s small frame. The young girl clenched her fists, not wanting to look at the pure light beams, not wanting to look at anything anymore. She felt another tear run its way down her cheek, her heart somehow feeling more fragile in her chest. For some reason, she wanted to cry, long and hard. She had a feeling that she had literally just made life so very much harder for herself, that she would never be able to be the same person she had previously been…

“So, this is the truth?” she asked the disparaging darkness, for what seemed like the millionth time. The shadows did not respond – all they did was flee from her faster, as if the answer was too painful to speak of.