Transparent Color's

There’s a huge stone wall going around, like a fortress, and a large gate to enter and exit. On the very top of the wall there are seven guard stations; one on each of the four corners, one on each side of the gate, and one in the middle of the back wall.

“Is this how it looked before you left?”

He responds by saying, “There are more guard stations.” He then takes each of our hands and we start walking towards the massive gate.

When we approach the gate it, along with the wall, looks like it goes for miles. On the left side of the gate, there is a small black brass box that covers a speaker inside. The box is stationed inside the wall. When we move in front of it, the box pops out of the wall and a camera shoots out from on top of it. The camera rotates in front of each of our faces, scanning it, and then pops back onto the box. A voice comes out of the box.

“Who are you? And why have you approached our gate?” It sounded like a machine, rather than a human voice.

Maliki answers for us, “We come from the City in the south, and would like to reside here.” There is silence.

The voice appears again, “You may enter, do sign in at the appropriate station.”

Maliki says thank you and the box pops back into the wall. The huge gate slowly opens, making a squeaking roaring sound. The sound for some reason sends a dangerous chill up my spine. We start to walk through, Maliki steadily, while Toby and I timidly. I look up at Maliki and his face is up with pride, showing no fear, but he holds our hands tightly.

We enter the gate completely and the gate starts to close behind us. I look around and we are not in the city yet, instead we are in a semi-circle type of entry place; the stone wall around us, still going up for miles. I look all the way up and can see the cloudless blue sky.

Directly in front of us is a glass window, with another speaker inside the glass. As like before, when we are in front of the speaker, it pops out and another camera scans us, and back on the speaker again. An electronic voice from inside the glass window comes into hearing.

“Please place each of your right hands on the blue pad in front of you.” Suddenly three blue screen pads pop out before us and light up.

I wait for Maliki to put his hand on the pad first, once he does I place mine, then Toby places his. When my hand is placed on the screen it is stuck on like glue, I couldn’t remove it even if I want to. A blue light scans down my hand, as it does it gives my hand a tingly sensation. Once the light reaches the bottom it disappears for a second, then the whole screen lights up blue. I feel a prick in my middle finger, which causes me to jump a little, then the light disappears and my hand is free. I look at my middle finger and see a tiny, barely noticeable red dot where it was pricked. The voice comes again.

“You may now enter through the door on your right, proceed to supply shop, Mr. Buns will receive you there.” The voice leaves and a door on my right opens.

I look at Maliki, “After you.” He grins and walks through the doorway. I take Toby’s hand and we follow after him.

As soon as we walk through the doorway the sounds of the City are loud and clear. We enter onto a sidewalk next to a street with moving vehicles. Toby and I look at each other with amazement, I have never seen a moving vehicle before, well besides the cable car that transports us to our doom at the other City. The streets are brick and we are surrounding by blue tinted glass buildings.

There are people walking on the sidewalks, crossing streets, and driving the vehicles. They all look glamorous and well, perfect. I can see no imperfections on them. The women are wearing different color blouses and skirts; some with dresses and bright color heels to match their outfit. Their face is heavily made up, and hair all different styles. Some have neat buns; some have braids, pony tails, and some up and some down. Others wear their hair completely down, either thin, straight, or puffed way out. They walk flawlessly. The men wear different color suits, some with the jacket, some without. All have dark sunglasses on, a golden watch and bright color shoes to match their outfit, just like the women. They too walk flawlessly.

As they walk by us, they quickly glance then look away. It makes me feel self-conscious, I bring my hands to my hair and put the lose strands behind my ears. I notice my dirty hands and try to hide them in my jacket pocket. I can only imagine how my face and clothes must look. Ugh and smell.

Maliki puts his left hand on the middle of my back, leans his head down to my ear and says, “Nothing’s perfect. Come on, the shop’s this way.” I turn my head towards him, before he straightens back up, our eyes meet and we are nose to nose. My heart beats faster.

“You two, let’s go!” Toby cuts in impatiently, totally destroying the moment.

Maliki turns away and his hand leaves my back. I feel my chest collapse. They start walking to the shop. I take a breath in and release it, and then start behind them. We approach the door of the shop, Maliki touches a blue circle on the glass and the door slides down for us to enter. I enter last.

The whole room is silver. The wall in front of us has little blue marbles spread out all over it. In front of this wall, a lady is sitting behind a large silver desk. She has bright red hair up in a bun, with some hair sticking straight up, like spikes. She has dark blue eye shadow and lip stick on, with a silver dress. She looks at us and smiles. Her teeth practically shine.

“Hello my new friends, how can I help you?” she says in a soft squeaky voice that kind of reminds me of Aunt Bristol.

Malaki steps up, “Yes we just came from the gate and it told us to meet Mr. Buns”.

“Oh Yay! Newbies. We haven’t had new people in a while. I’ll beep Buns.” She says with a giggle.

I look over at Toby; he has his hand over his mouth laughing. I bite my lip to keep myself from laughing as well. I see Maliki with a slight grin, but then quickly removes it. The wall to the right of us opens up and an odd chubby little man comes walking out. He has a purple suit and shoes on, yellow curly hair that circles around a bald spot in the middle, and silver glasses with purple round lens. He smiles a bright smile as well.

“Hello my new friends, I’m Mr. Buns. So I hear you are new to the City, and are in need of some supplies,” He says with a commercial voice.

“Yes, I actually lived here once before, but these two are new,” says Maliki to the still smiling man.

“Oh, well that’s not what my detector said, it said supplies for three. IF you had lived here before the scanner would have recognized you,” Mr. Buns says it in a matter of fact tone, but still keeps that dang smile on his face.

“Well I guess because of the changes I wouldn’t be recognized, but…” Maliki is cut off by Mr. Buns.

“Do you have a home Sir?”

“No,” I can sense the annoyance in his voice.

“Well then supplies for three,” Mr. Buns plainly puts, then turns and walks between the walls, he motions for us to follow. I could tell from Maliki’s face he did not care for Mr. Buns.

When we enter the next room there is three silver chairs. Mr. Buns tells us to sit in the chair and it will take us into our own supply room. I hesitate and look at Maliki for the okay. Maliki looks at Toby and I and tells us that it’s probably fine. That doesn’t seem real comforting to me. So I look at Mr. Buns

“Can Toby stay with me?” I don’t want to leave him again.

“I’m sorry my dear but you simply cannot. You will be going through fittings and..” he looks me up and down, and cleanings.”

“Oh.”

“We are going to make you beautiful, my dear, you are in a safe place. Take a seat.” He says with extreme enthusiasm.

I look at Toby and he’s giving me an eye, “I’m not a baby Maggie, I’ll be fine.” Which he says in what I think sounds like a baby voice, but fine what can I do. So I plop down on the chair.

“See you both brand new,” Maliki says comically, as our chairs turn towards the wall and start moving.

The wall in front of me starts opening up and all I can see is blackness. I clench my hands onto the chair’s metal handles, my body tenses up. When the chair moves into the blackness, lights flick on as it moves. I relax a little. At the very end there’s another wall that opens, but it’s not dark inside. When I enter the room, there are four silver dressed women standing in a line next to each other smiling at me. I give a little uneasy smile back.

My chair stops in front of them, and they all say hello at the same time and tell me their names, “Nancy, Fancy, Mancy, and Klancy.” I bite my lip again to keep myself from laughing. They are apparently the ones who are going to make me “beautiful” so I better be nice.

Nancy and Fancy take my arms and bring me to a clear blue tub, which made the water inside the tub look blue as well. I can see the steam coming off the water, and can’t help but think of being cooked alive. They start quickly undressing me. I don’t usually get naked in front of random people, so this is a bit embarrassing, and I try to cover myself with my hands.

“Oh you poor girl, look at these clothes,” Nancy says, and then throws them into a waste basket.

“Oh, but look at this pink pin, it’s quite an antique,” Says Fancy to Nancy.

“No that’s mine!” urgency comes over me and grab it away. I notice their shocked faces so I will gentle my tone, “I want to keep it.”

Nancy slants her head slightly and squints her eyes a bit coldly at me.

“Well of course my dear, we will just clean it up for you and return it to you when you are done being cleaned as well.”

Nancy holds out her hand for me to give her the pin. I’m standing there naked shivering; I guess it won’t do any harm letting them clean it. My thumb touches across the pin, and then I reach my hand out and give it to her. She takes it and places it in her pocket. They then grab my arms, and help me in the tub. Mm, the warm water feels so good on my skin! I close my eyes, and peace comes over me, well for a moment. They start cleaning me from head to toe; I’ve never been so clean before in my life. They quickly pull me out, and tell me to stand on a rectangular mat on the ground, so I do so. When I stand on the mat, air starts shooting up and all around me; in seconds I am dry.

Mancy and Klancy come over grab my arms and take me to the other side of the room. Here they have a metal table with a cloth on top. They help me onto the table. They both look me up and down; they put a finger to their face like in deep observation. Klancy leans over to Mancy and whispers “is she a beast or a lady?”

Before I can say something in response, I hear a DING and Mancy smiles, claps her hands, “The wax is ready!”

WAX!!!

She goes to a blue bowl and takes it off a heated plate, and then puts it on a metal table that rolls. It squeaks as it rolls over next to me. I can see on the table are strips of cloth, something that looks like a flat spoon, and a cool rag. My heart starts pounding and not in a good way. I wish I was back in the tub. She takes the flat spoon, dips it in the wax and starts spreading some of the warm wax on my leg. She then takes one of the strips and places it on the wax, smooth’s it down, looks at me, smiles, and rips it from my leg.

“AHH!” my eyes start to water. I scream the next few times, and then I’m able hold it in.

As Mancy is doing the waxing, Klancy is at the other end fixing my hair. She first sprayed my hair down with something, and then begins to comb it. Whatever she sprayed my hair with took the massive snarls I had in my hair completely away, so it was an easy comb through. She is now combing and cutting my hair at the same time. After she is done with my hair, she begins to help Mancy with the waxing. She does my eye brows, arms, and arm pits.

After I’m done being plucked, cut and waxed, Mancy and Klancy help me off the table. My whole body is red, from head to toe. Nancy comes over and wipes my down with some wet substance that instantly takes the pain of the wax away. She then wraps me up in a towel and tells me to sit on the chair next to a table. She spins it around to a station with all kinds of make-up, and she applies some on me swiftly. She fixes my hair, and then tells me I’m done and to go sit on the metal chair, so I can go to the closet. I move to the metal chair and sit down. I feel exhausted now.

“Here’s your pin Ms. Collin’s” Nancy says with a faint smile. Her eyes look as cold as ice. I take the pin.

With two women on either side of me smiling and waving good-bye, the wall opens and my chair moves into the next room. As soon as the wall behind me shuts, the walls in this room flip around and I’m surrounded by colorful clothes and shoes. One side being clothes and the other being shoes. My mouth drops open and I’m memorized by the sight I see, not noticing the two women next to my chair.

“Hello we are June and Joon.” I jump a little at their voices, and bring myself back to reality and say hello back. They are twins; both with silver dresses and slicked back high pony tails. Their hair is the color of coal.

June takes my hand and leads me to the clothes side. The clothes are divided into sections by color. Each section has a rectangular screen that pops out; June tells me to scroll through the screens and choose five outfits from each section. Of course I will, I will take any and every color besides grey.

Once I have finished picking out, a total of thirty outfits, I turn to June. She is standing holding outfit thirty-one she picked out for me. It is a sequence gold dress that’s a few inches above my knees. It has two pockets and a black button on each one. June tells me to remove the towel, Joon hands me some under garments, and they help me put my new dress on. I place my mother’s pin in one of the pockets, to keep it safe.

Joon gently takes my hand and leads me to the shoes, but only one pair is being shown. She tells me I will receive a pair that matches each of the outfits I have chosen. So the thirty-first shoe is a black heel, with gold on the inside and on the bottom. She takes the shoes down off the shelf and places them on the ground. I’ve never worn heels before so I tensely put my feet in the shoes. I’m wobbly at first but the twins help me get my balance back, and practice walking. I find them to be very different from the women in the cleaning room, they seem to be warmer.

Once I am able to somewhat walk, Joon touches one of the walls and a full length mirror flips around. I think of my mother’s mirror for a moment, and then catch my reflection. Is this me? I give a big smile and focus my attention to my hair and how natural and flowing my curls look. My hair is completely down with just a gold pin on one side. I look closer at the pin; it has one tiny, single blue diamond in the middle.

I touch my hair and now notice my make-up; it’s thick, but not as much as the women on the street. I’ve never worn make-up so I guess I look good with it. My eyelids consist of a hint of black and gold. My lips and cheeks are a touch of pink. Altogether, my skin seems to be glowing. The twins tell me I need to sit back on the metal chair; I am now going to the supply room. I thank them, sit on the chair and I’m off again.

When the chair stops in the next room, I see Toby and Maliki already in the room looking at a screen. They haven’t noticed me yet. So I quietly get off the chair, but the sound of my heels causes them to turn. I stop for a minute to observe them.

I look at Toby first. He looks all cleaned up and very handsome in his black pants and gold long sleeved shirt and gold shoes. I then look at Maliki, he’s a little unrecognizable, but then I see his green eyes. His hair is cut shorter; his face is clean shaven. He is so very handsome. His clothing matched ours, with black pants, blazer, and gold long-sleeved shirt underneath. His shoes are black.

“Wow … Maggie, you look beautiful,” he gives me an impressed smile.

“Thank you, you look very handsome yourself,” I couldn’t help but blush with how Maliki is staring at me.

“Yes, you look beautiful Maggie, now how about me?” Toby interrupts a moment yet again. But I smile and walk up to him, put my hand under his chin and lift his head up and turn it side to side, “Hm. Yes Toby you look quite handsome as well.” I give him a wink.

Mr. Buns suddenly enters the room.

“Oh good you all are ready. We are going to skip this room for right now. Please follow me,” He says in a rushed manner. He then gives a panicked smile and starts heading through the wall. We follow.

Maliki has my hand and I have Toby’s.

My mind is moving too fast. I feel like I’m on the run again, trying to escape the hospital and wild beast. Why are we in such a rush? Why can’t anything just be calmly discussed and planned out?

“Mr. Buns, what is going on?” Mr. Buns just keeps walking fast almost to a jog, through the already opened walls. I hate being ignored, so I ask again, but in a louder voice this time.

“Mr. Buns, what is going on?!” Mr. Buns stops suddenly in front of a wall not yet open, and turns towards to me.

“All three of you are invited to a grand party at our leader’s mansion. How fortunate are you!” Mr. Buns gives a smile but has a slight sarcasm in his voice. He turns towards the unopened wall.

Frustrated now, I let go of Maliki and Toby’s hands and move in front of Mr. Buns, with my back against the wall, I look right into his eyes, “Fortunate? Who’s your leader? And why are we invited to a party at his or her home?”

Mr. Buns looks me up and down then stops at my eyes. He has no smile this time, “Only a few people ever enter his house, so yes fortunate. Our leader is Joshua Rams; but you address him by Majestic. Only the Majestic knows why you are invited, and if you are wise girl, you will make sure to be charming.” Mr. Buns is just inches from my face with the last statement. Our noses could touch.

He then moves me out of the way of the wall, he slides his hand across a blue circular screen and the wall opens to reveal the outside. Mr. Buns motions for us to go out. Maliki, unusually quiet, takes my hand back, and then takes Toby’s; he pulls us out of the wall with him. I stare at him but he doesn’t look at me, which worries me. Once we are out, the wall shuts and Mr. Buns is gone. It is night and the air is a little chilly. We just stand on a curb in silence.

My list of strange technologies I cannot explain or should:

1. Pills that turn in to food

2. Mats that either make fire or a hologram

3. Face scanners and hand scanners

4. See-through Cars

A see-through car pulls up. I can see a man wearing a black suit and hat driving the car that looks like it’s made of glass. The driver looking at us then pushes some buttons and the car turns black with gold trimming and wheels. A pretty sweet ride, granted it’s the only one I’ve been in, you can tell it’s meant to be impressive. The back door of the car pops open for us to enter. We stand there a minute amazed but then Maliki pulls us once again to the open door. I go in first, and then Toby and Maliki last.

We scoot down the seat for all to fit. Once Maliki is in, the door shuts and the car begins to move. The inside of the car is dark, with little blue lights lining the roof. The seat is leather and has a cool feeling. I look to the front to see the driver but it is all black, it must be closed off so we can’t see him or talk to him.

I turn and look at Maliki; he still has yet to look at me. Maliki has been too quiet and has an intense look on his face. I wonder what is going on through his mind right now. Why was he so rushed to get us out of the building and into the car? Does he know something I don’t know? Or is he just so eager to find out what is going on, as I am?

“Maliki do you know something that we don’t know?”

Maliki looks at me with a still tense face and then gives a slight smile, “No” he pauses for a moment, and looks towards the driver. It looks like he wants to say something else but the car comes to a stop and the door opens. He gets out of the car. Toby starts to scoot to the open door, but I grab his arm to stop him, bending down to whisper in his ear.

“Keep on guard, don’t trust anyone but me!”, my eyes looking out the door and Maliki looking at us.

Toby nods his head. I let go of his arm and he scoots out of the car. I put my leg out and I see Maliki’s hand in front of me to help me out. I give him my hand and he gently pulls me up.

As I am pulled up he leans in and says to me in a quick, quiet voice, “Don’t trust this. But do as Mr. Buns says, be charming.”

He read my mind on the “don’t trust” part. Maliki moves his body away and turns towards the large stone stairs that lead to a massive metal door. My hand still in Maliki’s, he helps me make my way up the stairs; with these heels I found the mysteries of the night not the only challenge. We finally reach Toby already at the door. My heart begins to race at the sight of this huge door. Maliki grabs the knocker and knocks it three times. In moments, the door opens and I see a huge man on the inside.

“Ms. Magolin Collins and two guests, do please come in, they’ve all been waiting for you,” The man says in a deep voice.

They’ve all been waiting for me. Why me, and why is it Magolin and two guests and not Maliki and two guests? He’s the one who used to live here. Again, another mystery I have to figure out.

Maliki and Toby walk through the door to the inside, but I hesitate. I’m afraid to walk through that door and find out what is inside; and what they’ve all been waiting for. I take a deep breath, raise my head up and walk through. I feel a chill through my veins in passing.