Status: In Progress
It's Just a Game
7.
All of us were aloud to go to our rooms first, to clean up from our travels before our meal. I looked down the hallway to my left and watched three contestants lift their cards up and smile at the doors as if waiting for a picture to flash. Instead, their doors flickered away, like Beta had earlier. Goose flesh swept over my arms and legs. My new bedroom door wasn't really there... I lifted my card and watched the illusion of my privacy disappear before my eyes. And appeared my room. My old room. Back at home.
I slowly walked over to my bed and flopped onto it's faux animal skin quilt. I inhaled and caught the scent of the chemicals Charlie had mixed a couple days ago. Tears streaked my face. I could feel my heart beating harder in my chest from missing him.
I let myself, for a moment, pretend that I really was at home. After a couple minutes, though, Beta appeared beside my bed. "It's time for supper!" She chirped, disappearing once more.
I sighed deeply, collecting myself before fixing my hair and walking directly through my bedroom door hologram.
"Again, welcome." Meja greeted us from the front of the long, platinum table where each of us sat. We'd had name cards at each seat waiting for us. Beside me was an older man and a boy, about my age, with curly red hair. "Now that you're here, I, and my collaborators, wish for you to make yourselves at home. After all, we're not going to begin our live shooting for another week or two."
We ate with a surprising amount of chatter. The old man next to me kept bragging about his father being part of the invasion on America 3, so it was in his blood to win this game. The girl across the table from us snorted in distaste. "Tat just makes you old and less likely to win. You're probably the only one here who was alive when Europe was invaded. Besides, your accent tells us all that your continent was invaded, too, soldier." She bore an Irish accent, clearly from America 3, as well as Juliet and I. She had brown hair that looked red in the right light, pulled back into a tight bun. She wore no makeup and her blue eyes shone bright with pride. I think she noticed me examining her, sizing her up, because she introduced herself. "Alexzandria." She nodded, like a handshake of the mind. Her voice sounded more like a demand than an introduction.
I nodded back to her, "Rose."
The man next to me said his name was Gregory. They continued talking, but I chose to tune them out and go back to eating.
I slowly walked over to my bed and flopped onto it's faux animal skin quilt. I inhaled and caught the scent of the chemicals Charlie had mixed a couple days ago. Tears streaked my face. I could feel my heart beating harder in my chest from missing him.
I let myself, for a moment, pretend that I really was at home. After a couple minutes, though, Beta appeared beside my bed. "It's time for supper!" She chirped, disappearing once more.
I sighed deeply, collecting myself before fixing my hair and walking directly through my bedroom door hologram.
"Again, welcome." Meja greeted us from the front of the long, platinum table where each of us sat. We'd had name cards at each seat waiting for us. Beside me was an older man and a boy, about my age, with curly red hair. "Now that you're here, I, and my collaborators, wish for you to make yourselves at home. After all, we're not going to begin our live shooting for another week or two."
We ate with a surprising amount of chatter. The old man next to me kept bragging about his father being part of the invasion on America 3, so it was in his blood to win this game. The girl across the table from us snorted in distaste. "Tat just makes you old and less likely to win. You're probably the only one here who was alive when Europe was invaded. Besides, your accent tells us all that your continent was invaded, too, soldier." She bore an Irish accent, clearly from America 3, as well as Juliet and I. She had brown hair that looked red in the right light, pulled back into a tight bun. She wore no makeup and her blue eyes shone bright with pride. I think she noticed me examining her, sizing her up, because she introduced herself. "Alexzandria." She nodded, like a handshake of the mind. Her voice sounded more like a demand than an introduction.
I nodded back to her, "Rose."
The man next to me said his name was Gregory. They continued talking, but I chose to tune them out and go back to eating.