The Loctorian Chronicles Intercept

by Andi Feron

  I cringed at his description. Nailed that, like Allie was simply another notch to be declared. I knocked the last of the stripes in, then the eight ball. My phone buzzed, and I nearly fell over myself to reach it. Gabriel smiled and shook his head, probably aware of my fumbling being in hopes of Allie being the sender. It was a phone call from Talon.

  “John, any idea why Allie’s phone is going to voicemail?” he asked.

  “Yeah, she dropped it in a mud puddle last night.”

  “Oh, alright. I’ll send her a new one. Is she with you?”

  “No, I haven’t seen her today.”

  “You know of any way I could reach her? Who else is she normally with?”

  “You could try Lucius.”

  As the words were forming, they came out with regret. Allie probably hadn’t even told him about Lucius. Setting my relationship with Allie back even further was the theme of my week.

  “Lucius?!”

  Talon seemed a little more upset than I would have expected even for him. Allie had other guy friends, why would he assume it something more? By his tone, he somehow must have known it was something more than friendship. Maybe he was taking his big brother delusions to a higher level.

  “What does he look like?” Talon asked.

  “Ummm… He has ice blond hair and blue eyes.”

  Beep. Beep. Beep. The conversation abruptly ended. Talon wasn’t known for formal conversation skills. Now if Allie ever talked to me again, we could have our next argument over me telling her brother about her new boyfriend. I needed to find Allie and warn her of the impending altercation with her brother.

  Gabriel, not understanding the magnitude of what I had done, told me I should chill a little bit and give her time. Allie could have time as soon as I let her know about the mess I created. She could be mad because I told but not because she was caught off guard. Allie would be finishing anthropology class, so I made my way across the building and into the social studies facility.

  I peeked through the small glass window next to the door and saw her in her usual spot. Maybe she was over it. Class let out, and Allie chatted with one of our classmates. She walked toward the door, and I leaned my back against the wall. As she opened the door, I popped out, and she stepped back a little, then promptly turned around. Apparently, she was not over it yet.

  “I need to talk to you,” I said. She kept walking. “I talked to Talon. I kind of mentioned Lucius.”

  She stopped but didn’t turn around, a few heartbeats later she picked up her pace again.

  “Come on Allie, I’m sorry.”

  Allie halted and spun around to face me. “John, look. Back off. I’d prefer not to say something I’ll regret later, and if I have to look at you for ten more seconds that’s exactly what will happen.”

  “Alright. I didn’t want Talon to surprise you. I’m sorry.”

  She stormed down the hall and out the door of the building. This was a brilliant mess I made, but at least I had done my best to amend the Talon/Lucius situation. I went back to my dorm. Forget classes, numbers and words seemed irrelevant at the moment. I wished more than anything Allie would invite me to a party or some other meager event. I would take wall-hugging over her mad at me any day. A few hours passed with me sulking in my dorm room. Lance popped in to grab part of his football uniform.

  “What you moping about Trammel?”

  “Just relaxing tonight.”

  “Okay, whatever. All I know is you have been sulking around here like a country song.” He fiddled through his drawers searching for something and continued, “It’s that girl isn’t it, the sexy as hell one? What’s her name? Alicia? Ashley?”

  “Althea,” I said.

  “Well, whatever her name is, I would tap that.”

  I shook my head, annoyed at his statement.

  “Isn’t she with that Lucius guy? The transfer student?”

  I nodded. “Yes, she is.”

  “So what’s the issue? You want to be with her instead, and she said no. Aren’t you close friends or something?”

  I sent him a glare. “Is this an interrogation or something?”

  “No, sorry, man, I thought maybe I could help. You should tell me all about it.”

  “No one can help. Allie has no idea I have an interest in her. She thinks we’re great friends. Now I made her mad because she thinks I was spying on her and Lucius, and I told her over-paranoid brother about him.” I had no idea why I was venting to the jerk who said he’d like to tap Allie, but maybe I needed to say everything out loud.

  “So either get off your butt and tell Allie how you feel or move on. What’s pouting going to do? So many other hotties to tap. I can get your obsession with her. That tight butt, nice breasts, and tiny waist curved just right. And those eyes. Man, those eyes.”

  I took a deep breath. “Man! She’s not an object. She’s a person. The best friend I have. Don’t talk about her like that!”

  “Okay, someone has his panties in a bunch. All I’m saying is there is plenty of other booty walking around campus to stay stuck on one you have no chance of a lay with.”

  “You know, there’s more to life than sex.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, but what’s life without it? Why don’t you go talk to this Lucius guy and tell him to back off your girl?” I was struck with the odd way he said it. Maybe I should consider talking to Lucius right now.

  Lance grabbed his cup. “Well, good luck, my man, off to hit some heads together.” With that farewell, he slipped out the door.

  Lance wasn’t entirely off point. I should go talk to Lucius. I wouldn’t go to demand he surrender Allie. It wasn’t as though she was a piece of land we were both rivaling for. However, if I became buddies with him, maybe it would show Allie I was making an effort to smooth things over.

  Lucius lived in dorm five. The dorm was a four-story red brick building that matched the other buildings here on campus. There were six dorms in total, and each housed around a thousand students. I didn’t even know if Lucius was in. He could be off taking advantage of Allie as I scoured his dorm.

  As I wandered the halls, a guy walked past. I stopped him, “Hey, bro, could you help me out? I’m looking for Lucius. Not sure of a last name.”

  He looked up from the phone he’d been furiously typing into. “Yeah, the third floor. Go left. Sixth door on your left. Three sixty-eight.”

  “Awesome! Thanks man!”

  He shrugged and went back to his phone. When I made it to Lucius’ dorm, I heard yelling inside, then what sounded like a loud thud.

  Wait, was that Talon? No way! Great, look what I had done! Talon was going to beat the living shit out of Lucius, and I was to blame. I began knocking, and the yelling continued. I jiggled the doorknob to find it was locked.

  “What are you doing?!” I jumped as I heard an irate Allie come up behind me.

  “Umm, they are yelling and…” I stammered.

  “Why are you here? Haven’t you done enough already? I told you to give me space, so you decide to come and talk to my boyfriend?”

  “I know. I wanted to invite him to play pool, maybe become friends since I know he means so much to you.”

  We heard a loud crash that altered Allie’s attention to the room and off of me. She tried the doorknob, and upon realizing it was locked, she beat the door loudly.

  “Lucius, are you okay? Lucius! Open the door, it’s Althea.”

  The door popped open, and Allie gasped, seeing Lucius and Talon standing side by side. Two deep black eyes were forming on Lucius’ face, and his nose was bleeding.

  Allie glared at Talon. Her face growing redder by the second. “What is going on?! You can’t handle me liking a guy, so you come here to beat him up?!” Allie screamed.

  The dorm room was in disarray. The desk was toppled over the mattress that was slid on the floor, and papers were strewn everywhere.

  Talon studied the ground then slowly looked up at Allie. “It’s not like that.”

  “Wo
ah…” I turned around the see Gabriel standing there with his mouth open. Seraphine stood next to him.

  Lucius told us to come in the room and shut the door.

  “Seraphine?” Talon’s mouth hung partially open.

  Allie glanced between them. “You know each other?”

  An awkward silence ensued, and the bizarre feeling of upright neck hair left me uneasy. Many times since I have thought about that single moment. A frozen fraction of a second that altered our paths forever. I should have grabbed Allie’s hand and run, never looking back or second-guessing. But I didn’t because I had no idea that with the closing of that door, my existence would be shattered, and normalcy would become a foreign concept. I should have grabbed Allie’s hand. I should have run. But instead, I let the door close behind us.

  Chapter Four

  Althea-October 24, 2012

  We were all crammed into the tiny dorm room, and I was fuming. All of the men in my life had gone bonkers in one short evening. Seraphine pushed the mattress back on the bed and sat down. Gabriel plopped down next to her. John stayed by the door, probably looking for an exit from the lashing I was about to dish out. Lucius had his back turned away from me and was rummaging through a duffle bag.

  Talon leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. He looked angrier than I’d ever seen him. What was going on with him? My brother was protective but never violent. My instincts were correct to exclude him from knowing about Lucius, but John had to go and open his big mouth. He invaded my privacy and snitched to my brother about my boyfriend. John getting ready to talk to Lucius was the cherry on top.

  Talon knew Seraphine, but how? We were from Maine, and Seraphine had told me she lived in California her whole life. Maybe they met on one of his weekends down. I felt terrible that Gabriel and Seraphine were mixed up in our drama. Seraphine had invited us all to go to the movies with her, and we were all meeting at Lucius’ dorm.

  “Six, close proximity to my location on mark three,” Lucius spoke into a small round device.

  I clenched my eyes shut as a blinding light filled my vision. I placed my right arm over my face for more protection. I perceived being punched in the gut before collapsing to the ground.

  I awoke in some sort of bed. I stood up and looked around. We were no longer in the dorm room. I could feel the heated floor through my shoes. The scent of some type of cleaner overwhelmed my nostrils. We were in a large room containing dark gray plastic-looking walls with a matching ceiling. There were several computer consoles, a few chairs, and six thin beds that looked to pull down from the wall. Talon, Lucius, and Seraphine were already awake. John and Gabriel stumbled to their feet.

  “What the… I just wanted to catch a movie,” Gabriel said.

  John glanced around, and I could see the worry on his face. He moved next to me but didn’t touch me. I knew him well enough to know that he would become brave if someone tried to hurt me, and that worked both ways. I might be mad at him, but I would take down anything that came after him. Lucius went over to the console and started pushing buttons. Seraphine was in one of the chairs reading something.

  Talon steadied me. “You good, Allie?”

  “No! What the hell is going on?”

  “There’s a lot that will be explained. For now, I need you to trust me.”

  My eyes bore into him. “Why should I? You punched my boyfriend in the face, and now I don’t even know where we are.”

  “Boyfriend?” He sent a scowl Lucius’ way. Then he continued talking to me, “Trust me. This is the last thing I wanted. I’ve tried so long to protect you from this, but the choice has been taken out of my hands.”

  Lucius pressed buttons on a console. “We’re fully docked. Talon, take them to the prep room.”

  Gabriel walked over to Lucius. “Hey, can you all return me back to the dorm? You can all have your party without me,”

  “You must follow Talon. If you choose not to, you will be escorted by more forcible means.” Lucius lifted his shirt to reveal a gun holstered on his hip.

  John moved even closer to me as he stared at Lucius’ gun. Talon seemed indifferent to the threat and waved for us to follow him. He led us through a large winding hallway. The walls and ceiling were the same grey. The floors were sleek, and I could picture the falling chaos that would ensue if wet floor signs were not placed after someone mopped them.

  I began to wonder if we were actually being detained in some sort of futuristic dungeon. The entire enclosure was clean but dreary. Talon led Gabriel, John, and me down a few curves to a series of closely spaced doors spanning both sides.

  The fourth door on the right gave him pause, and he pushed a button, causing the door to slide open. “Allie, this is for you.”

  “Okay. I’m getting the slightest inclination that we have been kidnapped or arrested. Neither option is going to jive with me. I request to speak with my lawyer,” Gabriel said.

  Seraphine was nowhere to be seen at this point. Everything I thought to be true about everyone was becoming unhinged. I looked up at Talon, my eyes full of disappointment and anger.

  “Allie, I promise I’ve got this. You won’t be in the dark long. I’ve spent my whole life trying to ensure the best for you, and I’m not about to stop now. There should be an outfit in the bedroom. Change into it. See you soon,” he said.

  Dullness seemed to be a favorite of the interior decorator. The couch was black, which set it off ever so slightly from the dark grey floors, ceilings, and walls. The table and chairs enjoyed the privilege of being brown. Stainless steel appliances adorned the kitchen, and I appeared to be in one of those show houses you would see if you wanted to buy a condo.

  Everything was set perfectly and overly organized. The hall led to a bedroom and a bathroom. On the brown-covered bed were black pants and a folded purple shirt. They were smooth and dressy despite not having a collar. I changed quickly, ready to figure out why we were here.

  I thought about how Seraphine could make this place come alive. She was a brilliant artist. She could paint like da Vinci, at least that was the opinion I had formed when I saw her work in the college art gallery. My thoughts of Seraphine were quickly changing, and I wondered if my whole life was a lie.

  The room felt as warm as a sauna. At least the shirts were short sleeved, but I wished we were given shorts instead of the issued pants. I attempted to open the front door, but it wouldn’t budge.

  I searched for a panel, running my fingers across the wall and hoping to engage a switch of any type. I scanned the room, looking for details I might have missed. There weren’t even any windows to gauge location.

  A loud voice boomed from the intercom next to the kitchen, “All new recruits must report to corridor B5.” The voice in the wall repeated itself a few more times, and the front door opened.

  “New recruits?” I mumbled.

  The walls revealed blue arrows that blinked and pointed to the left for us to follow. Cautiously, I set out and was soon joined by John and Gabriel.

  “This has to be a military facility. We’ve been recruited for special ops or something,” Gabriel said.

  John bit his lip as he glanced around. “I’m more concerned with how we got here. We were in the dorm then suddenly we were in this weird, windowless building.”

  “Seriously, man?! Yes, our arrival was odd although I’m thinking we were knocked unconscious, but we should be more concerned with where we are going. Nothing has resulted in our deaths yet, so we should be concerned with making sure things stay that way.”

  “I would say we were being trafficked, but Talon wouldn’t traffic Allie. He wouldn’t so much as let her sneeze when we were growing up, let alone become a sex slave for some asshole millionaire.”

  Gabriel didn’t give up. “He did say he’s been protecting Allie from this and now his hands were tied. That sounds like something related to negative intentions is about to take place. My money is on the military. They need young recruits for some suicide missions. We are ne
gligible casualties.”

  I almost scoffed at his idea until we rounded a curve and saw military uniforms and sniper rifles on the guards. We were ushered into a large elevator, full of teenagers and young adults who were all wearing the same type of outfit we were. The elevator descended for a couple minutes.

  “This has to be a hundred floors. How big is this place?” Gabriel asked and was hushed by the guard.

  We were pushed out of the elevator and into a large room. The ceiling towered several stories up, and we were surrounded by black steel walls and flooring. Six doors looked ahead, and we were directed to the middle one. Guards sorted us into organized lines of ten.

  The other people wearing purple seemed passive, and perhaps they were aware of why they were here. One by one, people were pushed through the doorway. We made up the last of the line, with John leading the way. I was behind him. He grabbed my hand, giving it a quick squeeze before letting go. He smiled at me as they pushed him through. I felt that he was trying to calm my nerves. His small comfort was soothing.

  A man shoved me through the doorway, and I found myself in the polar opposite of the last room. Shimmering white replaced all the black. The floor reminded me of the opal in my grandmother’s earrings as it reflected translucent colors. A purple light surrounded me for about twenty minutes.

  The floor receded, and I dropped slowly to a room below. A woman with a lab coat looked at a screen, inputting data into a computer. A large glass window separated us. I looked around for the others but I was alone. The woman rushed out of the room, and when she returned, she brought a tall, older man with her.

  He was what I would consider a stereotypical scientist, with a lab coat and wire frame glasses. The woman pointed to something on the screen, and he stared intently. I concentrated on their mouths. In high school, one of my friends was deaf. She taught me how to read lips, and I became decently skilled at it before I left for college.

  The man stroked his beard. “Why was she put in purple with these numbers?”