Writer's Wednesday || Part 4 - The Cell

Alright, readers--I need help again.

If you were a bad guy and could live in any time and place on earth, where would you live? 

Please comment and help me out! I seriously need an awesome place to put my antagonist's evil lair. 

But now, for the next installment of This Name and Moment...

- Part 4 -

The Cell

If the lights didn't blind Sean, Clarity's shoes would.

He woke to blaring florescent bulbs and neon orange. It felt as if a small explosion had gone off inside his head. Slowly, very slowly, his vision cleared and focused.

He was lying on his side on a dusty tile floor. Clarity's neon orange converse shoes were inches from his nose. Exhaling, he sat up. Beside him, Clarity was still passed out, her head at his feet. Sean shook her. She moaned and slapped at him.

"Clarity, get up. We were abducted."

She covered her face with her hands, groaning, "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

Sean took in their prison. It was a small room, maybe ten feet wide by ten feet long. There were no windows and only one door. Hopelessly, he tried it, but as he expected, it was locked. Sean put his ear to the crack between it and the frame. There were no voices. No sounds at all. Nothing to tell them where they were.

"So this is why they never come home…" said Clarity quietly, sitting with her back to the wall.

"What?"

Clarity shook her head, hugging herself, "In my world, Aerathyst, the government has been funding research and experiments with ley lines. The portals are invisible and unpredictable. The scientists don't know how to control them, only how to make them happen. And people have been disappearing, sucked up or whatever by the stupid lines. Like, a lot of people. And now I know why they never make it back…"

Sean let this new information sink in. He wasn't sure he believed in other worlds or ley lines, but he had read enough on the subject not to completely discredit it. And all this happening, his Moment being when he found Clarity, who also happened to be his Name. It had to mean something.

"Alright, just for the moment, say I believe you," said Sean, "You think we were abducted because somehow the people in your world knew you came through one? Why would they abduct one of their own? Why not help them get home?"

"All I know is that in the forty years the experiments have been going on, not one missing person has ever returned." Clarity closed her eyes, "I can't believe this is happening. I had a concert tonight."

"You were just thrown into another world, drugged, and kidnapped and you're concerned about a concert?" Sean asked incredulously.

"Yeah, buddy, 'cause I happen to be the one performing," growled Clarity, "Aerathyst's number one rock star doesn't show up for her final tour debut, people are going to notice."

Sean coughed, "Number…one…rock star?"

Clarity rolled her eyes, "Yes. Is that so hard to believe?"

Sean surveyed the room again, "We've got to get out of here."

"And how do you suggest that?"

"Do you have a hairpin?"

"No," Clarity snorted, "What were you going to do? Pick the lock?"

"We have to do something!" snapped Sean, kicking the door. The only good it did was to give him a throbbing foot.

Clarity pulled something out of her pocket as she stood. It was a black cellphone. She held it above her head, walking around the cell. "I can't get a signal!"

"Hold onto it. We might be able to use it later."

Clarity slipped it back in her jeans, "What else am I going to do, Genius? It's not like there's a trashcan in here."

If all girls were this fiery, Sean was suddenly thankful they had avoided him his entire life. His back to the wall, he sat and buried his face in his hands.

Clarity sighed, sliding down next to him, "Listen, Sean, I'm sorry. I get snappy when I'm scared."

Sean watched the lights flicker on the ceiling. "Are you really from another dimension?" he finally asked.

"Yeah," Clarity answered heavily, "…what did you mean earlier, about me being your name and moment or whatever?"

Sean's eyebrows arched, "Don't you have a Moment?"

"No… A Name. But--wait--what do you mean a 'moment'?"

Sean's heart skipped a beat. "A Name?"

"Yes, a Name--but what did you mean by 'moment'?" she repeated.

"I mean an actual moment. Like a date and time in your head."

"You're born with it?"

"Yeah."

It was Clarity's turn to raise her eyebrows, "We're born with Names in Aerethyst. Actually… you're my Name. Sean."

Sean sat up straight, "Really? Because…well, people here on Dyterra are only born with a Moment. But I have a Moment and a Name. The Name is yours and the Moment was when I stumbled over you."

Clarity rubbed her leg, "I still have a bruise from where you tripped over me. But… If you're from here, how is it you've got both?"

Sean shrugged, "No idea. Those are the only things I remembered after I woke up." Sean saw the question in Clarity's eyes and explained, "I... sort of, well, you could say I'm sort of an amnesiac. I woke up under a park bench one day, dried blood on my head, no memory of who I was or how I got there. I couldn't even remember my own age. Nine, maybe. Some nice people saw me wandering around and helped me get to a hospital. They said I had taken a severe blow to the head, which most likely caused my memory loss. Then Child Services came and put me in an orphanage. I've been there for four years now."

Clarity fidgeted with her hands, eyes lowered, "I'm sorry."

Sean shrugged again, "It's kinda nice. If I can't remember my family then I can't miss them, right?" Except that was the exact opposite of how Sean felt. He would give anything to have his memories back, to remember the life he had before, to find the people he loved before… Yet for all his genuis, he had no way to bring back what he had lost. And what were the chances he even still had family if they hadn't found him by now?

Clarity stiffened, frowning, "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Shh!" she crawled over to the crack between the door and the frame and pressed her ear against it. "It's coming from out there."

Sean rolled to his knees, crouching to put his ear above Clarity's. He recognized one of the voices outside.

"--Destiny, get me in touch with Freyja immediately. And order me something with caffeine. It's going to be a long night."

Dr. Stalling.

There came another man's voice. It was the big man with the briefcase. "Are you certain-"

"Yes, John. This one is most definitely Ragnarok."

" Don't you think you should make absolutely certain-"

"I am. I've run every possible test there is. The DNA was a match…"

The voices faded with their footsteps away from the cell.

Sean's stomach had disintegrated. He rocked back on his knees. Clarity pushed off the ground and stood up. They shared a long glance.

Who was Freyja? What was Ragnarok? Did it have something to do with why they were kidnapped?

"What on Aereythyst was that about?" whispered Clarity.

They both jumped as the deadbolt on the door slid with a metallic squeal. The handle turned. As the door opened, the man who had drugged them in the elevator, John, stepped inside.

"Good, you're awake. Stalling has some questions for you."

~The Scribbler in the Attic