Chapter Three: The Prison of Fuchsia and Black
By
Asukafan2001
©2008. Asukafan2001. All Rights Reserved
As I pass through the entrance I find my heart racing as butterflies the size of the titanic flutter about inside of me. I find myself surprised a bit at the amount of order and cleanliness that has encompassed this closet, especially in comparison to the rest of the room.
“I run a tight ship Benson.” Geena says almost as if she was reading my mind. I take a few steps beside her astonished at how well I can see in here. The closet it nearly pitch black yet I can see everything as if it’s just a dank room.
“Everything has a place. I expect you to take pride in your work. A job should be done right the first time Benson. Is that clear?”
“ummm what exactly is my job?” I ask only halfway wanting to know; the other half of me wanting to wake up from this nightmare with a sore back from falling asleep at my desk.
“You will start at the bottom and spend your life working your way up the ranks. However, for now you’re a cleaner in servitude of Goddess Becca. You can start first thing tomorrow, for now I will show you to your new residence. Oh, and also you are in my employ now. Next to the goddesses my word is law, so make sure not to forget it.”
I followed Geena with my head hung low. I couldn’t quite comprehend everything that was happening. How do you react to your freedoms being removed? Being stripped of every shred of humanity that you’re aware of, being branded and tagged like an animal then tossed into some kind of existence where you are treated like some form of sub human. I wanted to break down and cry. I wanted that more than anything else, however I had to put up a front. I couldn’t show that I was beaten. As if I showed my weakness I will have already lost.
As we walked towards the back of the closet I looked upwards at the row of clothes hanging down seemingly thousands of feet in the air. Skirts, shirts, pants, and every other kind of clothing under the sun, along the floor shoes were lined up in rows of two with small walkways between them. It reminded me of an army base almost how they have their vehicles lined up to precision. As we reached the back wall there was a second cave like entrance. This one caused Geena to duck as she walked through the narrow pathway. As we walked down the pathway it got much wider and taller. As we neared the exit both Geena and myself were both comfortably walking down the pathway. We came to a fork in the road.
“Normally you always go to the left. As that gets you to the city. However, you’re a first timer so we go to the right which takes you to the fitting station.”
“Fitting station?” I question, however I get no response as Geena has already started down the right fork. I sigh and follow as I have no choice in the matter. As we reach the end of the walkway we enter into what looks like a hospital lab. I see several women of Geena’s size bustling around. I am greeted by redhead with short hair. She smiles and motions me towards a chamber.
The redhead and Geena follow me into the chamber which is a large room with what looks like a moat around the perimeter. I nervously walk towards the center of the room where Geena tells me to stand.
“Now, don’t move and you won’t get hurt, move and well it could be quite painful to fatal, or to you wish it was fatal.”
I gulp as I stand motionless as the two women who look barely over 21 exit the room. As soon as the door shuts a large whirring sound starts. I fight the urge to look around remembering what Geena told me. As the whirring sound grows louder and louder two ropes one fuchsia and the other black shoot out at me. My first instinct is to move to dodge them however; the words of Geena quell my urge to dodge. The ropes attach to the collar as if they were being manipulated and begin to wrap around my body, I frantically fight against my urge to move as the rope wraps itself around me. As the rope hits my body a tingling sensation pulses over the location that the rope just touched. The process seems to continue until for what feels like hours before it stops. I fall over almost immediately onto the metal floor as a burning sensation overtakes the entirety of my body below the collar. I pound the floor and my teeth clench tight.
As the burning worsens my teeth clamp down tighter and tighter my limbs pound against the floor. Days, hours, minutes, time itself holds no meaning as I painfully flail my limbs, however as Geena and the redhead enter they inform me that it has only been fifteen minutes.
Geena and the Redhead stand on either side of me their eyes peering downward, they mist me with some kind of spray and the burning sensation begins to subside. I move to sit up, and as soon as I do I let out the most horrific scream I have ever let out in my life. I reach towards my legs and start pulling at them. They are covered in the same fuchsia and black material that Ms. Davis had on that fateful day. Was it only yesterday? What day was it? What day is today?
“Oh god, oh god” I shout as I tug at the material on my legs not yet realizing that it’s engulfed my arms and chest as well. It’s not until the redhead makes awkward motion with her arm and a large mirror lowers from the ceiling revealing to me my fuchsia and black covered body. That I fully realize what has been done to me. It looks as if my entire body beneath the collar has been covered in it.
“What have you done? What have done to me? Why isn’t it coming off?” I scream in a panicked tone.
“Well hun, to state it simply. We have replaced your skin. What you see now has bonded with your original skin. It’s basically just like giving you fur.” The redhead stated rather matter of factly.
“Why? What? How?” I sputter out in a panic as I grasp at my new coverings. I run my hands over my body immediately noticing that it has the same feel as the socks did that fateful day. I look down at my Fuchsia and Black covered body and take a bit of solace knowing that at least my face is still normal.
“What other surprises do I have to look forward too?” I snap with a hint of anger in my voice.
“Nothing, I will show you to your residence.” Geena says in a rather coldly.
We walked in relative silence as I would tug at my new found layer of skin while cursing the name of Becca Davis in my head. The corridor began open up wider and wider until we were standing in a vast room. It seemed to extend out further then I could see. Questions as to how such a large place could exist crossed my mind but based off how things were going I doubt I would get an answer.
“This is where the subjects of Goddess Becca and Lucy both live, in what we call Neutral City.” Geena says answering what I was thinking.
As we entered what they called Neutral City I found myself staring at a massive city that was unlike anything I would have pictured in my head. The city looked completely normal. In the distance I could see tall buildings several stories tall and the further you got out from the heart of the city you went from houses, to then apartments, and then finally trailers and shacks.
“How do you get all this stuff? I mean it looks so normal.”
“What did you think we’d be living in? Sleeping on the floor and in shoes?” Geena quipped as we walked.
“Anyway, you live on the south side of town here. Since you’re new, you live in one of the poorer areas. However, as you pay your dues you will get something nicer.
“How can this be possible? I mean the buildings, and everything. They are huge.” I ask as I look at the rather rundown looking shack I would be calling home.
“It’s the corridor, as you walk the length of the corridor like we did you get smaller, when you leave you get bigger. It happens gradually as you walk so you don’t realize it. It just appears as if the corridor widens. I will get you at sunrise and then you will begin the first day of what you should look at as a brand new life. It’s easier that way.” Geena comments.
I took a few steps forward looking at what I was informed would be my new home. When I turned back around Geena was already gone. I sighed and walked towards the shack. In the distance I could see an overturned sneaker. The word Van was etched into the insole. The shoe left the air in this neighborhood less than desirable.
“I guess this is why its slums” I say to myself. However, The sight itself was so surreal. I was a man, a person, a dignified being of intelligence and now I am standing here staring at shoe which might as well be a mountain. I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of degradation against my heart.
As I walk into my shack it reminds me of a college dorm room. A bed is on one side of the room and a desk on the other. Straight across from the door a small shelf which has a television resting on it and empty slots where books should go. I plop down onto my bed and stare out at my surroundings unable to believe that this is really where I am. I drop my head into my lap and let the tears flow from my eyes as easy as a child gushes with joy on a summer day.
I never remembered falling asleep. However, I heard a rapping against the door and I was stirred from my slumber. I open the door and see Geena . She motions for me to follow before walking down to the sidewalk. I tug at my new layer of skin noticing immediately now that it has completely bonded with my old skin as the bit of separation between the two layers that was there is now gone.I stare at Geena for but a moment before she motions for me to follow her.
We walk in silence back towards the corridor. Thousands of questions run though my mind, a part of me wanting to ask them all, however, each answer that I obtain turns into one that I do not like. As we leave the corridor and enter the closet the closet door slides open. Our heads snap up as the wooden doors are slid apart. The heads of not only Geena and myself, but several other people who were cleaning Becca’s shoes all stare up in an awe-inspiring manner.
In the doorway stands the gargantuan form of Becca Davis, her hair disheveled, as she is donned in simple white sweatpants with a black Nike swoosh in the upper right hand corner of the pant leg. A pant leg that seems to extend up hundreds upon hundreds of feet, I gulp as I stare up at her. Unable to believe the sheer size which I am seeing, as the door fully opens and she takes a few steps into the closet as the floor quakes under her might.
The people cleaning the shoes scurry off the shoes and immediately lower their heads, make the sign of the cross and put their hands together in a praying position.
“You should do the same Benson, you’re in the presence of the holy one.” I look at Geena for but a moment and follow suit. I could see in her eyes she was dead serious, and following recent events failure to do so could prove costly.
As I begin to kneel and lower my head I notice Ms. Davis getting down on one knee and lowering her hand. As she does so I catch a glimpse of her black t-shirt which simply reads Bitch in white lettering. I can’t help but think about the irony.
“This is madness” I think to myself as I continue staring at the ground as I pretend to pray to Ms. Davis. I manage to sneak a glance upwards every now and then and can see Ms. Davis fully standing discussing something with Geena, however Ms. Davis’s voice is hushed and Geena is too far away for me to hear what she would be saying.
“Get them to work, I have school today and want my things ready when I return.” Becca snaps as deposits Geena back on the floor before heading towards the bedroom door. Geena immediately turns towards me and the rest of the men and glares at us.
“You heard her, she wants her blue and black vans, get them ready. Unless you want to explain to her holiness why she has to get her own shoes.”
Everyone immediately jumps to attention and starts rushing towards the shoes. I follow confused and unaware of the eventful day I was about to have.