Rose Tinted (6 page)

“So what’s the plan once we’re all here,” he asked, clearly trying to
dispel the tension in the air.

“We turn into Workers.”

Chapter 7: Puzzled

The once dark and quiet hotel room was instantly transformed the moment Amber and Bennett set foot in it. Not only did the twenty plus shopping bags they’d brought with them create a very cluttered interior, but the level of gossip and excited storytelling had taken a dramatic rise.

Brynn loved her boys, but there was a definite difference in topics of conversation and after weeks of
wondering if Eris would show up at the least expected moment to kill her, she found this to be a welcome distraction.

“The second we got here I knew I had to change my hair,” Amber stated with so much authority it was impossible not to agree with her. “People here really get fashion don’t they?”

“Oh yeah,” Bennett agreed with a somber nod, very serious in her reasoning. “This place makes Seaside look ridiculous.”

“My thoughts exactly,”
Brynn agreed with a laugh, knowing that their definitions of ‘ridiculous’ were very different.

“Just because
you
don’t care about fashion doesn’t make our statement untrue,” Bennett said as she launched a pillow over to where Brynn sat on the bed next to Ty.

“Well
, either way, I like the new look on both of you,” she told them.

Amber and Bennett had arrived at their hotel room dramatically transformed from the girls Brynn had left behind in Seaside. Amber’s normally sunny blonde hair was now a cotton candy pink that she had cropped to her chin and curled into big fluffy ringlets.
Her default pink sundress had been replaced with a grey, tight-fitting, mini dress with light pink diagonal stripes and matching heels.

Bennett sported her normal long, dark brown hair
though it now slowly faded halfway down from a dark forest green that lightened gradually until it reached bright lime green tips. The effect was stunning when matched with her long black T-shirt and tight emerald green pants. The two girls had definitely embraced the feel of the city.

“Please don’t get face tattoos or anything like that,” Ty begged with a shake of his head. “I can deal with your head looking like a lollipop
, but I just couldn’t take you seriously with little stars and hearts all over your cheeks.”

“Actually,” Bennett began before a sharp look from Amber
silenced her.

“You’re kidding me,” Ty said in exasperation, always playing the role of ‘responsible adult’ in their group of friends.

Bennett put her pointer finger and thumb together to indicate that the tattoo would be a small one, causing Ty to sigh deeply.

“You’re such a buzz kill,” Amber informed him casually as she pulled her tablet from her purse.

“I’m just trying to keep you from doing something like that on a whim,” he countered.

“Well assuming everything you’ve told us is true
, we don’t have much longer to live anyway right?” Bennett asked, silencing the room with that one innocent question.

Amber shrugged her shoulders at the obviousness of Bennett’s statement while Ty just looked at the ground, not answering her.

“Well, that very awkward moment was a perfect segue into our next topic of conversation,” Jonah piped up from the armchair by the window. “What brilliant disguises have you girls come up with for us?”

Bennett blushed profusely at this praise from Jonah, never trying very hard to hide her opinion of him while Amber hid a small smile at the compliment before turning her tablet to face them.

“Ty, we’ll start with you.” Amber swiped her finger over the smooth screen to reveal a digitally created image of Ty that made Brynn’s stomach drop.

His
normally tan skin was whiter than snow, making him look like his body had just been recovered from the bottom of the ocean. His sandy blonde hair was dark brown and his warm brown eyes were a light purple.

“We thought we’d shade your cheekbones to make them a bit more dramatic,” Amber added
, pointing out his very sharp cheekbones in the picture she held.

“Well
, I definitely don’t think anyone will recognize me,” he offered. “You guys really are amazing.”

“We know,” both girls said in unison
.

“Do I even want to see my picture?” Brynn asked. “I mean this whole thing is pretty eerie,” she corrected, seeing the hurt on Amber’s face.

“We can look at Jonah’s sketch next if you want,” Amber offered.

“Or mine!” Bennett chirped.

“Wait, yours?” Brynn asked, not quite following the conversation.

“You didn’t really think we were going to let you go alone
, did you?” Amber asked her incredulously.

“But you guys don’t even believe us,” Brynn responded.

“Sure we don’t believe you now, but what if it turns out you’re right and there’s this whole new place for us to explore? We aren’t going to miss out on that,” Amber said matter-of-factly.

Brynn raised her eyebrows at the statement, wondering if somehow Amber and Bennett’s
suppressed curiosity was starting to falter. Ty’s curiosity certainly seemed greater now than it had at the beginning of their adventure.

The only information learned in A1 that Brynn had withheld from the group was the fact that Eris had found some way to suppress curiosity in people, making Halcyon a continent full of complacent lazy
airheads. She didn’t want to bring this little fact up because of the questions she was scared it would raise.

She still couldn’t understand the link between her and Jonah that made them naturally curious
, unless he was the third thing Rachel had secreted away.

Brynn
had been toying with the idea for some time, that Rachel’s third transgression was another sample of human DNA placed in the human creation bay. She knew the odds of another person like her were almost nonexistent, and it was even less likely that they would be born in the same time frame and on the same continent, but it would explain an awful lot.

She
stared at Jonah as he sat in the overstuffed armchair. His intelligent blue eyes scanned the faces in the room; always thinking, always curious. If anything, Brynn thought, he was more curious than her. She wondered if it had something to do with who Jonah was created after back in A1 before she reminded herself that until she had proof, this crazy idea was just a theory.

Still, she couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the two of them. It would make perfect sense that Jonah had been created from genuine human DNA just like Brynn.

“Brynn?” Jonah said suddenly, pulling her from her reverie. He had been watching her watch him for quite some time, a dazed look on her face.

“What?” she asked, unsure of how long the group had been trying to get her attention.

“Amber asked if you’ve been in a maze yet?” Ty clarified, looking a little worried. “Did you get another headache?”

“I didn’t,” she replied honestly. “
I promise. I was just thinking.”

“So
, have you been in one yet?” Amber asked her, apparently not for the first time.

“I really wish I knew what you were talking about since it sounds really exciting
, but I don’t,” Brynn replied.

“You guys seriously haven’t done one yet?” Bennett asked, appropriately shocked by this revelation.

“What maze are you guys talking about?” Ty asked, fed up with being out of the loop.

“You know how we make movies in Seaside?” Amber began, a chorus of ‘yeses’ prompting her to continue. “Well in Eastern Metropolis they create interactive mazes for people to go into.”

“So much cooler than movies,” Bennett stated with assurance.

“Without a doubt,” Amber agreed.

“Wait, people
make
mazes?” Brynn asked skeptically.

“Not like a physical maze to go into. It’s a virtual maze. You put these little brain receptor things on your head and it makes you feel like you’re in the maze.”

“But it’s all just in your head,” Bennett finished. “You can walk around in the maze, touch things, talk to people and everything but none of it’s real. You’re just sitting in a chair.”

“So it’s like a dream?” Brynn asked, finding the idea of a dream that didn’t make her want to jump off a cliff quite appealing.

“It’s better than a dream because someone else made it and they can make sure it doesn’t suck,” Amber clarified proudly.

“And it’s like a real maze? Are you supposed to find the center or what?” Ty asked.

“That’s what’s so great, they can be anything. Some people just make it look like you’re out in the wilderness and you have to follow broken tree branches or fight through fog until you get to a certain marker,” Amber said. “I can’t believe you guys really haven’t heard of these.”

“We’re not as up to date as you guys. Living off the grid will do that to you,
” Brynn admitted. “We haven’t really had much time for fun out here.”

“We should totally do one tomorrow,” Bennett said excitedly.
“Some of them are just plain old mazes where you’re looking for a way out, but most of them are like puzzle games. You have different things you have to find and turn on to get yourself out.”

“It actually requires strategy,” Amber agreed.

“How do you guys know so much about them if you’ve never done one?” Ty asked.

“We looked up all the fun things to do here on our train ride over,” Amber explained.
“It was a long trip.”

“I think it sounds great,” Jonah said, his need for adventure and excitement never quite quelled.

“It
would
be great if we had time to do it,” Brynn said slowly. “But we need to try to get on that train tomorrow, right?”

She was trying to elicit a certain response from her friends. She could see that she was l
osing them to the idea of a fun-filled day in a maze when all she wanted to do was find the Worker train before she lost her nerve or before her continent exploded. Whichever came first.

“You
two have turned her into a workaholic,” Amber said dryly to Ty and Jonah.

“Very funny,” Brynn shot back. “You guys can go ahead and spend the day in the city if you want. There’s always the chance that the Worker train won’t even be there or we’ll have complications getting on.”

“Yeah, right. There’s no way we’re not coming with you. You’d just better promise us we can do a maze when we get back,” Amber said.

“Deal,” Brynn agreed. “If we make it out of this alive, stop the planet from being destroyed, and manage to shut down A1
, then you can go in a maze.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Amber said, giving Brynn’s hand a shake to seal the deal. “Bring it on.”

That night
, Brynn fought to stay awake as she lay silently on the couch. Adding Amber and Bennett to the mix had shaken up the sleeping arrangements a bit but Brynn insisted that they refrain from ordering more beds or upgrading their room, not wanting to draw attention to their large group. Ty slept on the ground next to the couch, his soft calm breathing urging Brynn to sleep even as she tried desperately to keep her eyes open. The last thing Brynn needed right before boarding a Worker train was a head full of Eris doing horrible things to her. Nothing would shake her resolve faster.

Brynn rolled over on the couch and looked down at Ty’s peaceful form, jealous of how easily sleep came to him
and how enjoyable his dreams must be. All of the worrying he did during the day had to wear him out enough to put him right to sleep at night, she thought. She wished silently that her sleep was as restful as Ty’s before closing her eyes and letting herself get pulled into what she was sure would be another frightening memory of Rachel’s.

The odd thing about dreaming in Rachel’s memories
, was the way Brynn would open her eyes in the middle of a situation and feel as if she had been there all along. She could come in midsentence and know exactly what she and another person had been talking about for hours.

This instance was no different.

As Brynn sat in a large white room full of long white tables with scientists working over them like little bees buzzing around a hive, she felt a sense of purpose; as if she had a perfectly good reason to be in that room right at that moment, though she had no idea what that reason might be.

Without thinking about it
, Brynn reached into her lab coat pocket and pulled out a sugar cube, popping it into her mouth like she did so often when she was awake. Encountering this odd trait in her dream made her start, and she wondered if her recently destabilized dreams were starting to mix Rachel’s memories with her own real-life experiences.

“Your addiction to sugar is sick, you k
now that?” said Maxwell, walking up to Rachel’s table and smiling over at her as he adjusted his glasses.

“How so?” Brynn found herself asking, leaning closer to Maxwell as if this was something she always did.

He glanced quickly around the lab to see if anyone was looking, before placing his hand on the table and leaning against it in a relaxed manner, suddenly looking much less like an important scientist and much more like a boy trying to impress a girl he liked.