Jemma
Something's wrong with Laye. Elle doesn't really notice it, but I do. Somethings bugging her. She hasn't talked for about a whole fifteen minutes, which must be a new record.
"You girls must live out in the country, if you don't even know where the House is." The man guiding us says. He looked about in his late twenties.
"Yeah, we live down at Dasen Street. Pretty far away. We had to portal to get here." Elle says, and I decide to distance myself from the conversation.
Elander is apparently the biggest city in Jaylemm, Elle told me earlier. There weren't many buildings over four stories tall, there was quite a few cafes, too. There wasn't any cars or busses. I should have figured with how effortlessly the plants grew here, they'd have a strict policy on vehicle pollution. The walkways were cobblestone, and crunches under my boots.
Laye looks down at the ground, dragging her feet. I lightly shoulder her.
"What's up?" I ask.
"It's nothing." She says.
"I don't really think it's nothing. You haven't spoken much since Elle got that scanner." I say.
"Yeah, well.." She says, looking the other direction and wiping her eyes.
"What's the matter?" I whisper, trying to make it quiet enough so Elle and the guide won't hear.
"It's just, I realized with how your sister 'died' but she might actually have teleported to Jaylemm. It could actually make sense. I mean, Serenity. She died, but nobody even found a body. Like, they just figured she died. I always found it so strange. They didn't even look for her. And here she is, in Jaylemm. Why are all of us getting sent here? Me, you, Elle, Serenity, and your sister. We're all taking this as though it doesn't matter. Oh! We can travel through dimensions! And oh! We've done it before! Huh? Cool, whatever. Jaylemm isn't even a video game? Cool, whatever. Hasn't anyone just taken the time to realize how messed up this situation is? I WAS INCHES AWAY FROM BEING SHOT IN THE HEAD." She says, shoving her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. "I could be dead right now, and I don't even know how to feel about it." She whispers.
I open my mouth to speak, but suddenly we stop.
"Here we are. See you guys later." The man says, and continues walking walking up the road.
The building we are stopped in front of was all white, and very victorian looking. Elle looks back at us and shrugs. We pass through the revolving doors, and into the main office. I walk up to a desk, and ding the bell.
A familiar looking woman walks out of the back room, and sits down in the desk chair.
"How may I help- oh, it's you." Serenity says.
"'Oh, its me?' Jeez, your customer service here sucks." Laye says. I look over at her, and her pale face turns a light shade of pink.
"We want to talk to you, if you could not be such an ass about it." I say, slamming the palm of my hand on the table irritably.
She looks at all of us, before landing her gaze back on me. The corner of her mouth perks up in an unreadable smile.
"Okay, fine. There's an office not in use at the moment, we can use that." She says, standing up. "Come on, then." She says.
The entrance to the office was two huge double doors, that went up yards above our head. Serenity opens them, and gestures us to come inside. We were all hesitant, but then we went inside.
She closes the doors behind us, and locks them.
"No, no locking the doors." I say.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to pounce on ya. I'm locking them so no one on the outside gets in." She says. She walks to the corner of the room, reaches up, and the security camera turns red before shutting off.
"Can't have my cover blown." She says.
In the middle of the room was a long table, with at least ten chairs on each side, and Serenity takes a seat in the one in the front.
"Now, sit. Tell me what it is you'd like to speak to me about." She says.
We exchange glances, and sit down at the table.
"Well, first off, you told us to come here, knowing that we thought Jaylemm was a video game; and told us to so we could be assigned powers. Why did you do that? Clearly the government didn't send you to tell us this." I say.
She smiles again. I want to smack it off her face. "I asked for two reasons. The first being; I knew you'd have to portal here. And if you portal here, you would find out the truth about the world. That it isn't just a stupid video game. When I came here, I thought it was a video game, too. It took me over five months to learn it wasn't. And when I found out, my virtual body disappeared and was replaced with my mortal body. That should happen to you guys too, eventually. Could be days, weeks, maybe even years." She says, "though I highly doubt it years will go by."
"Then what was the second reason?" Elle asks.
"Huh. Well, don't be alarmed, but I wanted to get you caught." She says, and Elle next to me tenses. "But I decided against that, don't worry. I figured you already had enough on your plate. You don't need instant death at the moment."
"Why would you want to set us up? You do realize we could just tattle on you after." I say.
"Yes, I know. That's one of the many reasons I decided not to. Any more questions?" She asks.
"Do you know Charlotte Harrfor?" I spit out.
She pauses, the smile on her face washed away quickly with the mention of my sister's name. "Yes. I do, she's one of Jaylemm's biggest criminals."
"You're lying. You know her on a much bigger scale than you imply." I say, voice raising to a yell.
She sighs, "Keep your voice low. I won't get in trouble just because of noise. Now, you want to know about Charlotte Harrfor." I nod. "Well, we could start that she was teleported here before any of us. Jemma would know, it's her sister. Three years younger, if I'm correct. I guess that means she's fourteen now. Anyways, she's been here for seven years now. When I came to realize that there was more than what meets the eye, she helped me. Told me everything I needed to know. I started working for Jaylemm's government, because the best way to hide from the enemy is to become one of them. She must think I betrayed her or something. But I just did what I had to to survive."