NEW YORK WAS VERY, VERY DIFFERENT FROM ANYTHING I HAD KNOWN BEFORE.

I had anticipated new things, of course; it would be stupid not to. I had read up on the wondrous America and learned all about who they were and how it was run, so I was not unfamiliar with all of their practices and customs. In comparison to the Red Room, what I had been taught was so dissimilar it might as well had been from a whole other universe. However, I had not imagined everything to be so strange, even the smallest of things that I had not realised was strange or odd.

I had barely slept a wink last night. The bed was too soft, and my hands weren't chained up high like I was accustomed to, leaving me to awkwardly lay straight as a board and beg for some sort of mercy in the name of exhaustion. I missed the ache swelling through my wrists that fell sharp at any sudden movement, and the chill always running through the room despite how many bodies lay silent within. We had never been given luxuries like multiple pillows or soft comforters that made me feel as if I was melting into a puddle of magic or a bed that we could roll over on and not fall off. It had been a single hard cot, with a thin blanket and a pillow that was rarely washed or changed out. The room with no one in it but myself and whatever security devices lurked in the high ceilings - it was not right. None of it. I needed to go back to what I was used to, my body had no place among such soft, luxurious fabrics or against such a beautiful bed meant for a far more innocent mind.

In the end, I had simply grabbed a pillow and laid on the ground beside the large bed, curling up into a ball and staring at the bottom of the wall until my eyes finally drifted shut and I was carried off to dreamland. Maybe I would someday be used to the strange room, but for now, it would not be the same.

Another thing was the noise. At the Academy, everything was dead silent. If someone made a peep in the night, they were carried out and punished, sometimes not seen for days - if ever again. But in America, everything was loud, and it seemed like nothing ever stopped. Cars zoomed past, planes roared from their lofty position in the sky, and everyone was either screaming, crying, or laughing; things I was not accustomed to at such a volume. Americans were very, very strange people, I had gathered so far.

Perhaps it was just me who was the strange one. Maybe this was how the rest of the world worked, with flashing lights and cars racing past and people always being as loud as possible. I had lived in a sheltered environment all my life, barely seeing what the world was like outside of the small duelling courtyard and strictly monitored walks. I had lived a life of rules and regulations, every move carefully calculated for someone else's benefit. And, although none of that was truly over, this was my first real look at a normal life.

Whatever that meant, for a girl such as me.

I turned my attention to my small room, taking in the new-found belongings that would make me look and feel like I was just a normal seventeen-year-old. Inga had made sure to bring a set of clothing that would help me blend in, clothes that were soft and had colour and didn't hang like a sack off of my thin frame. I had never worn clothes like that; it was unheard of at the Academy, to stand out amongst greys and harsh folds. All of it was, really.

My lips parted as the clothes fell against my figure, the soft blue dress a gorgeous fit, showing me as a reborn girl. Gone was the harshened lines the grey always brought out, and though my hair was pulled back in the only hairstyle I ever learnt and numerous scars, almost invisible to those who knew nothing stood out, there was a moment of normalcy when I looked at myself. 

What a strange being, to see what could have been.

I could hear Inga moving around not a few feet away from my closed door, and knew that any moment from now, she would barge in and interrupt my few cherished moments alone. Hurriedly throwing on the clothing and making sure everything was properly tucked in and smoothed out, including my bed, I exited my quiet space. It was better to make a move before she could choose one for me.

The woman, whose hair was still pulled back in a skin-tight bun, looked very different - so different, I would never have thought she could tear me to pieces with a blink of an eye. She wore simple civilian clothes too and had put on a generous amount of products, staining her face so that she looked approachable, friendly. Though her cold eyes still peeked through the long eyelashes, she looked more like a mother figure than before, the sorts I had watched in the clips shown to me before.

Somehow, that only made her look scarier.

"Is everything proper?" she snapped, scrutinising my wardrobe and face. "Have you tidied your messes?"

I nodded, standing as straight as could be for her. "Yes. Everything is tidy." Her harsh gaze made me nervous; it always did, but giving her new attire and 'face', the eyes that peered out from a seemingly loving mother gave new meaning to my fear. And although I scorned her words and insults, there was no denying Inga was a scary woman that commanded respect.

Our staring contest lasted several seconds before she let out a bitter, scorning cough and turned away, gesturing for me to follow. "Keep up, and don't do anything that would reveal anything. Do you understand, Emily?"

My new name had still not been recognised by my brain, and so when she said it I took a minute to acknowledge it. I stumbled on my words. "Yes."

Inga sent back a roll of her eyes, soon to be covered by large black sunglasses that gave an air of a rich, lofty heiress from days long past, the women in old magazines shown to me with cascading hats and men to kiss their hands and sing them graces. She lacked the warmth of them but made up for it in crisp elegance. "Call this an experiment."

||

I was not sure what I was expecting, but all of the stores, and people, and new information - that was not it. Inga and I had arrived late the night before and had been escorted carefully to the apartment, so I had not seen much of the brightly lit town - and now, I was happy I could see it in broad daylight for the first time.

Though I knew it was not my first time out in the 'real world', it felt like it, for any memory of any of it had been erased and morphed from my long years at the Academy. I had arrived very little, I was told at only five years of age, along with twenty-seven other small shivering children. There were always twenty-eight in the beginning. As the years went on the number decreased rapidly, but there were always twenty-eight of us at the start.

Nobody remembered who they were before the Academy - and if they did, they kept that to themselves or went under trials to fix that glitch. Hard, relentless training and numerous exercises to remove any 'poisonous' thoughts from our brains changed it all. Changed us all.

However, everyone held on to a few shaky, hazy memories, whether they would admit to it or not. I was one of them, clinging to any strand of hope I could in order to keep myself from going completely insane. Over time at the Academy I dropped those beliefs of leaving and being someone else again, evolving into a well-oiled machine as instructed, but no one let go of those memories. It was what kept one from going mad, especially at the start of it all.

But I let those fade away as my eyes met the lights flashing above me and my feet carried me through the crowds of strange, beautiful beings who rushed past without daring a word my way.

New York City was beautiful; a crazy, foreign, bustling city with people rushing past from every direction and lights shining down like spotlights on everyone. At the Academy, the only colour came from Madame's lips and the matching blood that stained the floors, but here, everything was lit up and cried happiness to anyone who walked underneath. There were a thousand things happening at once, and I could not even begin to take half of it in, though I tried as hard as possible to drink anything up before the sights faded. 

However, I couldn't stand still and admire the new world I had been dropped in, for Inga had a very specific plan that she wanted to follow to a 't' - which meant dragging me down the cold, long hallways of a large building, containing many more little buildings inside of them. I wasn't sure what any of them were for, but the bright lights and colourful objects inside caught my eye as I was tugged along, confusing me more. Whatever a 'mall' was, it certainly was strange. Was this another American thing, just one that I had never learned about?

Inga stopped short at one of the smaller buildings, turning to me and loosening her tight grip on my wrist. "Listen to me. Don't speak unless you're spoken too, else things won't go so well for you."

She radiated a cold anger that was only recognised by me. As expected. This originally wasn't going to have to happen, Inga had explained on the taxi ride, but there had been a complication and there would be no new shipment of supplies for my new persona. Instead, we were left to wander the streets of New York and find a new wardrobe, instead of having me train or practice my new self - something Inga was not too happy about.

"I will listen to the rules," I murmured back, plastering on a hopefully happy smile. I hadn't had much practice in smiling in such a long time, but hopefully, it would satisfy her enough. My lips rolled back to reveal scrubbed shiny teeth, bars imprisoning the questions and thoughts I wanted to spit out. "Mother."

She ignored me and headed in, frowning distastefully at all of the fashion decisions. I didn't blame her; I was gaping at the strange outfits scattered around and why people would wear them. I had no idea that this was the world that the rest of the world lived in; would I be expected to disguise myself in these things?

"Can I help you with anything today?" 

Inga's eyes trailed up and down the woman's body, lip curling at her bright colours and exposed stomach. "Excuse me?"

She popped her gum especially loud, a look of total disinterest on her face. "I just wanted to know if I could help you out. It's what I do."

If looks could kill, the young girl would have disintegrated into neon ashes from Inga's death glare. Clearly, she wasn't in the mood to interact with anyone, especially not her. "We'll be fine. Perfectly fine."

"Fine, well, ask if you need any help." The girl, who didn't seem to be much older than I was, wandered off, mumbling curses towards us as she did. "Dumbasses." 

A flicker of a smile hit my face, though I made sure to quickly hide it before Inga could see. Instead, I followed her through the throngs of well-dressed families and bright clothing, eyes cast downwards but taking in as much as I could. "Where to first?"

The woman turned back, sunglasses now sitting on her head like a dark crown, and gestured towards the back of the large building. "Come on; we've got things to do. All questions can be answered later."

That wasn't the answer I wanted, but I had the sneaking feeling that it was all I would be getting out of here for most of my time here in America. I also knew that it would be very hard to work on her walls to get anything more than that.

Iffy about this chapter, but I created it for a filler so that any readers could learn more about the characters and such, and also because I didn't want to just jump right into the Peter-centric plot. Although, don't worry; that will be coming soon enough.

Also, do you readers enjoy reading these descriptive shit-storms more, or do you prefer dialogue based books? I'm trying to work in more dialogue because I feel bad that it's all her thoughts - but at the same time, I feel like that's important because I don't want it to become a generic spy-turned-prep-meets-hot-guy-and-bam-babies sort of tale.

The cover above was made by the wonderful cieopatras. (: