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“Well, aren’t you going to give your mother a hug?” Rebecca opens her arms wide and approaches Jasper, but he backs away to the other end of the elevator. My jaw drops open in surprise. This is his mother?
“Mum,” he whines so I can hardly hear, “I’m doing stuff.” He indicates to me.
“What do you mean? You’re not showing her around, are you?” I have new clothes; neat hair and I don’t even smell that much, so her words are simply an example of her hatred towards me and the trouble I have probably caused her in the past.
“I have a name you know,” I glare at her. She has no right to storm in here and act like I am scum under her heels.
“Emerson,” he warns me.
I stare at him, all of the questions suddenly flooding into my mind. I thought I had family issues, but Jasper is the son of both Albert Cunningham AND Rebecca Hunter. The two people who hate me most in the world. “When did-”
“Stop talking,” she cuts me off with a wave of her hand. “You shall not speak unless spoken to. Or better yet…. don’t speak at all.”
“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child,” I spit back at her, “You can’t control me anymore.”
“Oh, please Emerson,” she laughs, an evil glint in her eye. “I have controlled your every move from the moment you stepped into this world.”
What is that even meant to mean? But the more I think about it, the truer it becomes. Her and Albert have controlled where I was born, where I grew up, my friends, my family. Everything has been ordained by them and controlled by them. They wanted my mother out of the picture, so they took her. They wanted me for information, so they took me too. I am like a puppet on their strings ready to perform for them at will.
The thought makes me sick.
“What level are you getting off at, darling?” Rebecca changes conversation.
“Um… we’re actually getting off here, level-” He pauses to look at the level and quickly presses the button manually. “Ah yes, level 102. The, err, dining hall. Come on Emerson, we’ve got the dining area to see.” The door opens and he pushes past his mother to get out of the elevator.
As soon as we are out of the elevator, I want to ask him about the whole ‘mother/son’ relationship thing, but after seeing his look of embarrassment, I can’t bring myself to do that to him.
“Can we just pretend that that never happened?” he says. I nod, and he continues, “This-” he states, quickly changing the subject, “is the dining hall for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; it is for everyone on levels 103-126. When we move you to your allocated room, which should be today, your suite will be on level 126. So, this will be where you eat. Come.”
He pushes open the door and I see five gorgeous white glass tables that look as if they have never been used. They can probably seat fifteen each. On the roof are hanging pot plants of all sorts of herbs like thyme and rosemary and dozens of others that I can’t pick. I carefully step across the dark, ebony floorboards and run my hand along the cold, black and white ceramic tiles that make the walls. It is stunning and immaculately clean.
“What a waste of money.” While people are starving back home, Albert goes and spends all of his money on dining halls that don’t even look like they are being used.
Jasper stays silent.
“Does this ever even get used?” I ask in complete shock.
“Hardly. It is only for those on level 103 – 126; as I said before, the only people who have suites on those floors are Albert, Rebecca, and myself. So, obviously only we sit here. As well as your mum, now that I think about it, she always sits on the opposite side of the dining hall. It gets pretty lonely up here.” He pauses. “And now you will be sitting here too. It’ll be a real party.” He smiles like he knows how much I am going to hate it. I glare at him. It will be no party. And I don’t plan on staying long enough to have ‘family’ dinners up here with everyone anyway.
“Don’t worry Waffles, you can sit next to me.” He winks and a laugh escapes me before I have the chance to restrain it. I think about how impossible that would be, us sitting next to each other in a room full of my enemies. His parents.
He turns back around and walks back out of the room, “I didn’t really want to show you the dining hall, but at least that’s one thing out the way.” He says, “we should probably take the stairs, it might be less risky.”
He walks out and I feel a sense of uneasiness in the air. I can tell that Jasper is distracted: fighting his thoughts. I follow him up the many flights of stairs and stop to stare out a window. Jasper stands next to me, observing the window as well. The window shows a large grass oval with people happily playing and running around; completely oblivious to the massive asylum behind them. I know that the picture is fake, but I can’t help but smile at the hope that is hidden within the frame. The dream for a better life.
“Jasper,” I ask, seizing the moment to ask the question that only he might be able to answer. “Do you believe that there are machines out there pretending to be human?” I have wondered this for a long time, but no one would ever give me a straight answer. But Jasper would get told information from his father, and I know that Jasper would be easier to get through to then anyone else in this building.
“Please, I don’t want to talk about this now. Or ever.” He answers in an agitated tone. I lift my head to look at him with curiosity. I have learnt that eye contact is the best way to get someone to talk; and just like always, it works a charm.
“Yes and no.” He sighs after a few moments, “I do think there are machines out there. I know you have met some; even though you may not know it. There are people in this building even, which are machines. In a way, that’s the society that my father is trying to build.” For a minute he is deep in thought, and I wonder what he is thinking about. I have no idea what he is saying. I understand parts of it, but not the whole picture. My brain won’t quite let me remember what Albert Cunningham is trying to do. What his aim is.
“What type of society is Albert trying to build?” I throw out the question, knowing that the worst he can do is not answer.
“He is trying to build a society that is-” Jasper looks at the top corner of the stairwell and freezes. “Don’t look. But do you see the flashing red light?”
“I can’t see the light if I am not allowed to look.” I point out sarcastically, but his face is completely serious.
His eyes glaze over the ‘window’ and I look in the reflection of it to see a flashing red light on top of another well-hidden camera. My heart skips a beat, what does that mean? Are they going to come and take us?
