The World of Rhune

Chapter One

Maddy was sitting on a log in the middle of nature, sketching a fallen tree. She was almost finished, just the roots to sketch, when she felt a breeze. “Hi, Annie, funny meeting you here.” A cold voice spoke from behind her. “My name isn’t Annie,” She said to the too well known person, not turning around. “Oh? What is it?” Maddy felt icy fingertips walk up her back, but she continued to sketch. “Kate,” She lied smoothly, resisting to shiver as the fingers crawled up her neck. “No, we both know you’re lying,” Maddy closed her eyes in frustration. “So? You lied to me for all those years,” She continued to sketch the roots, almost finished. “You still remember, after 70 years.” The voice said simply.” How can I forget because of you?” Maddy hissed, and finished her sketching. She started to stand, but the icy hand forced her back down. “Stop it!” Maddy shrieked, standing up and punching with super human speed, strength, and precision. But, oh wait, so could the other hand, too. Maddy’s fist was easily caught with the same grace that had made her’s so flowy and even. She glared at the face, seeing how it hadn’t changed a bit. He had the same male model face, layered jet-black hair, piercingly blue eyes, and snow-white skin. “Drake, get away from me,” Maddy said through clenched teeth, tearing her fist away and started walking off. “Madeline, you’re not getting away that easy,” Maddy was 200 feet away already, but he covered it within a tenth of a second. Drake took a lock of her jet-black hair in his fingers, “I spent 70 years searching for you, and I am not losing you again. You’re my soul mate, and know it too. Come back to Merce with me, you know you’ll have everything you want.” Drake persuaded soothingly, but Maddy didn’t fall for it, “If Merce gave me everything I wanted, then I wouldn’t be immortal, wouldn’t have super human everything. I would be blonde, tan, and green eyed!” Maddy let her blue eyes glare at Drake’s, her white skin reflecting slightly in the last rays of sun. “Merce is not perfect. Why do you think I escaped?” Drake absorbed her argument with the utmost cool, still holding the deeply dark lock of hair. “I don’t know why you escaped, or why you would want to, but I do know you’re coming back with me.” Drake took a step towards Maddy. “No, I’m not,” she took a step back. “In your dreams. But then again, you always dreamt in this world of you and me back in Merce. Though what I call dreams, you would say nightmares.” Madeline looked with shocked eyes at him. How did he know? “I just know,” Drake almost taunted. He stomped his foot hard, and a great, stone and wood arched door rose from the grassy floor, the jewels in it reflecting and bending the little sun. Maddy knew this door almost too well; it was the one she had been taken through two times. Once to go, once to escape. She wasn’t about to make the tally three. Drake looked upon his soul mate’s perfect face as it glared at him with disgust. “Madeline, c’mon.” Drake persisted. He grabbed her wrists quickly, and kissed her, knowing her brain would short circuit for a second, which was all he needed. He went through the door with Maddy in his arms, running as fast as his power-filled legs could go. But Maddy didn’t short circuit. She had lost about half of her brain, for sure, but still had half of it to think. She dug her heels hard into the dirt, trying to remove Drake off her, and becoming free again. But that wasn’t Drake’s plan. Maddy was coming back to Merce no matter what, and he was sticking to that. Drake managed to make her knees buckle, and whip through the door, mud stained shoes and all. Maddy felt Drake stop, and let go of her. And looked up just in time to see the magnificent door close and disperse into thin air, leaving nothing but white carpet under it. “No!” Maddy nearly wailed, kneeling where the door used to be. How could she have let herself be taken so quickly, so easily? Maddy spun around, standing, and glared at Drake who was comfortably sitting on a black sofa. “How could you…” Maddy started to hiss, but was cut off. “Easy, short circuited your brain, and carried you here to Merce. A little mud, not much else.” Maddy shrieked at the top of her immortal, eighteen year old lungs, and stormed out of the room. She was back in horrorville. Maddy didn’t pay attention as she seethed with anger down the halls and found herself infront of a mirror with a dozen or so pictures framed around the glass. The frames showed shots of the few happy times she had had in Merce with Drake. Then Maddy’s eyes strayed to the actual mirror. She looked at the reflection, taking in how scarily close she looked like Drake. The same deep blue eyes, snowy white skin; her hair was even the same color and layered like his. Her face had even “adopted” high cheekbones like Drake’s natural ones. All like Drake, her whole figure. The only different thing was that Drake was five ten, and she was five seven. Madeline remembered when she had tried to visit her sister after she had first escaped. But when she found her sister, her sister hadn’t recognized her. Not to mention she was withered with age. Only by telling her secrets only Annie Monroe would know had convinced her sister, but she’d died twenty years later, her younger sister. Maddy felt a wet tear roll down her white cheek, and didn’t even have to look in the mirror to tell her eyes were puffy and red. But after her sister’s death, Annie had become Madeline Watts. Divine in beauty and grace, and always on the move. Maddy walked away from the mirror, feeling heartbroken and hurt from the brutal memory. She had gotten twenty-six years with her sister in total, only eighteen with her parents. But the past was the past, now she needed to find another way out. Maddy tried the nearest, shiny iron door handle; locked “Maddy, you’re not fining a way out. So don’t waste you’re time,” Drake said from behind her, leaning against a wall basked in shadow. “Because of you, I have all the time in the world,” Maddy retorted sharply. “Doesn’t mean you should waste it,” Drake said coolly, walking up to her. She gazed icily into Drake’s eyes, daring him to defy her, “Yes, it does,” “Madeline,” Drake nearly hissed, grabbing her jaw. “I don’t care what happened on Earth. You’re in Merce now, act like it.” Drake let go and walked past Maddy airily, managing to leave a cold feeling in the air. Maddy rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. From the way Drake made Merce sound, it was the happiest place on earth. That crap was for Disneyland, reality said no where was happy. And Maddy completely believed it. But when Drake was out of sight, she shivered. His hands had been freezing against her face, and had sent Goosebumps crawling up her back. “As cold as his soul,” Maddy muttered to herself, and yawned. NO, NO, NO! little alarmed thoughts filled her head. Madeline looked out a curtained window. Night. She started freaking out. Every night a “knock-out” gas was released enough to make its occupants sleep without damaging anything. Maddy ran to the nearest doors, jiggling the strong and locked knobs. All were coded so only Drake could open them. Smart Maddy acknowledged, but wished that wasn’t the case. Within two minutes of “take a breath and hold it,” so she wouldn’t pass out, she would pass out. And, Drake was leaving no obvious exits open for her. Maddy slowly went to where the living room was. Seventy years hadn’t done nothin’ to her brain or its memories. She perked her ears as she silently slipped down the tiled hall and pressed against the wall as Maddy rounded around it. No Drake near her, but he was where she remembered his white, blue, and black bedroom lay. The white walls decorated with curved streaks of dark blue painted over it. The white tile with black grout on the floor, covered with a black rug hemmed with an somewhat pretty navy blue fringes. The beach wood bed frame, a king size, was fitted with a memory foam mattress, white sheets, a black comforter, and blue and white throw pillows. Don’t forget… Maddy’s mind reminded her as a way of comic relief from the pressure she was feeling. She had etched in designs with a single carving tool Drake had given her long ago, and they had turned out fantastic. Madeline shook her head at herself and smiled, a true smile. Not that she’d ever let Drake see another one as long as she lived. Which would probably be eternity. If she could die, she would have already found the way to do it. But sadly, she was still looking for the cure to all this inhumanness. Maddy yawned again, reminding her of her real mission right now. She needed to find a way to a water source. If she could breathe through a wet cloth, it would buy her time. Madeline rushed from door to door, realizing how many were littered through out the place. Loosening her gray infinity scarf from around her neck, Maddy looked upon a slit in the wall, smartly hidden, but not smart enough. She felt inside it, the course stone rubbing against her soft skin. Maddy pulled sideways, and it didn’t budge. She pulled it the opposite way, and it didn’t budge. She tried pushing in different areas inside the slit, trying to find button. No solution. Madeline sighed, stepping back, forgetting her hand was still caught in the slit. This is a waste of…Maddy started to think until her knees were knocked from under her as her hand pulled back, opening the secret door with it. She fell onto the freezing tiled door, making it clang shut again, almost pinching her left pinky. “Uhh...” Maddy groaned a loud, and picked herself up, hand still stuck in the slit. She carefully raised the light door up, avoiding getting knocked again, and took her hand from the slit. The tile instantly changed from light stone to a dark gray carpet, lavished with diamonds of beige colorings, as Madeline walked inside the lit up room. It was relatively dark, the desk was of ash wood and the windows were tinted. The walls sported black marble with quartz streaks woven into the stone, while a computer buzzed lowly on the desk, reflecting the bright chandelier in the middle of the room. Though decorated nicely, it was easily an office, but an important one. She had never discovered, in the fifty years she’d been trapped in this home, this room. Maddy jumped as the door she had entered in closed with an eerie click, all on it’s own. Then she remembered the gas, and realized this room didn’t have a trace of the stuff. She felt less dizzy and tired and more awake in this room. “Must be something…” Maddy looked to see if there were any vents in the room of some sort. There were none. She was safe enough, for now. Maddy walked to the desk, pressure pounding in her head. She would have a headache soon enough, all the trauma had ensured that. The screen had a strange symbol on it, and the keypad was different, there were characters instead of letters on the keys. But the computer was logged in, so the first obstacle was already taken care of. Now she only had to figure out what she wanted to do with it. Maddy sunk into the seat, moving around the mouse. It flickered around the screen in a confusing way, by moving the opposite way the user wanted it to. Madeline let a frustrated look fill her face as she started into the screen, but managed for it to click an icon reading “GM” with a blue circle in the background, and a three black slashes over it. Just like the background symbol. Maddy watched as the screen loaded and the page opened. It was a form of internet, just it was called something else, or at least written in something else. There was a headline that she couldn’t read, in the same weird hieroglyphs as the keypad. But it did have a photo of men standing in a line on a stage smiling in black tuxes, all different colorings and sizes. Drake was one of the men. Maddy sucked in a breath quickly. He was being applauded and smiled at by thousands of people. Like he was actually a good guy. She snorted at the idea of that, but scrolled down with a little bit of difficulty. Not that she could read it, but it showed each man decorated with a silver ribbon, and making speeches. Maddy wished she could read the text, knowing it would tell her what the speeches were about, but then she saw the same great door in the back ground, and Drake gesturing to it. Then just as she was going to look more closely at the picture on the computer when it shut off and died. Maddy looked frantically at the buttons on the side, pushing them. None of them made the computer light up again. Then she heard clapping from the other side of the oval like room. “You’re still as smart and sharp as you were seventy years ago, but you’re still not smart enough. Anyone would have seen me come in, and anyone would have seen the kill switch you stepped on when you came over to the computer.” Drake, again. Couldn’t she ever get a break of him? Plus, there was no kill switch! Maddy checked the floor just incase. No switch. But Drake was already at the side of the desk. And the room was already dropping in degrees. “Found anything out yet? I wouldn’t have, had I been you. But then again, I’m not you.” Drake brushed his foot across the thick carpeting, and walked from the desk to the middle of the room. “Are you coming?” he asked seriously, as if it was eighty years before, when she hadn’t been looking for a way out. “With you? Personally, death looks like a way better option than with you,” Maddy said brattishly, but the two both knew Madeline’s statement was true. She’d lived past a hundred years, she’d lived a lifetime, and she didn’t need longer. A cold silence filled the atmosphere quickly and easily. Drake’s face fell for a moment, his eyes unguarded for a second; scaring Maddy with the intensity of the locked up emotion. But that didn’t make a difference on Maddy. Well, maybe a tiny bit her conscience told her. Shut up! She willed, having an internal battle with herself. “Fine, Madeline. I’ll see you in the morning,” Drake said with forced normalness, and stepped out of the door swiftly and coolly. Maddy could tell she’d broke through, pushed his button. But then she realized he’d pushed a button too, just as he left through the only door, she heard a beep and the whole place went into lock down. The windows were blanketed with sheet rock and the lights shut off. It was pitch black, and only Maddy’s breathing could be heard. She ran to the wall, pounding with all her enhanced strength, but it barely scratched the surface of the raw metal. Maddy screamed in frustration, almost--almost-- breaking down into sobs. But she wasn’t going to give Drake that satisfaction.

Chapter Two

Maddy did a quick three-sixity like the people did in books. And it actually worked pretty well. She saw no open cameras. But who knows? He could have set up cameras in every corner and slit in the room. Maddy imagined him in a room full of flat screens, watching her, and shuddered. Not something to ever imagine again. She found her way from the door and onto a small sofa that would have overlooked some scene outside, but the windows were sealed black, and she couldn’t see a thing. Maddy curled up on the small sofa, wondering what color it was, instead of the black that filled the room ominously. Maybe it was just black, she couldn’t remember. But then again, Maddy really didn’t want to remember. She closed her eyes and rested her head against the back of the plush sofa. Exhaustion started seeping into Maddy as her body rested and started to sink into sleep. She jolted herself to wake up, not that it helped much, but it woke her up; kind of. Maddy shook her head, clearing the slight fog that sat gloomily in her mind. Not helping her situation. Then she yawned again, and knew she couldn’t keep herself awake for long. Not to mention she wasn’t getting gassed. So what to do in the time she had, was the question. She could just trust Drake, and fall asleep like her body was longing. But that would be too easy for Drake, and her trust in Drake was zip, zero. Nada was probably the right word, were she speaking Spanish. Currently her native language was English…though she didn’t know about Drake. He probably spoke…Mercian? Maddy laughed at the thought, and it felt good. Making fun of Drake, like all the times he had somehow ended up making fun of her. The end thought made her grimace, and rub her forehead. Hello migraine. You would think since I’m immortal that I wouldn’t get headaches. Maddy thought to herself, almost smiling. Then the computer flickered on and off randomly for a minute. Light, fuzz, light, black, dark, fuzz, black. An annoying set of colors that sent silent cannons of pain through her mind from her headache. But after a minute…it stopped. It looked as if the computer was rebooting, or loading something of a sort. Did she step or hit a hidden button? Was Drake just messing around with her? Building up false hope and then crushing it would be a tactic that suited him. But Madeline was drawn, and she stepped towards the flashing computer within a few strides. She sat in the small chair that sat behind the desk and curled up. Might as well be as comfortable as possible Maddy thought to herself logically. Then the annoying and painful repetition stopped. The flashing of dark and light colors ceased, and a new picture came to the screen, well, more like what seemed as if hundreds. Picture upon picture piled itself above and on top of the other with randomness for less than a second before a new one piled itself on. They were random pictures; miscellaneous would be the right word for them, except she knew that wasn’t the case these pictures, drawings, programs, all were connected. Even if the connection was that it was on Drake’s computer, there was a connection. Way to go, CSI Watts Maddy thought sarcastically, but tried to focus on the computer. The pictures had sped up; it was a flash and then the next, and the next, and the next. But she could pick up a few. There was a design, some type of door but not the blasted one that had taken her here, an older but still youthful man in a green tux. Odd…Madeline thought skeptically with one eyebrow raised. She wished the computer would slow down, maybe if she hit something. Maddy’s eyes flashed quickly around the computer. A keyboard, always good. A mouse, okay, and then some side buttons. She started hitting at random, double punching this button, trying this button, that one, and this one together, clicking and sliding the mouse. If anything, Maddy thought the computer started moving faster. “That was just so much help” She criticized herself, and tried making sense of the blurs that filled the screen. The pictures were just random, a sketch, blueprints, a waterfall scene, a random person. An apple An apple? What the heck? Maddy shook her head and tried to decipher it all. “So close, no cigar” is what her parents had always told her when she was trying at something. “The only thing true about that right now is no cigar,” She rubbed her aching head and closed her eyes. Headaches were the worst because you couldn’t really do anything about it; you just had to endure it. “Hate you, Drake,” she called randomly, he was causing the whole mess, so he was the one to blame here.