Lovers of Babel (35 page)

             
As soon as the portal caught me I was snatched into a whirlwind of light and then I was lying flat on my face on a cold hard marble floor. I was in some kind of building that didn’t make sense. Everything was painted dark grey; even the doors. They blended into the walls so that nothing stood out. I noticed that there were doors above me as well as on the ground. There were doors everywhere. It looked like it had been designed by a crazy person.

             
Suddenly, I heard a sound coming from behind the door right above my head. It sounded like Chad and he was groaning.

             
I stood there for a moment to think of how I would get up there. There were no stairs or anything leading to the door. I tried to jump up and grab onto the doorknob, but I was too short to reach. Then I thought of creating bouncing shoes. I closed my eyes and thought of the slickest pair of bright red bouncing shoes. They looked like normal shoes, and they were, until I thought of bouncing and then suddenly I was jumping 10 feet high. I thought to jump higher and higher until I was souring through the air. I nearly hit the ceiling a few times. Finally I was able to grab onto the doorknob and open the door.

             
I let the door swing open, then I jumped as high as I could into the opening. It took two tries until I was lying flat on my face again on the floor of the mysterious the room. This time the room was white all over.

             
I slowly lifted up my face and my nose felt broken. I looked up and saw Chad on the far side of the room sitting in a metal chair with probes on his temples. I tried to get up as fast as I could, but suddenly there was another person who entered the room through a normal door on Chad’s side.

             
I quickly rolled over into the corner of the room where there was a shadow covering the floor.

              The person had a white lab coat on, but their back was toward me. The doctor was holding some kind of needle in their right hand and with their left was holding up Chad’s face. The doctor injected him with something that made his body seize uncontrollably.

             
The mysterious doctor grabbed Chad to get him to settle down. Finally, the seizure stopped. I had to cover my mouth to stop myself from yelling out. The tears streamed down my face.

             
Suddenly, the person walked over to the table full of medical instruments that was on the right side of the room. The doctor turned slightly toward me while holding up a metal rod to the light examining it.

             
I put both my hands over my mouth desperately trying not to make a sound, because I couldn’t believe my eyes. There, clothed in a white lab coat inflicting torture on my best friend, was Mia.