Chase

Chapter 1: Changes

         The radiant sunlight shined through the window into the living room. The room was horridly decorated with pinks, yellows, oranges, blues, and many other colors that seemed to burn the naked eye with their brightness as if a rainbow just exploded onto the furniture. A young girl, dressed in a pair of corduroy capris and a light blue tee pulled a white purse from the coffee table, heading for the front door. “Arianna, do you have everything you need? Do you need any more money?” asked the shrill voice coming from the kitchen.
         “Mom, I’m fine. I’m just going down to the store to get a few things. No need to panic,” said Arianna, chuckling a bit.
         “Sorry, I’m just a little…” She paused, whimpering a little bit as she stepped out from the kitchen and into the living room. “I…just…you’re going off to college in a few days and it’s just something I’ll have to get used to it I suppose.” Soft tears slowly rolled down her cheeks and as she wiped them off her face, more continued to stream down onto her red cheeks.
         Arianna sighed but resisted the urge to roll her eyes. That would just be a bit too insensitive. “I’m gonna miss you too Mom but it’s not like I’m gonna go away forever. I’m just going down the street,” She waved by to her mom as she stepped out the door and closed it. Arianna began walking down the sidewalk as she headed into town, the amount of traffic gradually growing more numerous until she reached Town Square. The sides stretched from end to end with tiny shops such as: bakeries, groceries, clothing stores, bookstores, and more. She walked until she stopped at Sona’s Market. Just as she was about to step inside, she ran into an old woman, her face mostly covered by a scarlet shawl and hood. As her elbow came in contact with the woman’s arm, everything flashed.
         All her surroundings faded away from her. A series of seemingly endless images floated into her mind. With each image, she could feel, as if she was there. Feelings of warmth, of anguish, of sadness, of joy, all simultaneously as the images flashed by quicker than her mind could process and then in an instant. Blackness. The images faded away. The colored images that once filled her mind vanished in an instant. She could see nothing. She felt her strength leave her. Her muscles feeling like jelly as she dropped to the ground. She was gone.
         One Year Later…
         Ring. Ring. Arianna yawned as she fought both her early morning haze as well as her cocoon of blankets as she reached for the phone. “Hello?” she asked slowly.
         “Arianna! Are you just now waking up? It’s 9:00. You promised me you wouldn’t be late!” Her mother’s voice was just as shrill seven states away and just as annoying. She grumbled as she pulled back the covers and stood up. “I’m up. I’m up. I’m heading to class now,”
         “You better. I’ll be calling back to check up on you so makes sure to go to every one of them. Oh and have a good first day Sweetie,” She hung up the phone as she got dressed, settling for a t-shirt and some jeans. Her look was just as plain as her room. Her walls were beige, no decorations just like she wanted. She grabbed a pair of white gloves and slipped them onto her hands. Then she grabbed her brown bag with her books inside and left the small dorm room. As she walked outside, she pulled out her schedule to see where she needed to be. Intro to Anthropology LC312 M. Branson. LC. LC. That sounded familiar. Lionel Center. The Lionel Center for Behavioral Sciences. She walked around campus until she spotted the familiar building with azure blue glass windows. As she stepped inside, she walked up the grand staircase that spanned more than twice the width of her room until she reached the room she was looking for.
         As she opened the door, every set of eyes in the room drifted towards her. “Glad you could be here Ms. Castle,” said a firm voice coming from the man standing behind a wooden podium at the front of the classroom. The man stood at six foot four, his robust figure dressed in a navy blue suit.
         “Despite your special circumstances, I’m afraid I will not tolerate lateness,”
         “Yes sir,” grumbled Arianna, not looking the man in the eye. She was irritated but she was not up for arguing. It took up far too much energy with not near enough results and she did not want to deal with even more trouble.
         “Also, Ms. Castle. Please take off those gloves, you don’t need them,”
         She sighed, knowing this question would have to come up sooner or later. She reached down into her purse and handed the professor a note.          
“They're prescription gloves, treatment for germophobia. Feel free to call Dr. Yin to confirm it,” All the students looked at her and chuckled. She knew it sounded ridiculous. That’s because it was a lie. Something she had fabricated to make things easier. It was much simpler and more believable than the truth.
         “Alright. Please take a seat,” said Professor Branson.
         She walked up a set of small wide steps until she reached a seat next to a girl with curly blonde hair that rested on her shoulders and sat down. The girl’s eyes were trained on a piece of paper, her pencil steadily in motion. She watched as she saw her drawing some sort of strange crystal.          
“What’s that?” asked Arianna out of curiosity. The girl continued to draw, then stopped and turned to look at her. Her stoic face instantaneously turned into a smiling one.
         “Hi, my name is Lily. You’re Arianna, right? The girl who was in a coma over the last year,” She stood frozen for a second. How could anyone be so insensitive like that? She wasn’t a complete mess but she just wanted to…wanted to live in ignorance and just forget about it all.
         “Yes,” she whispered but not softly enough. A loud but phony cough came from their professor. Every set of eyes shifted to the professor, those who were fiddling with their cellphones or working on what they were doing ceased and focused on Professor Branson.
         “As I was saying,” he started in a firm voice. “Anthropology is the study of humanity and is broken up into five fields of study: Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Linguistic Anthropology, and Social Anthropology but this course will focus on Cultural Anthropology,” He paced back and forth as he spoke, eyeing his students more closely to make sure everyone was paying attention. “Now despite the egocentricities American culture may implore upon us, understanding other cultures is just as important for us as others if not more so,” A few of the international students chuckled as he continued on. “A part of understanding who we are is about noticing what makes others different and understanding what those differences mean. Now I want each of you to pull out a piece of paper and draw the person next to you to the best of your ability. One of the first differences we often notice is appearance.
         Arianna turned over to Lily, the only other person in her row. “I’m not a very good artist you know,”
         She smiled, showing off her brilliantly white teeth in the process. “It’s ok. Just do your best, ok?” Arianna nodded, pulling out a notebook and pencil from her purse. She turned her seat to the side, carefully positioning her pencil as she made light marks, trying to sketch the outline of her face. She erased and drew. Erased and drew. Over and over for a few minutes until she was relatively pleased with her finished product.
         “There. Finished,” she said as she turned the notebook facing Lily so she could see.
         “Told you it would be fine. My turn,” Lily said excitedly.
         “Be sure to bring your pictures to class on Wednesday. If you didn’t finish, it’s you responsibility to meet up with your partner and get it done. Class dismissed,” announced Mr. Branson.
         Lily gathered her things up, placing them one by one into her bag. “So when’s your next class?”
         Arianna took another look at her schedule. Intro to Physics OL 212 R. Stonewall 1:00. She looked back at her watch. It was only 10:00. She had three hours to spare so she might as well get this portrait thing over with. “I have a while. My next class isn’t until 1:00.
         A pristine smile lit up Lily’s face. “That’s excellent. Just follow me,” With no more warning, Lily grabbed her bag and quickly rushed out of the classroom. Why couldn’t they just do it here? She let out a low groan as she grabbed her stuff and followed along with no clue where they were heading. Lily’s guidance rushed them through brightly lit corridors, the light fixtures taking away from the tacky appearance of the steely floors. She found them traveling through hallway after hallway and Arianna began to wonder if Lily had any destination at all in mind. It wasn’t until they arrived at the courtyard beneath a large oak tree that the girl had finally stopped moving.
         Arianna furrowed her brows and took a deep breath. This was not how things were supposed to go. “What are we doing here? Wouldn’t it make more sense to do this in a classroom?”
         Lily chuckled and turned around to face Arianna. “Do you really have germophobia?” Lily’s wide, blue eyes looked directly into Arianna’s unwavering in their stare.
         Her body quivered a bit. She never expected anyone to ask her directly. “Of course I do. Why would I make up something like that?” Arianna felt uneasiness rest in her stomach.
         “Then take off those gloves. The best cure for fear is to face it head on,” said Lily, continuing to stare.
         “No way. That’s way too…” she wanted to say dangerous but she couldn’t. “scary to deal with right now,”
         “Just so you know, this is for your own good.” Arianna couldn’t think or react quick enough to stop it. In an instant her gloves were stripped from her hands. By someone she didn’t know. What was she thinking? She could feel it. Fear. Black fear gnawing at her. Her gloves had protected her and now she was exposed. Vulnerable. She ran. She didn’t think. Didn’t plan. She simply closed her eyes in the futile hope that the cliché “out of sight, out of mind” would ring true. She ran with no concept of where she was going. She didn’t stop until she collided with something. Something fleshy. As she opened her eyes, she saw a man dressed in slacks, with a light blue button-up shirt. His raven-black hair thinly combed accentuating his brown eyes. It took a few moments for her to notice. Thoughts were flooding into her mind. House of Mirrors. Felicity. Comatose. Many other word filled her mind along with countless images but the rest slipped by, passing through her mind quicker than a cheetah pouncing upon its prey. Soon the darkness came once again. The light that filled her eyes faded away, he limbs flailed slightly as she dropped to the ground. The man picked her up.
         “Well that was easy,”