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I felt like an eleven-year-old. It was that nervous, jittery sensation. The kind you got when your best friend handed a note to your crush, stating your feelings and you waited for a response. That almost stifling sense of expectation. I kept checking my watch waiting for a message. It was almost lunch time. Surely Charles was out of bed. Surely he’d seen my scrawled note on the kitchen countertop.

[i]”Please write down all the prescriptions and supplements you’re taking. I’ll explain later.”[/i]

It was sloppily scrawled on the front of a napkin. I still wasn’t sure what made me do it. Perhaps his taunting words about us both having secrets? Maybe reading the details side effects of the more horrendous drugs my lab had created over the years? I’d scrawled it down and ran out the door before I’d had the chance to really think about the consequences of my actions. 

[center][b]”Why?” –Charles Plygaurd[/b][/center]

The word scrawled across my screen as Dr. Lark pressed a hand against the center of my back. I almost jumped out of my skin. 

[b]”Are you alright, Nym?”[/b] he said, searching my face.

[b]”Yeah,”[/b] I said, trying not to concentrate on the heat radiating from his palm, [b]”Just really concentrated, is all.”[/b] [i]”Did he always touch me like this?”[/i]

[b]”I understand,”[/b] he said in a friendly tone and backed away as if sensing my unease. [b]”I just wanted to let you know that I’d be out of the lab this afternoon. I have a progress meeting.”[/b] He paused as if considering something. [b]”You weren’t interested in coming along, were you?”[/b]

[b]”No,”[/b] I said, offering another smile. It was hard to relax under his intense scrutiny. I tried to mentally shake myself. It wasn’t as if he knew what I’d been up to yesterday evening. So then why did it feel like all the air was leaving the room? [b]”I need to stop by the police station to file a report.”[/b]

[b]”It wasn’t your roommate, was it?”[/b]

I wondered if everyone knew about my living situation? I knew I could thank Sally for that. Then I noticed his eyes skimming over the message playing and replaying on my watch. [b]”No, nothing like that.”[/b] Without meaning to I brought my other hand over my wrist. [b]”One of my friend’s seems to have disappeared. She hasn’t been answering her phone so…”[/b]

[b]”Ah. Well people are known to disappear…”[/b] With that he turned off his computer, hung up his lab coat and headed off. I knew what Dr. Lark was getting at, but I highly doubted Claudette was involved with any sort of rebellion. Then again, I never suspected my brother. Grabbing my purse, I locked the lab behind me and headed out.

----

The building itself was a bit intimidating. Large windows of one-way glass reflected on the passersby, judging us, finding mostly of us unworthy. I barely got through the door before I was examined to an inch of my life. A metal detector, a chemical sensor, a retina scanner, and a few other things that even I, being a top notch scientists, had no idea what they were for. Ultimately I was deemed safe and was given a security sticker and a bottle of water. I promptly gave the unopened bottle back. Who knew what had been put into it.

I waited in line until it was time for me to present myself to one of the many identically clad secretaries behind identically decorated desks. [b]”Present your case.”[/b] she announced as I walked up.

[b]”I would like to file a missing persons report.”[/b]

She looked up from her computer, annoyance clear on her meticulous waxed face, [b]”You know you can do that…”[/b]

[b]”I tried that yesterday but seeing as I haven’t gotten a response yet, I decided to come in person.”[/b] It was clear she wasn’t impressed by my decision, but I fingered my work badge still pinned to my shirt. It would be clear to her, just who I was, and the rank I held in society. I didn’t like to pull class rank but sometimes it came in handy. 

[b]”You’ll have to see Wanda.”[/b] I nodded. [b]”She’s in the Domestic Crimes Unit. They handle disappearances but they’re prob. pretty busy this time of year.”[/b] I mentally checked my snide comment about what time of year disappearances weren’t a problem. [b]”Rick will let you in,”[/b] she said, nodding to a man guarding a door to my left. [b]” It’s easy. You’ll go strait, take the first left turn, pass three doorways then hang a right. After the third “T” intersection you’ll see the break room straight ahead. Then you need to take two lefts… wait… a left and then a right… or was it two rights? Anyways, after that the Domestic Crimes Unit is the second door. You’ll know which on it is because it’s brown. Got that?”[/b]

I nodded. I wasn’t going to tell her, I had no idea where I was going. Not when she looked at me like I was gum on the bottom of her pristine red heals. It wasn’t until I was on the other side of the door, hearing the faint whisper of voices and taping of keyboards that I even realized that [u]all[/u] the doors were brown.