Life has been a bit… odd, for Alexander Phillips recently. Ever sense the rumor of the ‘killer app’ had begun; the young man has had difficulty sleeping including, but not limited too weird dreams. Then again weird dreams were nothing out of the ordinary since he had been having them for a long time.

“Have a good day!” The happy brunette waved good bye to his classmates as he headed towards his after school job. Alex had been working at a local coffee shop for a long time and his charming smile, ember eyes and cheeky attitude drew a lot of people to the shop. Juggling things, making good drinks and entertaining guests with stories were just a few things the young man did well and it showed as he walked home with nearly forty dollars in cash every day he worked.

Today the conversation within the coffee shop rolled around the ‘killer app’; something Alex jus brushed off as a rumor and nothing more. It wasn’t until he locked up the shop and went to turn on his music for walking home that he found a new application had been downloaded onto his phone. The icon was creepy and no matter how many times Alex slid it over to the trash bin, it would stay there. After giving a shrug he turned on his music and continued on his way home. Must be a ‘required’ app for his phone; that’s happened once before so why not?

Finally home, though his parents weren’t; the young man cooked himself dinner, ate alone, completed his homework and went to bed/

That night however… the dreams continued. This time it was much more intense.

“Huh?!” The brunette haired boy shot up off of a bed but it wasn’t his bed. Above him was a cold stone ceiling and on his body was a pair of prison clothing of pants and a shirt. “What?” He jumped up from his bed and his feet hit the cold stone floor which caused him to let out a yip.

“QUIET!” A small voice shouted at her before a smack against metal rang in his ears.

“It seems he has awoken.” Another much softer voice said as the brunette turned to look towards them. On the other side of the bars of what he could only assume was a cell stood two knee high girls in blue uniforms.

“Guards?” Alex questioned, squinting that them.

“Quiet inmate, you do not have the right to speak until our master has addressed you.”

“Caroline, it seems the other is about to wake…”

Other? Alex thought as he looked around, it wasn’t until that moment that he realized he could see into the cell next to him and in it laid another person. “Hey!” He yelled running to the clear wall. He banged on it a few times and continued to shout to get their attention but not even him banging his fists carried over to the other side.

“So, if you had the chance and you knew you could get away with it, who would you kill?”

Whoever said that high school girls were all sociopaths had probably met Kijani’s friends. She sat in the local coffee shop at their usual table, drinking a black coffee and listening to her favorite bitches plot murder.
“Ugh- I’d off Mr. Tanner.” Bridget Donahue (or “Brigitte” as she preferred lately) took a loud, obnoxious slurp of herbal tea. “He’s going to flunk me in Algebra 2 again! I tried everything to make him just give me a C, but he said he’s not going to just ‘pull extra credit out of his khakis”. Ugh! Who uses math, anyway? If I don’t go to Italy with my parents this summer, I will just absolutely die.” She dramatically thumped her forehead onto the table, and Kijani reached over to pat her blonde braid.

The other girls hummed and clucked in sympathy, and reassured her that no one would be missing the algebra teacher.
Haley piped up around a mouthful of chocolate croissant, her pale cheeks flushed with anger. “Ooh, I’d probably kill Paul Warner Jr. He’s been screwing the lacrosse captain behind my back and he thinks I don’t know about it. Actually, let’s take her too. Man-stealing slut.” This declaration caused a smatter of disagreement across the table. For all her class, and even consistently high GPA, they knew Haley had horrible taste in boyfriends.

“Oh my god, Haley.” Kijani finally spoke up. “Why don’t you just bail and restore your dignity? I mean, if he can’t keep it in his pants, let him go. Why not just dump him?”
Haley shook her head, curls and crumbs flying. “He’s an ass, but he’s got his merits. I mean, he makes me laugh, he buys me flowers, and I’ve never had to change my panties more times – “

“HALEY!” This was met with laughter and vibes, and even Kijani felt herself going red in the face as she laughed.

“Oh come on, it can’t be worth all of that, can it?”
Haley elbowed Kijani in the ribs. “Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it! Come on, how about you? Who would you off?”
Kijani took a long draft of her coffee. Her answer surprised even herself. “My parents.” There was a moment of stunned silence, and Brigitte replied in a remarkably sober tone.
“Is it really getting that bad, Jani? You know you can always spend the night. My family totally loves you.”

Kijani thought about being honest for a whole second, before deciding against it and going with a safe answer. “I mean, they’re gone half the time anyway. Might as well finish the job. My house is made to party, but I can’t breathe loud without my mother catching a case!” That did the trick and lightened the mood, and the girls moved on from murder to lighter topics.

Haley dropped Kijani off at her massive house, and Kijani made sure her friends were gone before stepping inside and exhaling. The smiling mask she always wore dropped, and she sloughed off her shoes and bag on the way upstairs. The house was quiet as always. Her mother was off dealing with some juvenile aneurysm case called in at the private hospital on the coast. Her father was off doing… whatever her father did during the week.

Kijani made herself some scrambled eggs and retreated to her room. She picked up where she left off with her most recent book, and before she knew it, she was full of food and lost in a space battle, the empty house fading away. Soon, even that was gone, as she fell asleep with the book in her hands…

And had a very rude awakening a moment later. She was on a cold floor, and instead of her favorite robe and cozy socks, she was in striped rags.

“Oh no. Not again…” She buried her face in her hands, briefly. She’d been having this same dream for months now. The same cell, the same clothes, and -

“Welcome back, inmate..”

The same two weird girls. Kijani put on a smile and strengthened her shoulders. “Hello, brats.”

The more firey-natured girl spat a warning at her. “You dare disrespect me, inmate?”

“Always, little girls.”

“Caroline, do not lower yourself to the inmate’s level. Inmate. Please be quiet.”
Kijani folded her arms and huffed. Only then did she notice that, for the first time, she was not alone. Someone was pressed against what was usually a wall. His mouth was moving, but she couldn’t hear a thing. Against logic, she went to him, banging on the barrier.

“H-hey, hey! Who are you?”

What was going on? Why was this here? What was happening around him? Alex panicked for a moment while watching the girl hoping she would move. Oh god was he in a jail cell and his neighbor was dead. It wasn’t until she started to move that he finally let out a breath of relief. Oh thank god she was alive. When she looked at him, she seemed to be as surprised as he was and he continued to attempt to talk to her.

“Can you hear me? Who are you? What’s going on?” But she didn’t seem to respond do he mocked in reference that he could not hear her.

“Well, well, well, everyone seems to be awake.” A man’s voice echoed to the two and Alex turned to see a short round top man sitting behind a desk with an extraordinary long nose looking back at them.

“Who are you? Where am I? What’s going on? Why can’t I hear her?” Alex said frantically as he dashed towards the end of his cell and gripped tightly onto the bars. His dark eyes scanned the room in front of him. He was in a jail cell. But the cells looked like they were empty except for the one next to him. What was going on? Where was he? Why was he here?

Now, Alex was normally a level-headed guy so to have something push him into a panicked state such as what he was in was completely abnormal for him. The brunette haired man ran his fingers through his hair and gave a stress-filled pull before staring down at his feet. After taking a few simple short breathes he composed himself somewhat, the conclusion of this being an extensive interactive dream was his own logical explanation but…

“This is not a dream.” The long nose man announced. “My name is Igor and this… this is the Velvet Room.”

Alex’s gaze turned back to the man as he let go of his hair and walked to the bars. Wrapping his hands around the metal he leaned forward and spoke to the man. “Igor, I’m Alex. Please tell me what’s going on.”

“In due time…” The man responded in a nonchalant manner as his attention moved to the cell next to his and Alex did the same.

Who was this girl… she looked, kinda familiar. Did… did they go to school together? Who was she, and why was she here… and why in the hell was this not a dream!

Kijani rose up with the dignity of a queen, but rage boiled in her eyes. This Igor's attention was on the boy in the other cell. He looked vaguely familiar to her. As if she'd seen him around somewhere. It wasn't important right now, though, so she pushed it from her mind and focused on Igor.

If this wasn't a dream, then what was it? She'd had the dream before, the same cell, the same 2 tiny brats. This Igor was new... and that guy...

"Finally, someone with authority." She looked past the two "Wardens" as if they did not exist. "Let me out. Whatever this is, I don't belong here, obviously. You wake me up or send me home or whatever the fuck gets me out of prison, and we'll call it even." Her trembling hands were the only giveaway to her true feelings. Her voice was level, polite, in control - as if this was a business transaction.

"I really don't like velvet anyway. Way too warm. Silk is much more elegant. Now, if you've got a silk room, we'll talk." Poise. Charm. Confidence. Her parents had shoved her off to some archaic finishing school when she hit 13, and for 2 years after that. Most of it was bullshit. The table manners and ballroom dancing were admittedly interesting, but no one cared about the rest of that stuff anymore.

"So, Igor? How about you let me go, and I don't become your worst fucking nightmare, hm?"

Igor waited and said nothing, his stance firm and arms folded, simply staring at Kijani until the girl felt like she’d burst with rage. At the very moment Kijani’s polite act was about to explode in a splinter of cuss words, he spoke. “Unfortunately, that is impossible. You are here because you need to be, and no amount of bribery, threats, or cajoling will open that door.” He smiled in a chilling way, showing way too many teeth.

“As I said, my name is Igor. Welcome to the Velvet Room.” He stared at the young woman expectantly.

“My name is Kijani Ryane.” She didn’t want to give up her name, but politeness won out. “Why am I here?” She darted a glance at the boy in the cell beside her. “Why are we here?”
“You are both here, because there is something only you can do. You have the potential to walk into Hell and walk out unscathed. But only if you have the strength to reach within yourselves.”

Kijani didn’t understand a word of it.