Cora

Deep below the building on First and Main, sixteen stories of glassy, modern tech lab balanced above it, a strange chamber sat, untouched, full of the lights of the monitors monitoring nothing, with a cold stone floor and alarms on the door, reachable by climbing a set of steep cement stairs, and it almost was… waiting for someone?    

The chamber wasn’t empty, though.

In the middle of the room, walled off by weird, black computers that looked like they belonged in a lab in the forties, two metal chairs were bolted to the floor. 

The chairs, placed back-to-back, had the unfortunate task of holding two figures, around eighteen, both with short black hair and glaring amber eyes,

chains wrapping around their torso and arms, secured with a lock as big as a man’s hand and as unpickable as a high-hanging apple, which dangled off the side of the two unfortunate chairs.

Perhaps more unfortunate were the people chained to the chairs, for they were in the most dire trouble a person of their kind could be in.

The boy, for there were two of them, a male and female of their species, gasped for breath wearily. He was allergic to metal, (they all were allergic to some strange thing; the girl with him was allergic to broken glass) and the amount of it around him was making him sick. 

He knew that he was the only hope of getting someone to help their kind out. 

They were doomed in this war.

He focused his telepathy at the room around him. Maybe he could find a useful mind to connect with on the other side? 

No. Too much metal. 

He had to protect Teardrop-- he had to. She was worth far more magic than their captors knew. Teardrop was the girl behind him, 

And she was currently unconscious, a titanium ball and chain on her ankle so she 

Wouldn’t float away. 

She was an air-spirit, and prone to floating. 

The boy extended his power again, in vain. There was no one around.

It would only take so much time before the “scientists”, as they were called, discovered who Teardrop was. 

“Come on” he mumbled to himself.

But there was too much metal around him, and his magic was useless. 

But someone would come.

He knew they would.

His cousin Fall was a snow-spirit. She was creating a blizzard at the moment, as a protection and entryway to the World Above. 

It would certainly trap people in the building. 

And someone trustworthy would stumble upon them, and free them before Teardrop was discovered to be the High Princess of the World Above. 

The snow was their salvation.

“Arku,” he whispered. “I am coming back for you.”

Cora Lee stepped towards the window. The snow came down so quickly that outside looked like a whirl of white. The blizzard had hit unexpectedly, and she was sure that there was no one on her floor of the building, which was just offices. She was an intern at this lab, but had yet to find out what they did there.

She walked through the rooms, the power out, casting everything in blue shadows. Cora walked into every room, turned every corner, and listened to walls for the sound of the elevator coming up.

There was no sound, no one else around.

Cora facepalmed-- of course the elevator wouldn’t work! She’d use the stairs to explore the higher offices, and although she wasn’t allowed in the labs, the scientists had left early. She’d fallen asleep at her desk, and when everyone left so as not to get stranded, she was dreaming about baby Yoda cutting off her finger as she dueled Bellatrix Lestrange on a surfboard. 

Cora walked up a sleek glass staircase, navigating her way through every single room she was allowed inside. 

No one was there.

When she reached the top floor, she found only a locked door that you needed a special keycard to open. Cora knew that she shouldn’t go up there, she was alone. But… Such keycards were kept downstairs…

A sly smile sneaked on Cora’s face as she slipped away, to steal a keycard. 

The small girl, her short black hair flying out behind her as she ran, raced to the bottom floor, and found a sleek, modern glass room full of black cards, small and polished with sharp edges. She grabbed one and stepped to the back of the room. She had grown weary from all the running and wanted to rest her legs, so she sat down, leaning on the back wall. 

She fidgeted with the small card and somehow, it slipped from her fingers and fell into a slit in the polished floor. Cora reached for it, for it had fallen into a slit the perfect size, the top sticking out, but Cora had long fingernails, and accidentally pushed it in with a click.

The wall slid away behind her, and Cora fell down a long flight of concrete stairs.

She gasped when she landed, and looked around, brushing dust from her blue uniform. Her green eyes studied the room, looking around warily.

 The room was a strange chamber, untouched, full of the lights of the monitors monitoring nothing, with a cold stone floor and alarms on the door, reachable by climbing a set of steep cement stairs, the stairs she’d fallen down, and it almost was… waiting for someone? Cora?  The chamber wasn’t empty, though. She wasn’t alone. 

In the middle of the room, walled off by weird, black computers that looked like they belonged in a lab in the forties, two metal chairs were bolted to the floor. 

The chairs, placed back-to-back, had the unfortunate task of holding two figures, around eighteen, both with short black hair and glaring amber eyes, chains wrapping around their torso and arms, secured with a lock as big as a man’s hand and as unpickable as a high-hanging apple, which dangled off the side of the two unfortunate chairs. 

Cora stared in shock. She felt like she’d been here before. But that was impossible! And the two people-- who were they? 

The one facing her was a girl, her head leaning forward, her black bangs obscuring her face. She was dressed in a worn red dress of some kind-- maybe a robe? A shiny metal ball and chain hung from her right ankle.

The other figure wasn’t facing Cora, so she couldn’t see him well, but 

He also had black hair and was dressed in what looked like a tattered green tunic. He was scarcely conscious, while the girl looked like she hadn’t been awake in hours, maybe days.

Cora approached them carefully. She walked to the boy, who could likely answer her question: why were they there?

“Blue?” he asked Cora nervously, his eyes unfocused, sweat dripping down his face. His cheeks had a gray tinge. He looked sick, very sick. 

“Blue, have you come to save us?” he said. 

“I--” Cora stopped speaking. She didn’t even know if Blue was a person-- it could just be his fever talking. 

“Get Teardrop out of here, I’ll fight them.”

“You’re in no condition to fight.”

“But I have to!”

“Blue, get Dew, Snow, and Sunflight in here if you can. Oh, and Chase or Rose.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know who they are. I don’t know who you are, even.”

“Zorr.” the boy said. 

“Huh?”

“I’m Zorr, commander Zorr if you’re into formal stuff.”

“Oh. Well, I’m not sure how to get you out of here, there’s a lock and I don’t have a key.”

“You’re a stone-spirit, make one.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t--”

“Just get Teardrop safe.”

The boy fell into a coma, his cheeks growing paler. 

Cora stepped back, stunned. 

What was happening in the lab? Shouldn’t this boy be on the hospital floor? Being locked up in the basement wasn’t helping him. And the names! Teardrop? Chase? Snow? And whoever “Blue” was, who he thought Cora was. What was a stone-spirit?      

Cora heard the slightest footstep behind her.

It crashed into her all at once-- there was someone else in here, she was in danger, this boy needed her help, and whatever was happening in this lab wasn’t what she’d signed up for. 

“Gotcha!” someone said in a delicate girl’s voice. 

Something hit Cora in the back of her head, hard.

She fell over, her face slamming into the floor. She saw the red blood coming from her nose and heard the thunk as she hit the ground, but couldn’t feel anything over the waves of nausea flooding her body.

“New ya were one of them!” she heard a triumphant voice say before everything went black.

There may not be a part 2.

There may be.

I’m open to suggestions.

Please comment and like if you think this is a cool story!!