‘Thanks?’ Cherry asked in surprise. ‘What for?’
‘For everything,’ George said. ‘I mean it. I’m so much happier now and it’s mostly down to you so… thank you. People just don’t say it much so I wanted to say it to you: thank you.’
Even with everything going on, Cherry knew how much this meant to her friend, to be able to say those words to her. She smiled, trying to cover her feelings about what was going on, but George wasn’t fooled.
‘Cherry… is everything all right? You seem… very on edge.’
‘I’m fine. Just a lot going on. Up here.’ She tapped her temple and the chocolate chip fell off her cheek. ‘Oh God, I must look like such a mess.’
‘I hate to think what your kitchen must look like,’ George said, laughing. ‘Look, is there anything I can help with? Anything at all?’ George stepped closer to her.
‘No, I’m fine.’ Cherry shook her head, her mind full of thoughts of the Guild and Chase and Peter.
‘Clearly you’re not fine, Cherry. You’re a mess. And I don’t just mean from the baking.’ He stepped closer again.
‘I know but…’
‘Please let me help?’ He placed his hands on her shoulders.
‘I…’
‘Please.’
He squeezed her shoulders lightly and an idea ignited in Cherry’s brain. It took hold like a fire spreading through a forest and before her morals had a chance to snuff it out she threw her arms around George and kissed him with everything she had. George dropped his hands in shock, several thoughts racing through his mind. What about Chase? Is she confused? You did offer to help, after all. This isn’t okay though, is it? She’s climbing me like a squirrel on a tree! WHAT IS SHE DOING?!
George very firmly pulled Cherry’s hands away from his neck and pushed her gently away.
‘Cherry… I know you’re… upset… about something… but…’
‘I. Am. So. Sorry.’ Cherry stepped away and turned around, too embarrassed to look him in the eye. ‘I don’t know what came over me.’
Cherry knew what she’d done was wrong but she was desperate. She needed to get to Chase and the simple act of baking had not brought forth the wrath of the Guild. It had suddenly hit her that she needed to somehow impact the life of someone else before they would intervene and George had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
‘It’s okay. I mean, it’s not okay but I forgive you. You’re going through something…’ George’s vision started to swim. He shook his head, trying to straighten it out but his eyes kept drifting to the left. ‘… you’re… Chase’s… squirrel…’
George fell forwards and Cherry managed to catch him but they both hit the floor with a small thud. Cherry tried to turn him over as best she could but he was heavy and she could only get him onto his side. Quickly, Cherry ran behind the counter, found a Post-it note and a pen and scrawled out an apology. She stuck it on George’s head, grabbed her coat and ran into the street.
‘YOU CAN’T IGNORE THAT!’ Cherry shouted. ‘I HAVE INTERVENED AND YOU NEED TO COME AND GET ME OR SO HELP ME I WILL TURN THIS ENTIRE TOWN UPSIDE DO —’
THUNK.
Cherry felt a twinge in her right buttock, like something had bitten her. She twisted her leg and saw a small dart with yellow feathers sticking out. ‘Ouch,’ she said as she pulled it and the needle twisted out of her flesh. A strange warm sensation started to spread down her leg, up her side, and into her arm. Her fingers could no longer grip the dart and it fell to the floor. Cherry stumbled a few steps backwards towards the bakery and slumped against the door. She slid down onto the pavement, her head lolled to the side and just before her heavy eyelids closed, she saw the blur of three blue dots moving towards her, followed by a bright yellow glow.
22
Professionals
Cherry awoke, her skin prickling with cold and her eyes streaming. She blinked a few times. Everything was a blur and when she reached a hand up to wipe the tears away, her other hand followed. Handcuffs, she registered. They were cold, tight and, in her opinion, unnecessary. Cherry blinked again and again but still couldn’t figure out why her eyes were stinging.
‘It’ll wear off in a few minutes. Your eyes just need to get used to the lenses.’
The lenses. They’d fitted her with lenses. Cherry felt an immediate sense of loss. She couldn’t imagine a world where she couldn’t see Loneliness or anyone else’s feelings. Strangely, without Loneliness in her sight, she felt its presence all the more.
‘Chase?’ Cherry croaked. ‘Chase, is that you?!’ She could only see a blurry outline of someone across what she thought was a corridor. The more she rubbed at her eyes the clearer the image became.
‘Yeah, it’s me. I wish it wasn’t, though. I wish I wasn’t here and I’d really rather you didn’t see me like this.’ Chase sighed.
‘Oh God. Oh God, oh God, what have they done to you? Are you hurt?’ Cherry gasped. ‘Did they electrocute you?’
‘No! No, no, I’m fine, nothing like that. They haven’t hurt me yet. I’m just…’
Cherry’s vision was starting to clear and Chase came into focus. He was wearing what looked like a pale green hospital gown that came halfway down his thighs. He was sat with his back against the wall, and his hands were handcuffed too.
‘It’s worse when I stand up,’ he admitted. ‘It’s not really long enough but it helps that you came dressed for the occasion too.’ Chase tried to laugh but it sounded hollow. Cherry looked down at herself and saw the reason why she was so cold.
‘Oh, how lovely. Matching outfits. I’ve always wanted to be in one of those couples.’
‘That makes one of us.’
‘At least I’ve still got my underwear on,’ she said, groaning as she pulled herself up to sitting. The feeling was starting to come back in her legs.
‘Lucky you. My bare balls are touching the floor over here! They’re the coldest they’ve ever been.’
‘Then please, I beg you, don’t stand up.’
Their attempts at humour were falling short of the mark but Cherry did find a little comfort in hearing his voice again. He was alive and he seemed to be OK. That was a start.
‘How did you land yourself in here?’ Chase asked and instantly Cherry’s face flushed with embarrassment.
‘I… er… I kissed George,’ she said fiddling with the end of her gown.
‘Oh…’ Chase’s face fell. ‘I see.’
‘Not because I wanted to! I was trying to bake cakes again so that Happy or whoever would turn up but no one showed. They just weren’t having it unless I truly interfered with someone’s feelings. George just happened to turn up at the right time.’
‘Right.’
‘Don’t be like that. I did it so they would bring me here, so I could save you.’
‘Really?’ Chase said. ‘You did that for me?’
Cherry nodded. ‘I couldn’t leave you here.’
Chase sighed. ‘I just wish it could have happened a different way.’
‘I was running out of time. All I could think about was getting to you.’ She smiled feebly and she could see him smile too. Cherry could now make out that she and Chase were in separate cells that were divided by a corridor, like dogs in a pound waiting for someone to come and take them home. Except the first person to approach their kennels wasn’t a happy, homely family looking for a new member. It was a man in a white coat with a clipboard whose skin reflected the colour of the mint green floors.
‘How are you feeling, 601?’ the man said, avoiding eye contact.
‘601?’ Cherry asked Chase.
‘I’m 598,’ Chase explained wearily. ‘Two other people were brought in before you, which means you’re 601.’
‘They’ve numbered us?’ Cherry was incredulous. ‘Right. Well, I’m wonderful, thanks. Aside from being naked, handcuffed and not being able to see properly, that is.’
The man didn’t react – he simply scribbled on his clipboard. He jabbed a full stop on the
page and said, ‘Your examination will begin shortly,’ before walking away.
‘They’re a cheerful bunch, aren’t they?’ Chase tried to move his legs underneath him without exposing himself.
Cherry crawled to the bars to watch the doctor walk away. ‘He hardly seemed human,’ she said.
‘The examination is pretty standard,’ Chase said. ‘They prod you a bit. Weigh you, take some measurements. There’s nothing too scary involved so don’t worry too much.’
‘It’s what comes after that, that I’m terrified about,’ Cherry said. ‘Is there anyone around here that can hear us?’
‘No guards or anything that I’ve seen,’ Chase replied. ‘There are other cells around here but I reckon everyone in them will be on our side.’
‘You got that right!’ an Australian accent called from somewhere along the corridor.
Even if that was the case, Cherry still didn’t want to risk exposing themselves so she dropped her voice. ‘I’ve got a plan.’
‘To get us out of here?’ Chase whispered.
Cherry threw up her hands. ‘No, a plan to turn these cells into a nice permanent two-bedroom home. You don’t mind spending the rest of our lives here, do you?’ Before Chase could answer she growled, her voice rising, ‘Of course it’s a plan to get us out! I found an old friend who was being held here. It’s a long story and I don’t have time to explain everything now but he’s like us, and he sees the bad stuff like me. I trust him and he told me things about this place and he said that all the lenses are linked to a central system. If we can find the control panel for the system and destroy it, then all of the lenses will go down and everyone will get their sight, their real sight, back again.’
‘We’ll see everyone’s Meddlums again?’ Chase crawled to the edge of his cell and knelt up against the bars.
‘Since when did you call them Meddlums?’
‘Since you,’ he said, smiling.
‘That’s lovely, darling heart, but can I hear the rest of this plan?’ the Australian voice called out.
‘Shh!’ Chase hushed.
‘If we can destroy that control panel, Peter will take it from there.’ Cherry knelt up against the bars of her cell too, mirroring Chase’s pose.
‘Peter?’
‘My friend, the one who used to be in here.’
‘What kind of friend?’ Chase said.
‘What does that matter?’
‘Just seems weird, that’s all.’
Was he seriously sulking? ‘Really, Chase?’ Cherry said gently but firmly. ‘With everything that’s going on, you’re worried about another man? Look I trust him and so should you.’ When Chase didn’t respond, Cherry said more softly, ‘Trust me.’
Chase’s eyes softened. ‘I do trust you.’
‘Good, because you need to trust me now. We have to find that panel and switch it off.’
‘That’s it?’ Chase said.
‘That’s it!’
‘Sounds too simple, love,’ said the Australian. ‘Something always gets in the way.’
‘We’ll be fine,’ Cherry said, although the chain connecting her wrists rattled against the bars of the cell as her hands shook.
‘Of course we will,’ Chase said. He smiled at her and she instantly felt better, knowing that they were in this together.
‘601!’
Cherry jumped, the sudden shout startling her. The bars to her cell began to vibrate as they started to lift from the floor. Cherry skittered back, the floor cold against her skin, and she could feel a sore spot where the dart had hit her.
‘Come forward, 601.’
Cherry pushed herself off the floor, careful to keep her hospital gown flat against her legs. She winced as the pressure from her hands caused sparks of pain to shoot up her legs. She looked down and saw that her legs were covered in scratches. She wondered if the three men in blue suits had dragged her the same way she’d seen them drag Chase: with no compassion or consideration. She walked out of her cell and into the corridor. Chase reached his hand through the bars as far as he could before the cuffs stopped him and Cherry held onto his fingers.
‘We have to find that panel,’ she whispered. ‘And when it happens, run.’
‘When what happens?’ he asked.
‘601. You are due for an examination. Please move forward.’
‘Just run,’ Cherry repeated urgently, before letting go of Chase’s hand.
A woman stood at the end of the corridor near a small green door that had a keypad next to it, mounted on the wall. She had straw-like hair that stuck out on her shoulders, making her head look triangular, and she wore a lab coat and held a clipboard like the man that had visited a few minutes earlier. ‘Follow me,’ she said curtly. She slotted the card that hung by a lanyard around her neck into the reader and entered a seven-digit number. The door juddered open to reveal a long silver corridor, reminiscent of an air vent, and the smell of disinfectant stung Cherry’s nostrils. She tried to pull her robe closed behind her but in doing so the front lifted higher, exposing more of her uppermost thigh. She took a deep breath. You are in your pyjamas, she told herself. Really baggy, breezy pyjamas.
Cherry followed the woman as she walked quickly down the corridor. They turned left into another corridor, this one lined with windows on one side. Cherry seized the chance to look outside – if her plan didn’t work, she might never escape the Guild and she wanted to see the sky one last time – but instead all she saw was the inside of a huge grey hall. Men and women dressed in blue suits sat behind desks that lined the floor of the hall. On each desk there was a large screen displaying what looked like some kind of first-person shooter video game.
‘The lenses,’ Cherry said under her breath.
‘What did you say?’ the straw-haired woman said, turning back to see Cherry had stopped halfway down the corridor.
‘Er… the lenses you put in my eyes. They’re great. Thank you,’ she said through gritted teeth.
‘Lenses?’ the woman said, her own eyes glazing over. Then as if a light had been switched on, ‘Oh! Yes. The lenses. Marvellous, aren’t they? Clearer vision means a clearer mind!’ she recited. ‘Follow me.’
Cherry’s gaze darted over the hall, desperately trying to spot anything that looked remotely like a control panel. She was hoping for something huge and obvious. Maybe even a large sign that said Control Panel, but she knew it would never be that easy. Most likely it was small and discreet, hidden away and impossible to find. All of a sudden she had an overwhelming certainty that she wasn’t going to be able to pull this off.
‘In here.’ The woman opened a white door and the light that spilled out was blindingly bright. Cherry squinted and cautiously stepped over the threshold but refused to move any further until her eyes adjusted. The straw-haired woman closed the door behind her, leaving Cherry on her own.
Or so she thought.
‘Nothing in here but me for now. Come in. Take a seat,’ a voice said.
‘The light. It’s too bright.’ Cherry rubbed her eyes but stopped when feeling the edges of the lenses under her eyelids made her cringe.
‘Your lenses have made your eyes sensitive, that’s all. Once you’re in here I’m sure they’ll adjust and settle.’
Cherry took one step in and blinked.
‘Now, 601 —’
‘Cherry.’
‘— you seem to have been quite the troublemaker and we usually find that those who cause trouble have lots of trouble of their own.’ Cherry could now make out a white table with a large divider running down its centre and a white chair on either side. ‘Come and sit opposite me. This mirror here is a special device our team have developed.’
Cherry moved slowly towards the chair and lowered herself into it. The ‘mirror’ in front of her was as clear as glass and she could see a woman on the other side in a yellow suit. Her hair was the blackest black Cherry had ever seen, her skin was paper thin, and her sunken eyes had deep purple bags hanging underneath them.
r /> ‘You’re Lonely,’ Cherry whispered.
‘How ever did you guess,’ Lonely said without the inflection of a question. She swivelled her chair to a touchscreen behind her, pressing it a few times. ‘I’ve sent a message down to the control board to shut your lenses off while we conduct this examination so when I do this,’ she tapped a series of buttons on the screen behind her and the glass frosted for a moment and then a silvery sheen glazed over its surface, ‘you’ll be able to see your own reflection and that of your own emotional baggage too.’
‘I can only see me,’ Cherry said. She leaned in closer to the glass and noticed a scratch on her forehead that hadn’t been there before.
‘Give it a moment. They’re probably still just fixing your lenses.’
Cherry linked and unlinked her fingers under the table. She cracked her knuckles and traced the palm over her hands over and over, killing time, until finally she noticed a small black blob in the mirror, just above her right shoulder. It stretched upwards and expanded until she could see Loneliness in the mirror.
‘I see Loneliness. You’re looking taller,’ Cherry said sadly and held out her fist over her shoulder which Loneliness fist-bumped and then promptly drooled on. ‘I can see it without the mirror, though. Why do you need to look at it through the mirror?’
Lonely tapped another corner of the screen and the image of Loneliness froze in the mirror. Cherry looked at the real Loneliness as it looked at the image of itself, twisting its head from left to right like a confused puppy.
‘We capture images of feelings so we can compare them and see how they differ from person to person, and how they adapt to their owners over time. By the size of this Loneliness, I’d say it’s been around for almost two decades, is that correct?’
Cherry tried to remember the first time she’d seen Loneliness. ‘I was seven when we first met, so… seventeen years.’
‘Yes. Almost two decades, then,’ Lonely repeated.
‘Oh…’ Cherry said. Had it really been that long? She glanced up at Loneliness, who grinned at her, almost affectionately.