“This can't be real! This isn't real!” She screamed, “You are wrong!” She cried, “I know none of this is real!" She was so angry she had stood up and they were face to face. “Then you must know how to get out then.” He said blankly, “you are not real!" The tone was laced with anger but had no effects as it was shaky and feeble. “Many have tried to escape, some succeed, many fail." He paused, letting the silence swallow the room, “You will FAIL.” His voice was sharp and direct like an axe which hit its target.
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Blair was a normal 24 year old woman with the typical struggles of day to day life work during the day and trying to find a suitable boyfriend to fall in love with when her shift ended at 5o'clock. She lived in a one bedroom apartment in Pasadena California. It was big enough for her and the occasional pet that needed a foster home. The kitchen was small along the wall of the door it was cramped but fit the fridge, the oven, the stove, and all the cupboards, there were two work surfaces with one connected to the partition wall which separated the kitchen from the living room/office the desk was the the corner next to the double doors that led out to the balcony with a computer and the draws were filled with note books and sketch books. The Navy blue sofa looked towards the tv mounted on the white wall of her bedroom. The floor was a cream wood with a white fluffy rug under a glass oval coffee table with a basket where the remote sat next to a box of tissues and a jar of hard boiled Candy's. The bedroom had her double bed with the light blue weighted bubble blanket draped over the end of the white sheets, the chest of drawers along the wall as you enter the room, and bookshelves lining all the open cream walls with books, DVDs, CDs, and vinyls in alphabetical order. The wall space above her bed and chest of drawers were filled with posters and photos of her and her parents and sister.
The bathroom is next to her bedroom with the door almost immediately right as you enter the apartment . Its tiled floor and tiled walls were always freezing in the winter with a shower in the black right corner, the toilet on the opposite wall, and the sink with the oval mirror on the wall with a light bar over the top.
Blair enjoyed her life; she had her routine down and nothing out of the ordinary ever happened.
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Every morning Blair would wake up at 6 o'clock on the dot, put the pocket full of sunshine CD album on in the CD player and skip to the pocket full of sunshine song to dance along to while she dressed. Blair’s fashion sense was very much stuck in the two thousands she wore one of her lace cammys which she had in blue, red, gray, white, marron, and brown, with blue jeans and her red zippy hoody she had owned since she went to Stanford university. Her straight hair was always in a tight pony tail, the natural blond highlights streaked through the light brown like racing strips. Once she was dressed she had her breakfast which was a bowl of granola with plain greek Yogurt, some raspberries or strawberries and a drizzle of honey, Blair would eat her breakfast warming herself nestling into the arm of the sofa rewatching any one of her favorite tv shows often consisting ofBuffy the vampire slayer, Friends, Charmed, Big bang theory, or frasier. Once she had washed her bowl and spoon she put on her black ankle boots, turned off the tv and walked to work.
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The animal shelter wasn't far from her apartment a quick 20 to 25 minutes and she was there depending on the weather, she spent the 25 minutes listening to the 9 to 5 and odd jobs album by Dolly Parton on her iPod which she had saved from her mum before she threw out all her old junk much like the CD, vinyl and DVD player she had in her apartment now. With the plug in head phones she had bought from the dollar store.
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When she reaches the shelter Blair unlocks the back gray steel door to find the three new volunteers which one of the overnight workers would have let in through the front. Blair clocks in and sends the volunteers to do the jobs which she personally despises doing like clean up.
While they do their jobs Blair gets to work she checks on all the animals refilling their water bowls and changing out beddings and or mamed chew toys.
She takes her lunch break at one o'clock where she goes to one of the four tea shops along the high street where she gets a bagel or baguette with a cup of hot strawberry tea and a mini glass bowl of gummy bears which she has specially made due to the fact she goes every day. Once her lunch break is done she heads back to the shelter where she sits with the animals till five when she lets the volunteers go and then clocks out once one of the evening workers gets there.
She gets home for five thirty where depending on the day she puts the according dinner in the oven to enjoy while watching a movie which she has probably seen a hundred times. She kicks her shoes off at the door and lets her hair down leaving the hair tie with her keys in the shell dish her sister had made when she went on a trip to some tropical island, on the unit which holds her bags and shoes. When the movie ends she washes up, dries up and then puts the dishes away.
Once everything is tidy to her standards she has a shower and then brushes her teeth. Blair turns out all the lights before climbing into bed with a good books and falling asleep at eleven pm after taking her brown oval framed glasses of and placing them upon the book on the wooden side table her and her dad had built as she had wanted the legs to look like cats doing the poses of see no evil, hear no evil, and say no evil.
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It was a Tuesday morning when things started to change Blair woke up half an hour later than usual and the CD player wouldn't take the CD, the Greek Yougaut had gone off and there was an ongoing power cut meaning she couldn't watch one of her shows. The walk to work was just as dismal with rain hammering down and Blair’s umbrella had a hole in it. Blair still arrived at work on time luckily and Mimsy was there to help. Blair did the usual morning routine but by the time her lunch break rolled around the rain had gotten worse and an unforeseen thunderstorm had followed, Blair took a plate of blueberries, watermelon, cucumbers with the middles cut out,and some eggs she had boiled when the power had come back on, to one of the cat cages. There had been a recent rescue of a California Spangled cat who was refusing to eat and would scratch anyone who went near. Blair opened the cage door and the cat backed defensively into one of the back corners, “I know baby don't worry I'm not going to hurt you.” she said softly and tried to be reassuring. She closed the door behind her and sat down against the wall she took her phone from her back pocket and turned it on for the first time in a week there were no new messages but when she checked her sisters Instagram Tracy had posted an update for every event which seemed to have happened Blair liked them all and even left a few comments to show support she messaged her mum to check in and they had a short conversation catching up and checking on her dad too. When the conversation ended as he mum had to get back to supervising her dad on one of his many DIY projects Blair turned to the kindle app to continue reading the book she had not finished from the last time she had a short break at work. The cat had calmed down enough to not be backed into the corner but he was still sceptical of Blair and hadn't left the position he had fallen into on the floor behind a pillow. Blair continued to read her book and occasionally took one of the blueberries from the plate slowly chewing it, letting the Berry burst creating an unsettling sensation in the back of her throat; the occasional sour trace was like a mystery surprise. She nudged the plate towards the cat, “Felix you gotta eat boy.” Her voice was soothing and the words came out more like a melody. Blair then turned her attention back to her book showing no sign of recognizing Felix who had sensed the food as the smells drifted through the air and was now crawling to investigate the plate he sniffed the cheese and licked the blueberries finally falling into the watermelon and as his teeth sunk in his little brown eyes seemed to grow two sizes and he purred once as he are all the red till he was lapping up the juices. Blair subconsciously reached for an egg and Felix didn't react, she ate the white part of the egg and placed the yolk back on the plait, she just couldn't get on with the texture.
Blair had sat there for a good half hour just watching Felix out of the corner of her eye till Mimsy can and knocked on the door making Felix jump but he didn't scamper back to the dark corner he jumped right into Blair's lap and nestled his head under her jumper.
“Awww,” Mimsy whispered, “Chloe is here she needs to talk to us.” Her voice leveled out. Blair nodded in recognition and as she pulled Felix out and placed him back on the pillows she said, “I wonder what she could want so soon?”
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As they left the isolation room walking through the primary enclosure Mimsy marveled at Blair’s extraordinary way with animals and how she was always able to help when nobody could get them to eat, “Girl I have got to hand it to you watching the way animals react to you it's almost magical.” Her sentiment was so pure and true there was no jealousy it made Blair blush. “You always know what to say to truly flatter someone, Mims.” She said as they walked through another door into a bright white office where a strict looking woman sat in a green velvet chair sipping a cup of tea pinky up against the large window looking onto the canal. The women was Chloe. Her hair was in a tight single braid down to her lower back. She wore rectangular glasses with gold frames and the outfit was a steamed and ironed white long sleeved shirt with a back tie around her neck matching the pencil skirt, the tights,and the heels. “Come in, girls have a biscuit,” she gestured to the two open chairs around the wooden round table which had an assortment of biscuits piled upon a plate in the center.


