“Hello?” Alexandra gaped hollowly, the fear muting her volume enough that she knew perfectly well no one was actually going to hear her. “Hello? Someone?”
The continued silence was more chilling than any response she could possibly have received from the ether, particularly because of how long it had gone on. She’d been waiting out whatever was going to happen in the translucent box for over an hour now, finally resorting to sitting on the bed pressed against the wall and combing her trembling fingers through her silky brown tresses. It had been her hope that getting off her feet would calm the tremors she was experiencing in her knees, but it did little to help.
At first, she’d been too scared to move once placed inside, particularly after the positively gut-churning ride in the hand of that Omega she’d taken to arrive here. The Aegis agents that had forced their way into her apartment after she’d failed to answer the door instantaneously hadn’t given her very special treatment, either. They hadn’t had to subdue her because she went with them when the handcuffs came out, the links chiming ominously as they neared her wrists, but the grim looks on the agents’ faces let her know something catastrophically wrong was afoot. Even the one who’d read off her charges had spoken them dispassionately and with a burdening grudge threatening to break out of the icy utterances.
Assault and battery.
Attempted kidnapping.
Attempted murder.
The words came out like something in a foreign language and Alexandra barely had time to let the meaning of them sink in before she was being hustled outside and into a car on its way to Aegis. When she spoke up on the way there, muttering in a clammy slow-burn alarm that there had been some kind of grave mistake and they had the wrong woman, she’d been greeted with the suggestion that she stay quiet until she’d arrived and been processed. The handcuffs had dug into her pale skin when they were tightened, and she quickly silenced herself, too nervous to attempt further conversation.
Whatever this was would be sorted out just as quickly and effectively as it had been carried out in the wrong. She was sure of it. Alexandra had never committed a crime in her life except for a few hundred songs she’d downloaded off the internet. If anything, her name sat positively on the tongues of most Omegas and Alphas at Aegis, despite the act that earned this respect having taken place a decade before when the girl was a tender ten years old. Whoever had mixed up and sent for her arrest would soon realize their error, and particularly when they realized they’d grabbed a minor celebrity, she’d be on her way with a profound apology while the Aegis agents went on their merry way to capture the true criminal.
Alexandra knew she would, of course, be courteous about the whole thing when the time came to wrap up the whole matter. In fact, as she sat quietly on the bed, praying for some kind of movement from above again in answer to the uncertainty of it all, she reassured herself that she would be able to laugh about it later on this very day, and probably while resting on the shoulder of her best friend Bridget Cade.
If nothing else, Bridget would have this mess sorted out faster than it took for Alexandra to inhale another painfully nervous breath. Heads would spin, she’d have it back in order so quickly. The twenty-two-year-old Omega Junior Enforcer was known for her professional and effective decorum, but most of all her unflinching dedication to justice. On her watch, no one would be made to sit in a glass box against their will, and certainly not when it was her best friend.
With a little guilty pleasure, in her state of mired anxiety, Alexandra couldn’t help but half-grin at the prospect of Bridget chewing out any and all who were responsible for this little debacle while she cradled her mistreated best friend in the safety of her hand. The almost certain promise of such a thing unfolding in the very near future was all that allowed Alexandra to finally stop shivering as she continued pontificating on her situation from the simple bed in the clear box, which she now recognized as a standard issue cell for prosecuted Alphas, among whose ranks she had apparently been placed by mistake.
Her eyes glossed over the isolated toilet in the corner, and she cringed at the prospect of having to use it without any privacy, where an Omega could walk up to the shelf the box sat upon and gaze in; she almost felt some sympathy for whoever was intended to stay in this box, because the very prospect of it seemed positively poisonous, but not quite. After all, they were supposed to be in here, not her, whoever they were.
It was going to be all right. It was all just a massive misunderstanding. That was all it was, and it would go away very soon so she could go home again. Alexandra had to admit to herself that she didn’t believe the Omegas capable of such a thing as a mistake, based on what she’d seen them do, and yet here was the proof, because the utterly innocent twenty-year-old Alpha found herself being treated like a heinous criminal.
Alexandra rubbed her hands up and down her arms to warm them, knowing it would do little when the cutting iciness under her skin was coming directly from the unknown of all this rather than low temperatures. What was taking so damn long? She’d been in her pajamas when the door had been pushed open and she’d been hurried out, leaving her without even any shoes to wear, making this even more embarrassing than it already was on its own.
Pressing the tips of her petite toes to the eerie black plastic floor of the cell, she frowned, and gripped the edge of the bed more tightly for support until her knuckles turned ghostly.
Bridget had to be at work on this already. She knew for a fact she was going to be in Aegis today, and as involved as she was, it would take her little time to see her best friend’s name pop up. In fact, Alexandra felt confident that the wait was primarily so Bridget could handle most of the correction herself before happily escorting the shaken Alpha out of the intimidating frigidity of the processing waiting area and back home. Any second now, she knew, she could count on the door of the cavernous Omega-designed facility swinging open to reveal the comforting and curly-blonde visage of her grinning best friend, ready to offer a hand in escaping the dreadfully exposed surroundings.
Alexandra had to do a double take when it seemed the universe had answered her deep and fearful hopes as the door cracked open at long last, breaking the silence enough to garner a twitch out of the girl all the same. She rubbed her palms across her eyes, blinking to get a clear view through the slightly distorted panel of the glassy box, but there was no mistaking it on a second glance.
It was Bridget.
She approached the shelf staring straight ahead but with a clean march in her step, almost like a soldier, and it alone was enough to make Alexandra blink again. She knew her friend took her work very seriously and always composed herself in order to be the most effective enforcer possible. Maybe she was too deeply in the mindset of her work today to loosen up for her friend.
Bridget came to a stop directly above the box, allowing an easy panorama for the Omega of the interior, her golden curls dangling cutely and oddly out of sync with the rigid determination gelled into her countenance.
For a full minute, the girls just stared one another down. Alexandra had to blink a few times as she watched Bridget’s green irises refuse to budge. In fact, the only change she saw was the taller girl biting her lip ever so slightly.
“Hello, Lexi,” came the words from Bridget’s slender lips at last, wooden and unfeeling as could possibly be contained in a greeting that had been delivered with enthusiastic aplomb probably thousands of times in the ten years the Alpha and Omega had known one another. The four syllables alone were enough to cause the girl to cringe as she rose from her bed, hesitantly taking a few steps forward and wondering why her friend wasn’t cupping her palm into the center of the room to offer a way out yet. She would’ve thought it would be the first thing that would happen, and yet the coldness of the room seemed to congeal once again, even with her friend present.
Alexandra felt more and more off-put by the increasingly agonizing second. The Bridget she knew and loved like a sister would always lower herself down to eye level if it could be helped so the pair could converse on at least the same playing field, despite the Omega’s face filling up enough space to take up a movie screen for her friend. Instead, in the chill of the waiting area, Bridget remained hanging over the box at her full height, staring blankly down at its contents as though all her personality had been burned away with acid and flushed out of her brain, leaving her a fleshy zombie with vacant green eyes.
Alexandra gulped hard enough that it could be heard clearly by both parties in the otherwise empty room, and though she hadn’t noticed yet, her knees were knocking against one another once again.
“H-Hi, Bridge!” Alexandra coughed, having not spoken at a volume higher than just under her breath for more than an hour. “I’m… I’m s-so glad you’re here.”
All Bridget did was nod at this, as though simply registering her friend’s coherence and capacity to interact. Alexandra grinned as enthusiastically as she could manage, but it felt cheap and painted on her lips, so she quickly stopped for reasons she couldn’t explain.
What was the hold-up? Why wasn’t Bridget lowering herself down so Alexandra could stare directly into her eyes and be reassured of her friend’s swift justice on the part of cleaning this whole mess up? Why wasn’t the Omega’s hand flattening into the black plastic base of the cell to invite in for some much needed warmth and familiarity?
Why was she just standing there?
“Are… are you going to tell me what happened, or do I have to guess?” Alexandra managed through cheerfully gritted teeth after another moment of silence. “Cuz… I’m a little confused right now.”
“Confused?” Bridget exhaled finally, raising an eyebrow and cocking her head at a slight angle. Her lips pursed together as though a lime had just been teased across them.
“Y-Yeah. You know. The whole… arresting me thing, driving me to Aegis in handcuffs thing, and sticking me in here thing. All of it. I’m a little, um… disoriented, I guess.”
“Lexi.”
“Yes?”
“I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do this.”
“Do what?”
“What you’re doing right now.”
“Bridge, I’m so confused and cold right now and I really have to use the bathroom but I don’t want to have to go in that thing, so I was just wondering when you’re going to get me the hell out of this box and explain why they brought me here for no reason!”
Bridget sighed deeply and shut her eyes, the statuesque stare-down finally brought to a halt as the young Omega ran a palm up the side of her face, drumming her fingers against her pink right cheek in consideration.
“We really are going to have to do it this way, aren’t we? You’re not going to tell me about it yourself?”
“Hey, look, if you want something a certain way, just tell me, and I’ll say whatever the magic password is. Anything to get me out of here and to a bathroom with actual walls, okay?” Alexandra continued with exasperation, trying to chuckle a little to show her determinedly good humor through all this bizarre vagueness on her best friend’s part, though her patience was rapidly wearing thin.
“Mhmm,” Bridget murmured neutrally with another nod, finally removing her hand from the side of her face and setting it lightly on the rim of the box, tapping her fingertips there instead. “Lexi, if you’re going to force me to do this the way I was hoping I wouldn’t have to, then I need you to do something for me.”
“Bridge… what are you talking about? Do something for you? Just tell me when can we go!” Alexandra panted, her voice wavering as she descended rapidly into what she desperately hoped would turn out to be an off-color nightmare. She took a step back, bumping her calves against the bed and sprawling backward onto it.
“Yes,” the Omega said as her hand began lowering into the clear cell, her fingers spanned out and primed to collect her best friend against her warm palm. “I need you to remember that I gave you a chance up front to tell me your side of it.”
“Hey, what are you… BRIDGET!” screeched Alexandra in blind panic as she watched her best friend’s enormous fingers curl around her sides, scooping her from the bed as easily as a figurine.