Who in the world puts speakers inside their house? Wouldn't the "Intruder Alert" hurt more than help?

Gammans. 

Of course, Elia's house would have speakers. Heck, she forced open the doors of the Monorail yesterday with her bare hands. It wasn't hard to see that she was a little out of the ordinary.

I turned off the shower. It looks like I wasn't going to get any peaceful last days.

The cold air hit me with a brutal force, goosebumps on my arms prickling up in the harsh light, freckling them with red spots. It was almost as refreshing as the shower, startling me awake. 

I quickly wrapped a towel around myself when I heard a knock on the door. 

Should I answer? What if it's the intruder?

I slipped into the shower, sliding the curtain closed behind me. I know, I have no survival instinct, or at least not a good one.

Elia charged into my room, suited up in black with a duffel bag slung over her shoulder. She looked frazzled, which only accelerated the bitter anxiousness growing in my stomach. 

"Juniper, we have to get out of here," she grimaced. 

I peeped out from behind the curtain, still very naked.

"Elia, uh," I blushed, trying to hint at my current state of undress without being too awkwardly obvious. "I need a minute."

"No time," she replied, curt and clipped. "We have to leave now before they find a way in."

"Who's the-"

Elia flung open the curtains. I was lucky I slipped on a towel earlier. 

She quickly turned away, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. Elia backpedaled so abruptly that she ran herself into the porcelain sink, banging her head into the mirrored cabinet above it, her ears a distinct shade of flushed pink.

"Like what you see?"

I couldn't help myself. 

Elia mumbled a near-silent "be quick" and stumbled out of the bathroom, clumsily shutting the door behind her.

I quickly slipped on some clothes and rushed outside, grabbing my stuffed wixx. Even if this was all just a dream, I wanted to remember the happy moments. 

Elia was one of the first people to treat me like an equal, not like some effervescent goddess or a slave worth nothing more than trash, even though I was just some convict on the run. She had every right to treat me as less than a person, yet she continuously defied my expectations. 

Even after all of this passed, I wanted to stand on the incinerator clutching that sparkly stuffed wixx. 

Elia gave me a once-over, shooting me a disapproving look when she spotted the stuffed toy clutched in my left hand. 

"Ready to go?"

I nodded a quick yes as she pushed past me, barrelling down the long hallway leading back to the entrance. I followed close behind, trying to take in all of the sights and sounds of my temporary home before I left it behind forever.

We rushed through Elia's messily decorated parts of the house, the striped wallpaper becoming nothing more than a blur. 

What was even happening? Elia hadn't really given me any details, nothing except that we had to get out of here. Who was outside, and why was Elia this afraid?

"Hey, what's with the speakers?"

"Not the time."

"No really - just tell me as you go."

"It's from when this place used to be an orphanage, way back in the day," Elia tried to catch her breath as she turned a sharp corner, quickly twisting her head back to check on me. "They used the system for fire drills and such - are you doing okay back there?"

"I'm alright," I wheezed out. We had been running for a while, and damn was I out of shape. 

Within minutes, we reached a dead end. We were at the end of a long hallway, nothing more than an austere wardrobe in front of us. 

"What now?" I asked. 

Elia just shot me a smile, pulling open the doors to the wardrobe. It was filled to the brink with fur coats, the contents almost exploding out of the cabinet. She stuck her hand into the wardrobe and pulled back the furs. 

Behind them was the wooden back of the cabinet.

"What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"Oh right, sorry."

Elia fiddled around with the sides of the wardrobe until she found the switch she was looking for. The back of the wardrobe popped open with a click, opening like a door and exposing a dark tunnel behind it.

"After you," Elia replied.

I crouched low and pushed past the furs, the smell of mold and mildew already starting to stain the air. Elia followed close behind, shutting the wardrobe doors and resetting the fake cabinet back quickly after we both were out of the wardrobe. 

"Ew," I complained. "I think I have fur in my mouth."

Elia laughed and darted past me, grabbing a lightstick out of her duffel bag in one swift motion. She shook it, turning it on and illuminating the space around us. 

Elia held up the lightstick between us, grabbing two nutripacks out of her bag as she did so. She handed one to me, unwrapping the other for herself. 

We ate our makeshift meal in silence, the rushed fear of the past moment slowly catching up to us. After I finished, I handed my wrapper to Elia and gestured for her to lead the way.

Before leaving, she held up the lightstick to my face and gave me a once-over.

"Juniper, where's the apple?"

Oh right, the apple. 

"How did you lose it?" Elia sighed in disbelief.

"What?"

Okay, I might have forgotten that. And okay, that might have been a little important.

"Juniper, where is the apple?"

"I told you. I don't have it!"

"Shh!" 

Elia slapped her hand over my mouth. I couldn't help but blush. She let out a long sigh, her forehead wrinkled in worry. 

"Okay, we'll have to make a stop," she decided. 

"Don't worry about me," I replied. "I'll be okay."

She grimaced. 

"Juniper, there's no use pretending I don't know what you are. I'll find you some flora. I'm not going to let you suffer because of one stupid mistake."

How did she find out?

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Thank you so much for the 50 subscribers! Here's a little drawing of them done by me as a thank you to you all!! I'm super happy you all are enjoying the story!