83 Hidden Space

Vixen flinched, a shiver running down his spine.

Slowly he turned around, his pupils shaking as a figure he remembered showed before him again. Her figure was just as he remembered, long hair flowing down past her shoulders and her smile remained the same way it was when she left. Vixen's body froze when he locked eyes with her and his feet refused to move.

"Sunny?" Vixen muttered.

"Master Vixen?" the voice replied.

Vixen flinched as the figure of the girl flickered and fizzed into a taller woman.

"Master Vixen… are you ok?" The woman asked, reaching to tap his shoulder.

Vixen tightly closed his eyes and slapped away the woman's hand. "Please don't touch me," Vixen pleaded, his teeth grinding against each other, "get me hand sanitizer and another napkin."

The woman clutched her slapped hand and brushed off the sting on her hand before reaching for the hand sanitizer on her cart. She hid her face from Vixen as she bent over and pumped the hand sanitizer 3 times before returning it to the cart and coming back with napkins.

"Thank you Ace," Vixen sighed, his body relaxing as the strong scent of hand sanitizer wafted up his nose.

"Ah… you're welcome," the woman chuckled, saluting Vixen, "I thought you forgot my name for a second there."

"Ha…" Vixen chuckled half-heartedly, his social smile refusing to return to his face, "I can't forget your faces or names no matter how hard I try."

Ace cocked her head, accessing Vixen's expression to decide what was the best course of action on her emotions. In the end she just smiled nervously, "hehe~ I guess we're special to Master Vixen."

"Yea…" Vixen muttered, turning back to Ace and locking eyes with her, "special."

Ace gave him a thumbs up and looked at him up and down, "did you grow taller again? You've been sprouting inches since you passed 14."

"I'm 22, Ace… that was years ago," Vixen rolled his eyes and folded his napkins into a small square, placing them in his other back pocket when he finished.

"I know that," Ace threw her arms around Vixen's shoulder and waved her hand in front of him in a wide bow, "you've been with me since we were small, been with me when I discovered the rainbow, and was still here when I got completely rejected by my crush. I also spent every birthday with you up to now."

"If you hadn't been giving me hand sanitizer for the longest time, I would have pushed you off and fired you on the spot," Vixen slowly shimmied out of Ace's hold.

"Still as antisocial as ever," Ace dusted off her hand, "and clean freak."

"It's called being reserved, something you might never understand," Vixen huffed, "also, watch your mouth. I'm still in charge of your pay."

"Yes master~" Ace chuckled, making an exaggerated shrug before heading back to her cart.

"Hmm," Vixen nodded, turning around to leave and started walking down the hallway, Ace walking in the opposite direction.

He stopped when he realized what he had forgotten. "ACE!" Vixen called out.

"Hmm?" Ace replied, turning around, "what is it master Vixen?"

"Cleanup," Vixen answered.

"Huh?" Ace muttered.

"Cleanup in front of room 213," Vixen sighed, "you decide what's the best course of action there."

"Ah… ok" Ace nodded, "bye now."

"Hmm," Vixen turned around and walked away.

"That's weird," Ace murmured as she continued her way down the hall. 'That's his first time telling me about a cleanup.' She turned back around and glanced at Vixen's back before turning back around.

Vixen continued his way down the hall, his interaction with Ace loosening the tension on his shoulder a little bit. Nevertheless, he still needed to get out of there. A few more minutes and he would reach his safe haven, surrounded by piles of books and lost in the pages of his favorite. A few more minutes till he can reset his memory, a few more minutes till he can experience the only taste of freedom this hell had to offer.

"Oh…" Vixen paused, his feet automatically stopping in front of a room. He stared at the door for a second before looking away and walking away from it. 'I was drawn here,' he thought to himself, 'almost like I'm drawn to that room from time to time. But… room 207 can never replace it.'

Vixen reached an elevator and quickly pressed the button to call it. After a few seconds, a 'ding' could be heard and the doors slid open, Vixen quickly walking in.

'She should have reached it now,' Vixen thought to himself as he pressed the floor he was going to, 'I wonder how she'd react? Curious? Definitely.' He looked at the buttons, shivering when he spotted a large speck of dust on one button's surface. 'Maybe she'd be disgusted? I doubt that… haven't seen that emotion on her for a while.'

Vixen resisted looking up at the camera above the elevator peering down at him, surveilling his every move. Sometimes he forgot whether this place was built to look after it's prisoners or the people who looked after them.

DING!

The door opened wide for him when he reached the floor.

'Sometimes I forget this place was even created to look after people,' Vixen thought to himself as he turned down the next hallway.

These halls were quiet, barely a sound coming from behind the doors or barely any people outside in the halls. He liked this floor the most. It was for physically impaired prisoners so whether it be impaired eyesight, hearing, speech, or movement, they were all placed on this floor and the one above.

It wasn't the people that made the floor his favorite, neither did the scarce decor work. It was the surreal quietness the halls held. No matter who was behind the doors, how many people they killed, why they were behind those doors, Vixen didn't care because they were at least able to be quiet. The silence in the halls wasn't stifling and the walls didn't bother to close in on him. Best of all, the gazes of the cameras watching him didn't feel hostile, as the person watching through them had changed.

But despite all this, it wasn't his final destination, it was only the distraction he liked to make when he retreated since he knew those hostile gazes from before wanted to follow him to this floor. Sometimes it was fun to tease, especially playing the feelings of those you would rather disappear from your life.