1.2

Inside the house, Ben was greeted by a cold, pleasant air. After a moment of gratitude, he glanced around.The walls of the hallway were painted white. That was exactly where the normalities ended. The equally white floor was made of a strange material. It was soft enough that it yielded slightly when he shifted his weight to one leg, but hard enough to give him secure footing.There was an oppressive silence, the sounds of the street had completely disappeared.The hallway was filled with the faintly sweet smell of old, stale paper. A smell that Ben, surprisingly, found quite nice. But the really strange thing was the light. Dim and yellowish it shone down from above but there was no lamp. The light seemed to come from all over the ceiling.
"Ehem." Claudia's clearing of her throat brought Ben back to the present. He noticed that his mouth was slightly open and his gaze pointed upward. He had been staring.Embarrassed, he closed his mouth and looked down at the floor. Claudia smiled at him. He was about to apologize when he was interrupted by the low growl of his stomach. He hadn't even paid attention to how hungry he was. "Ron!"

After a few moments, a young man appeared. He looked at most a few years older than Ben, but his short-cropped black hair and glasses with rectangular lenses made him look considerably more competent than his age promised. His forehead was almost completely covered by a gray headband. As he walked toward her, his equally gray shirt ruffled a little. When he caught sight of Ben, something shimmered in his eyes for a brief moment. It faded away again before Ben could make out what exactly it was.

"Ben, this is Ronald, you can call him Ron." Claudia turned to Ron.

"Could you take Ben's things to his new room? And can you bring some food to my room afterwards? I want to have a talk with Ben."

The boy nodded curtly and disappeared back into the hallway with Ben's backpack while Claudia led him down the hall until she finally stopped in front of a door and entered the room with him. 

Claudia's room turned out to be a small and sparsely furnished room. It consisted only of a desk completely covered by books and papers, a few chairs and a large bookcase, which was standing half looted in the back of the room. In the corner of the room a fly wriggled helplessly in a spider's web. There was a small round window behind the desk which, however, showed nothing but darkness, and the whole room was shrouded in a faint pulsating purple light that extended to every corner of the room but, like the ceiling in the hallway, seemed to have no definite origin. Claudia approached the desk and reached for some thin books. Gently, she picked them up and returned them to the cabinet. She casually wiped the rest of the books and papers off the table. She took a seat and ordered Ben to do the same. Somewhat nervously, Ben sat down on a cushioned chair. Silence followed. Finally Ron returned to the room and placed a steaming hot bowl of soup on the table. He nodded briefly to Claudia and disappeared back into the hallway.While Ben slurped the soup in silence, Claudia watched him with interest, but said nothing. After a few moments, the silence became unbearable for Ben, so he cleared his throat. When Claudia remained silent, he finally asked her."Um, so what exactly do you want from me?"Claudia smiled."Me, from you? Surprisingly little!" Despite the statement, she sounded excited, downright curious. She continued:"All I want from you is to show me your arms and tell me what happened to them."Astonished, Ben looked at his arms. How did she notice that? 
His long sleeves were non-transparent and he had been careful to hide his arms. He sighed, there was no point in hiding it anyway. Ben pushed up his sleeves and showed Claudia his arms covered with fine white scars. The skull on his left forearm grinned at him maliciously. Claudia's gaze fixed on the white skull. His red eyes seemed to challenge her."Can you tell me where you got that?"Ben shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know. Fortunately, Claudia didn't press him further either. Instead, she pointed at his scars. "And where did they come from?"Ben initially wanted to just shrug again, but something in Claudia's gaze told him that this time he wouldn't be able to dodge the question."From broken glass. The whole thing was a few years ago."He hoped that would be enough but Claudia didn't let up."And what exactly happened a few years ago?"Ben took a deep breath, he didn't like thinking back to that day."I don't remember it exactly, the psychologists said I had a shock," he lied. Fortunately, Claudia did not probe further, but only nodded thoughtfully.
Silence followed, during which Ben finished slurping his soup. When he finished his meal, Claudia called for Ron again. "Ron will take you to your room, I'm sure you're exhausted."With those words she said goodbye and closed the door behind them.

"This way," Ron said gruffly and without waiting for Ben he took off down the hall. As fast as he could, Ben hurried after him. At a door, not far from the end of the hallway he finally stopped. "When you wake up, come to the kitchen." Then he gave Ben the same stiff nod and left.Ben stood in front of the door. For better or worse, this was the beginning of something new, and he wasn't sure wether he was a fan of "new". After a few moments of indecision, he took a deep breath and took the first step into his new life.