The last thing she remembered seeing before entering the portal, was her wristwatch being chucked out in the distance. She made sure to keep an eye on it, seeing that it had landed just before the cliffside.
It was the only thing that she had left, that would allow her to keep in contact with the others. It was starting to make her really realize what a desperate situation she was in.
There was no choice now, there was no turning back for Erin. A target was set on her back by one of the most powerful humans in the world and if she wanted protection from him. There were only a few people who could offer that and one of them where the Pure group.
The man had grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the portal before she could even brace herself for what was to come. Holding on tightly, the two of them continued travelling through the portal.
The man had a strong grip and made sure that Erin wasn't going to let go. The two of them needed to end up in the same area. However, Erin didn't try to resist. If she did, who knows where she would end up. They were now heading to the Pure base. An unknown location that hadn't been tracked down by any of the big families or the military.
A few moments later, and the teleportation had finished. When the two of them had reached the other side, and she started to open her eyes, there was only one thing she could see, white.
She looked around, and both her and the man seemed to be in a completely solid white room. The floor was white, the ceiling was white and even the walls, making it hard for her to tell how big the room was. There seemed to be no exit or entrance either, and while standing there, the room started to freak her out a little.
"Welcome, I hope James wasn't to rough on you." A female voice said through a speaker. Although the sound from the speakers sounded strange. Usually in a room like this one, the sound would echo as it bounced through the walls. Instead, it was as if the sound was being directed straight to her eardrums. She felt like she could hear the person who was speaking as clear as if she was wearing headphones. When looking around, Erin was unable to even see any speakers.
Assuming that the man who was with her was James, the person on the speaker was talking about, she tried to look at him to see if he had any answers. She then noticed that he was already walking forward towards one of the white walls.
As soon as Erin took a step forward to follow him, James immediately swivelled around and drew his sword, pointing it at her neck. The tip of the giant blade was only centimetres away from her throat.
"I'm afraid you will need to stay in the room for now." The speaker said. "Although one of our agents recommended you over, there is still a chance that you might be a spy you see. So we need to be absolutely positive before proceeding any further. After all, once you step outside from this room, Pure will be on the other side. I hope you understand."
The voice seemed like it was trying hard to sound soft and sweet to reason with her, but Erin could tell that behind these words, were threats and James, pointing his blade towards herself made it more apparent.
Taking a step back, Erin then proceeded to sit on the floor.
"I understand... whatever you need from me." She replied.
"Excellent, just stay in here for now, and someone will be here in a moment."
In front of one of the white walls, James was standing there patiently. It seemed like it automatically drew to the side and opened. He then left the room while Erin was left to be there all by herself.
She waited patiently at first sitting down, expecting someone to come back soon. She didn't know how much time had passed. While sitting down, she had managed to count to 1000 out of boredom, and she had even waited for more before starting to do that.
There was nothing in the room at all, and no sound could be heard. It was deadly quiet that she could listen to her organs squirrelling and making noises as everything moved all over inside her body.
Slowly, the room was starting to get to her, it felt like the walls were beginning to come closer and closer, but she felt like it must have been in her head.
Outside of the room, two people were watching inside the white room. They were looking through what looked like a double-sided glass window. It was digitally created and projected a white wall appearance on the outside to match the room.
While the two people could see Erin clearly, she could not see them. One of the ones watching Erin, was James. The person who had escorted her here, while the other was a slightly older woman who looked to be in her late thirties. She had a short brown haircut, and her hands were behind her back while watching Erin carefully.
"How long do you think she'll last in there?" James asked.
The older woman looked at Erin carefully, right now, she was still sitting on the floor with her eyes closed as if to give off a relaxed look. However, if one was to look at her face closely, they could see she was in great pain. Her eyes were twitching, and the goosebumps on her arms were already starting to show.
"The longest someone has ever lasted in the anechoic chamber was one hour. She has done well to last half an hour already. She seems to be a strong-willed person." The woman replied.
The anechoic chamber was a soundproof room that actually went into the negatives when it came to decibels. When inside long enough, one's senses start to get disorientated. The sound of your heartbeat gets clearer the feeling of the blood rushing around your body is heard, and one doesn't know what is real from fake.
Every new member of Pure must first go through this trial, the idea was for it to test one's mental power and state. It gave them an idea of how much potential a candidate had in the future of the organization.
Specific tasks would require one for a strong mind, such as infiltration and so on.
The two continued to look at Erin while the timer above them continued, it had now been forty minutes since Erin had entered the room.
Her eyes and body continued to twitch.
'Is this some type of test? It's clear this isn't an ordinary room, and they haven't come to get me out of here yet.'
The thought in her mind went back to seeing how mighty James was with his sword and how he was able to kill the beast with a single swing. There were some strong people at Pure, that was clear. If she wanted to get stronger, then the best way was climbing to the top as quick as she could.
Finally, she started to realize that closing her eyes and trying to focus the strange thought away wasn't working. In fact, it was just making it worse. Instead, she decided she would stand up and start to practice some martial arts.
She practised every day anyway, and sometimes it was the best thing to keep her mind off things.
When trying to stand up, her feat gave in, and she immediately fell to the floor.
'What's wrong with my body?' Everything was disorientated in her mind and sound. That she was no longer able to recognize her senses. As she couldn't stand up, instead she started to think back to why she was here in the first place.
Anger was always another good fuel for her to fight through the pain. She thought of Truedream, she then started to think of the Dalki. How both of these things had taken everything away from her.
"Arhhhh!" Erin started to scream as she grabbed her head, and it seemed like she was going mad.
"Forty-five minutes." The old woman said with a smile on her face. "Looks like we have a new prodigy in our hands."
James immediately rushed into the room as soon as he had heard the scream, but when reaching Erin's body, it looked like she had already passed out.
Sweat was dripping from her forehead, and droplets of water were heavy around her body. Brushing her hair back, James took a closer look at her face that still looked to be in pain.
"You did well.' he whispered.
"Hurry up, James." The woman said on the speaker. "We must take her to the next area. More tests await her."
***
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