The Room- MASSIVE Preview

~Prologue1

What is the meaning of life? What do we take seriously and what do we cast aside as silliness? How do we decide what is serious and what is silly? What do we live each day for? 2

What do we strive for? Do we strive for money, designer clothes, and all the things money can buy? Do we strive to do our best to serve God and act in his image? Or maybe we strive for strength and with every new experience we build our hope.3

What is the right way of living? Do we hold back impulses? Do we cry? Do we love with all our hearts if it will only hurt us in the end? Do we derive worth from overshadowing others? Do we love our enemies? Do we follow the leader or become our own? Do we do the right thing?4

The world is full of questions. The answers are here and everywhere; around you,above you, below you, inside you, in your family, and in your friends. But sometimes people don't look hard enough or just don't try to find the answers...5

Two people in the room knew as much as they should and two knew less than average. All our lives we strive for answers, and yet only two people in the room strived for their answers beyond everything they knew. In this moment they were sharing a fate more important than anything they would ever know. They looked peaceful, each one sleeping in a drugged state laying against opposite walls of a perfectly square room. Each person wore all white, and a hood covering their face. 6

A petite girl was the first to sit up. Her long blonde hair and blue eyes gave off a lustrous shine. She looked around and wondered what had happened, how she had gotten here. 7

“Who are they?” Her timid voice made a small echo in the vacant silence, interrupting her thoughts.8

The girl sat in silence for a long time, trying to trace back the events of the past 24 hours to see if she remembered coming here. Maybe she had been drunk or maybe she fell asleep. Maybe I’ll wake up soon, and this will just be a really odd dream. Besides, she thought, if this was real...wouldn't I be raped and killed by a black guy from the Bronx? I'll just go back to sleep now. That's how it works right? You go to sleep in a dream and wake up... The girl laid down and closed her eyes. After tossing and turning she sat right up. She couldn't sleep and had found herself electric with energy. 9

"Shit." She said softly, startled. What am I doing here? Who did this to me! Damn it. Shit.Fuck my life, I could be raped and killed in a matter of hours... What will happen to all my designer clothes? I hope my parents give them to Katie, that spoiled brat.10

The girl looked down at her clothes absendmindedly. Where'd my juicy go? MY juicy! NO!! Where'd all my stuff go?! Whatever black man that did this will pay! She thought bitterly. I bet he's in here now, thinking I won't be a threat. One of them probably did this to me. Wonder who? The girl's thoughts continued to spew on and on.11

She was startled and couldn’t help but stare when the next person woke up. He was a sturdy black man, standing easily at least 5’10”. He was strength, endurance, the threads that tied life together. He was powerful and this scared the girl. The perfect one to commit the crime, she thought. This man was across from the girl. The man started to stare at the girl across from him. He saw nothing. There was not a single designer item dangling off of her slender body, as usual. The lack of “stylistic” clothing was beneficial to him. If he had known her for what she was, he would not have set up the chain of events toward bringing the 4 together.12

The pair stared at each other, with more thoughts than they cared to voice. Who is he? Is he from the slums? Did he bring me here? Is he going to kill me? If he is going to kill me, when will he tell me that he's going to kill me? Or is he waiting for everyone else...to kill them too? The girl’s thoughts were racing, unlike the man’s. He was perfectly calm. I’m here for a reason, God has a plan for me…Just breathe and take it in strides. How is this girl connected to me? How will I help her...how will she help me? Time passed and the man and petite girl contemplated the silence that was shifting towards awkwardness. 13

“Some odd circumstances we’ve got here, eh? My name’s Samantha,” Samantha spoke nervously, still unsure if he was waiting to kill her. If he was, she certainly didn’t want to anger him. She sat up with her hands clasped firmly around her knees.14

“Yeah, life can be pretty strange,” He paused, stretching and sitting up straight against the wall, with his legs crossed. “I’m Sean.” Sean wasn’t bothering to try to think of why he was here with Samantha and the 2 other people who still hadn’t woken up. But Samantha seemed a little anxious to him and he couldn’t quite pinpoint why.15

“So…where have you come from?” Samantha tried to even out her voice but her angst just demonstrated itself in other ways. Why me? Wonder what my friends will say at this monstrosity that my life has become. Will they have a funeral for me?? Will they even find me or will he be one of those creep guys who cuts up their victims? Eww,she thought, when she pictured herself dead.16

“I’m from the Bronx, what about you?” Jeeze, if she doesn’t start to calm down…I wonder why she’s so tense. Do I look intimidating or something? Is she ok?17

Samantha had started to bite her nails when Sean was answering her. Ugh, and I thought I would never start. Fortunately, Sean’s quick response startled her.18

“Oh, yea. Um, I’m from Darien,” Samantha stopped realizing her mistake. Is he even going to know where that is? She continued, taking an unnecessary deep breath and exhaling louder than she should have, relieved that he hadn't mentioned killing her. “That’s in Connecticut fyi.”19

Sean bemused her odd response. Connecticut? What does she have in common with me then? Maybe it’s that whole 6th separation thing. Do I know anyone in that area? Hmm… 20

“What’s it like there? ….in the Bronx, I mean,” Samantha’s voice interrupted his thoughts. She was genuinely curious. She wanted to know if he had killed people before or if this was his first time . Maybe he was the leader of a big drug circle. Maybe he had hired prostitutes and had HIV. Whatever it was, Samantha wanted to get a good idea of where he was from so she could know how worried to be. Afterall, that’s where blacks come from isn’t it? Just like people like her got macbooks for Christmas and that her rich Daddy would pay her way through college and bail her out if she got arrested for doing stupid stuff with her friends21

“You learn to grow up fast after some of the stuff that you see. The way I see it, either you join the people who are ungrateful and unhappy or put your faith in God that it’ll come out ok. The first option may seem like the easiest but it’s not. We don’t deserve to live at risk and have to constantly be watching ourselves, but what use is it to be bitter? When I was 17 years old I chose to let it all go and leave it to God. I put myself out there and chose to believe that all of this happens for a reason. Even if it doesn’t, what hurt does it do to believe it does? It certainly gives me some peace of mind. ” Sean paused and waited for all of this to sink in. He noticed an odd change of expression on Samantha’s face. Her face seemed to soften a bit, but her eyes still stubborn at something. What could be bothering her this much?22

“What about Darien? I’ve never been to Connecticut…funny thing since it’s so close by and all,” 23

Samantha straightened herself up and smiled cattily. Sean began to wonder if now was the time to say something. He's lying, they always say that killers are people you don't expect. They're always the nice ones. 24

“So, you found God at 17. What about before then? Did you kill anyone? Mug anyone? What about rape? Pff, at this rate why should I even believe that you found God? Everyone knows that all the black people in the Bronx are criminals,” Samantha sneered every word. Sean couldn’t believe that a girl that was so small and pretty for her age could be so nasty. 25

Sean sat in silence. He was not the type of person to react in anger because he believed in God’s peaceful approach to situations like this. Did I offend her?...God, what do I do? She’s judging me and it’s only because I’m black and from the Bronx. 26

Even though it was obvious to Sean that Samantha knew how to take care of herself, Sean knew to tread lightly. Afterall, Samantha had probably believed in this her entire life and maybe she wouldn’t believe him for another half her life or so, but it was still worth it to plant the seed. Deep down, he was sure Samantha would want the truth even if she was being a snooty little thing. It seemed like forever to Samantha when Sean finally got around to responding. I must’ve hit a nerve…serves him right. Now maybe he'll admit to kidnapping me. Maybe he'll let me have my clothes back and go home.27

“You know, I don’t know what it’s like there in Darien, but lemme set it straight for you. Just because I’m black doesn’t mean I killed someone or done anything terrible like that. I’ve done some stupid stuff, but that’s just kid stuff…smoking pot, stuff like that…But you gotta understand that was before I knew God. Once I realized I could just give it all up to him, I was set for life,” Sean took a deep breath and continued. “People do stupid things as teenagers but I never killed anyone, I only hurt myself by being irresponsible.”28

Samantha spat pitifully less than a foot ahead of herself. “Who do you think I am? Do I look like I was born yesterday? Do you think I don’t hear on the news stories that never fail to incriminate your kind?...I’ve heard all about people like you. They murder and rape girls like me because they think that they can’t get any worse off so they might as well take advantage of it…I’m not stupid, I know ALL about scum like you…”29

Sean knew that he needed to stay calm. Breathe in, breathe out. God wants me to handle her…he’s testing my patience. Breathe in, breathe out. 1….2….3….4….5…. 30

“Hon, I know I can’t expect you to understand, but maybe someday you’ll realize the mistake you’re making.”31

“Oh please. You’re the one making the MISTAKE….can’t you see---¬¬¬¬¬” 32

“HEY! Shut the fuck up you guys!...White trash, lay off the black guy. .” The 3rd person had woken up. 33