The Five, Who Shine in Gold

'What's with them, and overused movie lines?!' I asked myself. Even in this situation, this thought somehow found its way into my mind. I would've probably laughed, had it not been for these circumstances, but I had to stay calm and alert. And yet, I couldn't. Staying rational in tense occasions isn't my forte, and this was nothing, if not tense.

After a few minutes of tense silence, I finally asked.

"W-why are you doing this?!" - I raised my voice

"Well, it's not like we wanted to kidnap you" - the girl said, rolling her eyes

"Yeah, it was master's order, blame her!" - her brother shifted the blame to someone not even here

They sure are nice people...

Still, by their attitude, I can tell, they aren't that capable. I could probably take the two of them out, if it comes to that. My body relaxed a little, and I could finally regain a little bit of my composure.

"Tell me why I got dragged here, or let me out!" - I said, without a hint of fear in my eyes.

That must've surprised them, because I didn't hear an answer for a few seconds.

"Ugh, I want back your cowardly attitude from earlier! Now you're no fun!" - exclaimed the girl, disappointed

"Well, I'm sorry, it's just that I'm missing from the one dang thing I shouldn't be, so please understand, and tell me what is going on??"

"Yes, yes, time is essence, we shouldn't waste it!" - said the boy, who seems to be the calmer, and smarter of the two - "But first, I think we should introduce ourselves to you. If everything goes according to plan, we'll be spending a lot of our time together."

"Just go ahead." - I said, resigning myself to the situation

"Sure! My name is Scarlett, and he is Soren! We are siblings as you probably have guessed, and we are here to dissuade you from taking the assessment."

"...What?"

Why wouldn't I take the assessment?? They are not making sense.

"If you try to convince me, at least give me a good reason why shouldn't I?" - I continued, hoping to receive at least a semi-logical reason from these two weirdos.

"Well, why should you?"

"It's not like you can't do it later."

The two said at almost the same time. Although, yes, you can request to go through an assessment later, for one, it costs you money, and for two, why should I inconvenience myself, if I'm here already?

"Come on, you ought to have at least one good reason, otherwise you wouldn't have gone to this far lengths just to capture me. What's more, ceremony or not, I still have to hurry. It's already been 30 minutes since, the event started, and if I get called on, my friend, who knows I'm here, will realize my absence, and report it to the police, so just let me talk to him at least!"

I thought, if it's those two, my little bluff would work, but unfortunately-

"Do we look like idiots?" - the brother said immediately - "Your name is River, and they call people on by alphabetical order. Even if you're lucky, we still have about 1 hour, before you get discovered. Even then, don't try to fool us, we know you don't have any friends."

Hey, that's not true, I have friends- a friend, I mean, but still! That wasn't nice...

"Yeah, but what will you do after I do get discovered?" - I countered, forcing the self-depricating toughts out of my mind - " Yeah, you can contain me here for an hour or two, but besides a good talk, you're not gonna get much out of me."

"In that regard, I have a bit of news for you. - the girl chimed in - To be curt, you are coming with us."

"No." - I said stubbornly, not accepting my situation

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No"

"To be honest, you don't really have a say in it."

"My body, my choice!"

"Shut up, you're not a feminist, you can't say that!"

"How would you know? Also, that's sexist!"

"I mean, have you ever touched-"

"Well, that's enough of that" - the brother cut us both off - "And River, don't try to stall for time, you just can't waste the abundance of time we have."

"Well then, if you're so smart, tell me, how will you transport me out of here without alerting all of the people inside the building?" - I desperately tried convincing them - "You haven't exactly convinced me to go along with you, so I don't see why I shouldn't just shout out lout, that I'm getting kidnapped. In fact, I did you a favor by not shouting immediately when you locked me in."

"Then do it. Howewer, I think you very well know that no one will hear your cries, because of the noise. Oh, and not that it matters, but we have other ways of transporting you."

"You expect me to believe this obvious bluff? If you would have one, you wouldn't have tried to convince me earlier."

"That was because master ordered us so. But I won't try to force on you, if you don't want to."

"Sure, if you can do that, go ahead. But just so you know, once I'm get out of here, I will report you, and get you arrest-"

"Well then, I enjoyed this conversation, but unfortunately, time is up, goodbye!"

Before I realized the meaning, I felt it. It was as if something was wrong with space and time. Like someone crumpled my body like a piece of paper. I could see a faint glow coming from somewhere behind me. I turned to see, but that was a mistake. As soon as I lost sight of the two of them, I felt two hands pushing me inside a crack on reality.

In the next moment, I found myself in a different place.