1.2 Eliza
I couldn’t tell you what room led to where on campus. It was all a blur to be completely honest. What I can tell you is everything was brand new, and not just in the past years new, I mean in the last few weeks new. From the furniture to the coffee machine. It all looked practically untouched, even though we saw employees scattered throughout. It was almost eerily perfect, which in hindsight probably should have been a red flag, but we all knew The Facility had money, and we all knew from our applications that this research was the culmination of years of setup and work. If I was a world class facility taking the next and maybe most important step of my life’s work, I’d roll out the red carpet and stupid fancy espresso machines too.
We were eventually brought into our rooms. Between the five of us we had an entire wing. Each with our own substantial room, bathroom, and then a shared common area. It was quieter over in this area of the building. We were near the rear of the central building, and there was much more campus beyond and behind us, but the fact we were fairly distanced from the offices and lobby meant we had a decent amount of privacy. Celaena left us to rest, freshen up and unpack and let us know there would be an evening meal brought into the common room later that evening and we would finalize the paperwork then as well. The drive and excitement of the day was finally starting to catch up with me and I could feel a headache creeping in so I excused myself and went to my room to settle in and maybe try and nap for a little while.
The room wasn’t terribly flashy, though it felt huge. There was a double bed tucked against one wall as well as a solid looking dresser with matching end tables. Opposite the bed was a desk and chair, and beside that was a marvelous looking bookshelf. There were a couple of pieces placed on the shelves but there was ample room for more volumes. A couldn’t help a smile from creeping across my lips as I recalled the bank of bookshelves I had spotted in the common room. I made a note to go through it once I had a bit more energy. I resisted the urge to go through the books already on the shelf and opted instead for the responsible move of trying to kick the headache that had now fully taken root. I dug in my bag and grabbed a couple of painkillers and the cracked open the bottle of water left on the end table. I crawled into the bed, burying myself under the mountain of fluffy blankets and let myself drift off.
