Legion Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson

Author:Brandon Sanderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Orion Publishing

13

I hit the restroom in the hallway before going to the security station. I didn’t really need to go to the bathroom, but Tobias did.

The room was clean, which I appreciated. The soap dispensers were full, the mirror spotless, and it even had a little chart on the door listing the last cleaning, where the staff had to sign to prove they’d done their job. I washed my hands, looking at myself in the mirror while Tobias finished his pit stop.

My own mundane face looked back at me. I’m never what people expect. Some picture me as some sort of eccentric scientist, others imagine an action star. Instead, they get a rather bland man in his thirties, perfectly normal.

In some ways, I often feel like my White Room. A blank slate. The aspects have all the character. I try very hard to not stand out. Because I am not crazy.

I dried my hands and waited for Tobias to wash up, then we rejoined the others outside and walked toward the security station. It consisted of a circular desk with an open center, the type you’d find at a mall beneath a sign proclaiming ‘Information.’ I walked up and the security guard looked me over – like I was a piece of pizza and he was trying to decide how long I’d been sitting in the fridge. He didn’t ask what I wanted. Liza had called him to tell him to prepare camera footage for me.

The desk really was too small for this hulk of a man. When he leaned forward, the inside front of the desk pressed into his gut; I was left with the impression of a grape being squeezed from the bottom.

‘You,’ the guard said with a deep baritone voice, ‘are the crazy one, aren’t you?’

‘Well, that’s not actually true,’ I said. ‘You see, the standard definition of insanity is –’

He leaned forward farther, and I pitied the poor desk. ‘You’re armed.’

‘Uh …’

‘So am I,’ the guard said softly. ‘Don’t try anything.’

‘Okaaay,’ Ivy said from beside me. ‘Creepy guy manning the security station.’

‘I like him,’ J.C. said.

‘Of course you do.’

The guard slowly lifted a flash drive. ‘Footage is on here.’

I took it. ‘You’re certain the security system was on that night?’

The man nodded. His hand made a fist, as if me even asking something so stupid was an offense worthy of a pounding.

‘Uh,’ I said, watching that fist, ‘Liza says you leave it on during the day now, too?’

‘I’m going to catch him,’ the guard said. ‘Nobody breaks into my building.’

‘Twice,’ I said.

The guard eyed me.

‘Nobody breaks into your building twice,’ I said. ‘Since they did it once already. Actually … they might have done it twice already, since the first time they placed the tape on the door – but you might call that more of an infiltration than a break-in.’

‘Don’t give me lip,’ the man said, pointing at me, ‘and don’t make trouble. Otherwise I’ll thump you so hard, it’ll knock some of your personalities into the next state.

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