My heart pounded in my chest to an ever increasing beat. Everything was pitch black, but far from silent. Terrible roaring filled my ears, laced with panicked shrieking. The sound carried with it absolute terror and chaos. Letting the noise wash over me, I realized that the loudest scream was my own. Fighting the overwhelming sense of panic that racked my very core, I tried feebly to grip my slipping sanity. Just as I felt that I had found a flicker of something akin to saneness, an immense jolt ran through my body, sending tremors of pain, like lightning running through my nerves, and star bursts behind my eyelids. I was dying; there was no other explanation for this pain I felt. I was in agony and nothing could save me.
“Momma?”
I bolted up right, scared to find I was still in darkness. My chest tightened as panic gripped me, but evaporated as my eyes slowly adjusted to the room, dimly illuminated from the soft light seeping in under the door. Letting my sweat soaked forehead rest in my palm, I tried to push away the recurring nightmare that constantly haunted my dreams.
Running my hand through my hair, I stared at the ceiling shrouded in darkness and as the whirling thoughts in my head slowed, I remembered the reason for my narrow escape from death.
“Bunny?” I glanced to my left and found a small figure shrouded in shadows standing next to the disheveled bed. “Baby, what’s wrong?” Reaching out, I pulled the small form into my arms and held her close, stroking her hair.
“I can’t sleep, Mommy, Oz is too noisy, he keeps coughing,” the little girl mumbled.
Snuggling against me, she let out a contented sigh. My heart constricted as Bunny mentioned her brother, but I relaxed as I looked to my right and found the normally occupied space beside me empty.
“Is Daddy with him?” I murmured, merely to confirm my theory. Bunny said nothing, but I felt her shake her head sleepily.
With the distraction of Bunny, my heart was finally able to slow, and bring my state of mind back to the present where I was able to focus on all the good that had come from the nightmare that was my past.
Inhaling, I slowly lay back down, and carefully rearranged my now sleeping daughter into a more comfortable position next to my side. Brushing her bangs out of her eyes, I let that moment of peace sink in, just reveling in the beauty of a sleeping child, my sleeping child. Taking that peace into me, I closed my eyes, and reluctantly I let my mind wander back to the time my life had ended, and truly begun.
“Key!” I looked up distractedly from the screen of my tech-pad, where I’d been doodling, to the banister where a young woman was leaning precariously over the edge. Her golden skin gleamed with sweat, and her bright yellow hair, the color of sunshine, was shoved into a messy pony tail where it proceeded to explode as it reached the end of its confining band. Her purple cat eyes were staring intently at me, a hopeful expression playing across her feral features.
“What now Pixie?”
“I need you to help me, it’ll only take a few minutes.”
I could tell by the pleading tone she used, that it probably wouldn’t take ‘only a few minutes’, and it was likely something I didn’t want to do. Most probably something that entailed getting covered from head to toe in some undesirable substance.
Oh well, it looked as if my one free day from school, that I’d planned to lay about drawing and being lazy, was no longer free; in the end there was no defying Pixie. She would make my life miserable unless I consented and it was better to just go while it was all fun and games, than kicking and screaming.
I stashed my tech-pad beside the couch and, picking myself up off of the floor from in front of the heat-generator, I stretched and faced Pixie.
“Ok, I’ll do it. As long as I can borrow some of your grungy clothes. They’re already ruined and I’m not inclined to lose another pair of mine to one of your projects.”
“Great! That’s everyone then,” Pixie crowed, pumping her fist into the air in triumph, “and, by the way, my clothes aren’t grungy, they’re just well loved,” she defended, pointing to the camo overalls that she was currently wearing and the large multi-colored splatters that covered them.
“Whatever.” I pushed past her on the stairs, and together we made our way towards the next floor to our rooms, and the end of my work free day.
“Perfect, now we can start.”
I pulled the lime green t-shirt over my head, and Pixie twirled me to face the oblong mirror that was propped up against a large unidentifiable hunk of metal, that she swore was a meteorite. I scrunched my face up and stuck my tongue out at the girl in the mirror, who obliged to return the gesture.
Eyes identical to Pixie’s stared back at me, and my hot pink hair was a mess that I’d half heartedly shoved into a clip. Even so, it did little to contain the massive amount of pink locks and my hair cascaded down my back. I blew my bangs out of my eyes, the purple streaks in them fading, and looked skeptically at the watermelon colored jumpsuit she’d put me in. The top part hung loosely around my waist, and the ugly green shirt accented it poorly.
Now not only was I having to work on my day off, I was a walking fashion disaster.
“Let’s just get this over with,” I moaned, turning to Pixie.
“Don’t worry, the boys are helping too, so it won’t take very long at all,” she informed me cheerfully as we headed for the door.
And just like I’d expected, her ‘little project’ took anything but a few minutes.
Wiping my grease covered hands on my now soiled jumpsuit; I pushed my bangs out of my eyes and glared mutinously at the piece of metal that had ruined my day. I had spent the last 6 hours sweating in Pixie’s make-shift garage that she called the ‘Fix it room’. As it turned out, her project was to revive this eyesore that used to be a hover craft, to its former glory. She had saved it from the junk yard and, even to my untrained eye, I could tell she was getting somewhere with it.
Geez, why couldn’t she just be a normal girl, with normal hobbies like me. Instead she had to be a rebellious tomboy, and have all these insanely messy interests, that were always more than a one person job.
I mean I wasn’t prissy or anything, I didn’t mind getting my hands dirty once in a while, and I could hold my own, but still, this happened all the time, and it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
“Key, can you pass me that thing next to your foot?” a muffled voice emanated from underneath the hover craft. Looking at my feet I found a number of tools, and randomly selected one.
“This thing?” I got on my knees and laid flat on my stomach, holding the tool out.
“No, the v shaped one.”
I returned the tool to the ground and, scanning the other objects, searched around until I found something that could have resembled a v. Grabbing it, I slid under the hover craft and joined the other occupant.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks, Key.” He turned to grab the tool, and I laughed as I took in the figure before me. His tan skin was covered in sweat and grease, the muscles in his arms obvious as he strained to reach the tool. Dark purple hair stuck out in every direction, filled with the same substance that layered him and his coveralls. But the thing that made me laugh were the large black goggles that covered his eyes, completing his untidy appearance and making him look like some sort of mad scientist.
“You look absolutely ridiculous Who.”
“Safety first, Princess, features second,” he grinned; “besides with my great physique, anything I wear comes off as total fab.”
I returned the grin and rolled my eyes at him for good measure; he was so full of himself.
“And about safety, if you don’t want to dawn a pair of this pretties, you should leave before you lose your eyes.” I wasn’t inclined to take up his offer anytime soon, so, scooting out from underneath the machine, I made myself scarce.
I shivered in pleasure as the warm water ran over my filthy skin, taking with it the grime and relieving some of the ache’s I’d acquired from my exhausting day. Pixie’s project had been put on hold, as she needed some more parts to finish up, and I groaned inwardly at the thought of the arrival date, and another already ruined day off.
A loud knock on the door, followed by a muffled voice, broke me from my contemplation. “Key, hurry up, Lion will be back any minute and we need to have dinner ready, stat.”
Man, I couldn’t even enjoy a nice shower before being interrupted and sent to work again.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be out in a minute, just start something and I’ll finish it when I get there,” I shouted back. Procuring my loofa and soap, I got to work and full heartedly took out my frustrations and vengeance on the dirt.
Idly I pushed the mashed potatoes on my plate around. I didn’t have much of an appetite after my shower, and I just wanted to go to bed. I gave up and pushed my food aside. Looking up from my still full plate, I envied the scene before me, as my three companions dug into their mashed potatoes and steak with zeal. Pixie sat next to me with Who across from her, where they seemed to be participating in some sort of unannounced eating contest, as their purple eyes never left each others and the food on their plates disappeared with incredible speed.
Across from me sat the fourth and final occupant of the room. Chess. He, like Who, had sun tanned skin from his many hours spent romping around outside, that was riddled with the hint of strong muscles beneath. But, unlike Who, his neon green hair was somewhat shorter, though just as messy. A lock of his bangs he kept longer than the rest, wrapped tightly in a leather thong, with a purple jewel hanging from the end. A purple jewel that matched the color of his eyes. Our eyes. The one outward appearance that marked us all as different, as loners, never to be truly accepted by anyone other than each other.
As if sensing my lingering gaze, Chess looked up from his diminished pile of food. His eyes met mine, and he gave me a half smile to acknowledge my presence, and then returned to his task at hand.
I looked away, and glanced over at the head of the table where the last chair remained pulled up with an empty plate set before it. Once again Lion was late.
I'll Post the next section, once I get some feed back.
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