Our Perfect Worlds - Part 5

Mara: A New Me

TW: 18+ | Descriptions of Violence | Mature Language

PT 360, The Desert of Sinkholes

Today’s the big day. Vacation was coming to a close, Nami and I did so much! We stayed inside most of the time. I’ve grown up seeing nothing but the small school I frequented, and a barren desert surrounding our quiet house. It was a good life. Even though the kids at school tell me I have it hard, I feel happy! Isn’t that all that matters?

My name is Mara.

I turned the handle to turn off the shower water. After drying off, I threw a towel over my body and sat on the toilet with the seat down in the bathroom. My eyes absently drifted to the blue, seashell-covered shower curtain. It’s always been like that since I was a child. One leg at a time, I stepped into a suit that was tailor-made for me. It fit firmly around my skin. Ringing me out like a squeegee. We are supposed to wear these suits to the entrance exams. There’s these things on the sides that look like exhaust pipes. Apparently they are made to release energy. Pretty cool, huh? Everyone gets mad at me because I wear my shoes. But I hate the feeling of my bare feet on the ground. My purple eyes sparkle against the bright bathroom light. I rung out my hair with our diffuser. Nami always said it was big, red and beautiful.

I am the “special” kid at my school. My society is built on a group of protectors called conductors and conduits. Conductors are able to use conduits like weapons. They form conduits into lightning and shoot them at their enemies.

“Stragglers.” They are intruders with powers unlike anything we’ve ever seen. To protect our society, they have to be exterminated, is what Nami says. As I touched on, I am “special” because I can use both of these abilities. I can be a conduit to a conductor, same as I can be a conductor to a conduit. I can even use myself as a conduit.

There was a cheeky sticky-note in the bathroom. It said “you look pretty!” I walked out of the bathroom to be met by Nami. She adjusted her glasses and smiled sternly at me.

“Hey Princess! How are you doing? Do all your homework?”

“Yeah, I did what I needed to do. It was stupid. Just like this! Why do we need to do these damn tests?” I exclaimed.

Despite my complaining, she smiled warmly. “Just to test if we’ll be good conductors, Princess. Soon enough we’ll meet our own partners, and this chapter of our life will be over. I’m going to miss you. Let me leave a souvenir.”

Nami’s…perfect. I’ve known her since I grew up. I don’t remember much of my early childhood, but I remember that I’ve been with Nami since before five. I don’t think she fully understands how I feel about her. My face heated up red as she took out a permanent marker and drew a beautiful pink heart on my upper-chest, imprinting it on my costume.

“Somebody’s quiet.” She taunted.

“It’s cute. Thank you.” I stumbled over my words.

“Let’s go, princess. We want to be early!”

I followed Nami closely. This type of training was considered “formal”. As if the training I had been doing with Nami wasn’t. I’m not especially excited to meet someone else. All the memories I can remember are of being with Nami. Going to school, with her always by my side. I go to a small school only for smart kids.

We stepped into an all-too familiar desert. It was desolate for miles away from our small home on the outskirts of everything. I could only see faint lights in the distance.

I can tell that Nami likes to live alone. Everytime I ask her why she does, without fail she brings up some sort of excuse. She had a large backpack with tons of things in it.

“Hey Nami, are you moving or something? Why do you have such a big bag?” I asked.

“There’s a reason for this, princess. You will understand in due-time. Both of our lives are changing, but I can’t tell you why, yet.”

“Is it because the men who come to our house will get mad?”

“Yes.”

Every once and a while, men in suits, ties and glasses will come to our house. They talk with Nami. She was never one to talk about what they did. She always told me to go in my room, and she got very defensive when they asked me to come out of the room. They’d get close to me and examine me. I think they made me put on the suit for the first time. The walk was like nothing I had ever experienced. Nami gave me glasses to protect myself from the sandstorms. Which were always a violent, unrelenting force. It made trudging forward harder and harder on my legs. As the storms slowed, I got to see more of the ground. There was sand, sand, and more sand, the tire tracks were a nice way to break up the sights. I made a game out of dancing around them as I moved forward.

We finally got to the main part of town after a long time of trudging through the desert. It was almost as if the desert-land was a non-factor. It was a flourishing town with large walls all around in order to block the sand-storms. There were tons of angular houses and buildings. With a walkway lined with brick to break away from the sand. The houses were close together, but it opened up towards the center of the town, where there were restaurants, bars, and quiet stores. In the very center of town, there was a tall building with a long tip piercing the sky. I have seen the outside of town, for school. But never this. I’ve only read about these in fairytales.

“How can you not live here? This place is so cool!” I announced as I pranced around town.

“That’s what you say.” Nami responded. “It’s the first town any stragglers will go to.”

My legs ached as I followed Nami up the stairs. The hours of walking had drained me, only for my energy to be restored as I looked straight up.

The spire of the tallest building in town seemed like it was going on forever. The doors were large, and they slid open as we walked towards them. Nami told me it was because of the suits we wore.

“Make sure to bow when Mr. Eitan comes out. He will guide you. I trust him, so you should too, okay?”

I nodded. Reserving my thoughts about this man. If I was to be honest, I don’t trust him. All the men of power I’ve seen in real life have hurt Nami. I remember the days after when the men in black suits came. Nami would be in the bathroom weeping sometimes. I think she was hiding something from me, or maybe she was afraid they were going to come back. She didn’t like them, and this Mr. Eitan could be no different.

There he was, a man with big hair and glasses. He wore a long, flowing lab coat. He stood above us on a catwalk. I had failed to realize the young people who began to pour in around me. They all wore suits like mine. Nami’s head poked above all the other children.

I had passed every test, smoothly made my way up every grade, and today was the day that I would fulfill my purpose and be accepted into the Sandstorm Protection Squad. Everyone with potential trained for this fateful moment. That’s me. I am bottled potential. Stronger than everyone around me.

“Welcome to The Heart, everyone! This is the homebase of the Sandstorm Protection Squad! You have all gone to school for this, and passed the entrance exams.”

But still…It’s all changing. I don’t want to leave my home, or Nami. Sure, I want to fulfill my purpose, but won’t she be lonely?

“You will learn to serve your society all while finishing up school. I hope to see you all enter the SPS after graduation.”

Everything changes. I’m not okay with change. To tell the truth, I’m so scared!

“You will be enrolling in our new school, and conductors will be assigned good conduits based on your personality profiles.”

Nami looked down at me, she saw my worried face, and smiled at me.

“It’ll be okay, princess. Don’t be afraid of change.”

How could I not be afraid of change? I have been living with Nami since I was a little kid. I am a bit of a shut-in. I’m too young for this to be my “big day”. I’m only 13. I shouldn’t be forced to fight for my land.

Then my life really changed.

A man came from the ceiling, bathed in the light of the desert. The light turned into a red mist that bore down on everyone below. Red, matching the coat of the man.

A bullet had landed in Mr. Eitan’s head. Instant panic ensued. I looked above me, Nami wasn’t there, finally. Just like the round to the man’s head, the realization of what had happened hit me too. A straggler had entered the building.

“Nami!” I yelled. She was the only one I could rely on. “Oh! There you are!”

Nami was behind me. She smiled at me and grabbed my hand.

“It’ll be okay, Princess.”

“What are you…?”

I felt my body transform into pure energy. Nami absorbed my energy and shot me at the enemy. She threw me like lightning into the straggler above us. I expected my body to effortlessly pierce through him, but instead everything went cold as I entered the chilling metal of his pistol.

Everything quickly heated up, as I was given a snapshot of the terrified people in front of me, frozen in fear like deer in headlights. Nami stood firm, her head up proudly at the straggler. Like she was going to take on the world. I was shot back into Nami.

As my sight and senses were spinning, I heard the crackling of bones and rupturing of blood. I returned back to my physical form. I stared up at the smashed window at the top of the building. The red man jumped from the catwalk above, and his face hung right above mine.

“No…” I croaked, staring down at Nami’s broken body. All I saw was her glasses, coated in blood.

He brought me to my feet and covered my eyes.

“Nami…What’s going on?!” I yelled.

I heard screams of terror. Moans of anger and hatred as I felt the man in the red coat push me further and further out of the building.

“Mara….Mara…Mara!” Nami’s voice cried out in various tones. “Stay away from her!”

I couldn’t even shrug off the man’s big hands.

“Don’t look. It’ll be okay girl.” He said.

My legs walked for me, the warm hands of the man were comforting, as he spouted words out, trying his best to keep me calm, but I missed Nami!

“Help…! Someone stop him!”

I heard the stomp of his boot, along with a snap.

“Just walk with me. You're doing good. Look here, look at my face.” He insisted, gripping my shoulders.

“Redman, that’s my name.”

I had no answer. Why didn’t I stop him?

________________________________________________________________________

Imagine the worst thing that could happen to you. If you were taken and tied up by the mafia, then sold off to some foreign land with people who didn’t even understand your language. Nobody likes being thrown into unforeseen circumstances. Especially when I had been living with Nami for so long.

Now, I am following a mysterious man in red, who says he’s going to look after me. I follow him silently, waiting. He brings me into a car built for traveling long distances. It has big tires with wide contact patches. The SUV is slick and polished. Despite just driving what might have been a long distance in the barren desert.

“Come on, get in.” Redman urged.

I scooted my butt into the other side of the car. Staring at the man who had dragged me far away from my home.

“I’m going to bring you somewhere safe.” He said as he put his hand on my shoulder.

Crack!

I instinctively sunk my teeth into his hand. He let out a yelp, giving me just enough time to push him off of me and jump out of the car.

I ran as fast as I could, still worried that he might suck me into his gun or appear in front of me. But no, he let me run. It was like the man in red was taunting me. I ran back to the main building that Nami had brought me into.

But Nami wasn’t there.

Only pieces of her were.

Her glasses were laying there, pristine as ever. Without a speck of dust on them. So I took them and put them over my face. I didn’t like the way they affected my eyes. I felt her essence inside of the glasses, it brought a brief comfort.

The moment after, Nami’s glasses were shot off of my face. As the man in the red coat tackled me and slammed me to the ground. For the first time, I saw anger in his eyes.

“I didn’t want you to see this!”

“You did this! What do you mean?!”

“I had to save you from these people somehow, I’m not proud of what I had to do, but I saved you from them! I did what I had to do for the-” He spoke earnestly, it disgusted me.

“Stop feeding yourself lies. They hadn’t done anything wrong to me!” I screamed.

I tried to fight him off of me again. If shaking and throwing my arms and legs around like a rabid dog even helped. I grabbed him by the hair, and smashed my head into his forehead. He tumbled backward, holding his head in pain. I stood up to run away again, blood streaking down my face.

“Listen! I have proof!”

I turned around, as if his words even meant anything to me. Silence wooshed through the air. He took out a phone. A picture popped up almost as fast as he shoved the thing in my face. It was a picture of me. “WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE by the Sandstorm Protection Squad due to inappropriate use of conductors and conduits.”

“It’s proof. Tell me this isn’t you. Everyone in the SPS wants you dead once they find out what you are. Your protector told you, didn’t she?”

“Told me what?” I asked, thoughts whirling around in my head.

“That you are different. I want you to remember for yourself.”

Snapshots replayed in my mind.

Those men in black…why were they at my house? I feel like I remember something, they had that logo on the back of their shirts. SPS.

________________________________________________________________________

It was like my memories were being forced into my consciousness. I see…hazy visions of myself, inside of a capsule in a dark room that seemed to go on for ages flashed in my head, my red hair floating up in the capsule as if I was suspended in space. This was like a home away from home.

Men in lab coats rushed around, as Nami looked up at me with concern in her eyes. My eyes widened as I saw Mr. Eitan. He looked at me with a smile, and I drifted as close to him as I could in my tank. I did know him from somewhere else, and I was never able to find out who he really was, because of the Red Coat Man.

As my memories unraveled, I started to get the feeling that this wasn’t a one-time thing. It was constant. I was down there frequently, and there had to have been a reason I didn’t remember. Was Nami really lying to me? Not just that, but why would Nami stand there and let these men survey me? Did she do it multiple times? I know she cared about me. Was it out of her control? Or was she not telling me the whole truth?

All I could think about was her sincere, confident smile whenever she looked at me. It was snuffed out in one move by this man. Who was still disappointed in his actions that led him here. To me.

“There was something about me they were trying to stop.” I told Redman.

“It’s the reason for your red hair, Mara.” He replied. “You are not like normal people.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want me to remind you?”

I nodded.

“You are subhuman. Half human, half glitch.”

“Glitch?”

“Straggler, whatever you call us. It’s why you have a special power. You can access both conduction and conduit powers. You could be a human army.”

Among the flurry of emotions I was feeling, I realized that I didn’t really know what a straggler was. I thought it was just someone from out of town that wasn’t allowed in our area.

“Glitches are exactly what they sound like. Realistically, we shouldn’t exist. But we do. We have made homes in places where we don’t belong. We’ve procreated. You aren’t from here, Mara, and when your people find that out. You will be ostracized and attacked for it. You’ll be killed. So how about it? Doesn’t coming with me sound like a better option? I have some people who can help you out. Give you a real meaning. I’m a glitch too. Just like you. Let’s solve this problem together.”