Parasitic

Castle

Thank god, this isn't the incinerator.

The back of my hand glows in conjunction with a two toned vibration again.

“Delivery for Chase. Package Awaiting Clearance..." The dots at the end of the text continued shifting for a few moments before blue words refreshed into:

"CLEARED" I was air mail now?

The bottom of the pod opened up gradually, giving me enough time to step onto a square tile used for transportation indoors. The first patent was called ‘the magic carpet’.

I think I held my breath for way too long each time I took in a new breath as the time had me delivered to my new location. Royals and rest of the lucky people lived in castles with hallways wide enough to allow for echoes. Along one side aisle there was a dark travel tunnel for the servant’s quarters. The hallways meant for the privileged ones would have screen projections of artworks. Time pieces of the past, I’d wanted to see ever since I had learnt about them.

I wasn’t shown the servant’s quarters first though. My tile gently glided down two stories after allowing me only a glance of a surprisingly spacious room.

The tile then dipped into a room with live burning flames as wall art.

A dark haired boy lay on a couch raised about a metre up above me. Chase.

“Look up.” He said, ordered, actually.

So I did, and bowed before kneeling for the sake of the show.

“Now, look around you.”

“Flames, sir.”

“Yes. If not for us that could have been your final performance before you turned to bits of dust.”

“Sure, if I were Girl 32 from House 91.” I reply sarcastically. If the flames were meant to freak me out, they weren’t going to work on me. I’d been in a man-made forest fire before.

He tapped his fingers a few times so his royal high chair came down to a height that let me maintain eye contact with his knee-caps.

The lights in his eyes dance with the reflection of the flames all around us. “I’m wearing flame-proof clothing.” I inform him indignantly.

“Yeah, Elsa.” He finally sits up. “Today, when they do the re-enactment in your farm, you’d be listed amongst the casualties. Your old identity would be quite dead.”

I take a step back. “I..don’t understand.” I will be dead in the records.

He taps his finger again; the couch lowers down a little more. He produces a thin tablet.

“We disabled all of the sensors and tracking devices on you in the Persona Boot Module. My family has agreed to give you a new identity, Ellie Hamsworth.” He watches me carefully. “This tablet is secured, able to access the Internet untraceably. I’ll send over your Identity cards later on.”

I stare back mesmerized. I was no longer Girl 8. I look into his clear blue eyes, looking for a trace of deviousness that may give him away. “W-why?” I whisper

He smiles suddenly, “Honey, get out of my face before I slap you again.”

“Wh-what?” I take the tablet, taken aback.

“Most people tend to thank people who get them out of tragic fates like that.”

“Ye-yeah. Thanks.””

“Get cleaned up and settle down and go talk to my mom, this was all her idea. You’re set up as my long lost childhood friend. Don’t worry.”

The tile arrives. “Who are you? Why? I’m one of the plebeian you can’t.” I blab, shocked. This must be some trick.

Chase regards me and rolls his eyes, “You don’t tell me what to do in my castle, hon. I’ll tell you later. Go, go. Get up. Stop kneeling, you look stupid.” 

I don't understand anything as we go up back to my room.

______________________________

"shells of silver(silver)

This feels strange, as the closer we get to the grave

everybody wants love, but it's not enough,

to have a good heart, but it's not enough

shells of silver (silver)" --- The Japanese Popstars