Imaginary Friends tend to make not so imaginary enemies.
*****
In an ever-populated area once open to the outside lies The Apex, a domed fortress separated into 7 Sites. Running low on resources in their safe haven, The Apex introduces a program tha...
Before exiting the auditorium, they filed toward the assignment station assembled at the end of the stage. Luci and Rhoawyn walked side-by-side, finding the other's presence a source of comfort.
Luci gabbed on about her family—a quiet bunch of Fives that live about two train stops from Site 3—seemingly trying to mask her nerves behind a whirlwind of conversation. Rhoawyn tried to keep up. She told her about Eva, her parents, and mentioned her voluntary Departure—because she knew it was the only common ground they shared. But when she asked Luci about her own Departure, Luci stiffened like a chord pulled too taut—ready to snap at a moment's notice.
"Let's just say it wasn't one of the most pleasant experiences I've ever had," Luci said, face darkening. "Not everyone accepts Departure so easily. Most of us aren't waiting happily for our time to come," she muttered, and Rhoawyn redirected her gaze toward the shortening line, hating that she'd even asked. Hating that she seemed to be the only one willing to sacrifice themselves for a greater cause. For her people. Her father.
The two waited in silence for Eli to return from the assignment station. Rhoawyn thought it strange at first when she noticed Luci without an escort to the assembly. But when Eli returned with the assignment noticed and a tall guy with a frothy beard who looked at least twelve times their age, everything made a lot more sense.
"So." Eli paused, nodding over his shoulder. "This is Jace, a friend of mine who will thankfully be taking Luci here off our hands."
Luci's face dropped for a moment, but it quickly lit up into a smile when Jace turned to introduce himself. SHe and Rhoawyn exchanged awkward goodbyes and Luci followed behind her captain, engaging in a strangely enthusiastic conversation. Eli spared a glance at them before looking back down at the notice. "Even with her gone, I'm still stuck babysitting two initiates. Yay me."
"Your life must be so hard," Rhoawyn sighed, scanning the auditorium. "Where's the other one?"
"Oh, they got the same lecture in the group before us. Shame we couldn't be there to meet them," Eli jested, grinning from ear-to-ear. Rhoawyn knew he'd never let her live down trying to run.
"So what now?"
"Now? I think it's time we got a couple drinks."
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Even after repeated assurance that the plague couldn't infect them in their current state, Rhoawyn still didn't believe it was safe to step foot outside of the IOB. But he dragged her along anyway. They treaded through a thicket of willows with branches leaning into each other's space to form an archway. The sun had set, and a sparkling, iridescent haze painted the night blue as it cascaded from the flickering wings of creatures so small, the unfocused eye might miss them.
Though brilliant, they seemed rather reluctant to interact with Rhoawyn as she extended a finger—their glow distracting Rhoawyn from her fear of contamination. When one creature built up enough courage to land on the bridge of Eli's nose, he turned a cross-eyed gaze toward it—trying to focus on it like the lens of a high-definition camera.
"I'm not a tree branch," Eli marveled, the softness of his voice giving away his desire for the creature to stay perched on his nose. Rhoawyn liked the gentleness. Wished he would treat her as delicately. But she knew it would never happen, especially after causing him so much trouble.
"He sure thinks so," Rhoawyn said, trying her luck, as Eli would say, and reaching out to get a single touch of the creature's wings. "What are these things, anyway?"
She rubbed the pad of her finger on the fuzzy slope of the creature's body, skin tingling with surprise when she realized it would not fly away from her.
"They're called flutters. The Techs bred them from some of the remaining butterflies back home," Eli said, wrinkling his nose to the tickle of the insect's wings flapping lightly against it. His face scrunched on the front end of a sneeze that sent the flutter gliding off in a gust of glow, as he looked on—wiping a hand beneath his nostrils.
"Flutters. Like the feeling you get in your stomach when you roll down a hill?"
"That's one way of looking at it. Pretty sure they're just named after their wing movement, though."
"Same difference. They don't seem to like me much," Rhoawyn sighed, attempting to catch another, but it flew in the opposite direction.
"Well, most creatures are attracted to what they know. What they can trust." He pointed at a new flutter that's found its way onto his face, crawling its way into the smooth of his hairline. He placed a finger in its path, and the soft bristles of its legs latched onto his nail as he brought it closer to Rhoawyn. "These are no different. They can sense the same energy running through them also runs through me," Eli smiled, bright and sweet. His dark eyes glistened under the powdery glow surrounding them. It was contagious. A stark contrast to his usual biting nature.
Rhoawyn would have never guessed him to be the type to find fascination in creatures so fragile.
"These little guys are the key to us living on this world. A bit of their dust in your system and you're good as Imaginary."
"So, we'll have to eat them then?" Rhoawyn puckered, breath blowing lightly over the wings of the flutter on Eli's finger. It flew off as the two arrived at the entrance of a silver-lined building, with neon blue signage on the front that read FLUTTER BAR. Eli shook his entire body, sure to get rid of any tag-alongs before they entered.
