Ellay Saga Chapter 1: Those
Who Are Destined
The next day came, as it always seems to do.
After stumbling out of her room and into the hallway, her bare feet grazed the soft red carpet, tickling her slightly and waking her up just a little more, although far from enough for her to be considered fully awake. The girl stumbled forward, her hand placed on the smooth, cream-colored wall until it met with a door frame. Acting by instinct, the girl stopped and faced the door, then used her other hand to grab the polished brass knob and turn it. When the doorway was fully opened she stepped inside.
Her nerves were given a jolt as her feet
touched the cold tile, as she knew and dreaded it would. Her hands closed and locked the bathroom door
as if by themselves, letting the girl remain in her blissful state of
half-consciousness for a little longer.
Slowly she slid off her T-Shirt and her matching gray shorts, letting
them drop to the ground, not caring to wonder how those articles of clothing
miraculously made their way back to her room every day. For a moment she wondered whether to pick
them up this time, but, just like every other morning, she dismissed this idea;
she knew her clothes would be right there in her room for her to drop in the
bathroom the following morning.
Feeling somewhat more awake now, the girl
reached into the glass cube in the corner of the bathroom and turned a
stainless-steel knob, causing a torrent of lukewarm water to gush out from
several orifices at the end of a cone-shaped apparatus attached to a steel pipe
a few feet above her. When the
temperature was to her liking, she stepped inside and began the morning ritual
of pouring several fragrant substances all over her body.
A few minutes later the girl stepped out of
the bathroom again. When she opened the
door a great amount of steam poured out of the white-tiled room. She was awake now, although far from capable
of normal activity. She made her way
back to her room, a white towel wrapped around her and a hairbrush in her hand,
which she would use to comb her brown, shoulder length hair a few minutes
later. Once in her room she donned her
underwear and fished out an acceptable wardrobe combination from the tangled
jungle of clothing on the floor. Today
was saturday, so a pair of sweatpants and a T-Shirt would do. She then comber her hair and tied a small
elastic band around the end so as to make a ponytail. When she was finished she slipped on a pair
of white socks and slid her feet into a pair of goofy-looking bunny slippers.
She left the room once again, bypassing the
bathroom and the other room beside it, opting instead for the stairs on her
right. Her slippers thudded against the
carpeted stairwell until she reached the end and her feet met with smooth
hardwood. This was the living room, and
it was decorated with two nice sofas and a center table made of mahogany. Several ornaments littered the table, and a
few paintings hung from the red-painted walls.
Beyond the living room there were doors to the game room, the study, the
wine cellar, and the office. This was of
no interest to her though, and her feet pivoted to her right, carrying her with
them. She didn’t bother to notice
anything in the living room, as it was the same as every other morning of her
eighteen years of existence.
Fortunately, the bunny slippers she wore on
her feet prevented her from feeling the cold as once again she tread on white
tile. This was not a bathroom, however,
but rather a kitchen. Instead of hot
steam her nostrils met with the pleasant odor of scrambled eggs and fresh
fruit, and she heard a soft sizzling sound instead of running water. When she bothered to pry her eyes from the
floor her gaze met with that of a woman wearing a pink bathrobe and holding a
spatula in her left hand. When she spoke
she did so very softly, knowing that the girl wasn’t ready for noise at this
time in the morning.
“Buenos
días.” she said, her voice sauntering on a light melodical tone that
communicated a sense of gentleness and well being. The girl nodded and spoke as well, although
her voice was far from melodic. She had
to clear her throat a couple of times before being able to respond. “G’morning,
mom.” she replied. The girl ambled over
to a chair close to the white kitchen table and plopped down on it, making her
head jostle with the force of the not-so-subtle action. The girl’s mother grabbed a plate and laid it
gently before her; it was filled with eggs, some toast, and a slice of
fruit. The smell of breakfast
invigorated her and brought her nearly to the point of full awareness. Her hand shot out to a fork on the side of
the table and she began to gobble up the food in front of her. Occasionally her mother would talk to her or
ask small questions, but these assaults on her mind could be answered with a
simple yes or no, or perhaps a brisk nod as the girl splattered her toast with
grape jelly using a knife. Eventually
her mother brough out a glass full of orange juice, which she gulped down
eagerly. When she was finished she stood
up and carried her dishes over to the sink, where she set them gently for fear
of breaking them. She then blew a kiss
to her mother as a sign of thanks.
The girl had now reached the point of
complete activeness. A slight smile
decorated her face and she happily traipsed back up the stairs and back into
the bathroom. The taste of juice and
toast was replaced with the taste of menthol as she happily initiated her
second morning ritual: brushing her teeth.
The plastic brush she used flexed and strained under the force of the
girl’s tight grip, but it survived just like every other morning.
The girl hopped back down the stairs and into
the kitchen, where her mother was sipping silently on a cup of coffee, her eyes
fixed on a small television set in the cupboard. Images of the usual things one sees on TV
flickered intermitently and battled for control of the screen. The girl, like every other morning, promptly
ignored the flood of News Flashes, Infomercials, and Campaign Slogans, although
she did note an interesting story about a runaway boy in the back of her
mind. She reached for a blue backpack
behind the table and hoisted it up onto her back. She then turned towards the door and prepared
to leave.
“Que te
vaya bien, mi vida!” once again the musical ringing of her mother’s voice
filled the girl’s ears and made her stop.
She turned and blew another kiss at her mother. “Thanks, mom. I love you
too.” she said. “Take care!” The girl’s mother nodded and cocked her head to
the side. “Say hello to everyone at work for me.” she sang. The girl nodded and spun around, waving to
her mother before she jumped out of her bunny slippers and into a pair of
tennis shoes. “Bye!” mother and daughter called out almost simultaneously to
each other as the girl headed to a small entrance hall on the other end of the
living room, opened a door and was gone from the house.
The girl hit the streets of Ellay and began
walking quickly towards the downtown area.
She had been working part-time at the Ellay Tribune for almost two years now, and that was where she was
going now. The streets of Ellay were
never crowded at this time; everyone was either asleep or at work by now. On saturdays the local kids played basketball
in a public court nearby, and she could hear their yelling now. Everything was as usual; a perfectly normal
saturday morning, followed by a perfectly normal saturday afternoon at
work. Then it was back home to talk with
her friends over the phone, like a teenager normally would on a saturday.
She soon reached the aforementioned
basketball court and spotted the children playing. She knew them all by name, and waved to some
of the ones that weren’t playing as she walked by. Then her eyes wandered to the side and they
met with something new: a teenager in ragged clothes, accompannied by a girl
wearing equally ragged clothing and a pair of mechanic’s goggles. With them was a wild-looking boy wearing
clothes that seemed hand-made, and a tiny monkey was perched on top of his
head.
Now this
was definitely not normal.
The girl felt a sudden urge to stop and
observe these newcomers. Very quickly
she stopped in her tracks and backpedalled; she didn’t want to look like she
was spying on the unusual threesome. She
walked over to one of the benches on the side and sat down beside a girl
wearing a baseball cap to prevent her long hair from cascading over her
face. She remained like that for a
moment.
The rest of the children eventually noticed
the strange group as well, and one of the older ones, the girl knew him as
Ricky, stopped the game and jogged over to them. He was apparently inviting them to play. The two older ones declined, but encouraged
the one with the monkey on his head to give it a shot. The latter accepted, and the monkey hopped
from the child to the girl. Ricky
laughed and handed the child the large, orange sphere. The child held it clumsily, staring at it in
awe, as if he didn’t know what to do with it.
Ricky laughed again and asked if the child had ever played basketball. The child looked down and redenned
slightly. Ricky then pointed to the hoop
and told him the objective was to get the ball in there. The child opened his mouth and let out an
“Oh.” of understanding.
The girl rested her elbows on her thighs and watched
as the child walked over to the middle of the concrete court, encouraged not
only by his comrades but by the other children as well. Ricky announced that the child was filling in
for him and that he would act as referee, then retreated and shouted “Go!” to
signal the beginning of the game.
Instantly the court was filled with the sounds of cheering and shouting
as the children began jumping around the child, some trying to steal the ball
from him, while others, his teammates, tried to get him to toss it over to
them.
What the girl saw next startled her out of
her wits: the child, after looking from the other players to the hoop on the
end, released the ball. However, instead
of falling the ball floated in mid-air, as if suspended by magic. The other children stopped running around and
stared at the ball, jaws nearly reaching the floor. Slowly, deliberately, and very calmly the boy
stared at the ball; he was apparently the one controlling this feat of magic. His hands dropped to his sides and his brow
creased, as if in concentration. The
orange basketball floated upwards and over the players, hovering over to the
hoop. When it was directly over it the
boy relaxed and his face regained its normal composure. The ball then began to fall normally and fell
through the hoop, making a satifying swish
as it fell through the hoop and the net attached to it. The ball bounced harmlessly on the concrete
floor and eventually stopped, rolling a few feet to the side before it stopped
completely. The child looked to Ricky
expectantly, asking if he did it right.
Everyone else stared at the child, flabbergasted. No one made a sound.
The tense atmosphere was broken as the other
two ran over to the child and scooped him up in their collective arms,
muttering cries of panic as they dashed off and around the corner, leaving the
players and spectators stupefied. Some
let out cries of wonder, while others began asking themselves how something
like that could be done. The girl,
meanwhile, had wordlessly shot back up and in the direction of the fleeing
strangers. Her time working for the Tribune had mustered a nagging sense of
curiosity in her, and her desire to investigate this phenomenon was far too
great to be ignored.
When she rounded the corner she spotted the
threesome, slightly out of breath and with panicked looks on their faces. The girl retreated and peered around the
corner, placing her hands on the side of the brick building she was adjacent
to. The child was looking rather
confused and somewhat hurt that his fun had been interrupted. When he asked what he did wrong, the girl
bent down and placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to flash a warm smile.
“It’s just that not many people have PSI like you do.” she said through heaving
breaths. “When they saw you use your telekinesis they got scared.”
Telekinesis? PSI? The girl’s curiosity flared
and her grip on the building became tighter.
She unconsciously began to hold her breath. The teenager, who was also apparently the
leader of the group, looked to the child with a look that screamed, “Don’t ever
do that again!” Those just also happened to be the first words out of his
mouth, and when the child asked why, the teenage boy kneeled and looked into
his friend’s eyes, his face changing from scolding-mode to parental
concern-mode. “It’s just…try not to show your powers in public like that, okay?
No one really knows about PSI, so it scares them.” The child looked down at the
ground and assented, visibly disappointed with the way things turned out.
The girl looked at the trio with a mixed
sense of wonder and confusion. Her mouth
hung wide open and she didn’t take her eyes off of them for a second. However, her silent admiration was interrupted
by a slight tugging at her ankle. When
she looked down to see what it was she saw the small monkey from before, who
was pulling at her pants and waving cheerily.
It chattered happily and seemed completely oblivious to the fact that
she was spying on the unusual group of kids.
Despite herself she let out a gasp and released the building, drawing
the attention of the others. The
observer and the observed stood like that for a second, invaded by an awkward
lack of words.
The girl shifter her eyes to either side and
began laughing, somewhat embarrassed. “Uh, heheh…don’t mind me, I’m just…you
know…” her gaze shot down to the monkey and she pointed accusingly at it. “Your
pet monkey brought me over here.” The teenage boy looked to his companions
warily and stepped up to the girl, his face visibly expressing caution. “Who are
you?” he asked simply, arms akimbo. The
girl noticed the presence of a dull green tattoo on his right hand. She tried to keep her cool in front of the
boy, who could have been an alien or a ghost or something worse. She took a deep breath and steadied herself.
“I saw what happened back there.” she stated. “I just…want to know what all
that ‘PSI’ and ‘telekinesis’ stuff is about.”
The boy countered almost instantaneously.
“You were eavesdropping.” his tone was flat but accusatory. The girl shook her head and raised a hand.
“No! Really! All I want is to talk to you for a second!” Now the other girl,
the one with the goggles, stepped up to her and grabbed the boy’s arm. “Look,
I’m real sorry and everything, but we have to go now, you know? We’re busy.” She
was obviously trying to get rid of the ‘unwanted company’, it showed in her
tone. The girl once again shook her
head. “Look, just give me a minute, okay? I won’t hurt you or turn you in to
NASA or anything.” The teenage boy raised an eyebrow. “NASA?” he queried. The girl shrugged. “You are…human, aren’t
you?”
The boy was visibly confused by the question,
as if not even he had thought of that.
Still, he answered with a curt, “Yes” and his hands curled into
fists. “Listen, just forget what you
saw, alright? We don’t—” the boys speech was abruptly interrupted as his
stomach growled loudly. His eyes
bulged. While the other two didn’t react
as violently, it was obvious that they were hungry as well. In this the girl saw an opening.
“If you tell me what I want to know…I’ll give
you food.” Despite herself the girl sounded like she was talking to a wild
animal. Then again, she didn’t know
whether these people really were people,
so the tone seemed appropriate. Even so
the others noticed her apparent, subconscious condescendence and refused to let
their guard down. The offer was
tempting, though…
The teenage boy looked over to his
companions, then back to the girl.
Something about the way he looked seemed unusual to the girl…almost
familiar. After a few seconds he nodded.
“Fine. Deal.” he said blankly. “We’ll tell you what you want to know, but you
have to promise not to tell anybody.”
The girl beamed and placed her right hand over her heart, a little more
confident now. “Scout’s honor, I ask only for the satisfaction of my own
curiosity.” her tone drifted from that of someone talking to a child to that of
someone talking to a superior. Her
heartbeat quickened ever so slightly and she couldn’t help but smile. As if to close the deal she offered her hand. The boy, after a second of silent hesitation,
took it and shook it firmly.
“Great then.” The girl grabbed the boy’s arm
and began to lead him away. “Let’s go.”