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A breeze, the type which only existed at the highest altitudes within the city, set tall chimes hanging on the balcony to clattering against one another. The sound was deep and melodic, flowing gently in through the screen door and throughout the disheveled apartment.
The girl knelt on the ground before a shelf filled with CDs and movies, eyes scanning each title. There was nothing she recognized. There was never anything that she recognized and none of them looked appealing. The city was full of boring people who liked boring things.
Annoyed, she got to her feet and stalked over to the screen door, throwing it open and stepping onto the balcony. Wind blew the hem of her white dress around her knees and threw her golden hair whipping about. She squinted down at the streets far below, at the landmarks she recognized and used to navigate the metropolis.
This building had been a dud as well. It was beginning to become frustrating just how much of the city was boring. So many houses and apartments looked so similar, both inside and out. So many were empty, and she hadn’t run into a single person so far. At first, she thought most would have interesting people hiding inside them, but they were probably hiding together somewhere, or they were living on the streets below. She found it odd that the tallest and most secure buildings in the city were completely abandoned.
The young girl peered at the building across the way. With the lack of windows, it was impossible to tell what it held. The possibilities had initially excited her, but having scaled two of the massive apartment complexes, her hope was fading away and she was wondering if there would be anything fun at all.
Standing so close to the chimes, they began to irritate her. She unhooked them and tossed them over the balcony. As they fell, she spoke her Queen’s Light Command, causing a flash to rend the sky and burn the chimes away into dust.
She walked back into the apartment and headed out into the hallway. Several elevators were lined up, but none of them responded to her touch, so she was forced to take the maintenance stairs. She climbed them one at a time, counting each step aloud as she took it. Two landings with twelve steps between each, just like the other floors. And just like the other floors, when she stepped out of the stairwell and into the main hallway, each door was shut and locked.
The girl approached the first door and stretched her hand out. “Champion of the Arena.”
The golden sword fit her palm, then it expanded into the hooked scythe which she preferred. She swung it towards the door, slicing it into pieces as she got out her own building frustration. In a matter of moments, there was a rectangle of space and a pile of steel which she casually stepped over, walking into the apartment.
“Here to take your stuff,” she said, getting a chuckle from herself. No one would hear her, but it was fair to say it, just in case.
Letting the scythe vanish, she threw open one of several doors, which led into a bedroom. She ripped open dresser drawers, throwing the clothes to the floor, muttering about how angry it was making her. Just how boring can you be? There is nothing fun at all in these apartments.
When the drawers were empty, she slammed them shut and pushed the dresser over and turned to the bed. She tossed the pillows around and tried to lift the mattress but it was too heavy. In anger, she jumped on top the bed and tried to break it by stomping down, but she was too light and found delight in jumping higher and higher until she could touch her back to the ceiling.
Feeling exhausted and relieved, she walked out of the bedroom and opened more doors until she found a room filled with shelves. There were a number of movies and books, but they were too high for her to see, so she had to drag a chair from the living room in through the door to stand on. Once she could see their titles, she was once again disappointed.
An alcove off the room had some filing cabinets and a desk which was covered in binders and notebooks. Ordinarily, she would not have given the scene more than a passing glance, but her boredom had grown to a crescendo and she was now desperate for anything she could get her hands on. Any small amusement would be enough distraction.
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Cracking open one of the binders revealed ledgers. Business words she didn’t know, numbers she didn’t care about. The notebooks were mostly empty, but the pages with writing were nearly illegible. It was clearly a woman’s hand and she could hardly stay within the lines.
Tossing them to the ground when she was sick of them, the young girl flipped through a number of the notebooks and binders, then tried a number of the drawers of the desk, finding them locked. She grunted as she tried to rip the brass handles off, but couldn’t even do that, letting out a screech of frustration. “Idiots!” she said, trying to push the desk over and failing. She instead grabbed a desk lamp sitting atop it and whipped it at a wall. Then proceeded to pick up a number of the notebooks as well and throw them as well.
So lost in rage was she, the girl found herself stunned, staring like a deer in headlights when she turned and saw a woman pointing a gun towards her. It had been months since someone had pointed a gun at her and old, horrible memories returned. She forgot about her Commands for several moments as she stared blankly at the person across from her.
“What are you doing in there?” the woman asked with a thick accent. She leaned to her side so she could look into the alcove and see the shattered glass and ripped papers.
The girl began to regain herself and mouthed a Check.
Olya. Age 37. Kara 1. Bara 0.
Despite the gun pointed at her, she relaxed considerably inside. This was likely the woman’s house. She was the first human being the girl had seen in the building which made her far more interesting than everything else she had seen.
“Is this your apartment?” the girl asked.
The woman didn’t move an inch. “It doesn’t matter. Why are you destroying those documents?”
She looked down at the papers and shrugged. “I was mad.” She looked back to the woman. “Are they yours?”
“Why did you come in here?”
“I was bored,” the girl said. What other reason could there be? She took a step towards the woman, but the woman let out a loud yell.
“Stop! No closer or I’ll shoot! I mean it.”
The girl grimaced, fear creeping into her heart. “I’m just a kid.”
“A kid who doesn’t flinch when a gun is pointed at her,” the woman said quickly. “It doesn’t matter how old you are, you’re no more innocent than anyone else in this city. We’re all sinners and we can trust no one. It’s our divine punishment.”
The girl’s fear melted away and she let out a small breath. “Oh, so you’re a crazy lady. Well, what is your Command?”
The woman stood still, her mouth pursed tightly shut. The girl waited a few moments with an expectant look on her face, then she raised her eyebrow. “Earth to crazy lady? What is your Command?”
Slowly, deliberately, the woman began to lower her gun. “Leave. Go back to wherever you came from and don’t come back. I don’t care if you’re a child, you’re not my responsibility.”
“Um, are you even listening? What is your Command?”
“Don’t push your luck, girl. I’m giving you the chance to walk out.” The woman’s gun was at her side, but her hand still clutched it tight, a finger cautiously hovering over the trigger. “If you don’t plan on leaving, I’ll shoot you. This isn’t a joke.”
She glared at the woman’s stern face and furrowed her own brow to match her. Just because she was older, she thought she could tell her what to do. The woman expected her to do whatever she said without question. That’s how the world worked before she had been brought into this city. Before Agona had allowed her to be reborn.
If the woman didn’t have a gun, she could have more fun with her, but she could sense the woman’s fear, sense that she really wanted to shoot her. She hadn’t been in this situation since entering the city and it suddenly dawned on her why that was. “Wait, Olya, guns weren’t allowed in Agona. If this is your house, why did you have one?”
“How do you...” the woman began, then lifted the gun up once more. “I don’t have to answer you. Get out. Now!”
“Were you hiding it or did you take it from someone? Are there more?”
“This is your last warning.” Olya’s finger curled around the trigger. She took a gentle step backwards, gesturing out of the apartment with her head. “Go!”
The young girl let out a sigh and started out of the room. The woman clenched up and tried telling her to slow down, but the girl let out a sound of frustration. “Don’t yell at me, I’m doing what you’re telling me to, okay? So just shut up!”
“Where are you going?” Olya called after her as she approached the threshold of the hallway.
She spun on her heel and opened her eyes wide at the woman. “Really? Are you serious? Do you want me to leave or not? You act all angry and threaten to kill me and now you want to know where I’m going? Why should I answer you after you were so mean?”
The woman lowered her gun to her side. “I’m sorry. I’m just...aren’t you scared?”
“No,” the girl said.
They met eyes for several heartbeats. She turned to head into the hallway, but decided that she was done with this dumb building. She had finally found someone and they were crazy. The other apartments would be like the dozens she had already sifted through and just disappoint her. She was better off finding something more entertaining to do.
“Divine-” she began, but a sound reached her ears.
She contorted her face, trying to keep steady. Pain wracked her head and soared through her body but even as the sound consumed her, she found a smile on her face. “Yes!” she yelled, though the words were lost to everyone, even herself in the maelstrom of sensory distortion. “Another one! Finally!”