Bloodline

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

"An amusement park?" I asked.

Keros nodded as we approached the boardwalk just on the other side of the city, jutting right into the ocean. Atop the wooden boards was exactly what I would expect of an amusement park, according to my textbooks anyway. Huge rides from a ferris wheel to a roller coaster, several dozen little tents full of games and food that filled the air with a rich deep fried scent. Lots of people, loads of laughter and joy rippling through the crowd. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

"Whoa," I managed at the sight of it. Keros smiled.

"Ready to check it out?" He asked. I nodded absently, still awed by the actual size of it in person. I followed Keros as we checked in at a front desk and entered the amusement park.

"What'd you want to do first?" Keros asked as he adjusted his wristband. I looked at the flimsy piece of bright purple paper on my wrist before looking up at Keros, amazed.

"I have no idea," I admitted, "You pick." Keros inclined his head, then surprised me when he took my hand and led me to the arcade tent.

We entered into a world of video games. There were hundreds of games to play, from shooting games to claw machines, even a virtual reality set. I couldn't even guess which one to play first, but thankfully Keros took over and led us to a shooting game. It took a few to set up, but once we got into it, it wasn't bad. I wasn't good at the games at all, but thankfully neither was Keros. We jumped from game to game before we headed out and decided to try the rides.

The rides were my favorite part of the park. Especially the fast ones. I could tell Keros wasn't a huge fan of those ones, though, because he tensed whenever we were locked into the ride, but he didn't complain at all the whole time, even when I asked to ride the roller coaster. The roller coaster was the best! It gave you that exhilarating near death experience without the actual death part, which was pretty fucking great. By the time we finished riding, I realized we hadn't actually eaten anything and it was dinner time.

"Let's grab something to eat. Want to sit down or try fair food?" He asked, gesturing to the little carts nearby with vendors selling finger foods.

"I want to try all of it," I said, staring at a huge corn dog-like thing in someone's hand as they walked by. Keros nodded. We hit up a few of the little kiosks for food, going from deep fried stuff like Oreo cookies to exotic things like spicy fried squid. There were so many different kinds of food, but I settled on seafood as a special favorite. There was something so special about it, especially when it was fried or breaded. There was no seafood back at the compound, unless you counted canned tuna. So it was a delicacy I wasn't used to, and I loved it.

Eventually we ended up finding a sit down restaurant, because the fair food wasn't enough to fill me up.

"It's so weird to be able to eat this much," I said, spearing a piece of crab on my fork, "Usually I'd have been forced to stop after that first donut." Keros looked at me.

"They didn't feed you?" He asked. There was a note of anger to his voice.

"They fed us," I said quickly, "Just... the normal amount. They never let us gorge ourselves." Or rather, they never let me gorge myself. I was restricted because of the baby fat that refused to go away. Even if it left me still hungry and aching inside. I had to maintain an appropriate weight in order to be lethal in a fight.

"I wouldn't call eating a meal and some snacks gorging," Keros replied dryly, "Eat as much as you want. Don't let me, or anyone, stop you." I smiled at that, looking down at my food, feeling a giddy wave of delight at being told I could do what I want. Because I'd never been allowed to before.