BLACKOUT

Chapter 12- dont pull the springs

"Of course miss black and miss... whatever your last name is." Officer Gustus says, with a scrunched up snout.
Officer Dantae wasn't too mad, but he wasn't too pleased either.
"You've done it again Ava! No more!" Officer Dan says.
She looked my way with a small smile on her face.
"Fine... I only wanted to watch the sunrise and the sunset with Panic, you know." Ava groans.
We both sat with our shelter-mates at the lunchroom table.
"Why am I eating cat food!?" Charlotte yelps, pushing the bowls away from the table.
"Uh, because that's all they have I guess?" Taro says.
"Nobody asked Taro, it was a rhetorical question, gosh you are so stupid!"
Taro then gives her a dirty look and moves away.
I saw Sherbert sitting with some other girls at another table. Not sure why she was talking to the other shelter animals but, that doesn't matter.
What we ate for lunch was jackfruit and potato mix with asparagus and water. I was used to the herbivore foods and I didn't mind them. Eating meat was the only tradition we had to ditch because eating another animal is now for some reason considered cannibalism.
Taro seemed to like it. Jaquelin, not so much.
Before coming here, I pictured the place to be a whole absolute mess since we're all animals, but it was the complete opposite. Everyone was treated quite well in this place.
I started to think about some things outside of this place, only to remember I was supposed to teach my first dance lesson yesterday. Oh how could I have forgotten?! It would be devastating to know the poor children hearing they couldn't start their new dance term with their learning teacher. Oh well, someone else will take over.
I was in deep thought. I wondered how my friends were going, what they could possibly be doing right now. I almost fell asleep thinking about what they could possibly be doing but the sound of a bloodcurdling scream had saved me from doing so.
I whipped around to see what was going on, eyes still slightly drowsy from last night. Suddenly everyone was sprinting upstairs to the shelter block so I hopped up and followed. I tripped over the stairs and slid down backwards from trying to get up and was being trampled by the feet of the curious prisoners. I pulled myself back up and jogged upstairs to see what was happening.
Maybe I should have stayed back down because what I saw was terrifying.
There a Chihuahua dog sat, being beaten and stabbed by other shelter mates as she screamed and begged for help. I would have expected the police and the other shelter mates to try to stop but they all either stood and watched or cheered on the bullies who had been hurting her. Blood poured out from parts of her body and all over the floor. It was only about five seconds after she then lost her breath and fell to the ground dead. I felt that this was way too brutal for someone who had just made a mistake.
"You just killed her!?" I screamed.
The killer just smiled and laughed.
"Well, yeah for a good reason! She killed baby cows and lambs and sold them as vegetarian foods to restaurants. Ya think she doesn't deserve it?"
That definitely changed my view on the girl.
The chihuahua's body was dragged out of the room and her blood was pouring out onto the floor, possibly staining it.
I stood and watched only to realise that that wasn't a rhetorical question.
"Well?" they said.
"Of course they do... that's a horrible crime to commit."
It always feels very uncomfortable when people ask questions like that because I don't like having to say someone deserves something like what happened to them but, it is karma.
"Well, Panic can't judge that situation really, can she? She's killed people before!"
It was Madam Cairn.
I didn't think that they would care as much and that they would be used to people who have killed others but no.
The one who killed the Chihuahua was a crocodile. She was slightly taller than me.
The crocodile swiftly jolted towards me and bashed my head into the wall. Her humid breath spoke softly into my ears, but it felt icy and crisp as she slowed down her words.
"Oh Panic, you must not know a thing about this place! Do you? Do you not understand how we treat life and virginity stealers here? Well... we don't treat them well. Not at all."
She looked me straight in the eyes. Her pink iris glared into my soul, like she was a mage trying to curse me.
"You took her life though. Why's that any different for you?"
I shouldn't have asked that question. I should have known the answer.
"Because I was ordered to? What kind of question is that!?"
She took her arm off from under my chin and backed away.
"I should have known that. Apologies." I replied.
"Whatever. Just expect that this could get worse for you now that we know. It doesn't matter that we're all fucking criminals. Understand?"
I just nodded. No proper reply.
"Good."
I went back to the shelter block to see Charlotte, Jaquelin, Ava and Taro sitting on the sides of the bunk beds watching TV. They looked super intrigued in what was on the television for some reason. As I walked a bit closer it looked like a horse standing outside the Karglia castle and apparently, this was live.
"Witnesses say that she was sitting all by herself on a bench at the Xilton shopping centre when suddenly she had stood up and went to go attack the other pedestrian which led them being put in the royal scarlian hospital which was about two hours away from where the incident took place."
The horse was surrounded by guards. One thing I noticed was that they had a massive random purple splotch on the side of their ear, similar to my splotch above my eye.
"Catrina says that as the attack happened, she could barely feel movement or see and that the next time she visited a bathroom, she found to have developed a light grey eye colour than her original amber eyes, but royal services have found that this had no relation to the incident."
I thought to myself, 'what!? That's just like me! Dad, me, Magenta, my uncle... they all had light grey eyes and splotches on their faces! Could this mean something?'
I knew they were all connected once I saw this news but I knew that no leading role person would believe me if I mentioned how related these were.
I saw Ava point at the screen and look at me in a gobsmacked way.
"That's what happened to me. Exactly what happened to me!"
Charlotte then tossed her head to face my way. She rolled her eyes in disgust.
"Yeah nah that doesn't work that way. That horse is an assaulter and you're a murderer. Nothing else happened." She said as she swivelled back the other way to face the TV.
After about two seconds she turned back my way again.
"And besides, didn't you cut your little sister's fingers off? And your brother's ears off?"
That sparked a terrifying memory in my head.
It was January, the summer school holidays. About 6 years ago is the closest I can remember. I was only twelve years old. I was in a pale grey tank-top with two tight- ribbons tied on the side and jet black low-rise shorts. Mum was upstairs in her room reading her favourite book; 'tragedies in Clyforde Hill' which was based on a suburb on the Morante islands. I was helping out Karma and Kaos with a special holiday homework task they had to complete. It was some kind of science experiment.
We tested the project out a few times. It was all going well! But not for long.
I started to lose breath and eye-sight as we were watching the project do its thing. My brother and sister started to notice I was looking a bit funny and I was starting to look woozy.
"Panic are you alright?"
I then couldn't see or talk at all and that's when I started to panic. I knew I was going to have another blackout so I tried to rush outside but I couldn't see. My head was filled with loud voices speaking all over the place and I couldn't find myself at all. I rushed around until my body stopped moving. My siblings' voices started to fade out until I couldn't hear any more. I was terrified of what my body was going to do.
"Panic! Go outside! Oh she can't see? Help her! Oh my god n-"
That was it. I had no idea what was going on. All I could hear was older men with British accents talking to each other but I couldn't even make out what they were saying. I was too stressed out.
Next thing is that I hear screaming.
My eyes started to bring back its sight but it was extremely blurry. I found myself on the floor covered with blood on my hands and knees.
In Front of me were two crying children. One's ear was non-stop bleeding while the other's paws were spurting with blood.
Their cries became immensely noisy. I saw my mother looking at me with a distressed look on her face as she called the ambulance.
I couldn't even process what I had done yet. I felt so droopy and tired.
When the ambulance arrived one of them was scolding me while my siblings were being taken to hospital. It took such a long process that I couldn't even feel emotion. I just blocked out everything.
"Why the fuck would you do that? To your own siblings?! What the fuck is wrong with you? Hey, are you even listening to me?"
He was getting frustrated because I didn't even look at him.
"You nasty bitch."
At the Royal Scarlian hospital I was with my siblings. They were in the same ward together and were bandaged up in the areas where they were hurt. There were no other seats so I kneeled on the side of Kaos' bed.
I couldn't even look at them. I felt so bad. Now Karma won't be able to hear as well anymore and Kaos won't be able to use four whole fingers. I just stuffed my face in the side of the bed until we were ready to leave to go home.
But I didn't go home. I went to Callie's house.
Both Callie and Magenta were big fans of technology, robotics, architecture and programming/ hacking so they worked together a lot in their tech classes.
They took a course together doing robotics and programming at the Technology and robotics college of Karglia while doing a different course in technology and building at Scarlett College and they had an assignment for their robotics classes to create some sort of mechanical robot and to program it to show their understanding of how it works.
I remembered that Magenta was showing the inside of their little animatronic they are making which they call a mech which has a lot of weird sharp edges and buttons known as spring locks. They told me they can be very dangerous.
"They are very sensitive and even the slightest movements can activate them so you have to be very careful with them. If someone were to wear it and activate them then it would pierce the skin very deeply."
I knew this would be a perfect way to punish myself for hurting my siblings.
I snuck into the house and found the small prototype. This one wasn't made to be worn but it fit just about perfectly for a young wolf my age.
I slid the mech arm onto mine very carefully and it was just a bit bigger than my own arm. I tried not to move too much because I didn't want to set it off yet. That's when I grabbed Magenta's water bottle and counted down from ten to prepare myself for the locking. I was scared, but I knew I deserved it. Even though it wasn't my fault.
"Ok Panic... you can do it... ten... nine... eight... "
My arm felt numb even before it was locked.
"four...three... two..."
"One!"
A large droplet of water splashed onto the mech and before I knew it, blood oozed out of my arm as the locks stabbed deeply into my skin. It was intensely painful and I had let out the loudest scream the whole neighbourhood could hear me. I was breathing heavily as I pulled out the mech from my arm. Blood clots were stuck on the spikes and the holes looked deeper than a sinkhole.
The bleeding became excessive as the metals left my arm and it had dropped swiftly onto the floor, staining the concrete.
Luckily, Callie wasn't home and neither were her parents. Because that would have been embarrassing and because I practically trespassed their home.
But what made it even more embarrassing was that the neighbours were home.
The owners of the house right next to Callie's had stormed outside and just stared in shock as they saw me on the floor with blood pouring out of my arm.
This neighbourhood was North Scarlett, the beach area behind the city and near the docklands. I barely knew anyone in this suburb.
"Oh my dear what happened?" one of the older neighbours said as she rushed over to look at my arm. She was a cream and brown owl and wore a white flowery blouse and wide-legged baby blue pants.
"I had an accident. My friend Callie uh... told me to look after her mechs." Obviously, I couldn't tell her the real reason.
"Oh dear, those are very deep wounds, young lady! How did this happen? Hey,Eunice? Could you please get some water and wipes? This young lady has very deep cuts!" She yells to the other neighbour who I assumed was her granddaughter.
"Okay!" the younger owl said and then ran back into her own house.
"How did you manage to get these cuts? I'm a bit old so I don't really know how this stuff works haha."
I had to slightly tell the truth for her to know.
"I accidentally activated the springlocks on the mech and they stabbed my arm in the opposite way."
She looked confused.
"Spring... locks?"
"Yeah! They're a kind of human technology. I don't really understand them as much either but they're the little sharp bits and when they activate they slide in."
The owl's granddaughter rushed over and plopped the materials next to her. She grabbed the water bottle and poured water over the blood; making it fall down my arm and onto the concrete.
"Take off your shirt sweetheart. I'll get Eunice to go wash it for you."
Sadly, this was one of my most favourite shirts and it was covered with blood stains. It was a t-shirt that my father gave me before he was taken away from us.
I removed the shirt as the old owl continued to fix the wounds. After about two minutes of cleaning I heard my phone vibrate. It was mum.
"Oh mum's calling." I said.
I opened the call and I could hear my mum panting aggressively through the speaker.
"Panic? Are you okay? Where are you?" She says.
"Mum! I'm okay? But, are you okay?"
"Yes! Yes I am, I've just been stressed! Where are you?"
"I'm in North Scarlett and am at Callie's home."
"Why are you at Callie's home?!"
"Callie wanted me to check on the animatronics but I accidentally let off the spring locks and it locked in my arm. The neighbour is helping me clean it up right now. I'm okay though! It was just an accident."
The owl lady gestured to herself to ask if she could speak on the phone so I nodded which then she took the phone and held it near her beak.
"Hello! This is Callie's neighbour, Ange. We heard your daughter scream so we came to help her. It seems these cuts are very deep but none of us know how to do stitches. They could get very infected. Where are you now?"
"We are in the city so we aren't too far from North Scarlett. I'll come and get her now. Thank you Ange."
Ange told the exact address as we waited for my mother to come and pick me up. I was afraid that she would suspect that Callie's animatronics needed to be checked.' wasn't the reason why I came here. And well, she did.
"Hello Ange, I'm Anx. Thank you so much for taking care of Panic." Mum says as she does a little Xanixir bow. I do the same.
"Oh it's alright! I hope you get better soon and please be careful with those little things okay? Bye!" Ange says as we leave to get in the car.
Mum looked furious. But also sad.
"I know that Callie didn't ask that of you."
I didn't reply.
"What was the real reason you went there Panic?"
I chose silence.
"What was the real reason you were springlocked Panic?"
There were too many questions. I didn't want to answer but I also wanted to. I couldn't lie to my mother, I thought. But I already did. I had to tell her but I was too scared to.
There were a few seconds of silence and then she pulled over and turned to the back seat. I was scrunched up with my arms crossed.
"Is it because you felt bad for your brother and sister?"
I nodded. She had to know. Even though it was an accident, I still had to be punished. It's just how life works. People make mistakes and they have to pay for them. That's why I did it to myself. But not all mistakes are bad mistakes and not all of them deserve punishment. But I knew that all mine did.
"Panic. Please stop doing this to yourself. It was only an accident. You didn't mean it."
I looked at her with an agitated look on my face.
"But I feel bad! I can't just hurt someone and expect nothing to come back to me!? I don't care if it wasn't intentional."
She took a deep breath in and sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and then slowly turning to the back seat.
"Panic, you have enough scars now. You're going to have springlock scars on your arm now." She says as she grabs my hand.
"Oh well. Too bad." I replied as I flung my head back at the seat.
Mum continued driving and we sat in silence. I sat leaning on the window as I watched us pass through the Great Karglia bridge which had three different roads with two having train lines on the roofs. We were on the second bridge layer so I looked up to see one of the trains hanging from under the road. It was very different and cool looking. One side of the bridge looked out into the waters and the docks where all the boats are while the other side was the big city and you could see Karglia castle in the middle of the city. You could also see the Tarik castle top from a more far distance to the south.
As we were driving through Drismond I could see mum's ears prick up behind her seat as she turned to pull over to the side of the road. I recognised the area. I knew someone who lived here but I don't remember who. It wasn't too far from Evewood, my suburb. It was only about four train stops after Evewood.
Mum then turns around and looks at me. She looks around the car, like she is thinking of something. She then finally has straight eye contact with me.
"Panic."
"Do you remember anyone named Zephyr?"