Garnet | KTH

5. First Day

As I escaped the threshold that was my town, the green haired man lead me to a car.

It was painted a bright white, almost blinding underneath the sunlight. The door handles were made of silver, and the lights an attractive shape, making the car have more of an edge. It was the strangest piece of machinery I had ever seen. Seeing it from afar looked like a floating box, up-close it looked like something from an alien planet.

"Get in." he said firmly, and I nodded before opening the door and sitting inside.

As we began to move, it felt like I was gliding through air as we drove up a winding ramp that led to the floating city. I watched as the blue sky filled with puffy clouds met the rolling green hills and water, that surrounded my town. My mouth hung open at its beauty.

I had never seen it like this before. 

It was beautiful, green, colourful and clean.

As we entered Onavale, I gazed at buildings of various sizes, with the sun kissing the top of them, and upon everything. 

It was like heaven from how bright it was, unlike my town below; dark and eerie from lack of sunlight.

Large and small homes lined along parts of the city, with brown, black and shiny roofs. The windows looked as if it was made of solid ice from how clean they were.

People with different coloured hair wore clean, sophisticated clothes, as they walked the streets heading to work. My eyebrows raised in surprise, to see no one in rags roaming the sidewalks, and sleeping on the ground. It appeared everyone was rich here, as if poor people were were just non-existent.

Instead, those people filled the mud-filled ground below.

The silver streets that the car followed wound and snaked throughout the city, almost like tree branches. The green haired man turned, and turned, eventually following another silver branch which led to the tallest and widest home here.

The man stopped the car, parking it in the black road in front of the house along with several other cars. He opened his door then stepped out, and I did the same.

"This is the house of the Order, we call it headquarters." The man said. "You will be working and staying here from now on."

My eyes roamed the mansion with a quirked brow. The house was made of white and perfectly smooth concrete with a black and reflective roof. Orange illuminated through the glass windows, evoking a warm and comforting feeling. I gazed in awe, never before seeing anything so rich in my life.

It was like living a dream.

The green haired man headed toward the house and I tailed him, until we entered a door through the back, where it was much dirtier and older looking than in the front. The concrete was cracked, and the door's metal handle was orange with rust.

I assumed this was the place for the slaves.

Once I stepped inside, I was met with maids and slaves in grey dresses, and their coloured hair tied back. They ran around eating breakfast, cooking food on the large stove nearby, and talking to each other—that is, until I entered.

They all stopped, and movement and sound halting. They were frozen, pale and shocked all at once, taking in my form and watching my every move. It was as if they were waiting for a lion to pounce on its prey.

The room drowned in an awkward silence of staring, before the man spoke. "This is Ms. Park, she's going to be the new slave for Mr. Kim," he said patiently. 

I gulped, meeting the eyes of the shocked Gems.

"I'll leave her to you." The man said, turning around and leaving.