Bits and Pieces

Evanesce: Chapter 1

The warm summer sun shone down on me as I walked to the train station on my way home from school. It felt good to finally be on summer break and have nothing to worry about.

The clumped crowd surrounding me started to from a semi-straight line as the train master headed down our way, scanning our NAOLs to identify us as citizens of New Andesia and to electronically purchase our tickets so that we may board the train. NAOL stood for New Andesian Official License, and every citizen received one at age 11, when you were old enough to travel on your own and start primary school. I handed the train master my NAOL when he reached my spot in line.

“Brooke Waters?” he asked.

“That's me,” I answered as he handed it back to me and I climbed the steps to the entrance of the large train.

Every train in our city of Dunsworth was fashioned in the same way: The outside was plain and simple, painted a dark black with holographic ads displayed on the windows, but the inside was a totally different story. The soft leather seats were spread out throughout the whole train, with large Monitors in front of each one and in the middle car was the nutrition center, to keep passengers refreshed and feeling well. My favorite part of the train, however, was the ceiling, which displayed a digital image of the night sky, full of stars, constellations, and planets. It was always relaxing to be able to lean back in my seat and just stare up at the sky after a long day at school.

Today was no different. I was glad to just be able to relax without any disruptions, and as I gazed up at the ceiling, I felt myself dozing off.

“Excuse me, Miss!”

A hand tapped me on the shoulders and I opened my eyes to find a lady of about seventy staring at me. Her almost white hair was tangled in a giant mess and her light blue sweater had a giant coffee stain on the collar.

“Do you happen to live in the old Stratzford place?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said.

The Stratzfords were the family who had lived in the house before us. They had moved out of Dunsworth when Mr. Stratzford had received a job offer in Ellork and had to leave suddenly. We moved in shortly after, only a year ago, when I was fourteen and my brother and sister were nine.

“Well... has anything, ummm, unnatural happened since you moved in?” she asked curiously.

“No...?” I said, confused.

The old lady glanced around before bending closer to whisper in my ear, “When you get home, open this,” she said, handing me a scroll. “Don't open it until you're sure that you're alone. They have eyes everywhere and they're monitoring you. Don't trust anyone but yourself.” She walked away.

“Wait! What do you mean?” I turned around, but she was gone. She seemed to have vanished, which was impossible of course. A person couldn't just vanish into midair. In school, you were taught that any living mass couldn't just disappear; it was against the laws of the universe.

I must've just looked the wrong way, I thought. Yeah, that's it. There's no way something could just vanish.

From an early age, those us who lived in the cities of New Andesia were taught that everything had an answer. There were no such things as magic or ghosts, and there were no such things as supernatural events. That was all entertainment and not to be taken seriously. If you believed in magic or thought you saw something unexplainable, you would be sent off to a mental treatment facility, never to be heard from again. At those places, there were no Monitors you could use to communicate with your friends and family, and you were never allowed to leave. Once admitted to a mental facility, you stayed there for the rest of your life. Therefore, one of the lessons you learned quickly was to not talk about, or even joke about such things, because if you did, you would end up with a lifetime of solitude and loneliness.

The train came to a screeching halt at the station as I quickly hid the scroll the lady had given me under my shirt. I quickly decided that once I got home, I would burn it; there was no point in getting involved in this lady's craziness, and would only bring me trouble. Still, something about that scroll intrigued me, and I was wondering if the lady was telling the truth and if there was indeed something strange going on at my house.

I quickly exited the train and walked down the sidewalk towards my house, where the purple flowers out front gave me a feeling of peacefulness and normality. Every city in New Andesia had an official color: Hasten was blue, Ellorck was green, Cafhaven was yellow, Neccol was orange, and Dunsworth was purple. Each family was required to have plants of their town's color in front of their house to show their loyalty, so when we first moved in we planted purple lilacs out in front of our new house. Also in front of our house was the National Flag of New Andesia, blue, green, yellow, orange, and purple stripes in the background to represent the five cities with a white lion in the foreground to represent strength.

As I walked in the front door, I was greeted by the familiar sight of my family sitting at the table waiting for me to join them for dinner.

“Hold on, I'll wash up,” I said, heading to the bathroom.

I reached my hand to the handle to turn on the faucet, hearing the warm water rush into the sink as I poured some of the liquid soap into my other palm. I washed my hands quickly, until all the dust and dirt from today was gone. Realizing I still had the scroll with me, I hurried to my bedroom, hiding the yellowed paper under my fluffy white pillow.

I rejoined my family for dinner, where they were already discussing the events of their day in between mouthfuls of homemade spaghetti.

“How was school today?” my father asked me.

“Good. I'm so glad we're on break now. I don't have any projects to stress out about!” I replied with an excited grin.

“Honey, how was work today?” my mother asked my dad.

“It was okay, I guess. Some strange man came in asking to talk to the boss. We kept telling him we needed to see his NAOL but he wouldn't show it to us. Security finally showed up to take him away, but by the time they showed up, he was already gone.”

“That's weird!” said my sister.

I couldn't help but wonder if maybe the strange man and the warning the weird lady gave me were connected in some way. After a while though, I managed to convince myself that it was all just a coincidence. After all, our town was about as normal as you could get.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey guys so this is the first chapter.. Hope you enjoyed!