The Metal Children

09 A Shot Of Chivas

Claire sat on the floor of her bedroom of the studio apartment she was sharing with Haru. Her bedroom wasn't the most creatively decorated - in comparison to their minimalist living-room-cum-kitchen and Haru's bedroom, which looked as if Yoko Ono's library bus had vomited into it with posters of bands plastered against the wall, and stack of books littering the floor around her thick, single spring mattress. Claire's bedroom, however, was clean and tidy. Her single bed was close to the wall with a white-framed casement window, and she only had thick, sky-blue comforter set neatly onto the mattress with two large pillows that looked very comfortable. She had a wooden desk in her room, with a desktop computer which she barely had the time and reason to use. A set of Murakami books piled at a corner of her desk, and other books - which comprises of semi-fictional books and motivational books - were arranged neatly behind her desktop monitor.

Her wardrobe, which both doors hung open widely in front of her, was of blue-painted metal. Her clothes were neatly arranged, although not colour-coded. Still, they were better than Haru's wardrobe, which was only a small cabinet with a metal clothing line which housed probably thirty hangers of clothing Claire couldn't even able to remember. Several pieces of clothing were folded in front of her, on the floor. They smelled as fresh as a newly-blooming lavender, from that floral softener Haru had picked up from the supermarket last weekend. She gave a long, heavy sigh, as she pulled them towards her.

It had been quite a tiring day for Claire herself - waking up early after hardly sleeping the a thick duvet on the floor of Refill's living room, rushing to go to her fitness gym for scheduled boxing class, getting back to Refill for her lunch appointment - she refused to call it 'date' - with Kerol, getting back to the gym to train several Bronze Children who was still as weak when it comes to self defense. Claire wasn't really focusing during training, to be honest. Her mind was generally subdued by the unfortunate revelation of Kerol's past.

She laid on her cold bedroom floor as questions overwhelmed her. It was something Kerol never had told her before, and she had never bothered asking. She had been close friends with Kerol for three years, and Kerol helped her and Haru survived in the big city. She had never known his parents, as he never liked to talk about them. She knew he dated a girl at one point of his life, and she had seen the girl several times, if she could remember. Kerol's lover was wonderful, with hair as silver as mercury under the shining sun, and skin as fair as a Japanese child. She had pale lips often coloured with nude-coloured lipstick, and light freckles littered her skin like constellations. Claire remembered her well, but at one point, she disappeared, and Kerol refused to talk about it.

Claire remembered how it was a dark period for Kerol. He refused to see anyone back then, and his face was often clouded with mourning sadness. He refused to go out to even eat with Claire and Haru, let alone to parties, to the movies, or even the park. Claire thought it was only a really bad break-up, since nobody had mentioned death, and Claire knew none of his friends to actually interrogate what really had happened.

Kerol only had come back to his senses about a year ago, when he had a new job - and realized that his wealth will run out, eventually. Claire and Haru knew little about the job, only to have known that he dresses smart enough every day for work, but they were glad for him. Kerol started going out and socialize again, and the gloomy mask that shrouded his entire being disappeared. He never talked about what happened, and both Claire and Haru would rather not remind him of what they thought would ruin him again.

"So, she was killed by a Bender, huh," Claire muttered under her breath, eyes fixed to the white ceiling of her room. "And your mother too. I'm sorry, Kerol."

There was a little hint of guilt as she exhaled a deep breath. Her mind began to wander around the thoughts of The Metal Children and the entire purpose of the organization in which she is currently a part of. Generally, The Metal Children has an objective to protect Benders all around Sarcurs, from the normal civilians who had been taking them to be monsters or worse, demons. She stood strongly by the idea of how Benders are only humans with special abilities and needed to be treated like every other human, but she had no choice anyway. It's not like she could easily convince the entire world that what people call demons are like normal people. You can't tell a lamb that a lion will not eat you.