Legacy's Ghost

Episode 10: My New Home

Trina points to four doors at the end of the hallway. "The ghouls each have separate rooms. She gestures to each door as she passes it. "Tercia sleeps here." She points to the left, then to the door on the right. "Grey sleeps here." She goes to the second set of doors and points to the left then the right. "Dove is here, and you are the last door."

She turns the knob to my door and pushes the door open, waving me in with her hand. "This will be your sleeping quarters until the next Trinity is chosen."

I step inside the room and Trina follows me.

"It's not much," she mumbles her eyes darting around the room. Her lips tug downward.

"Where's your bed?"

I follow her eyes. All four walls are made of log timbers, held together by some sort of black pitch. The floors look like they actually have grass growing from them, with a giant boulder in a corner. A bedroll rests against the boulder, tightly rolled together.

I look up and realize there's no roof. Above me it's open sky. Leaves surround

the top of the room, framing it, and rustling with the wind artificially created by fans in the biodome to circulate the air throughout the Legacy compound.

Every so often the sky shimmers, reflecting off the dome that surrounds our entire city and stabilizes the atmosphere.

"It's beautiful," I say, glancing around at my room and the sky.

"Yeah but won't it be cold out here?"

I look at her and shrug. "No worse than sleeping on the tile floors downstairs without a blanket when the snow falls."

Her brows furrow and her lips tug into a frown again. "Why do you think the Ghost has your room looking like this, do you suppose?" She asks.

"Probably because this is what I'll be living in if I become a Ghost." I shrug. "I'll get used to it."

Trina wrinkles her nose. "I prefer my treeouse." She shrugs and shakes her head. "There's a common room the next level up if you decide you need some company. Otherwise, lights are out in an hour."

"Thank you for your help," I say offering a tentative smile.

"You're welcome. And welcome to the TAGs. I'm sure when everyone gives you a chance, they will like you as much as I do." She says with a smile before she disappears into the hallway. Her footsteps sound down the hallway then stop. The sound of girls giggling intensifies then lessons again as she opens and closes the door to the PPN's room.

I close my door and turn around facing my room. It's the first room I've ever had exclusively for me. Something I can call my own. No roommates.

The idea makes me smile, and something inside me loosens--just a bit. I've been fighting for survival for so long I didn't realize how wound tight I was until now.

Moving to the boulder, I grab the bedroll, untie it, and lie it flat on the grass. My head will be near the boulder, and my side against the wall. It's comforting to have something protecting me on at least two sides. I don't have to worry about anything sneaking up from behind me or on that one side.

If I sleep facing the door, I'll see anyone if they come inside.

I pace the perimeter of the room, running my hand along rock's rough texture. It feels kind of like the stone in the tunnels beneath the city.

I count the paces from one end of the wall to the next. Five paces for one wall, six paces for the next wall, five paces for the third, and six paces for the fourth wall. My eyes dart from one wall to the next, checking the room. It looks like a square. Did I miscount?

So I repeat the process. Same numbers. I check for any abnormalities. Did I miss something in this room? My eyes trail up and down looking for any clues to explain why this room is abnormally built. After several minutes the light sconces on the wall dim, and a voice from the hallway yells, "Ten minutes until lights out!"

With one last glance at the wall, I shrug. I guess I'll have to solve that mystery another night.

At my bedroll, I take off my shoes and socks, stuffing a sock in the toe of each foot. I stare at them again and smile. My very own shoes. I place them in the corner, wedged between the boulder and the wall behind me. If anyone decides they want my shoes, they'll have to go through me first.

I take off my clothes and fold them in a neat pile, then dust off the top of the boulder to make sure it's clean before putting my clothes there. Then I slide into my bedroll. The sconces on the wall click off and I'm left in darkness, gazing up at the sky, and watching the occasional shimmer of the dome that creates an iridescent film around our colony.

How many other planets have life on them? I feel so incredibly insignificant when I look at the sky. And yet so incredibly thankful. My eyelids grow heavy, dropping by the minute until I finally I drift off into a dreamless sleep, only to wake with a start a few hours later.