Center of Attention

Dragged Along

     It was like a sudden rush. Suddenly I was alive, back in my body as my back lied zigzagged across my plaid sheets. At first, I felt normal, turning in my sheets a few times to keep the warmth, but then my hands gripped my story journal. The story called "Center of Attention" had lied bare inside, the words on the pages scarring me much worse than anyone else could right now. I had rushed out of my room. When my face met Firstien's, I saw the same unguided joy of being numb to what happened. If I showed him the book, he would understand. If I showed him what I knew, he would suddenly spur to his feet and try a number of ways to get to Ortim no matter how long it took.
     That's what I saw in his eyes when his hands gripped his sheets after hearing the beginning lines of my story for the fourth time now.

     I went through my hair, touching the pointed vine that was hidden within it. Just from the sight of this room, I knew nothing had changed. Not a single picture in the skyscrapers was different than it was when I woke up on this morning the first time, and I felt my heart quickening at the thought. I pulled out my Vigva. God, it was hard to stare at after being out in the trees for so long, but I passed over Sobollum's name all the same with a sense of passion rather than the fear that was driving up my throat. I called him. I didn't even have my hair brushed, yet I was calling the one man that dragged me to Hell and back. It was starting to get to the point where I didn't care about breaking the rules.
     Sobollum answered, white hair just as messy as mine. "Hello?"
     The words had escaped my mouth. "Allovis nogah taeum." I was sure that's what Smallik had said to disguise and remove it from himself. Sobollum stood upright, shaken as his ears began to poke through his hair. He gulped in a sense of panic.
     "So, you've been." That's all he managed to say.
     I nodded. "I'm alive, and I'm not going to die to that asshole again. Do you know the quickest way to Ortim? At all?" Ogillitiy had this stare of disbelief. I had to get there, to see if Smallik was okay. If he was, then I was going to find a way to save the world.
     "Have you tried the vine in your hair? Viobin could help you. She's the immortal faery queen."
     I clutched my heart. It worked for her, so that was a sure sign that it had worked for us. I hoped. There was a part of me that was scared of death, but I was more afraid to see Smallik lose his own life.
     "Get here," I demanded Sobollum. "You're coming with me." I turned to Ogillitiy. "Pack a bag of clothes and make sure to keep your black book on you at all times. We might need that black magic."
     Half the words I was saying were complete gibberish to anyone from 9127, but the both of them understood like it was running silver through their ears. They left, and I rushed to get my own bag. My knife stained in Eldritch blood was still at my side, but my gun I cherished to protect me was no longer there. I managed to pull on a bullet proof vest. Despite my initial protests, I knew that someone else had a gun, and they were prepared to shoot the Center no matter what was going to happen. If I wasn't immortal like Viobin, then I was fucked. Royally, absolutely fucked.
     Our front door opened. Sobollum came in just as disheveled as the rest of us, potions of different colors tied under his belt like he was ready to unleash them on anyone he'd see fit. I've never seen an elf with such prowess. Who am I kidding? I've never seen an elf. I called for Ogillitiy, and he came rushing with the black book heavily in his grip to the point to where his knuckles were white.
     I squeezed the tip of the vine. It suddenly spurred from my head, wrapping around my bed until the force was so strong that it crushed it into wooden pieces. But I saw it. The grass was yellowed on the other side, and the trees I had known to be luscious were few in number and the leaves were all black though no one had touched them. The future didn't change.
     I went in first, feet hitting the yellow grass with a frown on my face. Unlike the normal dozen of faeries, there were three or four running around, whispering out names to each other as they saw us. They weren't the normal blues that I was used to. They all had tinted yellow skin or orange, like they were also losing color along with place. This was Viagos, the land of the faeries. It was dying, and so was the rest of the world. I guided Ogillitiy and Sobollum through the landscape. I knew it now. Every tree, though it was now dying, had stayed in the same spot for the period of the time lapse. That was good. At least the faery populace wasn't completely wiped out.
     "You came back."
     I swiftly turned my head around, but I wasn't quick enough. Two blue arms tugged on me tightly as I fell into her chest, and she held me there for a long moment before realizing that my son and my coworker had been standing behind me with awed faces. Yeah, we knew each other, but I also knew that she was the same person that led us to our almost demise. As I got to look at her face, nothing about her changed. She was as young as she was back in 4025, her eyes full of shine. I smiled as I knew that she had finally stopped worrying about the condition of her people.
     "I did," I sighed in relief. "But I won't be here for long. I need to get to Ortim."
     "Is that safe for you?" she asked with wide eyes. "Ortim is a city of death filled with nothing but hate."
     "Smallik is still there. I have to save him."
     "And then what? How are you going to fix all the problems in the world after you get him?"
     The words that Giartt had said to me before had rang in my mind. "I... might have to kill someone, if not more than one if it comes down to it."
     "Then..." She hesitated for a moment before her voice rang through the dying trees. "Then I'm coming with you. My people's legacy is at stake, their lives are falling apart right between my fingers and only few of us are left. It's better than none, I'll say, but I fear that almost all of my powers have been exhausted to the point of no return."
     I had never seen Viobin leave except when she grabbed Smallik. I was surprised that she even did that, but now I knew that everything around us was changing in little waves because of our journey. There were some faeries left. They weren't all gone because Viobin was able to stay alive to tell them to keep their wits about them. I nodded. A vine from her own hair extended outwards until it formed a portal to a city covered in grey. Orcs and dwarves and anyone else that I could see that wasn't walked the streets in rags, faces ahead with eyes full of worry. The skyscrapers were cracked in every direction, the world itself falling apart like it was just nothing.
     "Allovis nogah taeum." I heard the words from Ogillitiy, and his body was covered in a strange light for a moment. I saw the splotches of pink in his skin, and his eyes were overcast in a dark color with speckles of brown from what I was used to seeing. He had small dragonfly wings rather than large ones that Smallik had. I smiled, knowing this is what he really looked like.
     We stepped through into the throng of walking traffic. There were no cars on the cracked streets, just people begging for food with cups pointed at passing strangers. I saw many non-human races that just all looked petrified to be here, and the only signs of humans were Enforcers that purposely pulled women closer to them. I was disgusted to see it, their grimy grins as spit came from the depths of their jaws. It made me realize how much I hated humans for who they were. And I was one of them.
     "Nice." A human came up to me, staring at the entourage of non-humans that surrounded me. "Is that a faery among 'em?"
     I stared at Viobin, and she lightly shrugged her shoulders. "Uh..." I hesitated. I wasn't good at lying. "Yeah. A faery, Half-Fae, and an elf."
     "You taking them to Central or are you going to execute them?"
     "Um..." Oh god. I was too old to be spurring up lies on the fly without even knowing what I was lying about. "Central."
     "Killer." He was an Enforcer with a slimy grin, and there was so much of me that wanted to take my knife and stab him. "Do you want company, or do ya got 'em?"
     "I've got them." Sure, I did. I had them by their throats.
     The man nodded and disappeared into the crowds like the scum he was. A lot of people were starting to stare at me with beady eyes because they had this impression I was either like them or against them. Well, I was neither. I was just looking for Smallik.
     We cut to a dark alley to keep the eyes away from all of us, and Viobin tried to track his scent. She wasn't really scent-worthy, but she said that the winds would tell her where she would find a Fae with such a strong sense of willpower. I hoped that it was true, and I hoped I would find him not struggling to breathe like I was right now. I wanted to take everything back about what I said about the city at the beginning. Fuck this city. Fuck the world we lived in because it was nothing more than a containment for the rulers to watch us hurt and persecute each other.