metal and stone, monster and bone

chapter two- mala

She won't look at me.

Her hair is pulled up into a bun, angry gray eyes focused on the ground.

"Jin. I'm Mala. I'm your new Caretaker." I try to make my voice gentle, counter the pouring rain and the bleak surrounding, ease her mood.

She still won't look at me.

"Jin. We're going to drive out to my place in Papekin. Have you lived there before?"

She laughs, harsh, short. "I've gone through every Caretaker in the Newlands, huh? They couldn't find another so they saddled me with some metal bitch." It isn't a question. She knows exactly what she's saying.

"Jin. I really don't care what's going on with you today. I'm taking you across the border into Papekin. You can either try to get along with me, or you can not. Like I said, I don't care."

Finally she lifts her head. Her eyes carry so much pain, trying to look like hatred, but I know what it really is. It's the same look that was in my eyes after I lost Runo.

"In the car. Now."

I'm done playing nice. She reluctantly follows me towards my rundown car.

I pop the trunk, leave her to slam her bags down inside of it. There's one she won't let go of, clutching it to her chest like a lifeline. I don't ask. We've all our own demons.

She sits in the passenger seat and makes a point of ignoring me. Bleak and gray and rain slowly dissolves into green and sun and warm; we were right at the border so it should have been more drastic, but it was too gradual.

She leans towards the sunshine, pale face seemingly impenetrable by its rays. I wish I looked like her: hard, cold, unfeeling. Maybe then I could train myself to feel that way.

We drive in silence for hours, days, it feels like. It is really only forty-five minutes. My home is in the heart of the border city Jayu, tall straight edges giving the appearance of perfection.

Jayu is the most violent and crime-filled city in all of Papekin.

I slip out of the car and grab her suitcases from the trunk. She follows me slowly as I edge up the stairs, through the door, towards the lift.

"Mala, what the hell is this fucking place? Aren't we in Papekin? Why's there a fucking lift? Y'all metal fuckers don't have shit like that.'

I don't have time for her bullshit. "Jin, whatever lies you learned about Papekin in school, I suggest you forget them now. We, believe it or not, actually have technology. We're just not as far up as you skeletons in the Newlands."

She shuts her mouth. The lift takes us up to the top floor, ten stories above litter and homeless men cluttering the streets. Doors slide open soundlessly, ejecting us.

My apartment is straight across the hall, green-painted door and peephole smaller than my thumbnail identical to any other tenth-story home. I walk up to it, hold my circular key up to the scanner.

It slides open without a noise.

Jin's translucent eyes widen, what the hell gives shooting through them. I know what they're learning over in the Newlands and the fact that she believes it makes me hate her even more.

The door slides shut behind us; I drop her bags in the empty space that is my hallway and walk toward the main room. She follows; I think she thinks that I can't hear her cat-like footsteps, but no one can stride silently enough to escape my notice.

The main room's ceilings arch high above us, glass panes trapped against the farthest wall that give a glimpse of the city. Just buldings and sky, no real monstrosities that we can see.

I wish we could see the men sleeping on benches in the centre park, little children drawing knives on each other, mothers killing to protect their children. I wish we could see the reality of Jayu, not the mask we put on for the rich and the new.

"Where'm I supposed to sleep?" Jin's voice shatters the ice around my head. I'd forgotten she was there.

I motion towards another airy hallway, perpendicular to the entrance. "First door to the left. I get up early. If you don't want to be woken, wear earplugs. The walls are thin."
She mutters something I can't quite make out. I glare at her.

"What'd you say, young lady? There will be no secrets and no muttering."

She looks me dead in the eye. "I said any bitch that isn't nice to their Harbored doesn't know real pain. If you did, you'd be sensitive enough to make suggestions politely."

real pain blood on the stairs on my clothes on her real pain "where is she where's she gone i want to hold her" real pain she's gone she's gone her blood mingling with mine on my skin real pain

Red is all I see.

"You will not speak to me that way. I will not stand for it." The stars are glittering outside- when did it become night? "I'll see you in the morning."

I stalk to my bedroom, close the door; I fall onto my bed and I sob.