Shaken

The Sting

I'm sure that we've all felt the sting. Maybe it come with words or with a hand on the skin. Maybe you feel it when a person turns away from you. It doesn't matter. It still leads to the same feelings of dread, of internal and maybe external harm. It will effect each and every one of us in our lives, some more than others. I'm one of the people who feel it more. 

~

I woke up to the screaming downstairs. My siblings, probably, were mewling, and my mother and father were fighting. Yet again. No surprise. I pulled my thin blanket off, exposing my pale legs to the cold of the air. I shivered as I slid out of bed, and changed into a pair of thick sweatpants. It's always cold in the North. That's just what it happens to be. 

Ever since the Third World War, the nations had fallen to each other. It didn't matter in whatever way. America, they fell to Russia. Russia fell to North Korea. North Korea fell to the European nations. Human destruction followed their wake. I guess it's safer than it might have been the years directly after the war. Those years were the years of trying to save Earth from oblivion, especially after all of the warfare. Those were the years of disease and famine, when the war had destroyed all of our stocks and the land we had tried so hard to cultivate. A third of the world's population died because of it, the famine alone. I don't remember it. I was too young. My mother, she says I was tiny, she was worried that I would die. 

The European Nations are now our leaders, due to the fact of them not getting involved in the conflict of America, Russia and North Korea before they needed to. They also didn't fight with all of the warfare techniques they had. The African Commonwealth, they survived while the rest of the world almost killed itself. They completely guarded their country, becoming secluded and developing while the rest of us were knocked back to the early 21st century. They're still more secluded than everyone else. 

The American powers, they became the Eridence State. The European powers, they became the Cliana, after their royal family last name that took power after the Third World War. Asia, such a pretty name, became Shuiy Thela, Africa stayed the same except for the name addition of Commonwealth at the end, Russia became Shizou, and North Korea was completely obliterated, the people falling to nothing at the end of their dictatorship. 

Every country wanted to forget who they were before. 

I pulled on a red shirt, walking downstairs. My parents were done screaming at each other for the moment, with Mom retired into her bedroom, Dad fuming upstairs in what was once a room they shared. I took my siblings, much younger than I, and tried calming them down. With Mom and Da distracted with their own problems, I became the main caregiver in the house. I held no respect for my parents anymore. Their lives had fallen low to their own problems. I had three little siblings, one with beautiful gray eyes and dark skin. Islo was the only one of us with dark skin, and she was the youngest. Then there were the twins Xavier and Adriana, though we never called her Adriana, and they were typically everywhere, with their boundless energy and bright green eyes. And then there was me, similar to my siblings with my dark hair, yet I was the only one with amber eyes, which also held a golden tint. Their hair was streaked with patterns of blonde due to so much time out in the sun. We lived in Shizou, though once before, we lived in Eridence. 

As I reached the bottom of the stairs, my right foot hitting the wood at the bottom, Islo ran up to me, her pudgy fingers wrapping around my hand. Her dark hair fell into her face as she looked up at me, and I smiled and picked her up. Xavier and Adrian were already done being scared of the fight Mom and Da had had, them being used to it. I sighed as I heard the sharp clatter of something being knocked over, probably Xavier's fault. He was more clumsy than his female counterpart. 

I picked Islo up, walking quietly over to where Xavier and Adrian were looking at me, and then training their eyes on the ground. 

"You know no running in the house, especially since we have so much glass here," I said to them quietly. There was no use in yelling. All of us got a bit more than we like with that. 

Xavier looked up at me with his dark green eyes. He nodded solemnly, and I handed Islo to Adrian, who then held her and went to go sulk on the couch, upset that her playing was over. Xavier and I picked up the glass, and he went outside to throw it away. I went into the kitchen, filling up a kettle at the tiny water well outside of our window and putting it over the pathetic stove we had, turning it on and waiting for the water to heat up. Xavier walked back inside while I was doing this, sighing to himself and going to go talk to Adrian in the living room, with Islo following their every word. The twins were five years younger than I, at the ripe age of ten, and Islo was five, still learning everything there is in the world. 

I threw together a weak breakfast of toast and strawberries while the kettle heated up. Tea was one of my mother and I's favorite things, so we were in constant supply of tea bags, even with food supplies slowly running short. Though we can't control that. The State controls it. They say we have to ration whatever we could, and I believed them. My family was one step up from total dirt. 

I reached into the small pantry and took out a few teabags. Jasmine. Adrian and I's favorite. I poured some cups, letting the teabags sit in two chipped teacups and then adding our dear supply of cocoa to another cup for Xavier. He adored chocolate, even though it was expensive. I stirred it with an old spoon. I grabbed a tray from under the sink, a dusty, still-old thing from before the Third World War, passed down from generation to generation. I set the cups onto the tray, carefully leading into the living room. I always tried to calm down my siblings after our parents fought, it's not good for them to deal with it. I remember when our parents were still kind to each other and seemed in love, yet sometimes, love is just an illusion. 

When I walked to the other room, Islo was bouncing around the room with the honest energy that only a child could really have, the inability to see the worst in the world quite yet. Even Adrian and Xavier could see the harshness that came with living as we did. Once I walked in, Islo yelled out, running over to me. 

"Lyo!" Islo said as she attached herself to my leg, making me almost stumble. Almost. I rolled my eyes and carefully sat down the tray, stretching my torso to reach it. Xavier and Adrian lit up, taking their respectful cups. Islo bounced over to Xavier, seeing the cocoa in the cup as I sat next to Adrian, taking my teacup. Xavier had Islo cradled next to him, resting her head on his arm. He was quiet and sweet for a ten year old, and adored Islo and Adrian more than our parents. If it was only the four of us, I think life would be better. It would be more calm, definitely. I miss the calm. 

Adrian was sipping slowly at the drink in her cup, strange for the usually energetic part of herself that practically chocked on hot drinks that I make. She had something she wanted to tell me. All of us siblings, except for Islo, could read each other pretty well and what we wanted to say or do. Islo was too young to have that talent yet. Adrian looked up to me as she set down her cup, wringing her hands. 

"Um.... Alyona, I was caught in market today....," Adrian trailed off. I sighed, feeling my forehead pinch together in frustration. 

"That's fine, Adrian. What's the fine today?" I asked her, curious to know how much I would have to pay off. She must have been caught stealing something for Islo. Her sixth birthday would be coming up, and we didn't have proper money for a good gift. Also, Adrian was too young to be good at pick-pocketing yet. 

"They want fifteen Matri," Adrian said quietly. 

"That wasn't as bad as last time." 

"Yeah, but it's still money."

I drain the tea I had been drinking during the conversation and stand up quickly. Walking out of the room, I gradually work up the courage to slink over to my mothers. Standing in the hallway, I cringe, and then knock her thick, wooden door three times. I hear soft, padded footsteps as she open the door, cracking it just enough to show part of her face. Dark hair covering pale, sunken cheeks. "What do you need?"

I make my face placid, making sure she cannot read me. "Adrian was caught again. We need money."

"Fine. Adrian was always greedy to begin with," she starts, and I scowl. She smirks at my reaction. 

"I'll bring the money tomorrow. I work tonight," she finished, shutting the door on my face. I sigh and walk off, my feet silent on the wooden floor.