The Parables

Eila - Precinct Six

Eila - Precinct Six

My eyes snap open. Someone is screaming. I lift my head off the kitchen table and look around. A pile of dirty clothes needing to be washed lie over the back of the chair opposite me. In front of me, is a cutting board with a half-cut carrot on it. I fell asleep. My hand is gripping a knife and nobody else is about. Apart from the person screaming.

Putting the knife down on the table, I dash out of the kitchen. I run down the hallway and burst into a bedroom. My twin sister, Emmii, is sat up in her bed, screaming. I move over to her and sit down in front of her. I put my arms around her and hold her tightly against my chest. She buries her face in my shirt.

"Shhh, it's alright," I soothe stroking her hair. "You're alright. Nobody is going to get you."

"I was...in the...Labyrinth, again," Emmii stammers, sobbing. "There was...a...a monster...and it was...going to....eat me." I hold her tight, feeling her body quivering against my chest.

"There's no monster," I whisper to her. "You're safe."

Emmii looks at me, her bright blue eyes sparkling. "S...sing, Eila."

I smile at her. "I can't sing. You know I can't."

"Please," Emmii whispers. "F...for me."

I sigh, reluctantly giving in. "Alright, then. For you." Emmii grins.

If you go, down to, the Prairie,

You're sure, to meet, a fairy

She'll invite you for tea

With cakes and coffee

And then you'll sail, away, in a wherry

You'll sail from here

But you'll reappear

When the world becomes too scary.

Emmii usually makes a comment about how the world isn't scary. I don't blame her; she hasn't been outside properly in ages. Unfortunately for me, I know just how scary the world is. It's a petrifying place to live in. Danger lurks wherever you travel and no matter where I am, I never feel safe. Not even here, locked inside my own home, I don't feel protected at all.

But strangely today, Emmii doesn't make a remark.

"Okay, I've got to go." I stand up. "I'll just finish prepping lunch and then I have to go."

"W...why?" Emmii asks, confused.

"I've just got to go." I bend down to kiss her lightly on her forehead then leave the room.

I re-enter the kitchen and finish chopping up the carrots. Pouring a pail of water into a deep pan, I place it down on the table and scrape the slices of carrots into it. The good thing about having an industry dedicated to harvesting water is that you have access to it most of the time. Apart from night time, that is; then there's barely any. Grabbing the pile of dirty washing, I head outside.

Our hut backs onto an alleyway and we live right at the end of two rows of huts that cave in to form the alleyway. Washing lines hang from wall to wall, clothes pinned onto them with wooden pegs. One washing line remains a line with just pegs on. Ours. I quickly hang the clothes on the line, ensuring that they stay hung up; I'd get into trouble if freshly cleaned clothes got grubby again.. I step back and check it's alright, then catch sight of a shirt drooping from one peg. I hang it back up, then go back inside. Seizing my bag, I close the door quietly behind me.

Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I jog to the Bazaar. On my way, I pass by other huts, all of a similar design with wooden porches, broken windows and unkempt roofs topped with moss. Some people sit outside, sipping from mugs or snoozing on armchairs situated on the porches. Younger children play their fantasy games, dodging in and out of the bins with branch swords clutched possessively in their hands and paper hats bobbing up and down on their heads as they run about.