The Regal Slaves

[Cassie Gabriel]

The sun shined hard on the head of Emily as she walked a humid, concrete and wooded path to her school. Her backpack dulls the soft bumping of her electronic multi-purpose learning surface against her crayons and does so in a fashionable purple. This is Emily's 3rd year in grade school and the last day of the year. She had turned 9 back in March, bringing her even closer to the double digits she so enviously coveted. Her little green dress and black shoes make her glint like a diamond in the heat lines coming off the road which confuses her group of friends, standing at the end of the heated road.


"Hey! Emily?" One friend calls out in a high voice, having recognized Emily's dress.


"Hey!" Emily calls out, picking up her pace until she's at a run. Her face fat and long hair jumps up and down as she runs, bringing her green eyes and brown hair into sight for her friends.


Entering the colossal, massive, maze-like school through a pair of black, metal detecting doors, the children did what Emily thought they would do exactly. They drew, ate pizza and drank unhealthy beverages to celebrate their success as they always do at the end of the year. Emily remembered nothing particularly special about the day other than the fact that Jackson invited her to a pool party.


Walking out of the school and back into the less hot, but more humid air of the outside, Emily rushes through the woods, taking a sharp right in order to get prepared for the pool party.


'Jackson is like the best guy ever!' She thinks to herself in excitement. As soon as she breaks the tree line, she finds herself staring at a street filled with electric cars and apartments taller than some skyscrapers. Running into one of the buildings labeled 12934, she darts up two flights of stairs until she is on the 3rd floor. Slamming the door number 62 open, Emily calls out to her parents.


"Mom! Dad! I'm going to a pool party with Jackson!"

 

[VoidManifesto]

It was still early in the afternoon and Jackson Gabriel Santoz was getting ready for his pool party. Jackson was wearing his favorite mat read swimming trunks and Bill, his nanny-butler, was preparing some veggie patties outside while he was finishing watching "Among us" a tv show about the most popular super beings of the day. Young Jackson's dark hair a light-tanned skin was very strange for the suburban area he lived in. His parents, both coming from the southern hemisphere moved with him due to their work when he still was a baby. They both worked very hard so they weren't around usually, but that allowed him to invite friends whenever Bill allowed it.


Jackson was not a very sporty kind of boy and still had to fight with his baby fat, but there was something uniquely kind about him. Unlike most children, he disliked violence and injustice to his very core, which often brought him into fights holding the wrong end of the stick. Most people his age thought of him as an obnoxious self-righteous brat with too much self-esteem. He was the child reading poetry at talent night. Every time the teachers needed something, he was there to help out. All in all, he was the perfect example of the kind of kid you wanna punch in the face when you were a kid. Nonetheless, Jackson had two super-powers. First, he knew Emily. Everybody in school liked hanging out with Emily, since she was the most popular girl in school. For some ungodly reason, Emily liked that whole, regal neverdowrong attitude of Jay, but he never truly understood why. Most of the time together, they were playing wargames between action figures and dolls. For the sake of dignity let's sake "some" of the dolls belonged to Emily, but at this point let it be said: All the action-figures belonged to Emily.


Still, Jackson had another unique super power:


He lived in a huge house and had the only pool big enough to fit his entire class. So everyone at-least accepted him.

 

[Cassie Gabriel]

Emily, receiving no answer from her parents looked only a little downtrodden before picking her head up and running to her room. Her room unlike most girls rooms, was filled with clippings from magazines about moving combat zones, electronic news printings about political activities and other worldly events. Half the time, she didn't know what they meant and didn't care. Reading magazines and watching the news is just about all her father does, besides work; this therefore became Emily's favorite thing to besides play with Jackson. She always was prepared to play with Jackson as well. She kept bins full of action figures and one doll prepared at the foot of her bed, just in case.


Cracks of electric blue and pink all over her room show through the gaps in between the papers, making her room look like it's about to burst at the seams. Throwing her backpack onto the floor, Emily quickly undresses, throwing her dress onto her bed before throwing on her one piece, plain, purple swim wear. She then, picks up a little purse off of her night stand and puts a phone inside of it, just in case. She wordlessly throws it over her shoulders, then runs out of her room, looking at her empty kitchen for a moment before rushing back into the hot outdoors.


Emily very clearly remembered Jackson's address not only because she's been to his home so often, but also just in case she were ever picked up by the police and needed a ride home. She would never want to be brought back to her parents apartment because of how empty it feels compared to Jay's place. Taking every step in stride, Emily finds herself in Jay's driveway, faster than she thought possible, just when she remembers the HOT, SHARP stones at the foot of the curb.


'OW, OW, OW, OW!' She thinks, making only a sharp peeping noise, hopping on her left, unmarked foot for a moment.


"Stupid rocks!" She calls out before walking in a limp to the front door of Jackson's place. His home, being almost 8 times the size of Emily's apartment was in a matter of speaking "super huge, wow!" The first time Emily had seen the exterior of Jay's home, she simply had to say those words. They were the only words that felt adequate for the situation. Over a long period of time, Emily went from feeling a great deal of jealousy to more so content. The home no longer felt as though it was Jay's, but both Jackson's and Emily's.


A grey-blue paint marked the bulk of the home in combination with white trim, giving the house a cloud like exterior. The house was always easy on Emily's sensitive eyes because of the color scheme and was always inviting even from the very sight.


"JAY!" Emily calls out to Jackson, assuming he's in the fenced off back yard, followed by clicking the door bell.

 

[VoidManifesto]

Of course, Jay had switched the channel and was following the last night's soccer game on his tevo, luckily Bill came in and said.


"Hey Champ, Em's here. The patties'll burn if I go."


He didn't really need to give a reason, sooner than I can say candelabra. Jay rolled out of his favorite sofa and rushed towards the main entrance. Emily was early, since he'd invited everyone else for around 3, but he could not care less. He was always happy to see her. "Oh hey Em!" He said with a friendly yet a little bit too energetic voice. She responded in that self-confident cool voice of hers. "Hey Jay, hope I'm not too early."


"Naw, come on in. Bill's making some burgers and I'm watching last night's game."


"You still watch sissy football?" "It's called Futbol and last time I checked it was still the world's most popular sport."


"Yeah..., in France." "No, also in Germany, Australia, England and most of latin America."


"It's still stupid."


"Nuhuuu!" "Yeah it is!" Suddenly, their serious attitude turned to unstopable laughter. They've had this discussion so often, they didn't really care about the game as much as they did fighting with each other. He loved the way she seemed so sure of everything. Sometimes he wished he could be more like her.


"When is everyone else arriving?" She asked after sliding so far in his direction she was pretty much sitting on his back.


"They are coming in an hour or so. Now cut it out!"


"You can't make me!"


"You're so annoying!" At this point Jay rolled under her and she fell on the floor, it must've hurt. It was hilarious.


"You little bastard!" Emily didn't take long to stand back up and chase after Jay. He knew that wasn't gonna end so well for him. He ran out the window slides out into the garden and ran around the pool to avoid her. He knew she hated the hotness of the rocky floor surrounding the pool. He was born to know how to deal with it luckily. Unfortunately, Em's eyes were full of the need for revenge. "Good afternoon Em, want something to drink?" Bill added as she rushed by him. "Oh hi Bill, could I have a limo. That be great! I'M GONNA FILL YOUR LUNGS WITH WATER YOU PIECE OF JUNK!" Jay's legs weren't the fittest for a boy his age, Emily however was probably one of the fastest children in 100m for her district. If anything, she was toying with him. Making him savour the fear before he was getting what he deserved.


"Ok, ok, let's make peace. I'm sorry I threw you, but you were sitting on my back and I was trying to watch the game." Emily stopped chasing him and smiled. "I guess you're right." It took a moment for him to make sure she wasn't toying with him, but foolishly enough he trusted her. As soon as he walked over to her side of the pool, she grabbed his shorts pulled them to his knees and threw him underwater. "Tha...*gulp* snot*gulp* AIR*gulp*


Did I mention Jay doesn't know how to swim?

 

[Cassie Gabriel]

"Hah! I got you!" Emily states triumphantly, hair all over her face. Pushing it aside, Emily stares in horror at the scene in front of her. The splashes fly up and hit Emily in the face, soak the ground all around and wet down Bill's pants. Emily states for a moment longer shocked until the splashes get less frequent and a single cry pierces the air, making Emily's hair stand on end. Bill starts to remove his clothes in order to keep himself from sinking but it's too late.


Diving through the air, Emily cuts through the water, eyes burning from the chemical cleaners. Her contacts float out of her eyes, making her next to blind, but Emily swims as hard as she can toward the mass she assumes is Jay. Already her lungs start to scream but when she reaches the bottom, she tries with all her might to push off the bottom, barely sending them up. She doesn't let go of him though, even as the panic is set deeply in her chest. Just as she starts to become dizzy and looses control of her muscles, she feels a strong hand pull her and Jay up at the same time.


Being plopped down onto the pavement for a moment, Emily breaths hard and loud, gasping for the appropriate amount of air. She looks next to her though and see's Jackson, laying down and not moving before she screams at an ear splitting note. Bill rushes down to his knees and pushes over and over again, trying his hardest to pump the water from Jay's chest and for a moment it's working. Jay starts to spit up some of the water before a skin crawling command is shouted from across the back yard.


"Hands in the air!"


One man, two men, five men now poor into the back yard, all with rifles drawn. While Bill continues to revitalize Jay, he also looks up, acknowledging the police men streaming into the yard but looks away, now fully focused on Jay.


"This is your last warning, hands in the air!"


Bill gives one last push before Jay spits up even more water and starts to cough before a bullet rips through his head, landing his corpse right on top of Emily who screams in bloodied horror, trying to escape the sight and the touch of Bill's corpse, laying on her. Jackson now starts to sit up and looks at everything, entering a state of panicked confusion.


"Emily!" Jay yells, not unlike that of a tornado siren.

 

[VoidManifesto]

By the time Jackson got out of his understandable state of shock. He was sitting restraint on one side of a windowless van right next to Emily. As far as he could remember, the two of them had been pulled away from Bill and stuck into a black vehicle of sorts. His first reaction after overcoming the initial shock was a painful crying howl followed by another. He would never forget the feeling of loss, the nauseating pain from his stomach to his throat. The headache and the tears never really stopping. He cried for so long that he forgot there was a time before his pain. Forgot he'd been kidnapped. He even dissolved Emily's existence from his head. He was alone, not in a van, but in a much darker space. Paralyzed by his inability to move. There he saw Bill. Standing like a ghost next to him, but he wasn't a ghost, he was in their living room. It was Jay's birthday, but he didn't care. He was so happy to be with Bill. It was all a dream after all, yet somehow he couldn't help but feel relieved. They sat together in front of the tv and watched a a game together. Bill never really liked soccer, but had learned to appreciate it for Jay. All the while, and to the youngens big surprise, his noes kept running and tears flowing. He couldn't stop them. Jay asked Bill what was going on and suddenly, Bill stayed silent, paralized. As sudden as the dream had begun, his living room disappeared and he was once more in a moving vehicle. Jay opened his eyes once more.


To his right, Emily's red eyes and stern look told him that this wasn't a dream. He'd never seen her look sad, let alone crying. Nothing was right, nothing would ever be right again. He felt it. He was half-right. To his left a man fully covered in some kind of swat armor with helmet was holding his rifle in his direction. He was trying to threaten him or anything. The man scared him a little still though. He looked strange, unnaturally unshakable. Once eye-contact didn't summon any sort of reaction from him, he cried again. He could've talked to Emily, but he couldn't face the fact how truly destroyed Bill's death had left him. He'd been his mom and dad for as long as he remembered. He'd been his best friend and loyal companion. Now he was dead, if every single human being on earth would cry their hearts out for the rest of their lives. The tears would not have been enough to cope with Jackson's pain. Somehow, Emily understood that. She understood how the Jay she knew wasn't there anymore. Right know there was only a ghost inside of him. Sadness personified had taken over his self and Jay was sleeping.


If I could read the kidnappers' minds at this point, I guess they would've hoped for the howls to grow weaker, less pathetic over time. They didn't. For twenty hours they drove and that boy was only able to scream and howl. The orders' had been to secure the children and not to harm anyone related to them. It looked as if they'd committed a mistake.

 

[Cassie Gabriel]

Emily looked Jay right in the face the whole time, paying no heed to the other men in the car with her. She was being taken away and Bill, her second father was killed and yet she felt nothing. The tears were full of nothing but salty emptiness. Blinking the tears from her eyes once, then twice made her realize she was crying because she was afraid. Afraid that perhaps, wherever she was being taken would be her last destination.


'This can't be the last place I go. What about my parents? It can't be. It can't be. It can't. Can't! This can't be the last place I go. I don't want to die!' She kept thinking to herself, staring Jackson in the face. She looked up to the armored man on her left, watching his movements carefully, looking for intention.


'It looks like he doesn't want to hurt me. If he wanted to hurt me, wouldn't he be mean?'


"You couldn't hurt me. You couldn't hurt me because Jackson is my friend." Emily says, cutting through the incessant sobbing. That's when she first tries to move. First her arm. Nope. Then her legs. Nope. It seemed that the only freely moving body parts were at neck level and up. That's when the car stops.


'It can't be.'


The doors fly open and several rifles with flashlights pop into Emily's sight. Jay's is blurred from all the tears in his eyes but before they knew it, the soldiers were removing them from their seats, all tied up as they were before. Emily looks around her, feeling the anxiety build in her chest. She spots almost nothing other than a giant bowl like structure, the size of hundreds of buildings and a large square hole in the ground.


'They're going to throw me in!' She thinks, making her thrash around, screaming just as loud as Jay is crying until she realized, the soldiers were walking down stairs that lead to a door at the bottom of the steps. A few soldiers unlock the door, allowing them all into a brightly lit room that looks like a hospital. Chairs are everywhere and bodies lay down on beds all around. Children's bodies.


"Damn it! This bitch keeps punching my shoulder! Doc, put her under already!" The guard holding Emily shouts, making her thrash harder until she's slammed down onto a hard surface, making her head spin until she feels a sharp pain in her neck and then paralyzation taking over her body. Swimming. Hot. Pain. Blank.