The Shelter

Part 3 - The Wednesday

oo-oo

"I'll be back soon, elskede," Karma's mor kisses her head tenderly. "Be an angel for your momma."

"I always am, who do you take me for?" Karma replies teasingly, faking being annoyed.

"Bye Mor!" Karma's brother launches himself at their mother. "Come back really soon because I have a football match next week and you promised!"

"Of course, skatt," their mor reassured him. "I'll be back in two days. It's just a small business trip, I'll be bored soon enough and will come back."

Karma hugged her mor one last time, breathing in the sweet scent of her platinum blond hair. She then quickly let go, lest her brother calls her sentimental again. She was just... affectionate, okay?

"Bye, love," Rikke, that silly nugget, slaps his hands on his eyes as their mothers kiss. "See you soon."

The door slams with a finality no one expected.

Karma goes back to her room to continue her painting for a few tranquil hours, bathing in her art, until her brother comes and bothers her.

"Will you play VirtuAll with me?" Rikke whines, snaking his arms around her shoulders. Karma gasps as she almost paints a misplaced stroke. As revenge, she twists her brush around and hits her brother in the face. He, sadly, doesn't let her go.

"Come on, you promised yesterday, and you're still drawing that creepy woman."

"First of all, she's not creepy, she's just..." Karma trails off, looking at her painting. That woman did look creepy, didn't she? "Anyways, second of all, I'm in a funk and need to finish this whilst I'm in the mood."

"But you promised!" Her brother counteracts, drawing out the 'o'. He pokes a paint splatter on her face, scratching it off. "Pretty please with a cherry on the top?"

Karma made the mistake of looking at him, and his damned angelic smile, and sighed heavily.

"You're really annoying," she tells him off, but still gets off her chair, going to her projector.

As her brother runs to his own room to turn his projector on, Karma grabs the opportunity to check her messages.

A quasi-realistic version of Raine appears on her projector and Karma plays her message.

"Hey, shortcake!" Her image wavers and Karma frowns. That's unusual. She checks the connection symbol, but it's at a hundred per cent. Karma shrugs it off. "I was thinking of going to see the remake of Cindrel later on this week but you said you are at an expo this Friday, right? So let me know if you can instead of Saturday."

Raine breaks down into particles and fades off the projector. Karma figures she can reply when they see each other at school tomorrow.

A message pops up in the corner of her vision. It's a call from Sergio's system. Karma accepts it, hoping her brother won't be too mad at her if she talks to him. It must be important if it couldn't wait for tomorrow.

The projector loads and Karma bursts out laughing when Sergio's form is projected upside down as if he's hanging off something.

"Karma send help! I'm being tortured by Derrick! KARMA!" Karma can't stop laughing as the projected version of Sergio is whipped around and is seemingly tickled by Derrick if his shrieking is anything to go by.

"Karma, we're neighbours, stop being lazy I can see you in your room watching us," Sergio threatens through his invisible fight with his torturer. His speech comes out in segments between laughs. "Come help me beat Derrick!"