Walls

Morning

The glint of a breaking dawn warmed the skin of Will's face as the same warmth filled up his chest. The scent of a freshly cooked breakfast and the sounds of peaceful morning wildlife relaxed his already soft muscles. The Central Hub's pristine streets and buildings were a testament to the safety and prosperity the region had been blessed with. Once again, Will found himself pitying those who lived outside the walls that divided the wonderland of his home and the hellscape that surrounded it. He attempted to open his eyes but the effort made him lose what energy he had gained from his train of thought. His mind settled. He turned to roll over to go back to sleep... but hit something. A... person?

His eyes creaked open. At first, he saw a short girl, long hair tangling in a chaotic mess, lying peacefully next to him. In the moment before recognition, his sense of confusion fell. However, his groggy mind caught up and the image of Casey was now resolved.

A glow through the thick leather glove on his left hand. Protection surged around his prone form as a wall of light appeared in the bed, pushing outwards and upwards. Casey cried out, attempting to grab the covers for some anchor to tie her to the ground. Her panicked squeal turned to a snarl as she saw the golden glint of the wave that pushed her towards the ceiling and now erected a wall between her and Will. When Will saw what had happened, he focused with all his might to control the instinctual wall and pull it down and away.

As he focused, the world warped. He saw himself across from him, radiating a powerful wave of golden light. As he tried to signal the mirror version of himself, it seemed to shake its head. They stood on a paved brick road that seemed to interlock tighter than a natural road's paving. Meanwhile each second outside his mind, Casey's stare grew sharper and Will's throat felt drier. He began grasping at the light the bright clone seemed to emanate. His body in that world became an abyss and he focused on increasing its intensity to swallow the light whole. With one more sad shake of its head, the clone vanished.

For a few moments, he stood there stunned. A pillow thrown at maximum velocity broke that stun through sheer force alone. He fell to the ground, hard. The tile floor met his face with the same comfort that stepping on hot coals gives. He looked up to see his furious girlfriend draw back for another but stop when she saw his bruised face. She helped him up but not without a look of disgust crossing her face as she looked at his covered left hand. She refused to touch it. She had never once held hands with him on that side, and she also made him sleep awkwardly so that that arm would always face away from her. Will understood why. She hated people with the power. It just so happened that he became one.

He understood her arguments. The arguments of all the people who headed the Xenoimperium council. They said that people like Will were too dangerous to the safety of those who had no way to defend themselves. They rationalized their hostile takeover of the only safe spot in the time-lock as simple self-perseverance. Whenever Will watched a Xenoimperium officer whip themselves into a fury of "righteous anger", he couldn't help but feel something was wrong. Sometimes when he strolled across the border wall to the Central Hub, he could hear cries of agony far in the distance. Will blamed himself for that. He also knew, however, that people like Casey and the society of people like him outside the walls would never mesh together. All of these thoughts flashed across his mind as she seemed to stutter over herself in absolute anger and frustration at his little stint.

"Do you even comprehend what you could have just done?" Casey said, keeping her voice to an unnecessary whisper as she dug her fingernails into her scalp. "My life here revolves around people like you not being here. I have worked my ass off to keep you safe. Who do you think fought hard to let people continue to wear gloves? Why the hell do you think you can just undo that all by using... that... whenever you goddamn please?!"

"I'm sorry," Will said, shrinking back onto their bed. "I didn't even try to! It just.. happened." His eyes followed Casey as she finished fixing her hair and grabbing her uniform. She didn't bother acknowledging him and instead turned and marched down the stairs to begin preparation for the Xenoimperium meeting that night.

He watched her leave and winced at the sight of her straight back and sharp movements. He knew she would drop the haughtiness as soon as she walked down the stairs towards the meeting hall and away from their floor of rooms that they kept to themselves. He took off his glove for the first time in weeks to replace it with a new one. As he slid the tight fabric off his hand, he looked at the intricate glyphs and golden shimmer that created a beautiful shield sigil. It hummed with an internal power that resonated further throughout his body the longer he looked into it. Tearing his eyes away from the sigil, he shoved another black leather glove over it and sat down with an exhausted sigh.

Why did he instinctively throw up a giant barrier between him and his girlfriend? He had felt so peaceful as he woke up. The moment after seemed like a flash or a fever dream. He decided to apologize in a bit of an unorthodox fashion. He got out of the firm bed and walked down several rooms to their workspace and sat down at his desk to write her a letter.

"My love, I wanted to write this for you to express my sincerest apology for the incident that happened this morning. I would never want anything to come in between us. I know your anger only represented from the manifestation of your fear of being separated from me. We are still forever and I have no intention of walking away or losing someone as special as you. Yours forever, Will." He finished reading the letter aloud and was satisfied with how it seemed to have turned out. He knew mentioning he was hers and the compliments would make her feel happy and probably prevent another pillow from being catapulted out of the ballistics launcher her arm was.

He stumbled to the closet, a small headache still pounding away after his impromptu meeting with the tiled floor. Sifting through the hangers, he looked with apprehension at the Xenoimperium Officer's blazer that held his symbol on the council. General. He was the man responsible for holding the walls of the Central Hub secure. Despite that, he knew without doubt that the people of the Hub would not be able to resist takeover by others like him.

Shaking himself, he slipped on the blazer and finished getting ready. He had a long meeting ahead of him where he would have to endure hours more of planning to expand the Hub's walls to take even more of the little those like him managed to hold onto. He also knew he'd have to support any movement made by Casey. Being used to the dynamics of that particular relationship, he walked down to the large central meeting hub in the ground floor of the large science building. The meeting would start soon.