DICORE [NO LONGER UPDATING]

Chapter 14

Aqua had to pay more to take our house with us. Seems like some kind of coping mechanism. We only have what he made from work now. I hate it all. I wanted to leave the house behind. I wanted to leave Htrae behind. The last place I wanted to remember was Htrae. I can't stop thinking about everything I've seen. I can't stop hearing the crack of ribs, smelling blood, remembering the look on Ectumus' face...I...can't get anything out of my head.

My birthday was recently. Spent sleeping on a hyperbus. Like today. Like yesterday. I've been getting more sleep than I want to. I can't stay awake, even though I hate having nightmares. And they've gotten worse lately. More vivid. I'm not supposed to be afraid of monsters anymore. I'm thirteen years old. That's way past the age you should be crying because there's a boogeyman under your bed. Way past the age you should be crying at all. But it all feels so real.

Oh, yeah. Another thing. Aqua can't stop crying, even though he's seen dead bodies before. Even though he's hated his dad, and used to keep complaining about how "Mom sucks, I'm a teenage boy." He doesn't do that anymore, and he just sobs. I try to tell him to keep it quiet on the bus, or else people will stare at him, but he doesn't listen.

I can't wait for Red City. We should be arriving today.

Anyway, I've been listening to a lot of old third wave ska from when humans were alive to pass the time. There's so many--

Hisssss....!

The bus slows, and outside the window, I can see sunlight, and tall buildings, unlike anything I've ever known back home. People pad down the sidewalks near the station, and voices talk on and on in cluttered verbal heaps. I can hear loud music, coming from several different places outside, so loud it feels like it might knock the towering skyscrapers over. And so many smells mixed together, it doesn't smell like anything at all.

I look over my shoulder and see my brother asleep. I tap him on the shoulder. "Hey dummy," I whisper. "We're here."

"Hmm?" He mumbles.

"We're on Terr. In Red City."

"Oh," he says. "Let's...go."

We grab our things from the luggage carrier above.

"Did they ship our house to the address we picked?" I ask.

"Yeah," he said. "I made sure."

We wait in a queue of people, all trying to get out the door, through to the Red City Station floor.  The noises from outside are louder now. 

When the door finally isn't crowded with rushing people, we step outside. Walking out of the terminal building, we step into the light of Red City.