Elira

Year 13

    Elira wove his way through the streets, careful to keep his head down. He'd called in to work sick but unfortunately  forgotten to go grocery shopping. He wasn't intending to break his yearly tradition, he was already uneasy.

    An alarm chimed from his watch. Originally it was to wake him up, but he must've forgotten to turn it off considering he'd woken up hours ago. Elira went to turn of all my alarms for the day and was met with a reminder on screen. "Tomorrow is your 13-year anniversary," it read, as if he didn't already know. He turned off the alarms and the watch, and continued towards the store across the street, more on edge than before.

    He was sure tomorrow would be a good day for some people, a birthday, holiday, milestone, or a relationship anniversary. He was happy that the day brought a certain happiness to their lives, although it was one He'd never have.

    He sighed as He paced down the aisles, putting food into his cart. 13 years. He'd been gone for 13 years yet he remembered it like it was yesterday. The day he'd escaped. 13 years and he was no closer to being free. It was ironic, in a bittersweet way, how he thought escaping would allow him to do as he pleased, live life as he had. At least now he  knew, as long they existed, he'd never be free. 13 years he'd spent moving from city to city, all around the world. Never in one place too long lest he drew too much attention. He couldn't attend high school, couldn't go to college, couldn't- just couldn't. Some might think it's not worth it to live life like this, never truly free, but as long as he wasn't there he was sure he'd be fine. He never wanted to go back. He hadn't for 13 years. 13 years in hiding. 13 years in semi-freedom. 13 years.

    He paused in front of the frozen section, ice cream lined the shelves of their freezers. Just then, a hooded figure approached. They had on a cap and large hoodie. A shiver went down Elira's spine and time seemed to slow. No. No, no. There was no way they'd found him, he thought, no way. Not today. No,nonononononononono-

    "Excuse me," the stranger grunted, gesturing towards the freezer he was standing in front of.

    "Right- right. Sorry," he said moving out of their way. "Sorry."

    "Is something wrong?" They asked, looking at him curiously. They had brown- no, orange- eyes. No markings on their face or neck. He was safe.

    Elira relaxed, not realizing how tense he'd been. "No, no, I'm fine," he said.

    "Are you sure? You looked pretty spooked, like you'd seen a ghost," They said with a chuckle.

    "Yeah, yeah, I just thought you were someone else is all. You kinda snuck up on me, I wasn't expecting it."

  They laughed, a tranquil sound. Soft and calming, if that was even possible. Elira gave them an odd look. "Sorry," they said, "The name's Jamie, you might want to be careful, by the way." They looked around, cautiously. "You never know who you might run into in these parts."

  "Right. Yeah, yeah," Elira said as Jamie walked away. "Sorry, again, for what it's worth."

  Jamie glanced back at him with a bemused smile, then he was gone.

Elira stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what had just happened. "Be careful?" He scoffed, "you don't know who you might meet?" Elira was no longer bewildered but taken back by the audacity that the Jamie person had. "Who do they think they are? Telling me to be careful," he muttered to himself. "Hmph. They're right, though, even if they don't know it."

He sighed taking his food to the checkout where a rather nice robo-clerk scanned his items and bagged them. "Thanks," he muttered, leaving 20 Starlets in the tip jar before exited through the automatic doors. Although most of the store was overrun with ferns and moss, it had been quite nice, especially considering the quality of most things in the Ruins are usually far worse. Elira made a note to go back next time he needed to go shopping.

  For now, he decided to go home, not wanting to risk his luck further. He walked past decaying buildings, most full of plants and vines and sometime, trees. This was no surprise, he'd been navigating all sorts of ruins for 13 years now, so it was mostly expected. Finally, Elira reached the outskirts of the town, near the Wilds. He approached a Pinecrest tree a gave it three hard knocks. The trunk opened to reveal a keypad, it looked old, broken, even. He typed in a code, 3L194-213, and the trunk promptly turned back to normal.

  Elira waited a moment, and although he was usually patient with the process but this time he couldn't help but feel a bit anxious. He pressed his fingers together, first his thumb and pointer, then his thumb and his middle finger, then his ring then his pinky. He then did it backwards, starting with his pinky, then his ring, etc. he counted each time his finger met his thumb, urging himself to calm down. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7," he murmured to himself. "1, 2, 3..." he continued to this this until the tenth time around when the tree began to tremble.

  The Pinecrest began to sink into the ground, further and further, until... it stopped. Only the tip of the tree was visible, Elira pulled it like a lever. A light formed on the tip of the tree, and a hum came with it. Elira leaned in, as if listening for what it was saying. "...Then: Safety procedure 543 = false, so: Invisibility barrier = false. Gathering resources..." Elira translated the code, ensuring the proper actions were taking place. When he made this base, he made sure only he could access it, and only he could decipher the code and find out what was going on. Otherwise, anyone could mess with the programming and that was a chance he wasn't willing to take.

  The area behind the Pinecrest, which had originally appeared to be a fallen skyscraper, flashed and began to dissolve revealing what appeared to be a staircase. Elira walked down the steps, each one more broken and full of grass than the last, until he reached the bottom where a blanket of moss encompassed most the walls, ceiling and floor, which where all made of stone bricks. He took two steps forward, then turned around and approached the left of the staircase, he tapped on the wall 3 times, in a triangle formation. He then walked right through it, into a sleek metal room. It was painted purple, but didn't have much furniture.

  Elira moved too often to keep many things, so he mostly kept the essentials. A bed, a healing kit, and a bag always packed in case he needed to leave early. Of course, he had a much quicker way of entering his home if he was truly in a hurry, but it wasn't necessary to use everyday. For now, he just put his food in the cooler where it wouldn't perish, if, say, a blood storm took place. Of course, Elira had sealed the place fairly well, it was the essence he was worried about. The plasma would seep into the ground surrounding the base, causing fobblewarts to grow, though it wouldn't effect him or his home, the stench it gave off was so deadly to the food Elira ate, he couldn't risk leaving it out in the open. Even if blood storms weren't likely to happen in this area, there were numerous other reasons from Stumpies to Buzzlebugs.

  For now, Elira close the freezer and approached his bed, pulling out a book to read. He laid there for the rest of the day, until eight, when he deemed it time for bed so he could wake up at midnight and take on the worst day of the year. His anniversary. The day he escaped. Year 13.