Oblivion

A Message From Above..

Rustle was escorted away, his pale face was crying back at all of us as one of the Guardians walked with him toward the West wing; It was restricted and was strained to us that unless you don’t want to become one of them, you were to stay away as much as possible. But who was Rustle and I to care when we were young, he would crawl through the air ducts and tease the guards, but they caught us before we had a chance to cross over, probably because we were too loud up there. But all the kids did it, and they excused it, but now. We weren’t little anymore, and that meant real consequences, life or death. And so we never again crossed that line, not after the bodies, not after everything that had happened to both of us, including Kassy who cried out that she was not going to be apart of our little games, she was the good girl, the valedictorian type of person. 

                I searched for Kassy who had been with me in the restricted tunnel shut down for maintenance. I figured that’s where she was.

                When I was able to maneuver past the guardians and the kids who were in sheer panic I was able to come to a break where the bright yellow tape was plastered along the wall with the caution slippery floor sign, and stay out; Guardians only.  Without thinking I crawled under the taping and came up to the rubbery floors made of a slip free material, something that was not here when me and Rustle were standing here a few days ago. Walking along the edge of the wall I saw Kassy, clear as day. Her face was bright red and her hands were clasped around her face in fear-she was crying.

                Her face peaked up when my shoe caught on the rubber and squeaked against it.  “What are you doing here?!” She screamed, I wanted to tell her to shut the hell up, but yet she still screamed. “You had him taken away! You were just jealous he was smarter than you, and that he liked you! How could like you.” She screamed again, her yells becoming hysterical and loud enough so that others could have probably heard her.

                “I wasn’t jealous of him alright?! And why are you screaming your head off?!” I searched her face until I found what I was looking for. “What did you do?” I asked hesitantly.

                She bite her lower lip and cast a look in both directions. “Me and Rustle were planning an escape through an empty capsule for kids coming in, but when a Guardian heard about our plans he confronted me, saying it was me or him. I was scared and I panicked. They took him because of me!” She cried on my shoulder, she sentenced Rustle to a life of this. I so badly wanted to slap the stupid out of her, but now was not the time for that, she was so dumb for doing that to him.

                “It’s okay.” I lied and looked her in the eyes.  “We’ll get him back.” I reassured her, but she didn’t look the slightest bit comforted, instead she cried even more.

                I was standing by the side of the pool, eyes scanning the water and the fish below it, I was scared that a Guardian would come and take me away to the main instructor of discipline. But no one came, even when I started to talk. My head hit the water first, it slide past me like I was pushing the light curtains out of the way.  The warm water surrounded me and let me slide into it. I meant for the light to be off except for one so I could barely see, and so the Guardians wouldn’t see me in the camera blinking near the boys locker room. 

                Then the lights flickered on, buzzing to life. I came up to see who was there. And it was a Guardian, lean and muscular. He surveyed the diving area and then came by next to me. “Hell lovely.” He smiled; it was the man from before. “What are you doing in a place like this so late at night hm?” He chuckled.

                “I’m sorry, I was just- just seeing how it would be like to  um. I’ve seen you before!” I finally blurted out. He laughed even this time and stretched his hand out to mine.

                “Yes, we have. I met you with that boy who was taken away today, sad thing really. But listen I’m not her to take you away or spy on you, if I was do you think I would have even let you get out of the water without hitting you?” He was right, most hit you the minute you disobey time periods, but he didn’t. My defenses went up.

                “Then who are you? You’re not a Guardian that’s for sure; you’ve got to be a different person from a restricted zone!” I blurted, but he didn’t say a word.

                “Wrong, I’m from the surface, sent down to be a Guardian because of my fitness, but I volunteered so their more lenient on me. But what I wanted to do was give you a message. It’s a message from the Stanford College of Aquatic observation of sea creatures.” He opened up his PDA, Guardians had the power to transport messages through them to tell other of missing kids or objects around. “If this doesn’t tell us something soon, he told me to give you this. He held out an oyster necklace made of abalone shell, my favorite. Inside there was a little pearl of silver with scribbles all around. “Oh here!” He sounded excited, the screen flickered on after a moment and an old man in a white jacket looked around until finally starting to speak. “Crystal! You’ll have grown up beautifully before you get this from this young man. He may look back, but he’s good. Don’t’ fall for him though.” At this he growled low at the screen.  He began to speak again “As I was saying, you need to trust him. And when you get the necklace the power is already starting to work. Sit in the water and don’t let anyone catch you. For a little while you can transport people but in the state you will be in I don’t think that idea is the best. So just come straight to me, in California, I know it’s a ways away but you’ll meet people like yourself, trust me. I put all my faith in you Crystal. But you may call yourself whatever you please, pick a new name even go ahead. It’s a new life. Until we meet.” The lights dimmed and he put the PDA into his pocket. “That’s where the transmission ended, I don’t know what happened to him, maybe the signal cut out, but I don’t know.” He moved to go away and leave out the far door.

                “Wait!” He looked back puzzled. “I don’t know what’s going to happen and well could you stay with me?” He smiled and then finally nodded.

                He turned me around on the marble floor and secured the necklace to my neck. “So, any ideas on the new name?” He asked after I had jumped in the water and slightly emerged to get a breath of air.

                “Hm. What do you think? He said anything, so that makes the slimming down really easy.” I rolled my eyes when I said this. “So what your names by the way?”

                He smiled slightly and told me his name was Jake and he was seventeen. “Well we are in the ocean.” He brightly pointed out. “So how about Aqua?!” He probably felt so sure about his answer to my question that he surprised himself.  But Aqua was used in movies, mermaid movies. And love movies, and in gemstones! He expected me to be the competition to that?!  “Just try it, you can change it anytime you want Aqua.” He said putting emphasize on the name, smiling I nodded. Well Aqua it was.