The Begining
The sky.
An overarching power. A barrier that keeps us tied to the burrows. It's coated by darker pastals, containing myriads of purple hues that swirl around and mix with the essences of black enitities.
Deviants.
Thats what we call them. They leach onto the sky. Thousands upon thousands of them, as far as the eye can see. Diurnal predators that hunt in the light. Varying from 7 metre balls of malice, to gargantuate monstrosities able to bend the laws of reality, the queens. Symbols of hopelessness and powerlessness.
Eat. Their only Goal. Devoid of emotions, sympathy and feelings.
When day time strikes. Anything and everything, that moves on the surface is dead. Gone, no trace no remains, just gone. There was once a time where we had a few dozen people living with us. Out of everyone in our burrow, that number has severly dimished. Month after month of survival, the numbers dropped. from 38 to 37 to 36, now only 17 of us live in this space.
For other vile, ugly, abysmal and otherworldly ugly, ugly hellspawns, caught unlucky on the edge of dawn, their fate is sealed. Destined to die. Devoured by dozens of deviants, shattering the sound barrier as they contend for prey. Fighting over which one will claim the feast.
They crash into each other, damaging the terrain while rupturing earthquakes into the the ground.
Something has been caught. The celling shakes, candles burn out. The hand crafted buckets made from scrap rattle, clinking. The noise strikes fear, sending a piercing shock to our chests.
"Quickly everyon grab onto something that makes sound." my father whispers in a loud restrained panic.
I nervously jump up from the floor. My youngest sibling, just shy out the womb, he looks at me, introducing a short moment of calmness into my heart, right his eyes start to roll in. Unkownling I shoved a finger into his mouth, and patted him.
Softly whispering into his ears, "Its gonning to be alright, I got chu fam"
Not a single word is understood, but in the moment, he quiets down as I hold him knit tight in my arms and press his head close to my heart, Its warm. I give him a smile, hiding my fear as we sit on a old rugged mat woven through by dried branches.
My Grandfarther use to do this to me on the very same mat, he. He was the light to guide us out the darkness, a safe haven to reside in, but that darkness held him too.
Time passes, dawn is near and our world has stopped shaking, if only momentarily. My mothers two elder sisters come looking for me, they greet me in sigh of relief that im okay, or rather my little brother. Maybe they dont like me, or maybe its the motherly love of an oppurtunity taken away from them.
"Come on, we have to check on Ah Mah, she was by herself the whole night while we had out hands tied."
They look at me with a sense of urgency, so I try to sit up straight, my back sore from sleeping on the floor, trying to keep my brother comfortable. A small ache follows through from my lower spine, sending a small jolt as I lift my head off the woven mat, focing me to jerk my head forwards. Yet, I'm met with resistance, my hair which seeped into the gaps of floor mat, pulled attempting to unweave itself, causing a sharp pain to emerge in my head.
"owww" I yelped.
My brother gives me a playful look of amusement in his mischievious face. I return him a saddening look of betrayal, not enjoying the moment as much as he was.
My eldest aunty buts in, her face held visible disdain, mixed in with a half smirk, half frown, "you really need to cut your hair, its too long, too... Unruly. Every girl in our family should be presentable, who knows when you might stumble upon a fine man. You should be pretty at that, you represent the family."
I roll my eyes as I look at the younger one, she gives me a playful smirk, a non-verbal connection between us in agreement. A almost like reaction, as if her sister was an annoyance, but in the sense that it was funny that she acted like a nagging mom.
Last time I cut my hair. I cried infront of all my family. A short blade tore through my hair around my shoulders, as it pulled down on each strand. It hurt, and I hated It.
Woken up from this daze of reminiscene, a calling for a family gathering can be heard down the hallway, coming from my Grandmothers room. It was my dad, calling us with his usual stoic nature.
We pass through the corridor, where puddles of dirt seeped through the cracks of the metal coating and wooden support beams. The dried soil smell permeates the tunnel, visible distraught on my aunties faces. The walls are linned up with clutter, salvage and all kinds of things. From bangled street signs, to hand crafted appratuses. Everything held value, no matter how small or how useless an object seemed. Scarcity was the driving factor.
Candles aligned themselves against the walls, formed through tree resin from the surface. Some of them found coated in dirt, no longer lit, others shined brightly, sparkling the room with a luminous soul, as if the light was a living thing being drawing towards us. Creating vibrance to the dull silvery grey walls of the hull, blasting vivid pastals of vermillion hues around the corridor.
Lying at my Grandmas feet, Olivia, my older sister. Shes only a year older than me, not even a full year at that. But everytime, and I mean every single moment, she likes to coodle me, treat me like a baby still cooking in the womb or a toddler who needs help to go pee pee in the middle of the night.
"Shes, uh. Shes my sister" I mutter inwardly, passing my 3 year old brother to my Aunty in a slight hurry while maintaining smidge amount of gentleness, as if I know what's about to come.
Her cold indifference of boredom, as if nothing happened earlier, suddenly changes as I enter field of vision, A slight smirk on her face forms into a smile. She launches herself at me, arms and legs open with a visible glee radiating off her face as she soars across the room.
Impact.
Her chest presses into my left cheek as struggle to push them back away from my face. Wine red strands of hair, running along her bangs aim for my mouth. Alabastar fabric brushes around my waist as her legs hold me tight in deadlock. Giving my eldest brother, Caster, and my cousin a pleaful lock. Caster looks down and puts a palm to his face.
I feel the pressure from our weight leave my feet, as our centre of gravity became off balance. Olivias delicate hands wrapped around my head in protection, her hands were incredbly soft.
Thud*
The flooring made contact with my head or rather with Olivias hands. Her face close to mine as our hairs intertwine. She gazed at me from ontop, siting up straight in a graceful manner, the hair from her pony tail leaves my face as it chases hers. My vision slowly aligns as it leads up to the view from underneath her. Her slender pearly white arms emerge from the sleaves of her white shirt, still wrapped around me. My eyes are drawn to her face, skin as soft as satin, holding a warm natural glow.
The abrupt pain is neutralised by a sudden unexplainable warm feeling.
"Hey Solyn~" She smirks at me.
The mood changes as everyone turns their head to the centre of the room. Olivia, still on top of me though.
All eyes on my dad, as he stood dead centre in the middle.