January 3rd, Tuesday

The Lone

23:53

Solaforma throws herself onto the creaky bunk bed, her foot rubbing against a scratchy wool blanket that is neatly folded at the end of her too small bed. She sighs looking up at the rusty springs of the top bed where a thirteen year old girl is snoring like a middle aged man. 

She turns her head to the side, her hair rustling against the hard pillow as she stares into the darkness of the room. She silently pulls her feet onto the cold sheets of the bed. She then looks at the six bunk beds that were lined side by side. They make the room feel far more cramped than it is meant to be. 

She quietly lowers her feet back onto the cold hardwood floor, silently standing up to her full height of six feet tall. She turns her attention to the four large windows on the wall to her right. The street lights along the concrete sidewalk shine an orange hue through the window casting long shadows of thin tree limbs across the house. She watches as the branches drift in the gentle wind for a second then turns away. 

She gracefully walks across the floorboards, glancing to every bed like a sentinel in the deep covers of night. She reaches the other side of the room where there is a white door that has been degraded from decades of use. There was also the fact that children had the tendency to chip away at the paint. 

She reaches out to the door and can't help but to chip a thumb sized piece off before twisting it's golden handle. The door opens with a slight creak that matches the sound of the floor board she leans on. Inside the old closet are piles and piles of clothes all neatly organized on ten shelves which are also neatly labeled. She looks for the label with her initials S.I. where her clothes are neatly folded ready for use. She pulls her pajamas from the top shelf before walking to the opposite corner where there is another white disheveled door. 

It is almost one in the morning and though she didn’t want to she had to wake up in four hours. 

She turns the once gold knob of the large bathroom door. She stealthily sticks her head through the slit of the tall door into the bathroom that was the size of a small apartment, one of the side effects of converting a mansion into a foster home. She fills the bath to the top before slipping into the warm water that made her just a bit sleepier than normal. She sinks lower into the tubs warm waters until she is staring up at the sky window above.

"There’s something far more than just those heavenly bodies." A voice from her past once told her. 

"What do you mean?" She had asked years ago. 

"We always knew there was something more in the universe. Maybe we were all just to scared to acknowledge the truth of it."

"You mean life?" 

She waves away the thought before she can recollect anymore. It wasn't necessarily a nice memory.

Instead she thinks of the harsh reality that the world was a poor weaker version of it’s once great self after World War III. Children fifteen or older were now considered adults, being legally allowed to drive, work and leave school if they wished. As a result of this younger adult age she was desperately looking for a new job other than working and living in the foster home. Thankfully the children liked her or else she would have lost her job by her sixteenth birthday forcing her to become homeless. 

Most of the girls thought she was odd since she never made an effort for conversation but the younger girls liked her. Perhaps it was because Solaforma rarely ever told the children no or maybe it was because she’d simply say okay when they wanted to play. If they needed something she would try to retrieve whatever that child wanted. If they wanted to go on walks, she took them without complaint and if they simply wanted to talk she would quietly listen telling her honest opinion while they told her endless ideas and facts. 

Children talk a lot, just like Ansidara. She opens her eyes wide at the thought of him. 

She releases a long sigh as she recollects what she had done to him the day before. 

She should have stayed quiet.

She reluctantly grabs the edge of the white tub then pulls herself out, being careful not to slip on the old cracked tile floor.

She hastily gets dressed at the reminder that she only has four hours to sleep and leaves her dirty clothes in the laundry bin by the door. She exits the warm bathroom into the chilly room that lacked a heater but had a plethora of sleeping bodies. She gracefully glides across the wooden floor boards in a long loose nightgown that the other girls said made her look like a doll. 

She takes a deep breath as she gently lays her wet head on the stiff pillow and curls up in her old uncomfortable bed. She turns over and lays straight finding that her feet hang over the small bed. She crosses her hands over one another as she silently stares into the darkness. She recollects her life, work, school and her unknown future that she believes she could easily prep for. 

She is a sixteen year old high school senior who skipped two grades in elementary school. Now, as she lays in silence, she wishes she had skipped more because the Pinters were extremely smart, extremely social, or elite people. She wasn't social or elite so she would have to depend on her smarts to get her in the top circles of society. It was a hopeful thought.

She sighs, well aware that once she finishes high school the headmistress would definitely kick her out of the foster home. There just wasn't enough room and she did not meet the requirements for being a much needed staff member.  She had to somehow work full time and pay for college all while trying her best to stay off the streets. At the very least she still had her scholarships that gave her reassurance but as of now that wouldn't cover the full cost of the most elite college on the east coast, which she plans to attend.  She has yet to receive the acceptance letter but she was certain they would accept her just based off of her attendance at Everton High. 

She pulls the scratchy blanket over her body, deciding that such far off things didn't need her sleep hours to think of so instead she decided to worry about finding job in a day or two.

As she drifts to sleep she falls into a dream as vivid as real life. There is a being soaked in red, head to toe red, or maybe it is a suit. She can't tell, all she can tell is that the red on the persons body is protruding into sharp red spikes that trail down their back similar to large spear like rubies. 

"Beautiful." She hears someone say.

She turns to find a person that is identical to her, only her eyes are closed. "We were not cautious." The doppelganger opens her eyes to reveal two different colors, one gray and one green. "Yet, our mistake is so beautiful."