“ yeah!, my dad put it together for you, he was worried you won’t have enough food, even though I told him they’d probably give you food, I mean they won’t starve you, right!-right?. Well anyways ,he persevered and oh!, all the food is from the castle’s kitchen, so it’s all top notch” ,as he was talking the girls began to examine the contents of the basket, passing it over to each other and exchanging glances. glancing at each other one more time before turning and responding, Lara: “ ahhh , how do I say this nicely?” . Maya: “ we’re not accepting your gift , we have no where to store it and it will go bad with us” . Lara: “ exactly!”. A confused expression wear Vernon’s face as he says “what?!”. “ I’m sorry Vernon, it’s a very thoughtful gift but it’s true it will be a waste in our hands. We have no way to cook it and definitely no fridge to store it” says Lara , handing the basket back to him.
Not wanting to see the disappointments on his dad’s face if he comes back with basket, he says “ I can store it for you in my lab here, if you want” . “Shut up!” Lara responds in a stern manner. Vernon: “ No!” . Lara: “you do not have a lab here too”. Vernon “ indeed, I do” . Lyan: “ no way!” . Lara: “ why?!”. A grin falls upon on his face before he answers ,“well I wasn’t gonna mention it but since you’ve asked ,it’s because I Vernon am the royal scientist-engineer!” He says in very confident tone just to hear *giggling* , the girls have began to giggle and chuckle among themselves.
Vernon turns to them with a confused yet offended look on his face. “ what’s so funny?” He asks, irritation in his voice. Lara takes a breath in stopping her laughter and responds “ sorry-sorry, you are the ‘royal scientist-engineer’ ?” She says looking him up n’ down. “Yes!” He responds with the same irritation. The chuckling continues. “What about it?!, you don’t believe me?” . Lara: “it’s not that-”,Maya: “ yes.” She say’s cutting her sister off. “ unbelievable” he responds, crossing his arms. Lara rises her arms moving them up n down ushering for her sisters to calm the laughter. “ hey-hey come on , maybe he is really the ‘the royal scientist-engineer’ , I mean we don’t really know the child labor laws here. But there is no way there is another lab here, I mean it’s an office at best-”. Vernon rises his arm grabs hers and starts dragging her through the halls.
now standing in front of a big metal door. Vernon opens the it with one hand while pulling Lara in with the other. “ would you stop with the pulling, god…” she’s taken away from her words by the sight of the huge lab before her, filled with all kinds of equipment and different machinery.
“ Woah!!” Lyan shouts out before running inside , Maya walking behind her, turning her head left and right , taking in the lab “ neat”. Vernon throwing Lara’s arm out of his hand ,he says in a condescending manner “ is it a lab or not” . Lara fixing her stand and rising her head responds “ well, it’s definitely a bit more than an office” .she starts making her way in ,Vernon shuts the door and follows her in.
Sitting down at his desk , Lara jumps up sitting on top of the desk. She looks around observing it, “ messy…, you like your space like that, don’t you?” Lara says in sarcastic tone looking over at Vernon. “ it’s not that i like it , it’s just when you put your head in one thing it becomes hard to pull it out on focus on the other” he responds. A slight laughter a escapes both Lara and Maya’s mouth. He glances at both of them, “ *sigh* what now?” He asks in an annoyed tone. “ oh it’s nothing, our dad is a professor, he says stuff like that all the time” she responds smiling a genuine smile, staring into the space. “ man, dad would have loved this place!” Maya says with warmth in her voice. “ right!, he would be taking notes and pictures of everything, then he’ll come home and show all of it to mama”. “Then- ehhhh” Lara yells out as she stands on the desk , her arms clutched close to her chest, one leg up and all heads turned to her. “Pam!, there is rat in one of the photos!”. They all laugh, filing the room with joy. Lara sits back down and leans towards Vernon, “ I hope you don’t mind me standing on your desk” she says. “ don’t worry, I’ll just burn the whole thing” he responds playfully. She squints her eyes at him as look of vengeance then chuckles.
“ oh right, this whole talk reminded me” Vernon gets up and reaches for the basket, grabbing the mysterious bottle. “Here” he gives it to Lara. “ my dad said to rub it on your arm. It will help with side effects of the magic” . She follows what he said and surly enough the cracks start to fade, the colors become dull and faded, the skin turns back into its natural color, most of the cracks are well concealed. “ well thank him a bunch for me, alright” Lara says , Vernon nods with a smile on his face . “ where is he anyways?” Maya asks. “ he had to go back , couldn’t leave the village for too long” . “ yeah, it probably break their hearts if he did” Maya replies with sarcasm in her voice. As Lara places the bottle on the desk she notices a notebook. “ what is this ?” She says as she reaches her hand out. “ it just a notebook with formulas” Vernon responds. “ then what this?” Lyan asks as she goes to press down on a button which was on one of the many pipes in the room. “ don’t touch that”.“mtlmsyhwsh” , both Lara and Vernon yell out on the same time.
Lyan backs slowly. “ you’re the oldest, right?” Vernon asks Lara . Lara: “ yes, how did you know?” . Vernon: “ you know I just figured with all the bossing around”, Lara: “ it’s bossing for their sake” , Maya: “ sureee” , Lara: “ it is and you know it!”.
Vernon: “ and Maya is the middle one , lyan is the youngest , right?” ,Maya: “precisely.” , Lara: “ but that’s just obvious” she says as she continues to flip through the pages of the notebook, her face growing with more confusion, every page. “ hey Vernon, can I ask you something?” Lyan says , continuing to move round the room. “ sure” he responds. “ where do all these pipes lead?” She asks looking up at pipes that extend all along the walls and the ceiling. “ to the generators” , all their heads turn to him immediately. “ the generators-!” As Lara says that the ground, starts shaking again , even more violently then the last times. Vernon gets up and runs to a side door in the lab . He opens it to reveal an enormous room, filled with even bigger water generators all in unstable condition. The girls go after him but they are stopped at the doorway as he yells, “ don’t, don’t come in here!”. At that moment a guard comes bursting through the metal door , “sir-, you!, you’re not allowed to be here!” He shouts. “ we’re with him” ,Lara points to Vernon who’s in next room over , trying to explain to the guard, but no matter what the guard continues just as aggressive , “ you must leave this instant!, refusal to cooperate is punished by law!” He shouts again, without giving the girls chance to react, he grabs Lyan by her hair, pushing her forward.
Instantly screaming and yelling ensues , Maya and Lara jump immediately to their sisters aid. Trying to get her out of the guards grasp, Maya elbows him in stomach causing him to let go , Lara quickly snatch’s Lyan . The guard falls to the ground taking down with him a table filled with glass wear and lab equipments, creating a thunderous thud, echoing far throughout the halls of the castle. Vernon in hurry comes out of the room to see what caused such loud a rackets. Rising his goggles off his eyes, he’s unable to comprehend exactly what went down, he goes to ask “ what happened?-”. “ what is the meaning of this?!” a voice shouts at the top of their lungs, it was an advisor standing in front of the doorway of the lab, fuming with rage.
he starts to make his way in .“ the ground is shaking, people are terrified and your out here doing what?!” He shouts in Vernon’s face. “ I was just-” Vernon is cutoff before he could explain himself. “ don’t!, I don’t wanna here it. Are the rest of help inside?” The adviser asks . Vernon nods . “ then go in with them!” He yells again. V: “ it’s just-” . A:“ just what?!” He says as he hears the guard groaning and sees the girls standing in front of him. His eyes widen in anger. he pulls the guard off the ground and shakes him yelling “ What the hell is reason for the state you’re in!”. “ them!” The guards points to the girls and continues “they’re not allowed to here , I ordered from them to get out and they refused, then they attacked me” . “You didn’t give us a chance !”. “and you attacked first!” The girls yell out . The adviser throws the guard to the ground and turns to the girls, “ why are you here in the first place?!, all other-worlders must remain in their assigned rooms until further notice!” He yells out , not giving an opening for the girls to respond. And it seemed like he didn’t intend to. “They’re with me!” Vernon screams. As the adviser hears that he ushers to the guard “ hold them down”.
The guard immediately pins Lara to the ground, holding off her sisters as they try to release her. “No!, they really are with me” Vernon says as he tries to make his way to the girls but the adviser blocks his way and in rage he goes, “ you moron!, have you learned nothing! About what happens when you bring innominate people here! Or are you determined to burn this place down,”. “ they came here with me and they are not innominate , they have just meet with the queen herself!” Vernon shouts back at him . A: “ you truly expect me to believe THEY have met the queen” . V: “ yes!, and they can even testify for it themselves” they turn to the girls. “ let go” the adviser ushers to the guard. He lets go. Her sisters keel down to help her. Lara now on the ground, her breath quickens ,her pulse increases, her eyes move frantically all cross the board and the sweat was falling down her face like rain. She rises her head of the ground looks straight in the direction of Vernon and adviser and hardly but surely she says “we’re leaving!”.
“What!” Vernon says, shock filling his body, “tsk” the adviser lets out a noise of pure judgment. In his eyes another foolish decision has been made. She pulls her sisters and starts sprinting to exit. The ground begins to shake harder and the pressure on the pipes start to rise. so much so that they start to collapse falling off the selling, the pressure of air inside them tossing them left and right. Vernon looks up just above the exit “ no! , Lara stop!” He cries out. but to no avail.The increasing pressure in the pipe starts to weigh it down , until is falls right on the girl’s heads, they barely dodge it. The pressure of the air sends a piece of metal flying through the air. heading straight at them. Lara stands up covering her sisters, as soon she turns to face forward. the piece of metal flies directly into her face. Sending her backwards into the air. Then it’s all pitch black. As the harsh chaos of the morning sets, comes the peaceful night breeze cleansing the air. To their rancor, the girls find themselves back at the dingy room. Lara, Laying down on a soft mattress, dozing off into space. The echoing silence doesn’t go on for much longer before, “ Lara, are you ok?” Lyan asks. Bringing her sister back to earth. “I-I’m fine, don’t worry” Lara says in an exhausted tone of voice. “ and the…thing” maya chimes asking. her finger hovering over her cheek. “ yes that’s fine too, as long as it doesn’t leave a scar ” Lara responds, touching the now patched wound on her cheek. “Good , good” maya says. The room goes quiet again only this time muffled crying sounds can be heard from under the floorboards. it was the floor below, the people below.
Not allowing the silence to go on for much longer, “ do you think …Vernon is ok?” Maya says. “ Vernon is fine” Lara says turning on her side, an annoyed expression on her face. The sounds got a bit louder.“ are you sure?, that guy seemed pretty mean” Lyan asks, tapping her hands on the mattress, increasing slightly in speed with every passing second. “ don’t worry about that guy. Didn’t the shaking stop? and no one got severely injured?” Lara says . “Yes..” Lyan says nervousness in her voice. “ will then he’s getting nothing more than a slap on the wrist for bringing strangers into his lab!” Lara responds. The sounds got even louder. “But-” Lyan tries to say before shes cutoff by a wretched cry. No one dares to speak after , but the silence no longer consumes the room ,as the cries of the people block out the tranquility but their not the only noises cluttering room. the quick hand tapping, the cracking of the fingers and the heavy stress induced breathing. All there, the air felt dense, suffocating even. Lara looks over at her sisters , noticing the state of them , the annoyed look fades from off her face as she lays flat on her back. She rises her arms and starts to move her hand back and forth, “ come here you two” she calls out for her sisters. They sit up on their beds and exchange a single glance before sprinting right to her, laying down next her.
She wraps her arms around them , “here-here, they’re gonna be fine” she whispers in a soft tone. The sound of the cries continue. Lyan: “Lara” . Lara: “ yes?”. Lyan: “ I want mama” her voice aching as she says that. Lara smiles a tender smile “ oh no problem, will get back soon then can have mama all for yourself” she pinches Lyans cheek. She chuckles, lighting the atmosphere. The two girls begin to fall a sleep but before completely dozing off Lyan says, “ and when *yawn* when go back , we’ll take everyone with us, so they won’t cry anymore, right?…” she’s drifts off. “Yeah…, when we go back..” Lara say’s. pain in her voice yet also determination. She puts a stern but brave look on her face and shuts her eyes.
The girls are woken up by a maid. she hands each one a tray of food. she informs the girls of when they go down to start working on what’s needed for the meeting. The girls finish their food and head on down . To mark the start of a new week, a long one of the same tedious routine. The hope that it was all a dream only grows more with each passing moment. Carrying the feeling of complete helplessness is torture that carried within them each day in this world, one that couldn’t go one any longer. and finally what this week has been leading up to , the deciding moment of their fate. The spring meeting.
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