The Vital Structure: City of the Stolen | Teen Ink

The Vital Structure: City of the Stolen

December 11, 2014
By LuisaMarie BRONZE, omaha, Nebraska
More by this author
LuisaMarie BRONZE, Omaha, Nebraska
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

May Calcifer looked out the window, tears prickling at the corners of her eyes, as the sun hit her face at just the right angle to show her beauty. Her dark brown hair rested lazily on her broad shoulders as she twirled it with her right hand, covered in all sorts of marks and burns that traveled up her neck and down to her left arm, stopping at her fingertips. Wiping her tears away with her scarred bony fingers, she rested her narrow chin on her knees. Her brows, with a thick line of sweat above them, were arched carefully towards the ends. Closing her eyes she yearned to bring back memories of her as a child. Playing with her dog Blaze, as she climbed atop a tree watching him bark at her, his noises like a pounding drum. Grinning, she flicked her head to the side, as if to get rid of the memories that were most sentimental to her, when she did it caused her hair to fall off her shoulders.
       She looked up, never attempting to move her head, and saw a spider hanging in front of her, climbing up as fast as it could to try to hide itself. Pursing her lips, May blew a gentle breeze across, causing the spider to fall and scatter at her bare feet. She watched as it danced away from her. Then with a deep thoughtful sigh, she opened up the window to a balcony and stepped out, the breeze welcoming her as she did. With her forearms, she decided to lean against the railing; and a crow had perched at her side. May merely glanced at the bird, thinking nothing of it, and looked back towards the endless wonders of the sky.
       The year was now 4025 and May lived in New York City ‘the land of dreams’ though it was now called ‘the land of ruin’, and with good reason. While May starred out into the sky, she was ignoring the fact of what was truly there. Heaps of garbage and debris surrounded New York City, the buildings fallen on their own, like a house of cards blown in. Though this was easy for May to ignore, not very many people could bear the thought of staring at it every day, though now most big cities were like this. Nothing left but rubble and ash.
        May walked back inside, floorboards creaking as she did, and once in the center of the room. She knelt down, as if to pray, and put her ear to the ground and knocked on the wood, she searched for a piece hollow enough to pull out. As she did, she took out a notebook covered in dust and cobwebs; she felt it was trying to hide from her, too.  The book was as thick as 300 pages would be, bound in laced leather, she untied the knot and opened it up.  Coughing as she did, she looked for one of her favorite stories: The one with the glass slippers.
        She skimmed the pages looking for the story, and though she couldn’t even read, she loved to seeing the colors in the pictures and how simple they were. How beautifully the lines were sketched and filled in with color. Finally, she found her story, grinning at the two ugly step sisters that stood behind Cinderella as they made her work. Soon May knew that the universe would give them what they deserved and somehow that made up for the soon-to-be-princess's abuse. She closed the book and carefully wrapped it up in it laced leather and placed it in the floor once again, with hopes no one would find it. Then May placed the floorboard back onto the floor of her so called 'home'.
       She looked back to the balcony and went out once again, May loved the feeling when wind would pour onto her face like a cold glass of water. She then hopped over the balcony’s railing and hit the ground roughly with her feet, skidding when she did. May ran up the stairs as fast as she could, as she knew that they would collapse at any moment, as one had already done behind her. She quickly pulled strands of her hair behind her ear and kept running. Soon she found herself near the balcony that she was looking for, it had a rusty old railing with blue paint peeling off like the shedding skin of a snake, she grimaced and jumped off the steps with all her might, with hope she would reach the bottom of the railing. She caught it with the tips of her fingers and held grip, pulling her leg up behind her and tugged on the bars and hopped over the railing with a stumble. Sitting down on the balcony, she inspected the room from that spot, leaning her head in a little when she needed to. No one was there, this to May was quite strange, as she swore her acquaintance Verenna had been here not too long ago.
         May picked herself up with her arms, and walked in. Around her were walls with peeling paint the same shade of blue as the railing had, the floor had a tattered carpet, which is very comfortable to sleep on, May had slept here as a child and Verena was not much older than her. Her eyes were like Mays, each a different color, one crimson and the other sapphire. Verenna’s hair was jet black with curls so stubborn she could hardly get it up in a ponytail and her skin was dark brown, flawless with perfection. Unlike Mays, hers in fact was a faint tawny color in which she would never learn to love. Soon enough she heard a murmur in the space behind the closet door, she walked towards it and slowly pulled it open, it creaking as she did. Verena was there, tucked in the corner, a scarlet shade covered her arms and part of her face. Her right arm slashed up and her left with a single burn on her wrist, an intricacy and in the center a single eye, the iris with a silver glow that was fading like a dying heartbeat.
“She came for both of us May,” Verena said, her eyes pervaded with a sight that could only be masked with her words, “’Stay silent and only then will you hide’ she said.”  and with one last breath, Verena's eye fluttered close.

May was now alone in the world, with nothing but a wandering fox to keep her company. She was chilled with isolation as she had watched her guardian die in front of her eyes that night. But only the nightmares kept Verenna in her memories now. And since May had no one to go to, she left New York City 'the land of nightmares'. In search for a place with little to no resemblance to it. A place which used to be known as Annona, Texas, and now that she knew her Originator was after her she planned on staying for a few more months and then move to a slightly bigger city. But May was never one for making plans, that had been Verenna's job. Plan out the state and choose the least obvious city and go from there. But since Verenna never had the time to teach her such a thing, she was on her own.
May sat on a half beaten down bench near one of the smallest 'Food Buys' and picked up a stick, poking the dry ground in front of her and kicking her feet. Her hair had grown longer from swaying at her elbows, to now ranging at her waist. Now letting pieces of it fall near her eyes and some dangling in midair and she watched her wandering fox walk towards her.
"Hey Odyssey," she said, petting his head, which was all you could really do, having your only companion being a fox and all, "You would've liked her, ya'know."
Odyssey cocked his head to the side as if to say, 'Who?'
"Verenna," sighing, she went on, " I should probably stop moping over her, since it's been two years. But she's invaded my dreams like she needs to tell me something, something that she never got the chance to."
Circling around, Odyssey jumped and sat, curling up on her lap, yearning to be warm.
"I know I tell you this every day, but you need to learn how to stay awake during the night time. Foxes are meant to be nocturnal, as in sleeping during the day, not the other way 'round." she went on lecturing Odyssey then picked him up, gently resting his head upon her shoulder, walking towards the Food Buy grounds.
Food Buy, also know as ‘Grub on the Cuff’, was pretty much your nightly dinner leftovers. Families never usually eat the amount of food the chef serves them, this had been done purposely. So that people like May and animals like Odyssey would be able to fill their stomachs at the end of the day. Sure they're leftovers, but in May's mind she always wondered who would waste such glorious food. Sure it was wasted on purpose, but why wouldn't you eat it.
The first thing May saw on the sideboard was an assortment of whole apples, oranges, peaches, and pears. Usually they'd cut the food in half to make more, but now they're customers had lessened over the years, most common deaths begging some sort of illness. May was surprised at how much food she had for grabs, though noticing her own greed had astonished her as well.
She picked up a few pieces of fruit, some raw meat, and a few of the desserts that had gone sparse from the number from what she decided to take. But rarely had they made desserts that the families refused to consume with they're own greed. May put the apples and fruit in her bag, covered the meat in cloth, and went back to her bench to pick at the desserts she choose.
She gently shook Odyssey awake and let him eat the remains of the meat and apples, for May had eaten all the pears and oranges. She watched him scarf them down and decided to study the fury little creature. He was rather pale for a fox, his large ears detecting the sounds and dangers around them. His fur coat lined with few scars, and since they were sensitive to the touch, he was a wimp for a fox. She would never learn why Odyssey had always slept at night. And though May figured that they were very different, she couldn't help but notice how much they were alike. Both either having fresh scars or cuts, and by the color of his fur and the marks on her skin, they were both defiantly outcasts in the world. No family. No friends. All Odyssey and her had, was each other. And as cheesy as it sounded, it was true. She saw her wandering fox follow his tail and lay down for sleep, slowly she walked away shrugging on her thin sweater, knowing that Odyssey would soon find her later.
                                                                            ~-~
She passed the Food Buy and several streets, the signs caked with filth that she didn't do so much as to look at it. Her feet bare, they splashed on the cold pavement, sending chills up her spine. The hollow entryway, which had usually been busy at this time of night, had close to no customers. It was good for May, but the eerie feeling of just being there caused her to stop moving and pull up her hood.
"Hey little girl," a hollow voice whispered, " are you here for the meeting?"
She looked to find where the voice had been coming from, and seemed to notice a head poking up out of the ground, holding up what had appeared to be a door to a bunker. It wouldn't hurt to go, she thought, just to see what the people around here are up to.
She hesitated, "Uh, sure."
She walked towards the old man as he waited for her to enter. Climbing down the ladder-like stairs, she watched the old man grab the edge of his cloak and pull it over his face to reveal his true identity. He seemed around the age of twenty but his face told another story. A thick scar whipped around one arm disappearing under his pullover. And a fresh burn rested below his collarbone. His eyes were like a flame with golds, reds, oranges, and yellows flowing together, then stopping at his iris.
May still felt out of place and titled her head down so no one could see her face. Not that anyone would recognize her, but her eyes always seemed to take people off guard. She looked around at the people who were here, at the meeting. There weren't many, maybe around 20 give or take a few.
People gathered around the front of the room, and May was curious, she followed behind someone, with her head tittled slightly upward she saw what was happening. A mear boy, most likely nearing the age of 15, held an insignificant little flame in the palm of his right hand. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, as if he hadn't a clue of what was to happen, and he opened his eyes. With his forefinger and thumb he stretched the tip of the flame and blew it, causing it to fly across the room, forming into the silhouette of a bird.
Flying around the room, people ducking their heads, the bird lit the candles, giving the room light. The fire bird landed on the boys hand and started to grow larger within each minute. He let the bird go and let it fly amongst the crowd, swooping at every angle. The people watching where the bird would go to next just to see the persons reaction. If they would be scared, surprised, or just not react at all.
Diving up and down in the air, the bird finally rushed towards May, who was in fact halfway across the room. She didn't know what was to happen next, until the bird swopping over her head, causing her hood to slide off her head. People were looking at her, grinning, May looked at her shoulder, quaintly the bird sat upright with the most impossible posture and the reflection of the flameing bird had shown in her eyes.
Showing that the show was over, the bird flew back to the boy, perching on his arm and singeing away like a pail of water had just been poured over it. Everyone turned away once the 'show' was over, everyone except May. She noticed the boy winced, most likely in pain, as the bird slowly faded away. Slowly May noticed herself shuffling toward him, pulling her hood over her head and keeping it down.
"Are you alright?" she asked him, her voice sweet and polite.
He looked at her in surprisment, "Yeah, I guess."
"What happened?"
He chuckled, "It takes a lot of energy to muster up flames like that. But to let them die down, it's literally painful."
May's head still down, she says, "What do you mean?"
The boy takes a sip of water, "My fire is like a part of me, like my arm or leg," he says, motioning towards them, "if I cut it, it stings. But with this, it's like cutting off one of my limbs. You have to control it, see." He says, flicking his thumb nail against his palm, igniting a small flame in his hand.
May eyes enlarged, still unable to be seen, she whispered, "That's amazing."
The boy chuckled again, "It's nothing really," he poked my shoulder, "but if this conversation is going to continue, can you at least make eye contact with me?"
May hesitated, but thought her eyes wouldn’t be a big deal from all the happenings around her, his flames practically pouring from his hands. She took off her hood and slowly looked up to face him.
"Your eyes," he started quietly, and squinted, to see if they were real, "they're-"
"Different," May says, cutting him off short, "I know."



Similar books


JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This book has 0 comments.