My story for Creative Writing, you like?
Spiral
Meilin yawned. For a week of vacation, you would’ve expected more from the daughter of a well-to-do foreign family. Tugging at her necklace absentmindedly, she exited out of her internet search. So much for homework. Pushing her chair back as she rose, she glanced about her room.
Though the walls were a cerulean, you couldn’t tell that at a glance. Her ‘wallpaper’ of sorts would demand your attentions first. Her room was plastered in posters, photographs, and small shelves filled with figurines, most of which featured the same artist. Flopping back on her bed, she glanced up at the largest poster in her room, covering the vast majority of the azure ceiling. ‘Eyes Rutherford…’ she sighed in her head. The famous pianist had captured her heart seemingly ages ago. Had it really been only a year? Grinning at the memory, she rolled over onto her side.
-italics-
It was pitch dark outside, but within the confines of her father’s limousine, it wasn’t as frightening as it could have been. Yawning, the young Meilin glanced yet again towards her parents across the car. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going yet?” the girl asked. Meilin was anything but tall, but she had an attitude that she tended to cop when bored or annoyed.
Her father smiled indulgently. “Not yet, little Mei. Don’t worry, Kouji will have us there in time.” He said.
She winced at the use of her childhood nickname. “He’ll have us where?” she whined.
“Somewhere.”
She pouted. Being sixteen was all well and good, but she could’ve lived without this huge coming out party for all her fathers’ ancient friends and their puffed-up, egotistical children. Oh well, she’d put up with it for her birthday money. She couldn’t throw her REAL party until she had enough to take ALL her friends to Hawaii with her, not just a few.
The car came to a sudden stop in front of the largest building in their city. Meilin was fond of it normally, with its glass-encased restaurant on every floor and its elegant stage where any number of performers had entertained, but now it was just beautiful beyond compare. Her favorite violets and blues were strung all over the room, as the tablecloths, as the banners, even as many of the guests suits and dresses. Her favorite dishes were piled high on a banquet table, and for once even her normal friends were there. Standing in what were obviously tailor-made suits and new gowns, her friends waved from their table near the staircase. There was even a cake the size of a small city!
Meilin stared. “Wow… Mom… Dad…. You did all this just for me?”
Her mother smiled. “Just for tonight, the whole world is just for you, sweetie.”
She hugged her parents. “Thank you!!” she called as she ran down the stairs.
-no italics-
Meilin smirked. Her parents had had quite the party for her for her 16th birthday, that was for certain. And yet a year later she still hadn’t seen any of those people again. Not that she was complaining about not seeing her fathers’ business partners, but still….
-italics-
She stopped at the bottom of the stairs. The music had started and the spotlight was shining on a lone performer. Though you’d think that a piano alone couldn’t create the perfect tune that floated through the room, that’s exactly what it did. The boy at the keys played beautifully, seemingly oblivious to the guests in the room.
“Eyes Rutherford…” her friend muttered, “He’s supposed to be a prodigy…. The best young pianist in the world!”
Meilin shook her head to clear it of the music. It was almost hypnotic, but so was the boy creating it. His hair was white and silver, a stark contrast to Meilins’ night black locks, but his clothes made it difficult to discern him from the night through the windows behind him. His leather clothes must have been custom made, for they were unlike any Meilin had before seen. The shirt was sleeveless, and buckled in three places on the right side. He wore black wristbands, and his pants were skintight. The look was finished by the cape that made him look nearly vampiric. Pale though he was, he was a girls dream, and his blue eyes were expressive, like those of an animal. The chain around his neck held a small pendant that shined like the full moon in summer.
As the piece finished, Eyes stood and took his bow. “He’s amazing!” her friends whispered wistfully. ‘Perfect’ was the word she kept hearing.
As the next entertainers too the stage, Eyes stepped down and bowed directly to Meilin. “I hope you enjoyed the recital.” He said, voice as smooth as polished silver. He spoke with every air of a nobleman.
Meilins’ face flushed. “Very much so.”
“Forgive me for being thus bold, but may I have the honor of this dance?” he asked as the second band struck up a ballad.
-no italics-
And that had been it. She hadn’t looked at another male since, nor had she missed even a one of his recitals. Not that she’d spoken to him since the party, though that was mostly her own fault. Every chance she’d had to speak with him, she’d either chickened out or turned from literate princess into babbling fool.
Unfortunately, this train of thought was halted by a bump and a yell outside her room. She ran to her window just in time to see one of the men outside her house go flying into the tree in her front yard. “Hey!” she yelled, jumping out the window. At the sound of her voice, the attacker fled. Meilin walked cautiously up to the other man laying facedown at the foot of the tree. She turned him over. “Hey…. You Oka-…. Ah!” she gasped. “Eyes?”
The boy moaned. The hat that had covered his hair had fallen, and though he looked tired and worn, he was unmistakably the same man that had played piano at the arena only a few days before. She glanced up. No one else lived nearby, and her parents wouldn’t be home for days yet.
She sighed. With a grunt and a hiss, she hefted him onto her back and pulled him towards her home.
As Meilin pulled him into the house, his eyes focused for a split second. One name escaped his lips…. “Blade Children….”
She scowled. There was that name again.
March 14, 2006
Anyone who had ever sat in front of a computer or a television knew this date. The date the mysterious organization known as the Blade Children had launched the “Hades’ Kiss” virus upon the world. The virus knocked out internet data everywhere in the world for a hundred and fifteen minutes of apocalyptic hell. Several trillion dollars were lost as stock records were deleted, credit card debt erased, and bank accounts lost. If affected everyone and everything connected to the internet. There was even a point where several automatic nuclear defense systems were seconds from launch. Had the systems not come back when they did, they would’ve awoken to a nuclear Holocaust.
Because of this virus, the United Nations halted internet use, and the emerging net culture of the late 2oth century ground to a stop. Though FBI agents found the child, that’s right, child, who was responsible for creating the virus, he refused to name his superiors. He muttered only one name:
“Blade Children….”
And then he shot himself.
And since, the Blade Children had been the demons of the Earth, the ‘Al-Qaeda’ of the new age. And though internet use was eventually reestablished, no one used it carelessly anymore. Many had tried and failed to find the origins of the Blade Children. Many had never been seen again.
Like Meilins’ brother.
Dayne was an investigative genus when Hades’ Kiss hit the internet. He was called in to investigate the Blade Children in New York City, and never came home.
He was 16 years old.
In the four years that followed, Meilin would grow up in a world of uncertainty and fear. Thought she had been but Thirteen when last they spoke, she still remembered his last words…
“I’m going to find the Truth about the Blade Children.”
And then the line went dead.
So had most of her hope.
For the next four years, she would dwell in the shadow of her only sibling. No matter what she did, he’d done it better. No matter what she won, it didn’t matter because he’d won it first. Her skills were, at best, an imitation of her brothers’.
She set Eyes down on the couch. ‘I wonder if he’ll be all right.’ She wondered, ‘Should I call for an ambulance?’
The boy rolled over in his sleep. Meilin smiled. ‘Wait and see, I suppose. The least I can do is patch that cut though….’
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Eyes awoke later, glancing around the room. Wherever he was, it was dark, but there was daylight behind the curtains. He winced as he noticed the pressure on his arm. Removing a blanket someone threw over him in the night, he saw his clothes torn and his left arm bandaged.
“Oh, you’re awake?”
He turned to the voice. The girl who spoke was small, but pretty. Her hair was pulled up in partial buns, but even so it nearly trailed upon the ground. Her outfit was simple, a white T-shirt over Khaki’s, but even so, his expression turned to one of recognition.
“You… You’re the Li girl….”
Meilin smiled. “I’m flattered that you remember me, Mr. Eyes Rutherford. You hungry?” she asked.
Eyes shrugged. “What happened?” he asked as she handed him French toast.
She began slicing her own breakfast of the chair across from the couch. “You tell me. You were outside my house, being attacked, and when I rescued you, you muttered something about the Blade Children.”
Eyes bit his tongue. ‘I don’t remember.” He said lamely.
Meilin smiled kindly. “You hit your head on a tree. It’s not too surprising.”
He smiled back. “I’m grateful for your help and hospitality. Please, let me take you out sometime soon.”
Meilin blushed. “It would be an honor and a pleasure.” She replied.
BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!
The sudden noise made both teens jump. Eyes grinned. “Cell phone.” He said apologetically as he tugged it from his pocket. “Hello?”
“EYES!!!!” yelled a female voice, “WHERE ARE YOU?!”
Eyes held the phone at arms length. “My agent…” he said by way of explanation. He cautiously replied. “I’m fine. Just catching up with an old friend.”
“Well you’re late for an interview! Take your friend with you if you must, but GET GOING!!” click.
Eyes hung up. “Heheh…. Guess it’s time to get going.” He said, dialing his limo. He turned around as he approached the door. “Aren’t you coming?”
Meilin looked up. “Huh?”
“She said to take you with me, didn’t she?” he asked, a mischievous look on his face.
Meilin grinned and ran to his side. “Yu-huh!”
Meilin stared around the limo. “You could host my school’s prom in here!” she said.
Eyes laughed next to her. “You’d think you’d never been in a limo before!”
“This is WAY ritzier than anything Mom or dad would buy!!!” she said.
:The ‘let’s live normal’ kind of rich, right?”
“Yu-huh.” She said as the car screeched to a stop. Eyes climbed out and held a hand out to her.
“C’mon.” he said, smiling. “We’ll go out to eat after, if you still have an appetite after this insanity.”
She blinked and took his hand. “What’d you me- Ah!” she cried, covering her eyes with her arm. “It’s broad daylight, are flashbulbs really necessary?”
Eyes smirked. “What, you thought the sunglasses were just for show?”
Meilin grinned. “I’d hoped so.”
Eyes escorted her inside, shutting the doors behind him with a sigh.
“Is it always like that?”
“Mostly.”
Meilin blinked rapidly. “My eyes will never be the same.”
“You’ll get used to it.” He said as they entered the interview room.
After rolling her eyes through a hundred questions she knew the answers to, and being asked about as though she wasn’t there, Eyes finally ended the interview. “I’m sorry about that…” he said apologetically.
She shrugged. “It was all fine until they asked about me.”
“That was totally out of line. I apologize….”
“Oh, you didn’t do anything wrong, Eyes.” She said, turning red again.
“I shouldn’tve dragged you in there. Please, let me make it up to you by buying you dinner…”
Meilin smiled brightly. “Of course. But I’ve gotta go home and grab some things first…”
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Her eyes when wide. Sweat dripped down her face and her pupils dilated as she saw the apocalyptic destruction of the room. Meilins’ house was as spotless as she’d left it everywhere but here. Here, in her own room, the devastation was total and complete. Her computer was ripped from the desk, the keyboard on her now diagonal bed. Her posters and figurines, shattered and torn, littered the floor. Her bookshelves had all been torn from her closet and her stereo was so much scrap metal. Even her dolls and clothes were torn and flung about the room.
But all that carnage was dwarfed in comparison by what had happened to her largest poster. Dripping red paint that looked like blood, her ceiling had been graffitied….
-italics-
Beware the Blade Children. Learn the lesson your family did not, and mind that which is your own concern!
-no italics-
Meilin fell to her knees. “What…. The…?”
Eyes grabbed her shoulders. “Meilin… C’mon, let’s go….”
She sobbed. “But…. My stuff… My room…”
“Things can be replaced! It’s not worth your life. The one who did this might still be nearby… Let’s have the police handle it…. C’mon….” He pulled her to her feet. Clutching onto him for support, she glanced, weak-kneed, at her valued possessions.
“All those rarities I’ll never be able to get my hands on again….” She murmured.
“It’ll be alright.” He told her as he led her from the room. “It’ll be alright….”
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The sheriff hung up the phone abruptly. “I’m sorry to say, but I can’t find your parents anywhere.”
Meilin pulled the blanket tighter over her shoulders and sobbed. “I knew it! I knew it…”
Eyes put his arm around her. “What?”
“Didn’t you see?” she wailed, “‘The lesson your family did not…’ Not my brother… my family…. Mom and Dad are gone, they’re just like Dayne now! I’m all alone….”
Eyes smiled sadly. “Don’t worry… They’ll find them… Meanwhile, you can stay with me!”
She looked up with a sniff. “I can what…?” she asked, disbelieving.
“I can’t help but feel a little responsible.” He said, his eyes betraying his words.
‘Considering it was my fault.’
“It’d be an honor to have you stay with me until this all blows over.”
She sniffed again. “O-Okay….” She said softly.
Eyes pulled her from her seat. “C’mon. You’re probably starving.” He said, taking her back to the limo.
Laying down on the seat, wrapped in a blanket, Meilin stared at the floor. Eyes put her head on his lap, smoothing her hair softly. “Don’t worry… It’ll be alright…. I promise.”
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