Chapter
Two: Blinded Eyes
Claire ran as fast
as she could until she reached the outskirts of town and approached a small
junkyard. The junkyard was place Claire would always visit if she was feeling
depressed. And today was one of those days. There wasn’t much in the junkyard
except the old scrap metal and hollow vehicles that the empire no longer had a
use for. It once had a title engraved in a sheet of steel hanging above the
fence post, but it long since faded away leaving nothing but the letters “L”
and “E” visible.
As Claire progressed farther and
farther into the junkyard she had thought of unfair her life had been for the
last couple of years. Almost everyone she ran into had treated her with utmost
respect, and not because they wanted to, it was as if people feared her and
felt they needed to respect her because the empire treated her and her family
with special care. Her father was never home; he stayed at the capitol and
worked there full time, only taking a break when a major holiday occurred. Her
own mother expected her to grow up and always addressed her with an air of
seriousness. Yet when she talked to Claire’s younger siblings she always had a
smile on her face. “I’m only fifteen years old you can’t expect me to grow into
an adult overnight…” Claire thought to herself. Thoughts swirled around in her
head as she made her way to her favorite spot in the junkyard. The only people
who really accepted her as friends were Leon, and her childhood friend Grace
Velvet.
The two had known each other since
they were very small children. And they were always seen together after that
one fated day they met…
OOOO
Ten
Years Earlier
The two small girls
had walked off to go play in a forest nearby the gathering of the two families.
The Velvet family also served the empire, and had done so for many years. So
while the adults talked the children played amongst each other.
Grace Velvet and Claire Willow
were the oldest of their family and both were to work with the empire. The
girls began to wander until they made it to a strange clearing. In the middle
of the clearing lay an old grave stone, it was carved with words of the ancient
language. “Hey! What do you think it says?!” Grace said happily as she began to
approach it.
“Wait Grace! Do you think it’s
safe to go near it?” Claire asked nervously. Her large brown eyes were filled
with fear. However Grace had already begun to approach the stone. The girl’s
orange pigtails swayed in the wind, and her crystal blue eyes were filled with
wonder. She lifted out her hand to touch the stone, and as she did this
something terrible happened.
The entire clearing radiated with
a bright indigo light, but a strange force also swept through the clearing,
knocking both the young girls off their feet and into a nearby tree, rending
them both unconscious. The light dimmed down to leave another large and odd
figure standing in the clearing. It was a large statue of a headless woman. The
woman wore what looked like a simple robe and held a long and sharp looking
harpoon in her right hand.
The statue approached the two
girls, but it only seemed to be interested in Grace. It picked up the girl by
the back of her shirt and set her on her own two feet. The statue then dropped
its harpoon and covered both of Grace’s eyes with its stone hands, spouting six
angelic wings in the process. As the wings spread an indigo colored aura formed
around Grace and her body went limp, though she was still held up by the
statue’s firm hands.
Grace immediately began to scream
as the aura began to fade. The statue removed its hands and Grace fell to the
ground, her once crystal blue eyes were now a dull misty gray and devoid of
life. “I-I can’t see anything!!” Grace yelled out. Her yelling eventually awoke
Claire who was still resting at the foot of the tree. And once her eyes opened
and set their sight on her friend, she began to panic.
“G-Grace?!” Claire yelled out in
utter panic, her eyes widening at the sight. However Grace had stopped
screaming and blinked in surprise.
“I-I can see everything… So this
is how the world really looks? This is… amazing!” Grace yelled out happily as
she extended her arms toward the sky. “The sun is magnificent! The sky, the
trees, everything!”
Words could not easily describe
what Grace was seeing. It was as if everything had been glorified ten times
over. Everything shone with a new light, for this was how the world was
supposed to be. Unlike the grim dark world it truly was. And it was then that
Grace began to understand what her goal in life was. She wanted to bring peace
to Velvus, to return it to its once glorified state. When the strange statue
had made contact with her she had felt a burning passion to change the world,
and she would change it in the most peaceful way possible. Maintaining peace
became the most important thing to her on that day, so important that she would
lose sight of other things…
OOOO
Claire had finally made it to her
favorite part of the junkyard. It seemed to be some sort of pit that contained
lots of scrap metal. Used vehicles and other abandoned pieces of metal lay in
the pit. If anyone were to fall into the pit the metal would cut them to
pieces. Lumber also lay on each side of the small walkway through the junkyard.
All these things that lay before Claire were all familiar to her. But one thing
surprised her. In the middle of the pit of scrap metal stood a very familiar
stone statute. And on the headless statue’s shoulder sat a familiar orange
haired girl.
“Oi Claire! How are you?!” Grace
called out cheerfully. Grace had hardly changed over the years. She still wore
pigtails in her orange colored hair, and fine Victorian styled clothes that
showed off her family’s social status. Not even her chipper personality had
changed. The only thing that was different was the magenta colored glasses with
oval shaped lenses she wore. The color and shape of the glasses went well with
her personality.
“Grace! What are you doing up
there?! You could fall and get hurt! Are you crazy?” Claire’s motherly
instincts almost kicked in instantly. Ever since the incident she felt like she
needed to protect Grace from all harm. Though Grace often told Claire she could
do things on her own. And this was the friendly relationship Claire and Grace
had with one another.
“Oh I’ll be fine! Here watch!”
Grace extended her hand and the statue did the same. This made a small bridge
that Grace could walk one, albeit a narrow one. Nevertheless Grace walked
across the statue’s arm like it was a balancing beam, out stretching both arms
and jumping onto the cliff Claire stood on. “Tada! Was that cool? Or was that
cool?” Grace said with a large grin.
“You could’ve fallen! What were
you thinking?!” Claire yelled as Grace winced and smiled goofily.
“Ya, but didn’t I look great?
Nihihi~” Grace added her signature laugh to the end of her sentence.
“How did you learn to control that
thing anyways? Last time I saw you, you could only make it appear and disappear
when you wanted to!”
“Are you forgetting you haven’t
seen me for about a year? You’re so cute Claire!” Claire blushed at these words
then quickly replied. “A-Anyway! What are you doing in Nottus? I thought you
lived in the capitol now?” Claire asked.
“Oh! My uncle Reynold came to
visit! He said he wanted to see his hometown again! So my siblings and I agreed
to come with him! Anyways want to head into town and buy some lemon shakes?
That’s the best thing about this place!” Grace said cheerfully.
“Boy is she as chipper as ever…”
Claire said under her breath. “Sure I guess. It’s the middle of summer and I
haven’t even had a lemon shake yet? How lame am I?” The two girls laughed and
caught up with each other as they headed into town…
OOOO
“Man! Talk about delicious!
D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!” Grace said as she and Claire sat down at a table with a
large umbrella to shade them from the sun. “I can’t believe I haven’t had one
of these in 365 days! Heck I could eat one every day!”
“That wouldn’t be good for your
health…” Claire trailed off as she took a sip of her lemon shake. She noticed a
silver haired man approaching them. He had crimson colored eyes and his hair
was very oddly placed.
“Hey Grace! We should head back
home, it’s starting to get late.” The man said as she placed his hands in his
pockets. “Oh? Who is this?” The man said as she caught sight of Claire.
“Hey Uncle Reynold! This is my
friend Claire! The one I told you about!” Graces said cheerfully. “Claire this
is Uncle Reynold, Uncle Reynold this is Claire.”
“It’s nice to meet you Claire, Grace
talks about you all the time.” Reynold held out his hand and Claire shook it.
“Well I’m afraid it’s time to go Grace.”
“Aww but I just started eating my
lemon shake! Oh well… See ya later Claire!” Claire waved goodbye to Grace and
Reynold. Even though she had seen her friend for only a short time she was glad
to have seen her again. But she couldn’t shake the new buzzing noise that had
entered her head...
-End
of Chapter Two: Blinded Eyes
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