Majesty

by Brooke Vinson

“So thirsty...” I breathed against his neck.

  “What the hell—” I bite into his neck before he could understand what was happening. This time I managed to create the perfect blood outlet in the form of three deep scrapes. My teeth caught the blood and I felt it flow eagerly down my throat to settle in my empty stomach. I let it flow until I felt content and pulled back lazily like a filled, sleepy cat.

  I let Cain go without much thought, but all he was able to do was grab his neck. I stared at him and then mild panic settled over me. “Bandages.”

  I turned and slammed open our medicine cabinet, grabbing the antiseptic spray and bandages. As I turned around, Cain’s expression was focused on my mouth, my partially cracked mouth. “What… are you?”

  “I don’t know.” He tried to force me away from his wound, but one hard stare stopped him. I wrapped the wound expertly as he stayed frozen where he was.

  “I know… I know what you are.” I glanced at him in passing, expecting some fantasy blubbering, but what he said next stopped everything. “You’re a changeling… a fucking Skypian monster.”

  “Skypian…” I tasted the word and rubbed my tongue over the slowly receding cover fangs. For a moment, my entire body tingled with the knowledge, the power of the statement. I was mystical, special, above everybody else and my aversion to their idiocy was finally explained. I was better than them in so many ways. Then the ramifications of my realization stunned me. Humans hated, without reason or justification, Skypians and I was the only Skypian within three hundred million miles of this human dominated city.

  “A fucking Skypian monster—”Cane blubbered. I grabbed Cain, keeping my emotions barely hidden behind my stoic mask. I prided myself on remaining calm and maintaining a falsely condescending mask at all times. Even when I was confused, I remained stoic; it was a matter of my pride. This, however, had me shaken to the core.

  “Cain, you can’t tell anyone.” He opened his mouth and I deepened my stare. His eyes flashed as my luminous green eyes caught his gaze and he froze. “They’ll kill me. You have to stay quiet for me until I figure out how to hide this. We’re brothers; you have to help me.”

  “Control this?” He wheezed out, shakily removing his hand from the neck wound. “At whose expense?”

  “I didn’t mean to! It was an accident.” I grabbed Cain even tighter. “You will not tell anyone.”

  “I… will not tell anyone.” I could tell by the tightening of his face and the shaking of his hands, he wanted to tell, to have the beast that had plagiarized his brother disposed of. He jerked, but couldn’t get out of my grip. “I’m not going to be able to go out tonight. The least you could do is let me be in peace in my own room.”

  “Thank you Cain. You are a real brother.”

  I’m not sure how, but I managed to return to my room and fall asleep. When the morning alarm went off though, it took my mom physically grabbing me to get me up. My body was achingly tired and my eyes burned at the least bit of light. I managed to keep my eyes open all of half an hour before I invaded my parents’ room and stole my step-father’s very expensive, very powerful work sunglasses. They were made to block out flying debris so they were perfect for my oversensitive eyes.

  “Able!” I stopped at the door as my mom called after me. “Tell your teachers that Cain is sick and won’t be coming to class today.”

  “Cain is…” I winced inwardly as I realized the reason for his illness: anemia.

  “Sure.”

  I was completely silent throughout the school day, ignoring anyone who came near me. I felt like crap and people made it worst with their babbling, insistent noise. So much noise and so much light and so much annoyance! I should have feigned anemia too.

  By the time the holotrain came to pick me up, I was being avoided and it was the best day of my life. I hadn’t said anything overtly cruel to anyone, but they had figured out pretty quickly that I would be left alone one way or the other. I was shambling by the time I entered my house and flopped on my bed.

  I hadn’t even realized I had fallen asleep until I suddenly jerked awake, full of energy and ready to gallivant around the town. I easily flew down the steps and I had a feeling that my eyes were glowing. Something about the Skypian blood within me called out to the night. It didn’t like the day; it belonged to the night.

  I stopped at the bottom of the steps, silently looking around those gathered. I recognized three of the men as Earth Guards and as I caught my brother’s downward gaze, realized everything had been exposed.

  “Mother?” I stared at the men warily as I noticed the stun-guns on their belt. One shot of a thousand volts from the deadly weapons could scramble my brain. With my Skypian traits, they wouldn’t use the lower settings. I would be attacked with a deadly if not disintegrating voltage.

  “Able, these men claim… A Skypian attacked a young lady… She uh, identified you of all people. Of course, I don’t believe her, but things are a bit… strange and if a Skypian is here on Earth, then we, we just need to be sure you know. This all be over in a minute.” She said slowly, holding her arms close to her with my stepfather’s hands resting on her shoulders.

  “I don’t think it will, mam.” One of the officers growled, staring at me intently. I glared back at the officer, a quirk of my mouth turning into a slight snarl.

  “What do you mean, officer? I mean quite obviously my son is human. Just look at him.” The guard looked at me and I knew what he saw: something beyond human, something glowing with godly power. The officer didn’t say anything, but reached over to the bandage covering my brother’s bloody hickey.

  He looked at me at the same time my brother glanced up to my eyes. Then he dropped his hand to his side. “Would you like to show us something, son?”

  “Cain,” I whispered under my breath, but his gaze was on the floor and he either didn’t hear my plea or ignored it. When the encrusted bloody wound was revealed the officer visibly unhooked his stun-gun.

  “Who did this to you?”

  “Cain!” I finally yelled and the officer unholstered his gun. Cain finally lifted his eyes to look at me straight in the face. I didn’t try to hold his sunken eyes with my mystical gaze, but rather looked at him. He looked sick, like he was being eaten alive and his gaze held no recognition of me as his brother.

  “Able. Able did this. He’s a Skypian.”

  Circus Train

  I didn’t know what instinct moved my body, but I rammed the guard before he had even had the time to raise his gun. The other guard tried to raise his weapon, but I turned my gaze with a slight airy hiss as I parted my mouth and my special teeth slid out.

  “Don’t move, don’t breathe, don’t exist.” He froze for a second and then crumpled to the ground, his face completely blank. I stared at his unmoving body for a second before I rescinded my order. “Do breathe.”

  The man I was holding struggled and I turned my gaze back to him. I didn’t even have to say anything to make him go limp. When the second guard hit the floor, my mother finally screamed. I turned to look at her, but she had spun to bury her head in my step-father’s chest. I looked at my step-father, almost hoping for his anger, but he had closed his eyes and was shaking with the childish idea that if he didn’t see the nightmare, it didn't exist.

  “Cain.” I turned to look at him and I put everything I would not say into my hardened gaze. Why? I didn’t even need him to answer to tell me why.

  “Able,” he said firmly.

  “You shouldn’t have done that.” I moved to grab him, but stopped short of touching him. “You’re not worth whatever I feel like doing to you. Be grateful I am a sane person at heart.”

  I ran with a shard of pain digging into my chest and no way to alleviate it. As antisocial and as reclusive as I was, this had been my only home. It hurt and I had nowhere to go nowhere to roam. Nowhere to—

  I stopped walking and looked up at the starry sky. I stared as clouds wafted across the black sheet and finally settled my gaze on the moon
. This was not me, worrying and panicking was something plebeians did. I was above such ludicrous emotions. Who cares what I do or where I go? I was a powerful Skypian and if I fancied to, I could take over the entire Earth and the Skycity. I laughed as I looked back across the overgrown former roads of past societies.

  The first thing I needed to find was a holotrain. With the current state of the world one couldn’t get anywhere without a holotrain. There were a few problems with my plan, the foremost being tracking digits. Government and transport trains were out of the question and trains that didn’t fall into that category were rare. I felt my mouth muscle twitch: they weren’t rare enough to stop me.

  It took nearly two hours for me to reach the train station, but I saw a piece of the Earth I had never seen before. The plants that had shifted and migrated to cover everything were still moving even if they weren’t growing. I noticed it first when I accidently brushed a cherry tree. It was the middle of spring, but it showed no signs of blooming; it didn’t have even a sprig where growth was starting. When I touched it, however, it suddenly jerked and whipped back, snagging me with its branch.

  I touched the bloody stripe across my face with a cautious hand as I stared at the tree who, as I watched, uprooted itself and moved a few feet over before digging back in the ground. We were taught in the second rate school I had attended to avoid going into the Overgrown Land at all costs and to try to find our way back out if we managed to wander into it. It was an unstable, deadly place and completely uninhabitable.

  They had lied to us to try and keep us away from this, this new truth. Plants had evolved past us and had taken their due. I would be lucky to make it to the train yard even though it was just past the collapsed tower we called the Spire. I looked at the Spire with a deep sigh and ran.

  I ran until my lungs were bursting and I was covered in welts where the trees had managed to grab me. But when I finally stopped, I had made it to the other side of the Spire and was only a few more kilometers to the holotrain dock.

  I was totally silent as I walked into the very old, unsecure dock. We were a small town, as big as we were and we didn’t have the resources, particularly the manpower, to protect or update the holotrains. Our daily holotrain was the only train that regularly ran through our town and it was privately owned and operated. Finding a train in this mess would be next to impossible, but I liked the idea of impossible.

  “Bloody mess these ignorant, filthy wretches have gotten us into! No circus, who the hell says no to a circus! We set up, entertain people and leave with no hassle. How are we supposed to buy food? Provisions? Pay our railway fair?” I ducked behind a crumbling watch post as I heard the loud man yelling across the dock. A circus meant a private holotrain was docked in our small yard. This would be the perfect opportunity.

  I looked around the post and found the man and the guy he was talking to. The man who was yelling had long silky black hair that swirled about him in an odd manner as if carried by an unseen wind. He was fairly tall, but he had some muscle to him and a strong stride. As he turned to yell again at his companion, I caught a glimpse of unusual purple eyes and pale but warm skin.

  His companion said nothing as he ranted, but I felt a strong presence of understanding emanating from him. He was large with dark skin not native to this side of the world. He had very impressive hair formed into five dreadlocks and pulled into a ponytail that fell down his back. I doubted that even with my Skypian strength I would be able to overpower him.

  “Shut up you big oaf! Don’t look at me like I’m stupid. Go back to the train and be useful. Go… load something.” The screaming man walked away silently, but his peaceful, yet still powerful presence never diminished. I followed with a twitch of my lip and right before we rounded the corner, I coughed very auspiciously. He turned and I caught his eyes. For a moment I feared he would break their hypnotic power, but he finally shuddered and stopped moving.

  “Thank you. Now if you wouldn’t mind, which you don’t, lead me to this circus train of yours. I think I need to stowaway for a while. Don’t worry it won’t be for long. I’ll be taking over within the next few weeks, days, hours… We’ll see how many people I have to hypnotize.”

  The man turned back to what he was doing as if I hadn’t done anything to him, but I knew he was mine to control. I gasped as he headed around the corner of the garage and saw the holotrain. How the circus could afford a platinum and mythril plated holotrain that couldn’t be more than a few years old, I didn’t know. The train had only four connecting cars, but I could tell by the carefully latched joints they could be expanded outward.

  He typed the password into the electronic lock pad and I snickered at the overly simplistic combination. I was shocked again as I walked into the interior. It was overly spacious even with boxes of equipment strewn everywhere. I panicked for a moment as the man I had mind controlled moved towards me until I realized he wasn’t attacking me, but rather moving boxes to be stacked neatly against the wall. I moved around the boxes, staring at the fancy silks and sky technology. This wasn’t a normal circus.

  “Nihilo!” I slid behind some boxes as the mechanical sliding door opened. I couldn’t tell by the voice if the interloper was a man or woman, but he was thankfully alone. I watched as the large man turned, still remaining silent to look at the person. “What are you doing? You know we don’t need to reorganize the supply room. I mean, we have more than enough time to—”

  I moved from my hiding place and captured the young boy’s eyes easily. “That was… disturbingly easy. You should work on increasing your mental prowess.”

  I looked at him a bit closer as I moved past him. He wasn’t actually that young, probably close to my age if not a little older, but he was small and androgynous. I stared at his fluffy white hair, intrigued by the odd color. He was Skycity born, though I had no doubt he was pure human. Even his skin was light and fluffy with clear, colorless eyes staring at me in confusion. He was actually quite pretty. “Now, why do they have someone as scrawny as you on board a circus train?”

  “I’m scrawny, not weak! On Skypia, muscle energy is utilized at a much higher rate than on earth! I’m probably stronger than you.” I quirked my eyebrow for a moment then moved even closer to him, increasing my gaze’s magnetic pull.

  “Since you’re so talkative, how many people man this train? Ten, twenty, thirty?”

  “Six including Mr. Eris, but he doesn’t do much of the actual labor. He finds us jobs and organizes money and all the desk stuff.” I could see the one he had called Nihilo straining against my control as the boy spouted everything that I ever needed to know. “But most of us are Skypians, so ha!”

  “You’re a bit too friendly aren’t you? You do realize I’m hijacking your holotrain?” He opened his mouth to retaliate, but then seemed to really think about what I said and closed it quickly. My mouth twitched and I loosened my grip on the slow guy.

  “It’s my lucky day.” I quirked my mouth in a small smile as I moved over to the lock pad at the connecting door. “I can take control before we even leave the dock.”

  “Too late. We left three minutes ago.” The talkative boy snorted and I felt my mouth twitch into a smile again. My facial muscles were going to be sore tomorrow, unused to so much smiling.

  “That means there’s no chance of getting caught.” I opened the door and walked into the second car. It was set up like a makeshift dining room and was thankfully empty as I walked through. I looked at the socializing area with a bit of curiosity to how they could afford such expensive furniture and maintain them to the point that they didn’t even have a single visible scratch.

  As I moved into the next car, I found my next victim. It was an extremely large and sectioned sleeper car with separate rooming for the sexes and each bunk was specialized and could be shifted closer to the sides of the car to allow for more room. The mechanisms to work the shifting room had to be extremely complex and use up a lot of energy. How in the hell were they powering this mach
ine?

  She was most definitely and undeniably a he. She was wearing a very old fashioned and elegant, green corseted dress. There were beads hanging from the light green silk in the middle of the waistline and the outer darker green material was made of velvet embroidered with gold and white swirls. All topped with a giant white bow placed delicately above her butt.

  It wasn’t the dress that showed off she was male. The dress was made to fit her perfectly and show off what little curves she had and her body was very well proportioned. Her face however had severe aftershave marking her tan skin. She lifted the long, very feminine face to look at me in shock. She was gorgeous with long, silk black hair and complimentary makeup around her slanted gold eyes.

  When she stood, I noticed immediately she wasn’t fully human. From her neck grew a small patch of gold feathers and even under the gloves I noticed the feathered hands. We stood for a minute as I tried to overpower her with my gaze and she resisted, but eventually her power buckled.

  “He or she?” I asked as she stood, panting from our struggle.

  “How dare you?!” She huffed with a fake falsetto voice. “You barge into my room while I’m putting on my makeup and dare ask me who I am?”

  “I asked what not who. Your aftershave is showing.” I flinched in surprise as she/he squealed and turned back to the vanity she had been staring at, breaking my control. She scrambled furiously for a razor and when she couldn’t find one collapsed in the chair.

  “Why do those stupid bitches always have to take my razor? I’m a woman too. It’s not my fault I got put in the wrong body!” She looked back at me and batted her eyes. “Now, who are you and what are you doing on our train?”

  “My name is Able and I plan to steal this train.”

  “I’m Raven.” She nodded at me and turned back to her beauty station. “I’m going to have to stop you, but I need a few minutes to finish my makeup. Would you mind coming back later?” I looked at her and nodded.

  “So what’s your real name?”