Emotionless: (Prototype: Zero book 1)

by Shaina Anastasi

  With no sense of direction, I glanced at my phone again and looked at the three-way street that leads off in various directions of shops. Puffing cheeks, I raised a hand, spun around four times, and stopped. Stomping feet lightly on the ground, I peeked through one eye and stiffened at golden eyes intently staring at me with his head tilted to the side, stupefied.

  “Hello.”

  “. . . This is stupid,” he breathed frosty air and scanned the area.

  “I am going here,” I raised the phone, and he peered at it and then shook his head.

  “We are going to the tower.”

  “Ok?”

  “Your last rune design was pathetic. I snooped in that book you always carry around with you. Don’t worry. I didn’t read that stupid love letter probably from that stupid soccer player . . .” he trailed off and glared towards the ground. “Whatever, come on Eileen, we are going to climb a tower.”

  At this moment, I have realised that Lawliet has changed the slightest. Compared to when I first met him, his wall up, dominant and attitude of someone who doesn’t want to make friends hit me plain as day in the face. It isn’t as if I see an entirely different mage. Simply a mage who has let someone other than Mika into his life. Having the comfort of another being to talk to without it being a shouting match that ends up in a brutal fight.

  Breaking away from the town, on a path that seemed to have been brushed recently from fallen mushy snow, we were in a new world. Glaciers gleamed proudly as well as clumps of fallen snow slipped away from branches and clumped into a heap on the earth surface. Jacko Lanterns floated near the path and guided the way with its orange and yellow lights. Homes thinned and spaced out until they became non-existent. The sun shined down in its small burst of warmth when the thickly covered layer of clouds streamed past in tendrils. The wind brushed the slightest. Running across the skin like fingers drawing delicately and tenderly was grasping my face in affection. It made me profoundly flush as I looked up with admiration. Trees parted and thinned to reveal a glorious black tower that stands out over the white fluffy snow. Its jagged architectural features and spinal cord railing were going up almost into stairs that weaved like a spider web upwards to the very top. Ice spotted across almost similar to tiny splinters that reminded me of the night sky. The gleaming stars were the ice placed there and the tower itself represented night.

  I widened my eyes the slightest and raised a hand. I was reaching out when a blurred form of Lawliet jumped up. The blue of the rune vibrant and active on his boots. Sticking to the side of the wall, he turned slowly and reached his hand down towards me.

  “Trust me,” he whispered. The wind voiced its agreement, as it alluringly pushed me towards him.

  I reached up, and his warm fingers burned my iced ones. We laced them together. My mouth gaped the ever slightest as I activated the one I had on my boots, on the sole. Never having the time to try it out, I stepped up and felt my legs stiffen. Fingernails twitched, drawing into skin yet he didn’t register discomfort as he pulled me up.

  I found no room for breathing. There was only a continuous breath of air that sucked deeper in with every shaky step I took along the tower wall. Both hands gripped his arm, and Lawliet slowly moved up. The chill of morning air bit deeper into my skin as we ascended. The light wind turned vicious halfway up. It was howling like wolves. They hounded down on us, and I stepped up quickly and clung onto his cloak. I was not having faith in the rune I created.

  “We can stop,” he said, I nodded, and he breathed out a soft breath, his golden watery eyes burned with warmth. It was somewhat as inviting as finding a unique rune. Alluring to me. “You did pretty well, but I doubt your rune can sustain harsh weather. It wouldn’t be smart to go further until you touch that rune up correctly.”

  “Ok.”

  Landing with a thump onto the ground, I brushed the snow that covered coat from the wind off and stared at red raw hands. Lawliet stepped down afterwards, shook white hair and then froze, his eyes widened as my fingers glided and touched his cheek. It was warm, not particularly soft, but smooth. A spark, fingertips that were running on static numbed my hand.

  “You’re very . . . interesting.”

  “Was that a pathetic excuse of a compliment?” he asked, and I shrugged.

  Dropping my arm back to my side, I watched as he shook his head and walked back down the path muttering under his breath. Trailing after, we walked back onto the main roads in the town. The feeling in my fingertips still pulsed with warmth.

  I enjoy his company, and as much as I want to lay the strange feelings I have been experiencing down, he took me to a place where anything I think is washed away because of runes.

  A large beaker in the shop window was like finding a dove hidden in the fallen white snow. It is hard to find in the cluster of other various objects, but once spotted, I cannot unsee it. Leaning down, I pressed hands on either side, and hot breath heated the glass. I steamed it up as I stared longingly at the rarest book I have ever seen about runes.

  It was old and timeworn. Ancient to say the least. I recall showing Mum and Dad the book because I wanted it for my birthday but she said it was impossible to find and the last one didn’t have a price. I remember looking at the wrinkled texture, curled corners and brown stains of age and overuse. It was utterly the most mesmerising object I have ever seen, and I desire to claim it.

  Straightening back up, I went to open the door when I heard the calling of my name. I turned towards a group of teenagers that came towards me. Kent, Lollie, Spenc, Charlie and some of Spenc’s soccer friends casually walked up. Glancing back, Lawliet narrowed his eyes, walls up, that lovely non-trusting face was set for anything.

  “We were thinking of grabbing a bite to eat,” Spenc said with that stupid smile. “Would you like to come . . . and of course, Lawliet is invited.”

  “Not interested,” we both said at the same time, and it strangely reminds me of Donte and Nixon.

  Charlie grabbed my arm and tugged me towards them.

  “Come on. Please!” she begged. “You need to socialise. It is part of the excursion, and the place we’re eating at has tonnes of runes.”

  She sold me, but it didn’t interest Lawliet. He shook his head, turned, half waved and walked away disinterested. In the end, I was sucked in with something I always enjoy doing.

  Trailing behind them, Charlie was flirting – I assume – with one of the soccer players while I stayed back with Lollie who wouldn’t shut up about Kent. Out of my element, I rolled eyes around and counted the glowing Jacko Lanterns I passed by until we got to the little lunch place they were talking about.

  I found it somewhat too floaty for me. The steps trailed up and around. The runes on it gave the wooden steps balance as they levitated in the sky. The wooden stairs led straight up to a floating café that is high in the heavens. It was a glass café, and I looked straight in from the floor from below. Vibrant blue runes illuminated the sky and mingled with the frigid wind that wiped by casually. It swayed the café side to side ever the slightest.

  Charlie reminds me of Nixon in a way with their daring and out their personality. She jumped up on the first one, and it wobbled. Grinning broadly, she ran up the stairs and didn’t bother with balance, concentration or concern for her safety. It initiated the soccer players to do the same, as they raced up with the laugh lines adamant on their faces. The only sane mages were Lollie, Kent, Spenc and I. However; I doubt I am sane because seeing those runes, I wanted to do the same thing. Knowing my luck, I will try to run up, and it will be two steps up, three steps backwards. If I want to survive these stairs, I need to learn the art of taking things slow and steady, as if I was a turtle and they’re the hare. On the other hand, an evil bunny probably was lurking in a rabbit hole and watching over Donte, Nixon and me.

  Lollie went up next with the thankful help from Kent. She complains that her lack of balance is because her boobs are too big that she cannot even see where she was stepping. Oddly enough, it m
ade Kent’s eyes constantly look at them as he helped her. She went red and looked back at me and gave me a little wink. I would be an idiot if I didn’t understand that intention. Merely saying it so the boy she has a crush on can constantly look at her assets. I undermined her efficient ways into knowing the male mind as well as Charlie. These are the types of females that will use potions to make a male fall in love with them.

  Spenc went after them when Kent and Lollie were enough away for us to follow next. He leant down and reached his arm out. I half expected him to ask if I trusted him. He didn’t, and I unwillingly took his bitingly cold hand, cautious every step I took. They wobbled and swayed side to side. The stairs are not that far apart. Even in length, width and size, it was the runes that were worrisome. They swayed vigorously and counteracted with the wild, howling wind that hissed past. The higher we climbed, the worse it got. To the extent that I wasn’t safe on someone else’s runes without my own protection. Veins heightened, connected with the tattoos on my wrist and I was ready to activate the stone structure to carry me and help me if anything goes wrong.

  I rarely trust others runes. Because of both Nixon and Donte’s horrible rune creating when they were younger was the reason I have the long ugly burn on my left hand and going up my arm. It wasn’t on purpose. I doubt they are that sadistic to place the same rune on them so that they could create the same burn as I. We wanted the same rune, to track one another if we go missing. Entirely my fault for trusting their skill in the creation of a rune. Instead, we became the cast tribe. Unwillingly linking arms with those diabolic brothers every time that I saw them.

  I hated that time in a cast. The uneventful torturous punishment I had to endure with my brothers who loved every second of it. It made me realise Mum and Dad can be as cruel as the bunny as they cut me off runes until I was healed.

  And then there are the Evil parents who vanish randomly with no contact information or any information on how long they will be and when they will be back. They never thought about it, and once again, I cannot blame them because they’re keeping me safe from a betrayal outbreak.

  Unfortunately, it was getting harder even to keep up with that excuse for them.

  Taking a deep breath out, I landed on slightly more even surface than the stairs and into the flooding warmth of the café. I peered inside to an elderly couple in the corner, closest to the television screen, absorbed with their steaming hot cups before them, and a long bar with odd mages and some humans who stare dully at their drinks and none were talking at all. The only active ones are the group I decided to come with. Loud, obnoxious teenagers that grabbed the largest table for all of us to sit at and eat.

  Runes or food?

  Stomach rumbled, the protests loud and clear, yet I instinctively spun on my heel away from Spenc when he wasn’t looking and went to the first rune that caught my attention. The windows. The windows to the café are small and square with individual runes on each. It could make up to hundred squares, possibly more of the same identical rune. Individually, they are a plausible normal rune in basic books. Together, as a whole, they are an unusual structure that was forming a larger shape than I would expect. Amazingly, they are not perfectly in their square, as well as the squares were not perfectly lined up. It was because when I expanded my sights, the tiny runes joined to form a larger rune all together that protects this floating café from any damage.

  It suddenly clicked.

  I recall seeing this. Better obviously, more devious and invisible. It would never be visible to any mage if they never had an open mind or as obsessed with runes as I am.

  A design that is seen if I only dropped the walls and had a bird’s eye view of the place. Mage Academy and the floating lights moved in odd directions that made no sense unless I imagined taking down the walls and to look at it from above. When I connected them up, the glowing blue and green lights could be only done by a master runes mage. Certainly, a rune but I would need to dig deeper to find out what rune it is. I also now will expect that Sorcerer City would have the same with their glowing lights.

  “Eileen,” Lollie called my name, and I blinked slowly and looked at her. “We’re ordering now.”

  Puffing cheeks, I tore away from the glass wall and sat at the only spot at the table. Unfortunately, it was the furthest away from a rune, uncomfortable and squished next to Spenc who sat in the corner, up against the glorious runes that enchant me.

  Nixon would have said this would be a scene out of a movie. Portrayed perfectly as ‘this café place, teenagers who were conversing with one another with grins plastered on their faces and in an ethical lifestyle while they dribbled shit one person particularly don't care for. A story of her life. How she cannot fit in’. What a boring story that would be.

  “Gocheese cake with a munrine chocolate drink.”

  “Those are the sweetest things on their menu, Frosty,” Charlie said, her eyes were bugging out. “Are you even a mage?” the boys laughed while I shrunk in my seat, lower and tried to hide from their amusement.

  “Leave her alone. She got smacked in the face yesterday by Rokk, let her eat what she wants,” Spenc defended.

  “Thank you,” I murmured softly.

  “So, it was Rokk! How did you know?” Kent asked.

  Apparently, no one other than Spenc had known this profound knowledge of me being knicked in the face.

  “Rebecca told me before I met up with you guys. She looked super pissed that Rokk hit a girl and is taking Eileen’s side on this one.”

  “She hates Eileen,” Charlie piped up, looked at me and said, “No offence.”

  There was none. She was perfectly right. From our first sighting of one another, I knew she hated me unconditionally because I was Highborn. It was straightforward and clear on both sides that I was the one that was being tormented and rumours spread about. Her changing her tune was the most surprising and confusing turn of events that I have ever witnessed. It was the harshest form of whiplash that would have hit me harder than Rokk.

  “People can change,” Lollie said with a lot of doubt.

  “Not her,” Charlie muttered, rolled her eyes dramatically and slammed her fist on the table that made a few mages jump with surprise. “What are we going to do after this? We should ice skate!”

  “I am game.”

  “I think I will stay with Eileen that is if she doesn’t want to go I mean.”

  I don’t want to go. The last time I went ice skating I was banned from stepping on any type of solid ice that anyone could skate on playfully. Why? Because I intentionally - they think - but accidentally created a rune and activated it. Summoning a large yeti that was the size of a two-story house in kindergarten was never my intention. Frightening o-d-h children to the core. All the poor Yeti wanted was to eat snow cones and thrash around, breaking solid ice to drown everyone who stood on the ice. I found it adorable while others found it diabolical.

  Again, this is why I find myself not the sanest mage alive.

  With saying that, staying with Spenc doesn’t sound as pleasing as going with a group. Both are bad ideas and send a wrong message to Spenc, which will make him believe that I find him interesting instead of boring and a group would make them think I am a civil conversational type. Saying I like being alone, however, makes me sound bitchier than the lonesome silent type. Some mages can find rejection as a form of hate and can hurt easily.

  “I can show you around the shopping section of the town.”

  Town means shops and shops mean runes. If it means browsing around places that have my favourite thing in the world, how easily I can be persuaded to go places with someone. Hopper does that all the time and I am all his. Wanting me to go to bed early, he promises to read me a storybook or a bibliography of runes.

  “Ok,” I agreed with a nod.

  “Oh! Grub is here!”

  They slammed fist, an orchestra of sound, rhythm out of beat, the sound of drums that hammered against the lovely wooden oak corner table we sat at. Pla
tes with runes underneath floated out, settled softly in front of others along with a knife and fork set. Tugging down the red scarf that hid my chin, I ate modestly, how I was brought up while mainly the boys were eating as if they were brought up in a free environment packed with animals. The jungle perse. Everyone brought up to be animalistic creatures in the form of a mage. And they say o-d-h humans are the animals. They certainly don’t shovel their food in their mouths. Table manners, unfortunately, mages haven’t learnt that far ahead. Too busy creating things out of the ordinary.

  Once we were finished and the table conversation died down, we went back down the floating stairs and into the main street. Spenc waved enthusiastically at the group who separated from us, as they raced down the icy slope with excitement and towards the lake that has turned into a large thick slab of solid ice. Lucky not to be going, I followed Spenc who looks to have been here before. He pointed to stores, an endless list of ornaments and strange things he was counting off that were inside. He waved, and people waved back. An o-d-h child jumped out from behind us, and the skin crawled upwards at the fright. Spenc merely feigned shock, surprise, and the child scurried away. He was kicking snow eagerly as he went.

  He reminded me of a boy who used to live on my street. He used to help me build a snowman. He enjoyed my company a lot more than the devious brothers of mine did. His parents thought I was an ordinary girl, quiet, and innocent. We never argued, nor bothered to talk besides, ‘can you please pass me the stick’ again, I hadn’t realised that was what a friend was. Only an acquaintance. Another being that was sharing the same space as I.

  His parents sat at the park every Friday and Saturday. I made sure I played at that park on those days as well. I made Hopper take my brothers and me. When the snowman was done, I did something that frightened the parents but left the boy in utter awe. As the snowman moved mechanically, it listened to the words the boy spoke as he gleefully climbed on his back and raced around with excitement. His father, on the other hand, screamed with horror. I was proud until his mother turned towards me and slapped me across the face. Of course, it was intentional. The look of anger was vividly gut-wrenching to me on the inside. Playtime was over, the snowman melted and the boy never came back to the park.