Juniper’s eyes are glued to an electrifying LCD, her face expressionless, but in her eyes is a raging fire. A whole different world. Her fingers jump from one shape onto the next, left and right triggers spamming in anticipation and haste. Timed at the right interval, calculated but fired based on the impulses of her reflexes.
“Jun…”
There is no world outside, there is only the moment, the thrill of the experience. The hunt. Vibration, humming in her hands. She taps the buttons like her life depends on it, her body circling like a bull dominating a rodeo.
Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.
All you need to do is to kill.
“Juno?”
She twitches, there is a disturbance, a distraction, it is detrimental. Downright dissociating, her eye bugs out, and the world blurs and blends as she feels a hand touch her skin. She didn’t like being touched. The frame of a little hand was tugging at her, dragging her away from where she wanted to be.
“Juniper!” her little sister attempts to drag the controller from her, initiating a brief tug of war. “Juno, listen to me…”
“Let go of me, you little goblin!” She tried pulling her off, but her sibling threw herself into a path of collision. Sprawling her body all over, clinging to her face, pinching her cheeks.
“Jun! I’m hungry…”
“Well, you’re nine years old, whip something up yourself.”
Visible tears had formed in the younger sibling's eyes, and her mouth opened, ready to bawl and moan until her needs were met. She started raking and clawing at Juniper's delicate skin, only irritating her a touch further.
“I can’t eat another peanut butter and jelly sandwich, Juno. I’m going to die if I do,” she sobbed along, her crying canceling out the noise coming from the monitor. Her immersion died with it. “You… promised you were going to get me something sweet from the grocery store.”
Ever since the catastrophe that yanked their parents from them, the role of guardian and caretaker was thrust upon her. Taking care of her two siblings was an exhausting task.
Especially Euphemia, she was a handful.
“But that’s tomorrow, Effy. Can’t you wait a day… I'm busy right now, and I don't want to go outside.”
She started rolling on the ground, a stress-inducing sight for the older sibling. Juniper sighed, taking her phone, and pulling up what was left in their savings. About 9,000 credits, which wasn't much real dollars. It was depleting fast, and there was anxiety that came with that. She’d been a NEET for most of her life, if you could exclude her school career. Most of their livelihoods depended on the generosity of the government. She could never have the courage to work among the public. Her fear of being exposed to a lot of people was devastating. Then there were the capes who could nuke you if you so much as peered at them in the wrong manner. It wasn't an unheard-of thing either. Forget being stabbed for a single credit, when in the presence of a cape, prepare to grovel on the ground.
If things go on this way, she may have to find a job in public. She dreaded the idea. Her online plans of being a streamer never went anywhere. To be honest, she didn't have much of a personality to show the world.
Why would they be interested in me anyway.
“Juno,” another voice called out from the other room, distracting her from the little nuisance beside her. “The social worker tried to contact you again. She… uhh... wants to discuss our living situation. Again. Haha—”
She tensed. She knew what the woman wanted, to take them away from her. It had almost happened twice. The previous time, she had been verbally attacked by the social worker, who called her unfit and too immature to take on a parental role. Threatened to take away the government relief fund, which would make sure she would not only lose them, but she would be homeless. In full mercy of travellin cape catastophe.
“Ignore her, please, Remy,” she stuttered. Emotional turmoil had built up, but she refused to show it to her siblings. “I’ll speak with her soon.”
She’d have to find something for herself soon, which scared her, as all the super freaks ran about outside, in the city.
Would there be a soon.
“Remy, if push comes to shove… I,” she started. Her frail brother started coughing again, leaning against the door frame. His knees went weak. She ran over as quickly as she could, holding him by the shoulder. “Did you take your medicine?”
He nodded. A mist-like smoke left his lungs. His face grew paler, and his already thin frame went limp. PNNS. Psychic sickness. A testament to one of the chaotic events that ruined all their lives. Something she didn't want to think about. A memory covered in blood, and broken shards.
“I’m fine, I just need to lie down for a bit,” he coughed up. Which in itself was a chore for him. He'd keep quiet, mostly.
Effy clung to his leg, as if she was attempting to comfort his pain. Juniper’s heart sank. The weight of their future hung on her shoulders. No one else, but her.
It's too much.
She carried him towards his room, keeping a steady pace to keep him at ease. She laid him down on the soft bed, tucking him in. Staring at the amount of medicine he had left, he was running low on pills. Another worry for later. Another stress for her to think about.
Her brother stared at her with the widest smile she had seen all week. She ruffled his messy hair, giving him a kiss on the forehead. She couldn't help but look mopey. “It’s okay, sis. Once I’m done with my studies, I’ll take care of you both.” Comforting, and yet it was years off.
“Remy…” Euphemia moaned, appearing from behind Juniper. Tugging at her sick brother. “Jun promised something sweet from the store, but she won’t buy it.”
Her brother giggled, not knowing how to appease the little girl himself. He didn't need the extra stress right now. Best to keep her calm while he was sickly. Effy wouldn't go hungry, Juniper would make sure of that by any means, but they weren't in a position, to buy things on a whim. Maybe just this. This calm, before she attempts to throw her life around.
“Alright, alright," she gave in. Better to get it over with, she needed time to think. "I think I’ll go grocery shopping right now,”
“Yay!” the girl exclaimed.
“Can you afford to go?” he whispered to her.
“Maybe…”
She knew she’d have to cut into their savings. Their groceries were running thin, so she’d be forced to go anyway. It was times like this she missed her parents. They would know what to do. There were all sorts of problems looming around the corner, yet she has done nothing to try and solve them. Analysis paralysis, she would fantasize about fixing them every day but do nothing.
She beelined to the front door of the apartment, her eager sister trailing behind. “Can I come with you?” She held her hands together in a prayer sign, goggling her little eyes together like they were marbles in an ornament. “Pretty please.”
“No! Effy!” she shouted, making the little girl shake in fright. “It’s dangerous outside, you know this.”
Harsh, but she needed to get the message accross.
“But… you let me leave when it’s time for school,” she argued with her squeaky voice.
“That’s different, Euphemia. There are crazy people with crazy powers outside. When you go to school, you get an armored bus and a police patrol behind you. It’s not safe.”
The child started hitting the backside of the door.
“But I wanna see the outside world,” she rambled on, pouting, clambering toward the door. "And good capes are out there!"
“No, stay!” she pointed with her finger like she was a little lost puppy. "Go watch a movie or something, play a game."
"But I don't like video games," she complained.
She slipped outside, then briefly shut the door behind her, locking it. She could feel her tugging at the door, calling out to her. She was safe in there, not that some massive superpowered brute couldn’t break down the door.
She could only pray. That their block doesn't explode while, she's gone.
Pray to who and whom?
Turning from the apartment door, she felt a presence behind her. Almost instantaneous pressure, chills, goosebumps.
Behind her stood a lower lifeform of capitalism in human skin. The rent lady. Ms. Louis.
Her shoulders dropped, her fingers shuffling. She held her hands together as the elderly woman confronted her. Social anxiety. A tight feeling gripping her lungs, her chest heavy. Fear of saying the wrong thing. Juniper tightened herself, one conversation and she would be gone.
“Juniper.” Her voice was heavy, ripe with exhaustion. “I hope your rent will be on time tomorrow. These days, even the air costs money. And I'm barely making it.”
Barely making it by with several real estate properties. Blasphemous. Fat as a coddled pig. What a witch!
She nodded. “Of… course, Mrs. Louise.” She struggled to bring out the words. “I will bring it on time.”
“Please do. I’d hate to be forced to let you go,” she said with a twisted sadness. "Had to let old Samuel go last week. Life's hard out here, young missy."
Not for you, it isn't. Landlords are the enemies of the people. And she wasn't even a communist. They were just generally awful people. Sometimes it felt like it was just her who had to deal with people like her, but old Samuel was proof of the struggling life outside her apartment door.
“How is your brother, if I may ask, and the little one? I saw her attempting to climb up the roof yesterday. Best to keep a tight leash on her. Don’t know who could be swooping by.”
Oh god, Effy!
More daytime terrors to add to her long list.
She cleared her throat. “H-he’s alright, just a little under the weather with the condition and all that. As for Effy, she’s a 'pain' sometimes, but she’s starting to listen to me, with good time.”
The lady’s eyes went wide with joy, gripping her shoulder awkwardly and whispering, “Dearie, you should come by sometime. I have ‘natural’ remedies that could cure even cancer in a decade. But don’t tell the government, they’d be all over me. Might even ail your brother's illness.” Juniper nodded, sweating a drop for every heartbeat.
More like dying in five years. Who knew what she concocted in that old herb room?
Just then, one of her more elegant neighbors walked by, a Japanese woman, someone she had a crush on but saw no possible future with. Kanako, she believed her name was. She wore a stylish office suit and expensive loafers. She could never hope to try and compete with her fashion-wise. A bright smile on her face as she greeted both of them, walking downstairs.
“Ohayo gozaimasu,” she said, in fluent Japanese, bowing her head to the two of them. Her striking features stirred a sleeping devil in her heart. She could only dream of kissing a girl like her. Juniper bowed her head as well but struggled to utter a word. Feeling some heat in her face. The rent lady simply stared angrily.
“Strange one, that one is. Wonder how she got here from China after the whole catastrophe business,” Louise commented loudly.
Juniper raised a brow. Ignorance and confidence were a great combination. If a business owner running one, couldn't differentiate between two cultures and nations, maybe she shouldn't be running a business.
"Well, Ms. Louis, I have to be off, It was good speaking with you."
It wasn't.
"Likewise dearie, take good care."
Meaning none.
Refraining from saying anything rude and shaking her head, she made her way to the damning path of the grocery store, leaving the apartment complex behind her.
The very first and most frightening thing she saw was another human zooming by. She knew it was only one of the superheroes patrolling the city, but the anxiety of being crushed into a pulp wasn’t so far-fetched. She feared she may die on the streets one of these days.
Entering the store. “Depot Mart.” A makeshift rip-off of some American superstore that sprang up when the city-state was brought into existence and seceded from the United States. It was the cheapest option for her. It came with great discounts, even though being spotted here by old school classmates of hers would give her an ample amount of humiliation. What was important was the survival of her siblings.
Would they even recognise her.
The fluorescent lights of the store were overly bright and cluttered with neon signs, a sign of a dystopia that had yet to come. Lots of things in the glow that she couldn’t afford but wished she could. Grabbing the essentials: rice, beans, soup stock, and other forms of staple food. She stopped at the bakery division. Her eyes searching like a drone for a sweet treat, she grabbed a chocolate cake. It was the cheapest thing she could afford without draining too much of her savings. Her eyes observed the other items with jealousy, things she couldn’t touch or taste.
One day.
“I hope you’ll be happy with this, Effy. Better not complain about it,” she said to herself, and an absent sister… Man, I really need a job. Yet, the fear of people and capes made her creep inside her room.
Moving over to the payment counter, she hesitates over the total. Her hands tremble as she brings the card down to swipe, hoping there isn’t some complication. Her eyes were fixed on the receptionist. A beautiful, bright-eyed girl whose hair was silver, strapped in a ponytail. Was she a cosplayer, or was she naturally like that? She could only wonder. She knew if she was as beautiful as that, she would be making millions on the internet selling ‘stuff.’ It was always an option, she knew it came morally with a fault. Her brother didn't want her to demean herself. But her options were paper thin.
The girl smirked at her, eyes scrutinizing, chewing a host of bubblegum, speaking within her mouth. “Thank you, ma'am.”
She nodded, blushing. There was something strange about her. She seemed very familiar, though she couldn’t make a recollection. Her mind was filled with the brain fog of visual novels and action games. Was it the bright aesthetics. Maybe something else.
As Jun leaves, clutching the bag tightly in case a criminal attempts or takes advantage of her, she strolled, letting out a heavy breath. It’s never as bad as she made it out to be. Maybe she should be more outgoing, there was only one way to get rid of the fright.
A deafening loud explosion rocked the street. The lower floor of a building across the street exploded into a flurry of shrapnel and rubble. A small static wave went through her body, like a telepathic cramp. Smoke filled the air with flames.
Her ears went deaf for a small moment, and then she could hear people start shouting and screaming. The ground started shaking under the shoes that didn’t fit her, and it threw her off balance. The grocery bags fell to the ground, and she sprang to grab them.
“No, no, no, no, no!!!”
Juniper bent down, attempting to clutch it from the ground, the cake loose from its container. She held the bag on her chest.
“Wrong place at the wrong time. If only the rent lady didn’t bother me,” she huffed through her panic, not that blaming someone else would make the situation go away.
Running in the direction of the parking building, her chest heaving. Juniper knew she was not made for running.
She sees two flying figures crashing into each other. One collided with a rooftop, and the other circled to the ground as he let out a beam of energy on the street, rupturing the ground and blocking her path with an eroded tar wall. Water sprayed out from the underground sewer system.
“Over here!” A man shouts from an obscured alleyway at her, head peeking out of what looked like a sewer tunnel. It was one of the many shelters the city had built for civilians in times of crisis.
Can I cross the distance.
“Hey, girly. Into the shelter.”
She runs across the road towards the man, hoping she could make it out of there alive. Her legs hurt with every step, she wasn’t fit for parenting, much less running.
A slick black oversized car with spikes on its hood starts spinning along the road, flaming fuel vents crackling along its sides as it storms down the street. She didn’t notice until it was too late.
The air was knocked out of her lungs. Her body was sent flying into the air. She collided with the hot asphalt, blood was leaking from her face. She felt something break inside of her. She struggled to breathe. Her grocery bag went flying away. The cake lay squashed on the ground. Effy's cake.
The sound of hot metal churning about, several car alarms going off, and a woman letting out a blood-curdling scream, shook her up. Her eyes went wide as she gasped for air. Adrenaline flooded through her veins.
Juno tried to get up. She couldn’t feel her legs. She lifted herself into a bloody crawl.
I need to go home!
She needed to. She needed to help her brother and see her sister again. Her sister, who she treated so badly—she wanted to hold her in her arms and coddle her again. She crept forward in the direction of the apartment complex.
“Hey! Don’t move…” an older woman had shouted at her. She ignored the cry. She couldn’t stop, no matter what. Her vision started blurring and everything started to slow down. She could see nothing but black static. She didn’t want to die. She had so much she wanted to do, to say. She wanted to speak to Effy, whom she mistreated; her brother, who could die without proper medical care; and her parents, who'd probably never see her again.
Then the darkness came, but she could hear something as her heart was still beating. Something Electrical: low, static, very alien—blooping, zapping, and zooming. It got louder, and it got louder. Then it got really LOUD!!!!
As her life flashed before her eyes, words got typed out like her brain was a digital document.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: You Live, but your body is broken. Rest Well.]
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