7 Shunned

This time when he exited the Gravpod lift, he got sick on the pavement of a Brooklyn walkway. It wasn't so much the ride - that had been smooth as silk - but he still felt drunk from the night before. A blocky cleaning robot quickly absorbed the vomit. Arthur composed himself and took a shot of scotch from his canteen, his tan hair fluttering in the air as he walked towards Chelsea's apartment.

Arthur was not fond of the walkways of New York City. Even here in Brooklyn, the walkways were extremely crowded, and he was shoulder to shoulder with strangers. They didn't even give him a second glance. It would seem that no one expected the Commander of the San Francisco police force to be walking around in a slum across the country from his own city. Good thing Nina is back at the office.

The fewer people that spot me the better.

He could have taken a Gravpod directly to the front of Chelsea's apartment, but with the sun piercing thin clouds, and no natural disaster insight, he could not bring himself to skip a walk outdoors.

Days like these are far and few in between, he thought.

The crowd seemed to disperse slowly as he drew nearer to Chelsea's apartment building until there were only a handful of people walking around him. The area was part of the only undeveloped section of New York, the place where all the Shunned lived. Arthur frowned at the weathered building. It seemed every time he visited, he would find the building in worse shape. Last time, the rusted entranceway was littered with garbage and animal droppings, today the damn door was missing, and a group of stinking drunkards lay around where it used to be, unconscious.

When he entered the building he had to climb more than fifty flights of stairs before he reached Chelsea's apartment. There were no lifts in the building, and the stairways had no windows. Almost complete darkness, save for the natural gas lanterns that hung on the stone walls.

He knocked and was promptly greeted by Chelsea who wore an extravagant red and silver dress. "No need to get all dolled for me, Chels," Arthur said jokingly.

"Says you! That suit probably costs more than this apartment," Chelsea said with a grin. "Come in Arthur, we're all waiting for you."

Arthur of course knew Chelsea did not get dressed up for him. Clothes were the only possessions that the Shunned were allowed to keep post-shunning. Chelsea had quite the wardrobe, and she was always impeccably dressed, even for routine visits. It was her way of flipping the proverbial bird to her shunners. Inside, the apartment was medieval, to say the least. Four stone walls and the only light that filled the room was that of the four lanterns hung in each corner. There was no furniture, save for a set of three blankets and pillows laid out across the floor, and a large steaming cauldron at the center of the room.

"Where's Mya? I brought her a present," Arthur said.

"She's in the sunroom with Sam," Chelsea said.

Arthur nodded and headed towards the only interior door in the room. Unlike the rest of the apartment, the metallic door was at least of this millennia, and the black daenarium metal retracted into the stone wall as Arthur approached. The sunroom was barely a room, a rectangular eight by five-foot hole carved in the stone. The only thing differentiating this room from the common room outside was the tiny glassless opening on one of its walls that partially filled the room with warm sunlight. Mya sat on Sam's shoulders as she observed the outside world through the makeshift window. Sunrooms were the Shunned's only way to see the world outside. Unless they wanted to climb all the stairs down to the walkways, which was particularly difficult for a toddler like Mya. Arthur had to use all of his connections and leeway with the government to ensure his brother's family would be on the 52nd floor of this prison, instead of the 700th. This way Mya at least could attend school.

Sam put Mya down on her feet and she sprinted towards Arthur. He knelt down and put his arms around his niece in a warm embrace. He ruffled her curly brown hair and kissed her pudgy cheek. "Hi Munchkin, did you miss me?" Arthur said.

"Of course uncle. I missed you this much," she said as she opened her arms as wide as she could.

Arthur chuckled, "I got you a present princess," he said, producing a holographic cube from his pocket. He used his Eye to turn on the hologram, which displayed a human skeleton, and with a few gestures of his hand the empty skeleton began to fill out with internal organs, then muscles, and finally skin.

Mya took the cube from his hands, and the blue light of the hologram flickered in her hazel eyes as she alternated through the various bodily systems. Her lips parted in awe, no doubt excited by what she would learn from her new toy. "Thank you, uncle. It's perfect,"

"What's the point man?" Sam - Mya's stepfather - said with his annoyingly croaky voice, "She'll never be a doctor. You're only giving her false hope."

Arthur frowned, and then stood up. Sam was two heads taller than him, and nearly twice as wide. Unlike Chelsea, he wore the typical Shunned robe, a tan hideous thing from a time long past. The anger boiled within Arthur as he stared into Sam's cobalt eyes. He hated this man. And as the behemoth stood in front of him, he wanted to hit him. It did not matter how large Sam was, Arthur knew he could squash him like a bug. He glanced at Mya, and then back at Sam. He took a deep breath as he remembered his promise to Damien. Mya will visit soon, I promise brother.

He forced a fake grin, "False hope is better than no hope,"

"She's a Shunned Arthur," Sam said, "I'm sure it must be hard for you to comprehend what that means. While you sit in your fancy restaurants sipping your expensive wines, the Shunned remain here, in the dirt. She would never be allowed to leave this place. You know that, and I know that. You are only making the truth harder for her to accept."

"Just because she's Shunned, it doesn't mean she can't have dreams,"

Sam sighed, shaking his head, "Come on Mya, let's eat. Your uncle's delusions are going to drive me mad."