Chapter 1 Pretty

"Sunny, are you okay?"

Citrus looked down from her perch atop of the roof entrance. Zora had just walked through the doorway when she asked her pointed question. The Avery Academy had a panoramic feast for the eyes. Beautiful yet serene.

Lines of statues from past graduates and wealthy beneficiaries filtered throughout the grounds. Memorials stood stoicly near the parade fields. School houses, both old and new, flooded her peripheral.

"Yeah, sure," Citrus responded over a grimace, "just feeling like the universal foe of the capital."

Those last words were laced with anguish. Dejection? Grief? All of the above sounded accurate.

Sitting up from her prone position, her gaze swept over more of the place she'd been staying for the past 3 years. Stunning parks with trails and walkways outlined the boundaries of the premises. Sky scrapers peered over the eastern horizon, melting into the sky with eager hands.

This was Capital Home to the Conclave, a nation of individuals that hold a substantial amount of power both politically and physically within the cityscapes. Appointed by the community to disperse rules, judgment, and help improve quality of life for everyone.

Seeing how the Capital was one of 5 individual cityscapes constructed to suspend 1,500 feet in the air, it was easy to appreciate the time and effort put into each one. Markings on buildings that were curved, domed or sleek, and oblong. Lined or splattered neon lights and colors stuffed every inch of this city scape. You could see the culture and spirit throughout this city scape as well as the money. Citrus had been to 3 of the additional cityscapes. They each cross each other multiple times a year. Festivals, summer or holiday events, political campaigns, competitive sports.

"You know Cit," said Zora.

Her green eyes pierced through the waves of her hair.

"It's okay, to not be okay."

"Everett is a POS"

Freckles danced on her face as she smirked. "He does have POS qualities."

They both laughed at the thought as Citrus made her way down from her perch. As one hand grappled the lip of the brick structure, her free hand spiraled outwards towards the stone below. As she landed, the roof gave way and bounced her up like rubber. Well, it was rubber she'd changed the material and made it so.

She rolled as she landed and motioned to Zora to follow as she sumersauleted off the roof 8 stories up.

Dropping rapidly, Citrus thought back to the events that had happened this week, and it made her nauseous. Motioning her hand in the air, a mist of magenta clouds with a wisp of golden light piercing out and circling around started to form from nothing. Well, from the air and light around her but mostly nothing. Or the nothingness that existed where she was going.

As they fell through the mist, their bodies were vaporized into particles of liquid, gas, and back to solid masses before being propelled outwards onto a warm tidy shaggy carpet. This was the gift from her father, her pocket dimension, not the shaggy carpet. The thought of him made her sad once more.

Citrus was the poster child for potential, being that her mother was the Delilah Deline. A core member of the Conclave and real-time civil defendant. She'd had a great childhood full of representation, hope, and inclusion. She'd grew up with a good set of family and moral values. She could see the auras of all those around he, so she figuratively and literally saw the good in all people and things.

She'd always been a beam of positive energy, the definition of a ray of sunshine.

Her aura was made of an imperceptible light that folded around her body at all times a little gift from her mom among a few others.

She couldn't remember the last time she was bleak or cheerless prior to this week. Her dad had always been somewhat of a hero, well, at least hers, her mom for sure. Yet seeing his face on the news as someone who's wanted taglines like #Menace and #Dangerous being displayed by images of him. Hearing people say things about him, it all made her sick. She knows him better than anyone she'd been taught his abilitie, and his morals would they come after her next.

She blew out a frustrated breath and sauntered her way to the plush furniture of her space. Zora, already slouched on a chair, started tuning the music to something upbeat, yet relaxing. Surrounding them was a small studio apartment with yellow brick walls full of Conclave posters. This was her S.O.N. or space of nothingness. A space between spaces between worlds between existences. Outside the windows of her apartment was an endless horizon of golden light and magenta clouds. Near the window was the poster of her 2nd favorite Conclave member VORTEX her dad...