The Carnnentis

There is very little order in this chaotic world we call home. The Anubis faction is one of the only active factions right now. The faction is headed and controlled by the Anubis Corp.

There are but a few factions, and factions consist of many guilds, so you can say they are in control of 99 guilds, out of which 9 are sort of semi-leader positions. The most notorious out of the 9 is simply known as the Wolf Gang, which is basically just working for the Anubis Corp. They help give them more control and stability with management. It's a smart and complicated framework.

The owner of Anubis Co. Has two offspring. A daughter and a son.

The daughter is right in front of me. Laurel of the Carnnentis family.

She elegantly raised her right hand to her chest to introduce herself.

"No need," I interrupt. "You're not supposed to be here alone, so far as I know. Need me to drop you somewhere?"

"That would be appreciated. Thank you," she replied. Her voice was almost sweet and hypnotic—not how she sounded on the news.

"Er... your voice..." I couldn't speak properly.

"Oh, my apologies... so... sorry... is this better?... Are you better?... So sorry, that happens sometimes... It's my peculiarity."

I started to lose balance; my head started spinning a little. It made me nauseous. She could not apologize enough. It was a good feeling. The voice, the spin. My nose started to bleed a lot. I clung to a nearby wall for support until it was better.

After the wave of whatever it was was over, I felt like a person who had not slept for days. I was somehow keeping myself awake with my eyes wide open.

"Better?" she said in a very concerned voice. "Drink something; it will make it better."

All I could do was nod. We struggled to the nearby vending machine with all four legs.

Click.

Thunk.

Two cans of drink came out. We sat down on the bench right next to it and slowly sipped at it.

The moment some sense returned to me, another gush of blood out of my nose. Goddammit, I used her as support to get here. Damn, those are some nice shoulders. I can pretend to faint on them right now—ain't that genius? Wait, Shit, resting on those shoulders. What was that before? Peculiarity. Seriously. Damn, who knew? Hell, no one knew. Now I know, though. Who would have guessed she was a V.A.R.A.K.? What was her peculiarity, though? Siren's voice??

"No, no, no, no, no, no, that's not supposed to happen," almost freaked out this time. Maybe all the blood scared her a little.

"It's fine," I responded, covering my nose and wiping the blood off. "It's not your fault, you see. I am a V.A.R.A.K. too. That was just my peculiarity acting up this time."

V.A.R.A.K.s are basically anomalies. They're a result of the Chaos Force acting up sometimes. It does weird things. It's not an easily controllable force. Nobody knows why or what happens.

All we know is that sometimes infants or fetuses are maybe exposed to it somehow, which results in them developing certain traits or 'peculiarities'. Two people can have the same peculiarity or not; it's random, with no way to prevent or make anything.

Call it acts of God or miracles if you're into those luny religious crap that they preach here.

There are two types of V.A.R.A.K. If you are one, you are either very lucky or very unlucky. You can end up developing very questionable abilities that may or may not be in your control. Basically, they will kill you as soon as possible if they feel you are too big of a threat. Just a day ago, an infant became highly radioactive, and they had to kill it off.

We both decided not to talk about each other's peculiarities since it was a sensitive subject, but the silence was making things a bit awkward. So we sipped on our drinks awkwardly until I had a conversation that I could take up.

"Hey, look, your brother is on the news next," I pointed out, and it seemed to have done the trick.

There was a big screen on a building that seemed to be blocking all the sunlight. The news was about two very popular people fighting. It looked like a dispute of beliefs.

"Do you know why 9406?" she asked.

I knew what this was about. I continued to stare at the screen and replied, "Political propaganda, that's what you think. I know."

"Cuz it is, it is stupid. Why would people buy his shit?" she said extremely agitated. "The number represents our resilience and strength," now mimicking the politician who said it. "Like why not show that outside of wrath? Why not show that by supporting the expeditions and expansion plans on Earth? That fucking pussy," she continued letting out her frustration.

I guess the siblings have that in common.

"I mean, it's a fact that the Extract is unstable, it will collapse. We can't keep living in this hellhole. This is not our home. That is why not fight? Why not take it back?"

She is getting hotter the more she speaks. She is hot, and I am making her hotter. Muahahaha. Pun intended. Fuck you if you don't like it.

"What's worse are these people? They want to live in this veil of ignorance. They just lick his shit up like ice cream. Their pointless attempt at feeling safe when they are obviously not." She spoke louder and louder.

"Calm, calm, calm, easy," I said, trying to calm her down as I pushed her hands upwards with my fingers, prompting her to take another sip of the fruit juice. "Deep breaths, breath in.....breath out."

Thankfully, I have a lot of experience in dealing with these situations. Lexny yaps like a speedster speed-fucks your ears.

"By the way, what's with your choice of clothes?" she asked, still sipping away and much calmer.

And that was an attack on my soul.

"It's good," I try to defend my tastes. "It's a cool homemade jacket."

Goddamn, this is the first time someone says it's wrong. Nah, it probably is. I made it during my 8th-grade phase.

The news we were waiting for played, saving me as her attention was pulled toward the screen.

"Now, we are here with the hottest news today."

Damn, the anchor is sexy. I always love some big-badonk blondies for hosts.

Anchor: "We have right here with us, Mr. Shay."

Anchor: "Is there something you would like to get off the chest before we begin?"

Shay: "Yes, I would like to make sure that everyone knows that it is natural to be afraid. The fear of the unknown is nothing to be ashamed of. Earth is a big vast unknown for us. How many more lives do you want to sacrifice? I will have you know I have the best of the researchers working on the {chaos force}. We have not made much progress, but the little that we do really fills me with hope. We can harness its power. The forefathers left us the extract so we could live. Why must we send such young people to Earth? To die? I would not want my children to be swallowed by that living forest or those mindless monsters."

Anchor: "By this, are you maybe referring to the little incident that happened with the Anubis corporation?"

Shay: "Yes, I really felt that this issue needs to be addressed."

Anchor: "Well, I will play the clip now."

A video clip played on the screen. Right at the entrance gate of the Anubis headquarters, the reporters swarmed the father-son duo that had walked out of it. The young man was wearing shades and a black suit. His father wore the same but grey. Then rushed in the bodyguards, pushing people back. From the crowd, one reporter popped out, some hairy dude.

"Is it true that you have decided to expand towards the two strongholds that we have on earth?" asked the reporter.

All went quiet. Earth was a more sensitive topic than a person's ex here in the extract. A topic constantly debated. The most controversial thing you can say is "Let's attack the monsters and reclaim our land on Earth." People have almost given up.

"Yes, yes we are," replied the young man. It riled up everyone, which only served to piss the young master off. "The people living in those strongholds are still our people. If you guys don't help them, at least don't hinder others from doing so. We cannot live here forever; we must go back," he let it all out. Felt he had more to scream about, but his father grabbed him from the back and had to pull him away.

The clip ended here, with people throwing stuff at them.

Anchor: "Ah, so that was that."

Shay: "WE NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE the fact that this is our home now. We do not have funds or resources to spare. We are safer here than out there. The people out there abandoned us, not the other way around. I hope everyone understands that."

Anchor: "Alright, we will conclude here for today. Thank you all for watching, Mr. Shay for attending, and we will see you all next week."

"Well, that could have ended on a lighter note. Laurel Carnentis, the lady I just rescued, was staring at me, maybe wanting to know my thoughts on it. So if I give a well-structured answer, then my relationship points with her will increase. Hmmm..."

She slid closer to me and asked, "What do you think?" with the eyes of a madman. Of course, she still managed to look pretty, though that did surprise me and made me spit out some of the juice I had in my mouth.

"So, yeah, the... that fucking pussy, right? I mean, who is he fooling by bulking up with muscles?" There goes my well-structured response. I totally blew it. I just blurted out random bullshit. She just got too close. And suddenly too!

She got up, just in time for a black Grimmon (it's basically a limo but future sci-fi shit) to park. "I'll see you at the academy," she said and left.

I stayed assisting for a few minutes, thinking. What was I doing again?

Oh, yes, that brothel. What way was it now?

To Be Continued==>