Flames

Chapter 1 Empty Memories

Faint garbled words, and recognizable voices echoed past Reika's ringing ears.

It had been a rough second day in the Mires. She had fainted and was being transported to her Stack. In other words, her cell.

Her mind was distant from reality as she exhibited signs of life, captured by spontaneous intrusive memories.

She relived the night they had been programmed. Chills seeped into her bones like a gush of ice water.
In the void of her reminiscence Reika knew her brother was there, an arms length away. His screams of terror were nauseating, and vomit rose, burning her throat with its acid.

She became cognizant of her body bouncing lightly on a stretcher as feet of multiple people hurried along unseen marble floors. Sinking back into the safety of her psyche, she was oblivious to the lock of her Stack being unlatched.
Reika loathed the Makers. She detested being a trainee, but would nearly kill herself to one day speak to her brother who slept in the Stack above hers.

Her slim washed out body was shut in behind the thick metal door of Stack 2.

She squeezed her eyes tightly, relishing the emotion, even if it was hate.
From the escape proofed ceiling of her cage, buzzing lightly resounded, flowing from a metal circular tulip shaped opening the size of a hand. She hugged her knees to her chest and massaged her aching, bare feet.

The Makers only allowed the siblings to lay eyes on each other once a year in the championship, and only if they won, feeding her hunger to advance.
Bitterness dissolved as the incessant reverberation swallowed her in emptiness.

Out of all the siblings Reika and Conall had topped three years in a row.
One day, when they were able to progress to the Free Levels, they would be partnered.

Reika was kept in the dark about the conducting or blueprint it took to form the realities, mainly the Mires where she fought hell itself. 

She had no inkling why Grain needed the trainees, and what exact purpose her and the rest of the guinea pigs served.
Grain had kicked off their tactics to extinguish empathy from the children the moment they were snatched from their homes.

Internalized ringing washed out the would-be emotions from the evoked flashbacks, allowing her to commence her mental escapade.
She vividly recollected the tests, but certain timelines and people, were blocked from her pieced memory.
Sighing she released tension, absently rubbing her taut, nipping shoulders.
She constrained the unfelt memories.

Yanking her fluffy pillow beneath her head, she exaggerated a show of anger. Something released from the resonance of the low and high hums caused her to stabilize to  a mild temperament.

Enveloping her in the dim metallic glow from the opening were white leather padded walls, and the square metal contraption they slid her in and out of.
Reika's droopy eyelids closed and she lay down with a groan, pulling over her a plushy silver grayish blanket crumpled at her feet.

After being the top pair of siblings, this is where they slept, in tiny non extravagant boxes.
She longed to weep, to pound herself against the padding in anguish. Yet, she recognized her feeble state in every aspect.

In her blank mind a white card surfaced with the words.

"As in water face answereth to water face, so the heart of man to man."

Proverbs 27:19

She pondered it for a moment, letting the meaning come to her.
Hearts reveal one's character in thoughts and actions to yourself, and to others.
In the midst of the burdensome darkness, Reika awakened to another escape, one she couldn't quite grasp.

Steady clanking suddenly beat above her. Instantly she was upright, inquisitively sharp, soft brown eyes wide open.

Without hesitation she swiped her asphalt-colored tumbler. Holding it fast from the bottom with her scraped hand, she stuffed it through the circular opening, and rapped back.

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