Fireflies

o.2

"Mom, Dad! I'm home" I yelled out as the metal door closed behind me, sealing us from the outdoor world. I dropped my keys onto the floor as a hole appeared out of nowhere. I didn't worry about it since I knew the keys would only be taken to my room.

"We're in the kitchen, Riley!' My mom's voice yelled out and I made my way there, my eyes followed the holograms that changed every five seconds as a different picture of a different memory replaced the last one. The memories on the walls were from each family member in the house, we would be standing there for days if we had planned to see only one persons memories unfold in front of us. Currently there was a memory of my parents wedding day

Reaching the kitchen the door slide into the wall and then closed after I stepped in. I saw my mom and dad setting at the kitchen table with their notebooks in their hands. They were currently looking over the bills and probably estimating how many points it would take for them to pay it all of completely and how much would be left over.

"Which one are you looking at this time?" I asked them as I grabbed an orange, the small bot I always carried around unclasped itself from my wrist and peeled the orange for me and then threw away the waste into the incinerator which was located in the wall.

"The house" my dad answered as he scratched the back of his head. Nodding I leaned into the back of the floating chair, it quickly adjusted to my back and it soon became comfortable.

"Do we have enough?" I asked as I ate a piece of the orange.

'We have more then enough, thanks to the family business" My dad's smile broke out which quickly led to me smiling back at him. The family business had been creating and repairing bots for families that had requested for one, since I was only five I had been taught how to build and repair them.

"So how many bots do we have to make and repair today?" I asked.

"Make fifty and repair twenty" My mom answered as she leaned back into the chair beside me, pushing up her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "A piece of cake" she answered with a smile. We usually each had to do at least two hundred and repair fifty. Today was an easy task I could do under two hours.

"Finally' I answered her as my mom pushed a stray hair behind my ear.

"So what did Jordan say? Anything different?" my mom asked as she got up and grabbed something from the counter and dropped it into my lap. "Look what I found? It's Mr Whiskers" she told me as I held up a  small mouse in my hand, it had been my favorite stuff animal and I had been devastated when I couldn't find it when I was seven.

"Jordan's getting married" I told her as I cradled the small mouse, my mom squeled in delight.

"Finally we can go to a wedding, I haven't been to one for a long time" she told me as she clasped her hands together. "I can finally wear that new dress your father bought for me, you know the blue one?" she told me with a big smile, My eyes flickered to my dad who was watching my mom with an endearing smile and eyes that were filled with love, it was sweet that even at this age they were still madly in love with each other.

"Calm down, we don't even know if we were invited or not" he told her and she instantly deflated. My dad cleared his throat and scratched the back of his head. "So what else happened?" he asked and the thought of my X-ray popped into mind, something told me not to tell something inside me told me that if I told something bad would happen. So instead I dismissed the thought and showed him the pills.

♦

Riley was covered in sweat and oil, she had taken it upon herself to make fifty bots and repair the the twenty that needed repairing.  She was on her last bot, her own bot was helping her with cleaning up the mess and disinfecting all the tools and making sure all the waste was displaced correctly. Riley loved the simple idea of being able to create something with her hands and also the idea that she could destroy with a simple flick of her wrist.

 Wiping the sweat off of her face she sighed in happiness and fell back onto the tools on the floor.

"Elio, can you please pick up the tools" I called out to my small bot who had been resting on the table. Elio was a cute little thing, it was the size of my fist and the darkest black you've ever seen. As soon as I mentioned it's name it quickly picked itself up and picked up the tools on the floor.

Elio could pick up twenty times it's weight and thirty times its size, to say it shortly Elio was very helpful. Elio finished the job quickly and then rested on my hand, when I was young I would dress Elio up with small clothes had made for it. Sure Elio was the same as any other bot in following orders but to me it seemed as if Elio had a mind of it's own, no one believed me when I told them but I was sure that it did.

"Riley! Dinner's ready and the mandatory news is on" quickly lifting myself up Elio attached itself to my bracelet and went into it's sleep mode. Making my way to the doors I stopped and waited for it to scan me, the doors had a scanner installed into it so that if we were dirty it would clean us up.

It was mandatory by law that we have a perfect house, perfect looks, and perfect grades at school. We had to be seen as the perfect society, it was all I knew of.

Since the scanner had noticed that I was dirty and a whir wind of soap, water and air surrounded me and not even a minute later I was standing there dry and clean. My bracelet and Elio were water proof so they wouldn't break.

The  ding of the scanner told me that I could now step into my own home, and as soon as I did I was greeted by bot with the shape of a parrot. It was then smashed to pieces by my dad who let out an annoyed sigh.

"Still can't get this right" he muttered out and his own bot began picking up the pieces. Recently my dad had tried to make animal bots for the people who could not have pets due to allergies, yet he still couldn't get it right and they would soon go crazy as soon as he finished them. "Oh, Riley the mandatory news is starting in a couple of seconds. Today's the day they announce the digits" my dad said with a stone cold face, he never did like them. He had lost his mother because of this.

As soon as we got to the living room the Television turned on signaling that all of the household members were in the room. The face of a woman appeared on our T.V. Her hair was a platinum color and her eyes were the color of blood. What her parents where thinking? I don't know.

"Hello, Digits. As you may now know today is the day 5000 digits get to serve their home and die peacefully so that others can have more space to live" what a lie. I had heard you died a painful death in which you were incinerated alive. "All of you have your numbers?" she asked and I couldn't help but look down at my bracelet where my numbers were engraved. "Okay the choosing will start"

As soon as she finished numbers where being listed slowly with a pictures beside it, this usually took an hour. Wails could be heard from other houses due to their sadness of being chosen. While others on the other hand were cheering in happiness that the person they despised was chosen.

I let out a slow and steady breath as soon as the last ten were going to be listed off, five were now left to be listed and I could feel weight being lifted off of my shoulders. There were now two left, and the last one showed ten digits.

9068036926

My number.

A/N

well here you go :) Hope this was good enough! Well don't forget to vote, comment, share?