The Dome

Apology Unaccepted

That night, as Silasque lay in bed, she thought she could hear her mother crying softly from her room. So she crawled out of bed and stepped across the wooden floor. She stood in front of her mother's door for a few moments, listening to her cry softly, before knocking on the door.

"Mom?" Silasque called out gently to her mom.

"Honey, I'm okay, why don't you go back to bed," her mom replied, her voice cracking as she finished her sentence.

Silasque knew her mother was far from okay, but she decided not to push it, "Okay, goodnight."

"Goodnight sweety," Silasque heard her mother say from the other side of the door.

When Silasque got back to her room, she felt wide awake. So she turned on the bedside lamp and reached out to grab a book from a wooden bookshelf beside her bed. However, as her fingers brushed the spine of the book, an intricately made handmade bracelet caught her eye. Instead of taking the book off of the bookshelf, Silasque gently took the bracelet in her hands. The bracelet was Daphne's. Silasque had made it for her sister some years back. Up until a few years ago, Silasque had loved making friendship bracelets. Her father had taught her when she was just four years old and her father would spend hours teaching her and Daphne the different patterns and designs. However, when she was ten years old, her father was convicted of a crime he didn't commit. After that day, she never saw her father again, and Silasque still missed him, everyday. And now she had lost Daphne too. Anger blossomed inside of her, followed by an aching in her heart. She longed for two of the people who mattered most in her life to appear in front of her and tell her everything was going to be okay. But they were gone, and they were never coming back. So Silasque did the one thing that made her feel closer to them.

She pulled open a drawer by her bedside table and took out an unfinished bracelet, the one she had been working on when her father had died, and the one that had the pattern and design Daphne had chosen. And she set out to finish it.

When the morning bell rang the next morning, Silasque was already up. She had spent all night perfecting the bracelet, re-learning the patterns she had forgotten, and practicing on other bracelets to make sure she got it right. And when she finally finished the bracelet and set it on her bedside table, Silasque felt a sense of completion, a sense of relief, like she let go of a huge burden that was weighing her down. She knew she had finally allowed herself to say goodbye, to her father, to Daphne. She felt lighter, and as she gazed at the completed bracelet with a smile on her face, Silasque knew what she had to do.

...

Minski surveyed the alleyway that lay before her. Walking carefully, she made sure not to step in the same area as she did last time. Carefully stepping around the spot where she activated the trap last time, Minski reached the end of the alleyway safely. She looked up at the building in front of her and decided her best chance was to climb up. However, just as she found her first foothold on a brick that stuck out a tiny bit, she heard someone calling her name.

"Minski!" Silasque puffed out as she ran down the alleyway toward a girl with freckles dotting the bridge of her nose and a black bandana tied around her head.

As Minski realized who it was, her neutral expression quickly faded into a frown, "How did you know where I am?"
"I didn't," Silasque stated, "I searched a few other streets before spotting you."

"Oh," Minski said, clearly not enthusiastic that Silasque had found her.

Suddenly, Silasque screamed as she was turned upside down and picked up into the air. Her scream was quickly cut off as bonds tightened around her body and she groaned.

Then out of the blue, Minski doubled over in laughter. Not the mocking type of laughter, just the fun, easy type of laughter.

"Why are you laughing? Help me!" Silasque glared at Minski, who just shook her head playfully and then came over to start untying Silasque.

"Now I see how ridiculous I must have looked the first time we met," Minski chuckled, then her face hardened, "I thought you said I was 'getting ahead of myself' and 'that I just need to learn to appreciate this life.'"

Silasque cringed as Minski repeated what she had said.

"Minski, I'm sorry," but Silasque knew 'sorry' wouldn't cut it.

"Yeah, well, you didn't seem too sorry when you said it," Minski didn't look mad, or sad, she looked...disappointed, "I thought you were different Silasque. I thought you would jump at the chance to change things. I guess I was wrong."

Silasque felt tears prick her eyes as Minski said that last sentence, and she could tell that last sentence was hard for Minski too. After a couple of seconds of silence, Minski finished untying Silasque and helped her up.

"You should go," Minski said painfully, looking Silasque in the eye before turning around and starting her climb up the brick wall.

Silasque watched Minski, her mind constantly on replay of when Minski looked her in the eye two seconds ago. As she looked into Minski's eyes, she saw a whole bunch of emotions swirling around, but she couldn't identify any of them. It was as if an invisible barrier had been built between her and Minski, trapping Silasque on the outside. And in that second, Silasque felt the girl with the mischievous grin and lighthearted laugh fade away into the distance.

Later that day, as Silasque sat on her living room couch feeling sorry for herself, an idea came to her. If she couldn't go on this 'mission' with Minski, she would set out to find the truth herself. And then maybe, just maybe, she could prove to Minski that she was different. Because the truth was, Silasque had always been different. She didn't really have any friends growing up because she had a hard time keeping her mouth shut and she couldn't stand how the kids around her never bothered to think about the society they lived in; they were okay with it, blindly accepted it, but Silasque couldn't, and the few 'friends' she had growing up couldn't have cared less about Silasque's odd opinions. Then those friends would 'unfriend' her later on because she would get frustrated and tick them off.

Minski was different from those other kids, adults even. And now Silasque set out to prove that she was different too, but doubt nibbled at her bit by bit. She was different, wasn't she?

Silasque decided to start with finding out who Maritha was, and she knew it wasn't going to be easy. Then, as she saw the old lady next door stepping outside to leave grains on the front step of her house, an idea came to her.