“You know, I hate every time I go out with you in public.”
“I know. You always say that when we go out together.”
Gemma and Jo were eating at the most popular fast-food restaurant in Ayria, which was about four hundred meters south of the library where Gemma lived. Just a fifteen-minute walk.
The weather is sunny today, giving a pleasant atmosphere to spend with lunch on the seats arranged on the side of the road. Many seemed to have the same thought as Gemma and Jo, as the surrounding chairs were almost full.
Two girls, apparently still in college, whispered as they passed where Jo and Gemma were sitting. They’re not the first girls to intentionally do silly things to get attention.
Whose attention?
Who else but Jo.
“You’re just jealous, that’s all. No man acts like that when he sees you.”
“If there’s one, that would be creepy.”
Gemma picked up a pi
“Hatchi!”This was the fourth time Jonah had sneezed in less than half an hour, disturbing his concentration.“Not feeling well, Jonah?” His chess opponent, Michael, asked with a chuckle. It wasn’t just a simple question, but more of a mockery. “I get it if you can’t beat me. You can use health reasons.”Jonah looked at the person in front of him. His neighbor, who lived downstairs, always irritated Jonah with his chatter. However, Jonah had lived side by side for eighteen years to make him understand it was Michael’s way of joking. Although not every time Jonah can accept Michael’s jokes.“I’m fine. Maybe someone is talking about me so I’m sneezing.”Jonah moved the position of his chess piece. Now he has a pawn ready to put Michael at checkmate.“Speaking of you? Who?” Michael paused for a moment, “Hm… looks like no one else is goin
Maya’s car stopped in front of the library. A shiny lemon-yellow city car. Before this, Gemma had never asked where Maya could get a car, considering that her job as a manager could not provide her with the luxury of a car. But now Gemma was suspecting that maybe the rebels were funding Maya.That is, if Maya is a rebel. Gemma didn’t know for sure because so far all she had were assumptions.Gemma took the guitar in one hand and walked to the car. She put her guitar in the back passenger seat, then she sat in the passenger seat next to the driver.Maya stomped on the gas pedal, bringing them forward through the evening atmosphere in the city of Ayria, which was slowly getting quieter.The people who were still on the sidewalk walked in a hurry while bowing their heads. If they had experienced happiness all day before, that feeling was now invisible on their faces. There was only anxiety because it was late this afternoon, but they were still n
The Draconian slashed its hand at someone within its reach, and in the blink of an eye, the person was lying on the floor. His skin became very wrinkled and there was no longer flesh in his body. There is only a black hole where the eyes should be. Three slashes ran across the man’s chest, where the Draconian had lodged its sharp fingers. There was no blood flowing there, only a black deep wound that looked as empty as a deep fissure. Black liquid poured out of the human’s mouth, along with thick smoke.The guards fired at the creatures in desperation. Stupid. Of course, it was pointless. They cannot harm Draconians with ordinary weapons.The brief silence turned to panic and horror. Everyone was running aimlessly to save their lives.Draconians didn’t stay still. They moved and walked like convulsive people, but at incredible speed. They all spread out and didn’t give their prey a chance to escape. The Draconian ran and crept up the wall
“Is it hurt?” Nero looked up to look at Gemma as he asked. Gemma shook her head slowly. “Tell me if it hurts, I’ll be more careful.” Nero continued to bandage Gemma’s palms. Gemma didn’t say what happened to her, because no one would believe it. Nero hadn’t asked about that either. For some reason, Gemma felt calm. If she was with Jo now, Jo would have been asking all sorts of questions and putting on an overly worried face like Gemma’s father. They couldn’t go out before dawn, and Gemma thought Nero would just keep her in one corner of the King’s Door until they could get out from there. But it turned out Nero had other ideas. He grabbed the first aid kit that was in the nightclub and led Gemma to the emergency staircase that led up. King’s Door is located in the basement of a building used as a shopping center. Nero kept taking Gemma up and up until they reached the fifteenth floor. Nero opened the door leading to the inside of the b
What happened at King’s Door caused an uproar throughout Elenio. Dozens of human lives were lost, as well as revealing the dark side of Elenio, especially Ayria, which has been known as a peaceful country.Several people deemed responsible, including Heros, are now fugitives.All the news about it swirled in various media for days. They spiced most of the news and twisted to attract and sell. In fact, almost all the existing news only contains assumptions and does not match reality.The effects of what happened at King’s Door led the Archturians to conduct large-scale raids on illegal places in Ayria and the surrounding towns. This makes Gemma currently unemployed and only fills her days in the library.Gemma basically likes to read, because she likes to get new knowledge from the books she reads. So it doesn’t matter to her if she has to be confined in the library. After all, she also gets paid from Purity, although not as much as the m
Before heading back to the library, Jo took Gemma to the pharmacy and bought her a bandage and medicine to treat Gemma’s wound. Gemma’s hand was still bleeding when she entered the library. Purity frowned, then quickly got up from the chair, circled the book rental desk, and walked over to Gemma.“What happened?” she asked. Purity wasn’t good with expressions, so her face was expressionless when she asked. But Gemma knew Purity was worried about Gemma’s condition.“Fighting… as usual,” Gemma replied with a shrug.It was late afternoon when Gemma came home and the library was about to close, so there was no one here but Purity and Gemma. Gemma sat at the book return table, ignoring Purity’s buzz of protest, and spilled the contents of the plastic bag onto the table. She sat cross-legged and cleaned the wound in her right hand.Purity understands Gemma well enough not to offer her help because Gem
The speed of the train carried Gemma and Jo away from Ayria. Ever since Jo picked up Gemma, he kept asking questions about explosions during their fight, which eventually led Gemma to tell him about the incident at King’s Door. Although Gemma resented hearing Jo’s nagging, she tried to make sense of it. Gemma would also bombard Jo with questions if the same thing happened to him.“So, the Draconian who was crushed that time, because of the explosion from your hand?”Gemma nodded.Since yesterday, Jo had been trying to draw conclusions from his own conjectures, but none of them sounded right.“Are you on drugs?”Jo asked Gemma, who had been just staring out the window. She tried to enjoy Elenio’s nature, which contained expanses of meadows, as well as forests in misty valleys. But attempts to distract herself from the bothersome thing don’t work, because Jo keeps talking about it.Gemma tilted h
Today is the strangest and most awkward day in Gemma’s history. How could she not? She had to meet her father after three years. They had not spoken to each other. Then, Gemma is now under the same roof with two strangers. One of them was someone whose jacket she was wearing now.“Who the hell is he, Jo?”Gemma asked while occasionally biting the tip of her thumb. Her childhood habits resurfaced, maybe because now she was at home.The two of them sat on the floor in the corner of the living room where Gemma’s father lived and left the door leading to the foyer open. This was done simply so that they could stare at the stairs. Gemma and Jo were now just like little kids, full of curiosity.It had been about an hour since Nero and the woman introduced by the name Sarah had gone up to the second floor, where Uncle Jonah, Jo’s father, lived.Gemma knew Jonah was also an Archturian, who was placed in the Public Relations an