Bleeding Pages
By K**chan
Part 2: Big Noses and Blonde Braids
Disclaimer: I do not own Metropolis or any of it's further named characters. However, if you would like to donate some of it to a good cause…
K**chan: I've decided to put a little ray of sunshine in this dark tale. Hope you enjoy it!
Now, on with Rock's Journal…
February 16th, 2044
Duke Red, one of the leaders of Metropolis came to speak to us today. He blabbed on and on and on about how we should be proud to be "glorious" Metropolitans. Blah, blah, blah… Of course, he thought we were all paying rapt attention. He was very wrong. It turns out, this "leader" has the biggest nose on the face of the Earth!!! I mean, I've seen lots of big noses before, but this was ridiculous! I mean, it looked like a beak! So while he was speaking, all of us kids just stared at his giant honker, looking like we were paying attention. Finally, Yasuo elbowed me to remind me of our plan with the slingshots. I aimed carefully and shot a stone straight at his sniffer! He yelled and his nose turned bright red! The whole crowd, even the adults, burst out laughing.
The other children and I were carried off by Duke Red's men and placed in a truck, where we now are. Two of the younger kids, Masami and Kathryn are singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" over and over again and driving me, as well as the truck driver, crazy!
-Rock
February 16th, 2044 (nighttime)
This evening, the truck rumbled into my old town. The truck driver let the other orphans and me out and told us to go find whatever belongings we wanted out of the ruins of our old homes. He suggested we say good-bye to our old town because this would be our last time there before it was bulldozed and rebuilt. I was sure I wouldn't find anything in the rubble of my home, as I'd already sifted through it many times. However, I did find some surviving pages of my old journal. I've pasted them here:
October 30th, 2043
I can't wait for Halloween and all the yummy candy! My sister (Kari) is being a faerie princess and I'm being an elfin warrior. My mother is baking pumpkin-shaped cookies and my father is arranging the music for the Halloween party at his office. I'm so excited!
October 31st, 2043
I got 286 pieces of candy, 40 more than Yasuo! Hahaha! I am king of Halloween candy! My sister's faerie wings kept knocking over my neighbor's Halloween decorations. It was funny until they knocked over a Jack-o-Lantern and almost caught on fire.
The rest of that page was burned. But I also found one other:
December 20th, 2043
It snowed today and we had a snow day off from school! Kari, Yasuo and I made a snowman. Kari kept arguing that it was a snow woman. Eventually, Yasuo got annoyed with this and "changed the position of the carrot". (If you did not get that, I think you must be incredibly dense.) Kari was disgusted and ran off to play with some of her girl pals.
December 21st, 2043
The light snow from yesterday has become a full-blown blizzard! We're snowed in and incredibly bored. The TV and phone lines are down, so we can't use either of those. I've already beaten Kari at Monopoly 40 million times so we can't do that.
That was the last page that I found. Life was so much happier then. I wish I could go back in time. The other kids and I are back in the truck in truck again heading to God-knows-where.
-Rock
February 17th, 2044
This morning, the other orphans and I woke up in a elaborate orphanage with toys everywhere. We'd been in the truck all night, and we'd all dropped off to sleep at some time. While the younger kids played with the toy trucks, dolls and action figures, Eden (if you don't remember, she's the girl who came up with the slingshots), Yasuo, and I sat silently in the corner and tried to look as miserable as possible. Starting around noon, adults began to parade through. Some just looked others just took one of two of the orphaned kids home. Then, at around 6:00 pm, a huge man with a beard, sideburns, and a mustache wearing overalls and a plaid shirt took Yasuo. Yasuo looked terrified of the man who grabbed him roughly and led him in to the office to sign some papers. Eden and I haven't seen him since.
-Rock
February 18th, 2044
It's obvious to me now that Yasuo isn't coming back. Eden and I asked one of the "babysitters" (who carry guns) what happened to us. The gun-carrying woman told us that the rough man from yesterday had adopted him. We're very worried about him. Eden and I are wondering which of us will be adopted next. We'd hate to be separated; we've become the best of friends over the last few days.
-Rock
February 22nd, 2044
The most awful thing since my family's murder has happened! Duke Red, the man with the giant honker, has adopted me! I hate him so much! Why God, why? Eden and I were sitting on the floor of the orphanage, doing a puzzle featuring golden unicorns and fire-breathing dragons, when Duke Red strode over to us. He had a purple bruise on his nose from where the slingshot had hit him. Eden giggled and pointed. Duke Red ignored her and gave me a hard look. "So, you're the little jokester with the slingshot? You've got spirit. I like that," he said coolly. Then, he grabbed me by the sleeve and pulled me away from Eden. I saw tears in her eyes before I was dragged through the orphanage office door, and I could see her no more.
-Rock
February 23rd, 2044
I refuse to leave my room. Enmy, the maid, has tried to encourage me to have a look around Duke Red's mansion. However, I don't want to risk running into any of Duke Red's family, or even worse, Duke Red himself. I hate it here. I want to go back to the orphanage; back to Eden. My room isn't all that bad. It's on the thirtieth floor of Duke Red's mansion. The walls are robin's egg blue, with sheer yellow curtains on a huge, panoramic window with a view of Metropolis. There is a pine desk in front of the window, it's drawers are stuffed with pencils, pens, crayons, and markers. I have one of those height-adjusting, swivel chairs that kids used to race down the halls of my school on. There's a pine bunk bed with blue comforters on it on the opposite wall, which also has a walk-in closet. Outside, the lights of cars stuck in a traffic jam far below cut through the rain like rays of sunshine in an endless fog.
-Rock
February 25th, 2044
Today, I met Duke Red's daughter, Tima. She has blonde braids and sparkling blue eyes. She was wearing a blue frilly dress, and I guess she looked kind of cute. She came into my room around noon today, and asked why I wouldn't come out. I shrugged and looked out the window. She told me that she wanted to be my friend if I would stop acting like a "hermit" and come out of my room. Maybe even go outside and get some fresh air. "Fresh air? In a city?" I said with a laugh. Then, she kicked me in the shins and told me to stop being such a jerk. She literally grabbed my ear and dragged me out of my room. When we were in the hall of the thirtieth floor, she said, "See? It's not so bad." Then, she led me outside and showed me the few blocks of the city that she knew. She wasn't allowed to go more than five blocks from the mansion, so there wasn't a whole lot to see that wasn't in other cities. The only thing that shocked me was how clean it was! No litter, no druggies, no nothing!
Not even one decent bum to annoy. When I asked her where all the bums were, she said they were down in the lower levels and that we weren't allowed to go there. "Well, I'm going to fix this. It's not a real city without a bum!" I decided, walking into an alley and picking up a cardboard box. Then, I wrote "My Home" sloppily on the side, dropped the box on the sidewalk, and crawled inside. Tima giggled, then said, "I wouldn't do that…" I ignored her and told her to do it too, but she shook her head and stood beside the box, looking up and down the sidewalk like she was waiting for something. The bum act worked perfectly for a while, and some people walked by and stared. Suddenly, I heard a robot approaching and Tima told me to get out of the box quickly. I shook my head. Then, the robot prodded my box and after a short pause said, "Bum elimination system activated. Eliminating," Then, a flamethrower popped out of its arm and it set my box on fire!!! I yelped and jumped out. Tima and I ran down the sidewalk in terror of the robot, which was now stomping on the flaming box. "You roast your bums?!" I cried. "No, bums aren't stupid enough to live in boxes on the levels where the robots patrol," she replied.
-Rock
February 26th, 2044
Tima gave me a real journal today, so I wouldn't have to write on pieces of cardboard and paper bags. The journal has a shiny blue oriental dragon on it and a fancy lock with Celtic patterns. She also returned the things that the men who worked at the shelter took from me. She hesitated to return my father's gun at first, but then told me she trusted me. Then, she announced that since she did something for me, I have to do something for her. So, now I'm stuck taking her to a restaurant tomorrow. But I'm confused. Is this a date? Oh my god I've never dated anyone before! And, is it wrong to date your adopted sister?
-Rock
K**chan: Ok, I know this is supposed to be sad, but a little light here and there isn't bad. Anyway, I did notice that there really aren't any bums on the surface level of Metropolis. Well, anyway PLEASE PLEASE review! Chapter 3, if things go according to plan, should take this fan fic back to its original darkness.
