Wow, someone reviewed AND faved this story. I feel so... excited. People like my madness...
Glad you like my disclaimer, SeldomSorrow. Heh, I tend to say some fucked-up shit sometimes...
Ooooh, another disclaimer for readers who haven't gotten it yet!
I may have red hair, I may tend to draw and write disturbing, violent stories with hidden deep messages, but I am female, and therefore I ain't Jhonen. So I don't own JTHM, Squee, or IFS.
Bright, hot lights filtered down from the ceiling, the burning rays revealing every stray dust mite or fleck of hair floating in the stuffy, noisy room. A fly, attracted by the warmth of the brightness, buzzed upwards, hitting mindlessly against the lights for a few moments, unknowing of the searing heat until its wings melted and it stuck to the surface, burning and sizzling to death as it made more futile attempts to buzz into the light. After what seemed like far too long, it fell motionless, never to fly again.
Far below, oblivious to the life or death struggles of the insects above, the sea flowed once again perfectly, every person breaking off in their groups and sitting in their places like automatons programmed to do so. In a way, they were insects as well, mindless and unthinking in their actions. Though, unlike insects, through headphones the noise they made was deafening, and the noise even closer to the girl is what made her bristle in an attempt not to kill every person near her.
Can't they at least be quiet? She asked herself, newly clothed in black graduation robes that she really, really wanted to rip apart. Every person around her was garbed the same way, but unlike her they seemed to be happy about it, unreasonably happy. She felt constricted, trapped. The sea flowed around her in a never-ending current, and she felt as if she was drowning. She couldn't even make out the words of her songs anymore, no matter how hard she listened.
And this wasn't even the beginning of the ceremony, yet.
Dull, bland music more fitting to a funeral march than a graduation played on the loudspeakers, and with a snarl of disgust Oracle was caught up in the flow of the students around her, forced to move forward at that slow, respectful, annoying pace that characterized this type of event. The music had only one good effect, and that was that everyone around her fell silent, allowing her headphones to be heard above the horrible tune. Desperately Oracle clutched at the familiar beats with her mind, feeling her tense arms begin to relax slightly as the feeling of being trapped faded by increments. She could get out soon; all she had to do was be patient. Then, she would never have to deal with any of the people here tonight again, ever.
She would make sure of it.
She didn't even listen to the noise that the teachers made, sitting up on their podium and announcing the name of every person coming in. Instead, Oracle focused on watching and absorbing the surroundings that were familiar but hated. The same, creamy off-white walls that were as featureless as the many faces in the crowd rose far above her head, helping to amplify the dull roar of sounds that the people below made as they whispered and tittered to one another in their hopeless social game. The seats that the crowd was sitting in were made of a horrible, puke-green material, clashing with the walls and the blue carpet in a way that screamed 'budget cut' to even the deafest of ears.
The podium was the worst. Painted white and navy blue, the colors of the school, it seemed like some giant, demented cry for help. Oracle shuddered as she looked at it, seeing the teachers all smiling happily as they sat on the raised stage, oblivious to anything else around them. This ceremony was old, to them; they went to it every year and had seen thousands of students come and go.
Tonight, you just might get a surprise, Oracle thought with a mental smile, wishing that she could pull out the glaive that was now sheathed and hidden under her blood red shirt, clipped to the back of her belt.
All the graduating students filed past, sitting at their spaces like the good little mindless drones they were. Oracle tensed her hand, trying not to dig her fingernails into her already mangled and tender flesh as she sat in a spot, flanked by two people that she didn't know at all and hated on sight, as one was obviously a drooling moron and the other was some girl that looked like one of the cheerleaders she had seen earlier. She certainly talked like it, and Oracle narrowed her eyes, wishing that she could turn up her CD player even further than the maximum level of sound she now had. She would gladly go deaf if it meant that she didn't have to listen to the people around her, especially the tittering moron.
"Now, our Valedictorian has some words of wisdom she would like to impart on the graduating students!" the speakers blared. Oracle groaned with a silent curse as she suddenly remembered the words of the paper that had been handed to her by her teacher earlier that day, "Oracle F., could you please approach the podium?"
There was a muffled gasp, audible through the music, as Oracle forced herself to stand, her eyes daring anyone to talk as she made her way to the stage. She would never know how she had managed to become the top student of the school, as she never once had listened to lectures or turned in any work in class. The rest of the school must have been even more of a bunch of idiots than she had ever guessed, not that that was surprising. Oracle let out a long breath as she finally reached the gaudy stand, the lights directly above her throwing deep shadows on her eyes and making the contrast between light and dark seem almost artistic. Her orange hair blazed like living fire as she spoke.
"I won't say anything until I have my diploma," she said quietly but firmly, lifting her head just enough so that her eyes flashed. The speaker, seeming a bit surprised and nervous, stammered something to the teachers. They murmured among themselves for a few tense moments, and then, easier than Oracle would have believed possible for such uptight people, she was being handed her diploma. There was a sparse clapping from the audience that a quick and vicious glare promptly eliminated as the girl prepared to speak.
"I hated this place," she said simply and emotionlessly, shoving the diploma into her back pocket, right next to the hidden glaive, "I hated the people in it and the morons that surrounded me while I was here. I still hate them –you- but now I won't have to deal with all you dumb fucks anymore. I'll see you all in hell, preferably where I can torture you eternally."
With that, Oracle walked off the stage in utter silence, aware of all the eyes on her as she strode straight past her seat and up the aisle that she had so recently walked down. It seemed so much longer now, as if every movement was being made in slow motion. Oracle passed the frozen janitor, promptly and silently stealing the keys hanging from his belt and opening the door, slamming it behind her with a sudden and loud crash. Instantly she turned, locking the thick doors firmly behind herself to prevent being followed and walking calmly to the other pair, locking that as well.
As soon as that was done, the girl turned and strode out of the lobby and into the clear evening air of the outside, making her way all around the building and firmly locking all of the escape exits. As she turned back from the last one, Oracle sighed heavily, lifting her face to the cool evening breeze that was playing across the landscape. The sun was still above the horizon, though it might not be for long. She would need to act quickly if she wanted to enjoy the sunset. Yes, the sunset. She had always loved the colors, the pure sights, sounds, smells. The knowledge that the sun was leaving the sky and letting the moon, the cold, blank reflection of light that was so beautiful in its own way, rule the heavens for another few hours.
That moment could stretch into eternity.
Oracle ripped the flowing robes off her lithe frame, throwing the black, uncomfortable things into the fading evening shadows. She didn't want those things on her anymore, couldn't stand the feel of the constricting symbols of humanity brushing against her flesh. They fluttered to the ground, tattered remains of a life that could have been, and Oracle dug one bloodstained boot into the corner of the material disdainfully, grinding it into the ground as she whirled on her heel and made her way back along the shadowed wall.
In the rapidly deepening darkness, her eyes caught the light as she snapped her head up, glowing with a fiery expression that was not rage, but something akin to the destructive force of a wild inferno when it is balked for a mere moment against its wishes. Those predatory eyes roved over the dark contours of the land, searching for something that had made the small noise that she had somehow heard over the roaring beat of her headphones. In a way, those headphones had given her the hearing of an animal, able to pick out those noises that didn't belong over those that did, even with background interference.
There was nothing at the moment, and Oracle glared for a instant longer into the darkness before she lengthened her stride purposefully, slipping back into the lobby of the school auditorium and striding past the din emanating beyond the thick doorways that, even closed, let through a moderately loud roar. Oracle shook her head in exasperation as her footsteps clumped almost silently through the darkened halls, the surroundings pitched into a fairly deep shadow by the unlit lights above. Far in the distance, large glass double doors let in a faded orange light, and Oracle upped the pace. She needed to hurry even more if she wanted to catch the sunset, especially if she wanted to catch it in the park, where she would have a good view while listening to her music.
Absentmindedly, the girl scratched her shoulder, and she sighed inaudibly as a few dried flakes of blood came off her already blood red shirt. She hadn't had time to clean it properly after she had closed up the shop, and by the time she had gotten home all she could do was clean off her skin before she had to put on the robes and walk to the school. Her parents had tried to come with her, but she had locked the door behind her and took the keys. The idiots were always trying to do things with her, get her to be social with other disgustingly happy people and talk to them instead of ignoring them.
They had been nagging at her for years upon years, even before she had found the headphones and learned the power of music. She would have killed them several times over by now, if she hadn't needed them for money. In fact, Oracle still had about fifty dollars left in her pocket from the morning, when she had managed to steal some stray bills from her mother's wallet yet again. Her parents knew she did this, but they had too much hope to care; they thought that their daughter would eventually come around and be like them, be 'normal'.
Fools, just like all the rest, Oracle thought, reaching her destination. The large, main control box loomed over her, a menacing presence if not for the fact that it was nothing but a metal container set into the wall, The pinnacle of humanity, based on social communication and love. Hah! Love is meaningless, just like understanding and sympathy. If they could truly see then they would have learned long ago that the human race is a farce! Hunger, greed, lust, power, all those things hidden under a shell of so-called 'love' and 'feeling'. They've forgotten the truth, or maybe those that haven't just choose not to see it… We are not above; we are not better or more advanced than those things we call 'animals'. We are animals in ourselves, but so much less than that. We are a disease, spreading a sickness on this planet around us. That sickness… it needs to be isolated, contained, and then, finally…
Oracle threw open the control box door, the stolen janitor keys clinking harshly against the wall. After a few moments of searching, as the low light of the hallway made it more difficult for her to read, she found what she was looking for. A small, decidedly dark smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and her eyes narrowed as she threw the switch. There was an instant of silence, and then, from the vents overhead, a small, almost indecipherable hissing began.
It must be eradicated, she finished her thought, walking back down the long hallway towards where she had come from, pausing only slightly as she listened to the oblivious din through the auditorium before she looked up at the few white neon lights above, smiling at the moths that fluttered uselessly against the glass, small frames silhouetted by the brightness that caused faded red dots to appear in the girls vision after she finally looked down again. With a shrug, she threw open the doors and made her way to the deserted sidewalk, noticing the many cars parked all over. Cars that, soon, would have no owners left to drive them.
She passed them all, so gaudy and useless where a simple pair of legs could easily get anyone where they wanted to go, provided that that person was willing to work for it. Oracle had never wanted a car, no matter how much her parents had tried to get her to want one. They told her that it was normal to want a car. They asked her if she wanted to be normal, like them.
"No," she lipped, no sound coming from her lips. The girl turned slightly, looking back over her shoulder at the quiet, shadowed school building. She couldn't hear anything, but she knew that was just the distance. The auditorium was a large place; it would take time for the gas to fill it. Probably near the end of the ceremony the people would begin to feel weak… by the time they found out that the doors were locked, it would already be too late to even scream for most of them. Her eyes were cold and emotionless as she turned back, "I don't want to be like you. I don't want to be the disease…"
I want to be the cure, She thought silently, fading into the lengthening shadows of the trees that grew alongside the road. She looked up after a long while from the pavement and her silent absorption of music as she walked a path she knew by heart, a cold wind blowing past her and chilling the skin on her arms, a few stray leaves and advertisements rustling around her in the moving air. A long strand of her orange hair blew over her shoulder, and impatiently she thrust it back in place, the movement making her glance upwards at the sun and see exactly how close it was to setting.
Oracle let out a long breath and lengthened her strides, the tall shadows of the skeletal trees appearing over the hill before her. Slowly, the path she walked became rough and gravelly, and all the stones soon disappeared in favor of smooth dirt. The soles of her boots, quiet on pavement, became eerily silent in this, Oracle's element. As the constraints of human civilization disappeared into the night behind her, Oracle began to relax, the tense muscles in her back unwinding and her posture straightening up from the threatening half-crouch to a normal walk. Soon, the path became an upward climb, one so steep that most people declined walking in favor of other transportation, like bikes or, sometimes even despite the fact that it was illegal, cars.
The sun was very nearly touching the earth as she finally emerged from the arch of trees into the clear air, standing on the edge of a high cliff overlooking the city below that was just starting to light up in the fading brightness. A single, leafless and lonely tree grew close to the edge of the abyss, its only companion a small sign, about a third of the tree's height, which read in clear, bold letters 'No parking'. Around the edge, perhaps to keep foolish people from either falling or jumping, a length of old, rustic fence made up of irregularly shaped boards and a single length of wire framed the scene.
Oracle smiled, a rare, true smile that she only gave life to when no others were present, and walked casually to the small skeleton of vegetation, putting her hand on the old, rough bark before looking out towards the setting sun, golden yellow eyes reflecting the fiery crimson color of the sinking orb as she leaned against the tree. Oracle slowly sank down until she was sitting on the ground, her face blank as she simply took in all that was, letting the music blaring through her ears immortalize the moment, as it had for so many other moments in her memory.
The sun lowered itself slowly into the earth, looking as if it would collide with the world but somehow being as insubstantial as air as it passed through, the colors that shot from its magnificence reflecting that of the rainbow as they reached high into the sky, their dark edges barely revealing the beginning of a clear, starry night. Oracle took her eyes off the sunset for a moment, looking up into the cold depths of space and mentally smiling. The stars were cold, lifeless, but filled with a type of brilliance all their own. They cared nothing for life, or death, or anything for that matter. They burned with spirit yet had none of their own, they shone in the darkness yet knew nothing of light.
Light and dark are really the same, Oracle thought slowly, feeling in a philosophical mood, Without one, the other cannot exist, and so both must be present or there will be nothing, nothing at all. Really, what happens when there is no light or darkness? Does everything turn gray? Or does the universe collapse in on itself? What defines light and dark, anyway?
"People would say I'm a monster for what I do," she mouthed silently, her thoughts doing a u-turn back to the planet, "But what defines a monster? I do what I do because I believe in it, and they do what they do because they believe in it. How is that so different? We all have our dreams, after all… and I can have no regrets."
Feel no mercy, feel no pain, Oracle, she thought to herself; this is what you were meant to do. Might makes right, remember?
"I remember," she mouthed, her eyes hardening into a mask of expressionless-ness as she nodded, "Feel no mercy, feel no pain; let the animal inside go free; might makes right. I was born to do this, and I will finish it. When the last human is wiped out of existence, I will revel in the absence of humanity… but even then, the work will be unfinished. Because when I kill the last human…"
I'll still be left.
Suddenly, there was a rumble of a motor, and Oracle jumped up from her place in surprise and shock at being snapped out of her train of thought, the CD on her belt skipping and making her snarl in anger as she ran to hide. From the wider path through the trees, twin beams of light shot into the sky before the owner came into the clearing, the noise intensifying and then fading into a quiet rumble as the vehicle rolled through two established ruts and parked quietly right next to the sign by the tree. Oracle, from her hiding spot near the path she had come up the cliff by, rolled her eyes and focused on the car.
The car was squat, much like the type of cars generally referred to as 'bugs', and the antenna was topped off with an absurd 'smiley' face that didn't have a smile, but had a strange blank look. The car was obviously a Junker, but a good one nonetheless, and modest enough not to draw too much attention to it, not like many others that the girl had seen in her life. As she watched, the driver side door opened with a rusty squeak, and a thin, decrepit form slunk out. Oracle narrowed her eyes to focus better, as already the last line of the sun had sank beyond the horizon and the moon, though full, was poor light compared to the brilliance that she had recently been staring at.
The man –she wasn't certain how old he was, but he looked barely any older than herself- was almost frighteningly thin, and his manner was unassuming, though Oracle had a nagging thought at the back of her mind that there was something different, here. She studied him from head to toe, from the stylish boots that reached up to his knees and had several silver buckles on them -the girl instantly wished to know where they were made-, from the ragged, striped, short-sleeved shirt and spidery, gloved fingers that gripped and old, battered, and stained book.
But it was the eyes that made her pause, because though they were partially covered under dark and obviously sleep deprived lids, the depths that she saw there were so… sad. Normally, such sadness wouldn't make the girl hesitate at all, but under that sadness was something else, something that glinted even now, in this place. There was anger, a fierce will, and a slightly insane shadow that threatened to explode outward at any time, at the slightest aggravation. But even beyond these there was pain, a pure, soul-rending agony that sucked all the joy –if there had been any joy- out of the surroundings. Those eyes were something she had never before encountered in her life, and they intrigued her.
And faintly, ever so faintly, she could hear beyond her softly playing music a singing of an entirely different kind. It was a melody of death that was echoed and twined about by the object hidden under her bloodstained shirt.
As the slight, almost imperceptible noise of a pen scratching echoed in the relative silence, Oracle turned away from the man that was now writing in what seemed to be the journal of some sort that he had brought with him, his antenna-like hair being moved by the light breeze that had just sprang up as he sat on the hood of his car. She knew when others deserved to be alone, and something about this person, whoever he was, told her that he needed to be secluded. Her bloodstained boots silently tread on the soft, packed loam as she departed, not giving any hint that she had been there at all besides the faint, barely visible depressions made by her feet.
She was heading home.
But somehow, she knew that this wasn't going to be the last time she saw that mysterious figure.
Yay! Foreshadowing!