"No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.
--Elbert Hubbard"
Amy, Escalus, TItus, and Mariana all filed slowly, one by one, into the airport's waiting room. Amy and Escalus sat in the front row of blood row seats, which didn't do any good for her paranoia. Escalus ignored her and pulled out the latest version of Gameboy.
In the back was TItus, who dialed frantically on his phone before giving up tragically and starting to tear up once more. Next to him was Mariana, who looked mildly content as she start to wipe the remnants of make-up from her pale face.
Everyone seemed to be scattered around, packing themselves senselessly inside of the fray. It was possibly the last socialization they'd have whilst under Earth's atmosphere, and they had to savor it. They had to savor the of not being alone that would soon be replaced by the claustrophobia of space.
Be that as it may, none of them talked to one another. They all minded their own business, making small glances here and there, nervous that if they did something--anything slightly bold, reality might fall apart sooner or later.
--
Volumnia sat silently in the second row from the front, staring idly at the podium in front of the crowd. She stared silently, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. "Shit." she said to herself, the word escaping in a sigh but she didn't care. It's not like anyone was paying attention.
Her eyes looked down and her head followed in delay, not yet wanting to let go of the empty stare of hope. She then flipped quickly through the brochure for this whole trip they were supposed to be going. Revolutionary, some said it was going to be. Just a different type of vacation. she mouthed to herself, closing the brochure slowly. Why am I here?
A job. This was supposed to be a job, right? Just a job in Space. A Space Station. How fucking amazing. Radenara Co. was her employer as soon as she stepped foot on that ship, but she wasn't ready to let go of her independance just yet. If she stepped on that ship, somehow someway she would be giving up something without a fight.
You don't earn things without... a fight. I mean, what am I even earning? Life at some new Space Society developed by this renowned company. I'm earning my right as a beta tester?! Damn. Damn it. Damn everything, for that matter. But it's not like I have anything better to do. Hell! I hate everyone.
Her eyes closed and her body relaxed inside the suave white pant suit she was wearing and she leaned back into the chair. Just another vacation...
--
Click. Click. Click, click, click. The brass ballpoint glimmered in the dim sunlight as Aaron pressed down on the end in anxiety. His eyes showed rare hints of discontent and his eyes slowly drifted from side to side, not looking at anything in particular but noting everything.
The empty podium in front of him, Caius Radenara would be there soon. The woman in white sitting in front of him, snoozing her ass off. Her breasts jiggled slightly under her loose white blouse but her blonde main barely moved as it was contaminated by hairspray and other chemicals.
His mind went blank, but only for a second. Shit. he thought, pissed off slightly that he let the feeling go. The pink plague diseased his mind once more with the same thought: Should I have done it?
Done what, exactly? Everything. His mind was filled with a worrisome pestilence, he might as well have been dead at the time if it wasn't for the clicking pen. A stable constant keeping him on the bridge of insanity even though his hands were damp as he hung by his arms off the side of it.
Should he have left his home?
Which home? The group of cold blooded killers that took him in and gave him some meaning?
The small town, fat people that he had tried to escape twice? He had tried, but they always haunted him. That monotonous persona that gave his family life was what he had dreaded all these years.
He stopped clicking to focus on his problems--for once if only once. Five seconds later his eyes closed and started clicking once more. Not now, not never. Not now, not never.
--
You think it makes you a sociopath if you remain unsurprised by rape and murder? Fuck you, you have no idea. You know why? I'll tell you, shithead. To me, to a child, it's just like watching the news, or CSI! A hatchet used to dismember a poor Mexican girl, sure, I'm a little unnerved. But you can't see it. Of course you can't fucking see it. The rape, and murder, and torture is embedded into my psyche. Call me a psycho. Yeah, call me that because it doesn't bother me anymore. Call me that because I'm not a weak little basket case. But then, you better take a good damn look at yourself and the world. You better take a good damn look. Are you frightened? Is that guy on the street frightened? Hahaha. You didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?
"What're you doing?" he asked Roderick. Roderick, who had been mouthing a speech at the guy sitting next to him who looked like a deadpan FBI interrogator, sighed. He sighed for himself and his friend.
I'm fucking nuts. Why can't you see that, Jason? he asked his friend in his mind with a sullen smirk.
"Nothing. I'm not thinkin' 'bout nothin'..."
--
Her thin, raspberry colored lips. Her wide doughy eyes. Her blonde, angelic hair that contrasted beautifully with her gorgeously tanned skin. No, it can't be an angel. But why is it that when she walked into the room, everyone looked? Why is it that when she walked into the room, it was like time slowed down to pay it's respects to her beauty? Why was it that when her heels hit the berber carpeting it was like a thunderclap that only Gods were worthy of hearing?
Tamora singe handedly stopped the show as she walked up to the podium. Behind her, the wrinkled and warm skinned Lucio. Standing next to him was his lap dog, Tamora's brother, and his son: Lafew.
Tamora was the first one to draw the attention to them as she cleared her throat into the mic. Then, she continued:
"Hello, all. My name is Tamora Radenara, Vice President of the Radenara Corporation and I would like to first welcome you to the first flight to the Space Station Neposa!" she said enthusiastically and generated a small applause and one mocking whistle.
"Many of you are here to be the first inhabitants of our Space Station Residency, working as Beta Testers for an amazing new technology that us in the Radenara Corporation have been developing for the last few years! Others of you are our valued.ef employees," she was at this point lying through her teeth, "and will be handling the Space Station! I, and my brother Lafew, will be captaining the Neposa, and I will look forward to meeting all of you soon! Without further holding you up, you may now enter the bridge!"
As she finished with the best forced smile her muscles could pull off in a rather acrobatic way, she stumbled off the podium and her brother, Lafew, walked up to the podium with a smirk on his face.
"I would just like to say that we are not always as senselessly perky. Thanks, enjoy the ride...!" and he went off the stage.
And slowly, but surely, the residents of the Neposa got up and entered a new chapter in their lives. To leave this Earth was like losing their religion. |
Submission Name: 1,000 Degrees #2
