May 2013
This months prompt (#5) is...Your character/s have just become new parents and things are finally starting to settle into a normal routine again since the child/children arrived. Things are going along so well for once when – oh no, some relatives have arrived on the scene! Who is it that’s come into the picture? Is it an aunt or an uncle, a distant cousin? The in-laws *gasp!* Why have they come and what are they going to do? How do your characters react to them? Could something magical be about to happen, or something maniacal?
Tell us about the episode in 2,500 words (or a page or so) or less.
May 2013 WINNER
Here's my entry for this month's contest:
Kaia held the tiny bundle in her arms, humming along with the music that streamed from the speakers in her triangle shaped ears. She had chosen a song with loving lyrics and a sweet, gentle melody, enjoying the peaceful moment with her son.
Out here in the autumn sunshine, away from any electrical goods and furniture, she could almost pretend things were normal. They had finally figured out how to work the house around the child so that chairs didn’t go scooting away, tables didn’t start to levitate and objects didn’t malfunction or randomly start jumping around.
The Persocom rocked Croix in her arms, swaying her hips as she slow danced under the flowering tree that decorated the yard. She stopped when he raised a hand and grabbed her fingers in his own tiny digits, staring up at her with wide eyed innocence. He was always so quiet she sometimes worried. Then again, he wasn’t human and neither was she. She wasn’t sure what either of them was anymore, ever since giving birth to such a child.
He looked exactly like Jamie but there the similarities ended. He had porcelain skin, eyes the colour of India ink and a shock of dark hair with a bluish lustre in certain light. He also had her electrical-cord tail funnily enough. When he became too inactive, she plugged it into the wall socket near his crib at night and his body happily sucked up lots of voltage, increasing her poor owner’s power bill substantially. That was something she was still trying to get around, mostly by taking him out in the sunlight as much as she could.
Startled out of her thoughts by a knock on the front door, Kaia prised her fingers from her baby’s grip and settled him on her shoulder instead, walking back into the house with a cry of
“Coming! Be there in a moment”She wondered if it was Jamie, home from work already, or maybe it was Rin, back from running her errand. Kaia would be happy to see her. She’d been avoiding the lavender Persocom simply because Croix had caused a few other Persocoms to act…odd…when she had taken him near them. But she always felt bad for evading the other girl, especially since she was the only other woman in the house and Kaia could bring Croix near Jamie just fine without something weird happening. It seemed like exclusion, though it wasn’t purposely done.
“Hello, welcome hom…” her polite yet cheery greeting trailed off as she saw several people she wasn’t expecting standing on the doorstep; a man, a woman and another standing behind them, wearing a wide-brim top hat so she couldn’t see his face.
An expensive looking car with tinted windows was parked out on the kerb. The three strangers looked to be very well dressed in fashionable attire. The man with the top hat raised a hand and tugged upon the brim, a cold smile twisting thin lips in a form of greeting before he lowered the gloved hand once more. The two standing either side of the door remained silent, almost as though they were waiting for something.
Kaia stared at them in bewilderment. She had never seen Jamie talk to these people before. Maybe they had come to the wrong house.
“Um, can I help you with anything?” She leaned a bit away from them, unconsciously taking a step back so that Croix was out of reach. She could feel her ear tips tingling; something was strange about them.
“Now after all this time, is that any way to greet your father?” the third man stepped forward, removing his top hat so she could see his face as he came closer, tapping a decorative cane.
Her eyes widened at the figure; flawless skin, long dark blue hair and garnet coloured eyes, pointed ears…she was so astonished at the appearance of him that she didn’t see the small devices his assistants held up until a flash of light gleamed off one of the translucent chips in their fingers.
Kaia tried to move and discovered she was unable to budge, not even an inch. She felt her ports being opened and a chip inserted in either one. She wanted to scream, to run…call for help…anything. But there was nothing she could do except gaze into those mesmerising red eyes while the man came closer.
“I’m happy to see you’ve done what I programmed you to. Come now, I shall take what is mine and we can all go home” he spoke in a calm, soothing tone yet there was a sinister undercurrent to the words that she did not like.
His silent assistants at these words took one of Kaia’s arms each as the man who called himself her ‘father’ reached out and took the babe from her uselessly frozen form.
The assistants pulled on her arms and Kaia blinked hazily as she started to walk with them down the garden path to the car, following the man with the child as though she were in a dream.
“See now, I told you today was perfect for a family reunion” the man continued, uttering a soft chuckle that sounded like silken darkness.
“My top-secret bio weapon is finally complete and now I even have the means to create another”
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