• By Chance or Fate?
    1

    Square? Triangle? Rectangle? Circle? Whatever the description was, it was different to other people living within the pristine box enclosing them from a world hardly any of them remember.
    Nexus didn’t describe the environment as shapes but rather ‘a fragile prison’ and kept to the shadows of it. He was tall, lean, and tan of skin with dark topaz eyes to match his dark brown hair streaked in topaz. Unlike others similar to him, Nexus looked at the world in a serious and neutral view separating his self from the gossip and whispers of richly clad people. He was one to trust and not trust all depending upon what you asked of him.
    Fay was a beautiful prostitute with waist long black hair, green eyes, slender body, and carried a whip at her waist. Her skin beige with a bronze glow that many men worshiped on a daily basis. She wore scanty clothes fitting the contours of her body but never fully exposing anything as others did constantly at the shady brothel tucked away in a collapsed section of the pristine world with no real sky.
    They were the irremovable stain they couldn’t move or eradicate.
    Isis, however, was a different sort bent on learning everything she could get her hands on. She had bright almond-brown eyes, waist long wavy sandy-brown hair, and slender in built that hid under loose fitting clothing that reveals little of her body contours. Her skin beige with an angelic glow completely different from Fay’s goddess glow. Most days, anyone could see her toting a laden satchel full of borrowed books and other unimaginable things.
    Sighing, Nexus left his usual spot as a group of ‘cute’ Goth girls huddle under a lit lamppost talking about fashion and boys. He wasn’t interest in hearing these conversations so left to find an excuse to waste away his hours. Upon leaving his shadows, Nexus happen to catch a glimpse of Fay and Isis at the Public Square. Fay was a dangerous sort so he turns his focus to Isis pushing her way through the crowd gathering to see Fay.
    2
    Unknowingly, he found himself following after her, keeping at least some distance lest she got suspicious of his presence. For miles, Nexus saw the ‘shapes’ within the ‘fragile prison’ till she stopped at the doors of a tall beige marble building with the fancy title Madame Cross Library. He hadn’t been to a library in a long time but she enters running up a few steps and through the polished oak doors.
    What was it about her that ensnared him entirely?
    He enters then looks around for her and spotted her taking a seat in a corner lit by several small but bright glass lanterns hanging on silver hooks. Hesitate, he took a random book from the nearby shelf and took a seat on the opposite end of the short table. She hadn’t moved since she sat down and read the book in an absorbed way he thought serene.
    An hour passed and she finally looks up, her almond-brown eyes nonjudgmental and questioning his presence near her. “Hi, I’m Nexus. Nexus Pyrite from near the Taint Section behind Public Square so what’s your name?” The eyes never change or the facial expression as she slowly stood up. “Isis Newmoon, Scholar Section near the Business Route District. Why were you following me?” Nexus shrugs his shoulders then look down at the book he chose and found he couldn’t focus on the lines of poetry.”Do you like dark poetry?” Her question surprised him and he dumbly nods his head and she faintly smiles. “I read it often but I read other sorts of poems myself.” Nexus couldn’t describe the strange feeling that was bothering him, yet, he was interest in Isis as a person.
    Getting up as well, Nexus let Isis walk pass him toward the librarian desk where Madame Cross sat checking books out and piling those returned to her left. “Oh, you again, Miss Newmoon. Don’t you ever get tire of reading my books since you check them out in large numbers?” Nexus didn’t like the librarian’s tone; yet, Isis shook her head and pulls out books by the handful. “I like reading, that’s all, Madame Cross.” Isis replies casually as she waits for Madame Cross to check off the returned books before putting up the ones being checked out. Nexus saw six thin ones in her arms and wonder why she read so much. Perhaps, she found escape from the pristine world that served as their prison.
    He thought about telling her his thoughts but refrains from doing so as he put his book forth and Madame Cross checked them out at the same time. Leaving the library, Nexus trailed in Isis’s shadow to where she lived and was taken away by the organized structures old in appearance. “You live in a wonderful area, Isis. You think I can stay with you for a couple of days?” Isis stops as she puts her key in the front door then sighs. “It would be nice to have company for a couple of days. Sure, come in and make yourself at home but I have a few rules.” Nexus simply smiles then enters following after Isis though he was aware of Fay’s presence watching them.
    3

    Nexus enjoyed his stay with Isis following her rules close to the book yet aware of something hanging above locked doors containing untold secrets. They were small wind chimes made from bone and chips of raw precious gems. He pointed them out to her while walking alongside Isis in the long hallway on the second floor. The top half of the walls maroon separated by a thin strip of maple wood and below, vertical panels of oak. It was seen throughout the entire second level while the first floor was designed in Spartan style with organized knickknacks and opened space to light it in false light.
    Upstairs, generated winds blew through open windows from rooms unlocked and door wide open. The wind chimes didn’t even stir in them and Isis finally spoke up about her family history.
    “Nexus, believe me, I don’t lie about anything unless I have to but my father was famous archeologist from long ago and he gathered treasures from everywhere. Yet, against rules and protocols, he kept some of the treasures for the world had forgotten them and if found out, they would be misused. These are behind the locked doors along with a few other things such as arcane tomes, witchcraft books, cursed artifacts, blessed artifacts, and other seemingly impossible things I can’t tell many people about.
    Yet, the wind chimes are uncommon to my knowledge for I fear I brought something along with me. My ancestors were wealthy throughout the bloodline but eventually, they went into hiding from powers that wanted to use their stored knowledge at their personal gain.”
    Nexus stops on the second floor landing as Isis descends to the first floor. The false light made her look like an angel despite the faint frown on her face before disappearing around the corner into the living room. Following after her, his mind on the weapon display case hanging on the wall over the small gray marble mantle fireplace that seem oddly out of place.
    He had read about certain rich families having guardian(s) but a faint whisper reach him as he looks up to a wind chime above the display case. Isis came out of the kitchen with a knapsack laden with food and his purchases. “Those were my father’s weapons; he made them himself in the blacksmith shop that got burned down when I was six.” She hands him the knapsack and Nexus left saying goodbye to her and regretted leaving her side.
    4

    Fay watched this all with twisted satisfaction that she returns to her slightly elaborate room thinking about what she had heard little snippets of. A few days after Nexus’s departure, Fay went over to Scholar Section looking at the old building varying in many era designs and stops at Isis’s Medieval style home. A small bone wind chime hung over the front door and windows and sway in the breeze as if warning her. She ignores it then tried to open the front door with the key found in a hollow next to the handle. “Excuse me, miss, what are you doing?”
    She puts the key back in the hollow on its brass hook then turn around to regard the tall, thin scholar in judge robes. “Oh, I’m a friend of Isis and it seems the key don’t fit the lock. Do you know where she is?” The middle aged scholar shook his head as he looked her up and down. A look of distain came over his face as he walks up to her, robes rustling in the wind. “Well, Miss-“Fay apologies then he continues “Miss Fay, I couldn’t tell where Miss Newmoon is but I can’t see her having a prostitute as a family friend. Be off with you!” Giving him a glaring look, Fay walks down the stairs with her head high and roughly pushing the scholar aside. “Miss Fay, a word of advise, don’t lie knowing any of scholars or I’ll report you to Business Route District’s highest order of law, Pristine Law Force.” She stops in her tracks, heels lightly clinking on the cobblestone street. “Well, is that so? Just try and you’ll will fail in the end, scholar. Oh, about Isis Newmoon, I do know her so tell her to meet me at the Public Square at 12:45 at night.”
    The old clocks still worked in this ‘white bubble’ as Fay took her leave of the furious scholar.
    5

    Isis returns home after dropping off the six books and returning with none when the scholar/judge came up to her. He told her about Fay being in Scholar Section and the message left with him. Isis gave him a questioning look then sighs. She would have to go to see what Fay wanted or things wouldn’t make sense as to why she was here in the first place.
    Nexus was about to enter his small home when he notice the bone wind chime hanging on his door handle. It rang clear as a bell as a smoky figure took shape beside him. Expecting a nightmarish sight, Nexus found himself standing beside a tall man with short black hair, indigo eyes, and beige skin whose heart he could hear beating faintly, yet, strong. In his mind, ‘Fay’ was constantly repeated till he finally grasp the danger that was bundled in the one name alone.
    In a blink of an eye, the man, whatever he was in true form was gone and the wind chime in his hand. What were his purpose and its vague connection to Isis?
    Isis looks at the wall clock in the kitchen as the hands slowly approach midnight. She had taken a nap earlier, had an early dinner, and dressed the chilly night the pristine world created for them.
    It struck midnight.
    She headed out through dwindling crowds with her light satchel bouncing against her hip. Consulting the watch on her wrist, Isis nears Public Square, empty of people and faint sounds of the brothel in the distance. Upon entering, she saw movement then a lantern was lit to reveal Fay’s face in the false night.
    “Glad you came, Isis Newmoon. I was getting worry you wouldn’t show but oh well; scholars come on their own time.” Isis only seen her through large crowds of people but by herself, Fay seem to stand alone. “What is that you want of me, Fay? As far as I know, we’re strangers.” Fay smiles then sat the lantern down illuminating the small area around her. “You were with Nexus a couple of days ago, is he a friend of yours? If he is, good for you and me since the three of us seem to be the only ones who remembers the past then this dump of a bubble and prison.” Isis steps closer to the light to see Fay better and saw the goddess smiling at her in a creepy way.
    “Angel and goddess together in one light source of reality, isn’t it amazing how quick we forget the past and the world that fell apart about us. Power is a dangerous thing to control but in our hands, we use it as a vital tool in survival. I grow tire of this white bubble with its artificial creations.” Isis knew the feeling but Fay was playing her off it so she pushes the desire to the back of her mind. “So, you want me to help you achieve this dream?” Fay took a step toward her and nods her head then replies “yes, that is what I want, clever Isis. Did you know why you’re called Isis? No, well, let me enlighten you that she was an Egyptian goddess so important to life of her people. It is why you are named such as Nexus is the connection and I, Fay the dangerous one that commands power.”
    6

    Isis found herself in the same position as her ancestors as Fay took another step toward her. “A name is a name, Fay. So what we’re the only ones who seem to acknowledge the past but I refuse to bow down to your will. Your world would crumble the same way as the past for it was power in the hands of ambitious minds that destroyed us. This world may be a prison to hold us in but outside is a world not ready for us yet.” Fay’s smile slips then before she could take another step, Nexus rams her in the side taking away her whip at the same time.
    “Nexus, how did you know?” Isis asks as he got to his feet. He held up the bone wind chime then replies “I think your guardian is watching over us, I don’t know the reason why but I can’t ever leave your side again. It’s too risky and plus, Fay here is getting over head that she must be stopped.”
    Fay got to her feet and gave Nexus a glaring look. “Give me my whip back, Nexus.” He tosses it up and something blending in with the false night caught it, touches fire to it, and threw at Fay’s feet. She attempted to touch it but the bright crimson fire scorched her hand that she withdrew and looks upwards. A faint figure could be seen though it changed appearances from man, angel, beast, and demon that Fay thought her mind was playing tricks on her.
    “Your mind is not fooling you, Fay Nightshade for I am real. For a long time, your ancestors had dug deep to find the Newmoon family bloodline but here it ends.” The hidden voice declares, booming throughout the prison. Fay, frighten for the first time in long time tried to flee but coils of crimson fire surrounded her and with one final scream, vanished into nowhere.
    Above, the dome crumbled and everything around them flickers till the whole world went black. Fay no longer exists, the fragile prison gone, screams filled the air, and the two conscious of the whole thing found their old world replaced by sweet smells of nature. Afterwards, they fell asleep in the woods near the house Isis called home for a long time that always stuck with the family bloodline. Her guardian nearby as true sunlight bathes the two in golden light. Yet, they must never know the purpose of their existence until the right time came for them to know the real meaning of their life.