Futuristic twisted ties ♤

[solarsaphia]

twisted ties.

@lady & solarsaphia

 

[solarsaphia]

> FEBRUARY 10TH, 2104. DOMENNA. 9:17 PM.

Sofia was growing tired of late-night classes. She’d dragged herself from the comfort of her apartment, baring the rain and chromatic shadows Domenna cast onto its streets. And for what? Her attempts to ignore the ghosts wearing her parents’ skin were proving nothing but mind-numbingly dull. It was the same as always, this cycle.

Laws of motion, she mused. Get a clock running, and it’ll never stop.

“Move it!” A man in a black trench coat shoved past her, his face pale and sweaty with disarray. Sofia wrinkled her nose.

The voice of some bored-sounding AI blared over the subway speakers, calling the light rail as it screeched its way into the station. It was not a peaceful night. 10 minutes for the C-track, 34 minutes for the airport — only the usual kids selling flowers and coffee seemed unhurried.

She rushed her way through the lifeless crowd. “Hold the door, will you?” A young woman dressed head-to-toe in pastel pink did so, shooting Sofia a wink as she stepped on board.

See, the problem was, the maps lining the walls were a mess, difficult to comprehend except for the longest residents of the city. No one on this train knew where they were going, only that they would get there. Get off a stop too early and you’d end up somewhere you’d never been. She sighed, leaning against the wall as she tried to pretend she was going elsewhere. America, maybe, or some other conglomerate metropolis with friends to find. Anywhere they wouldn’t follow her was welcome enough.

The screaming started when they pulled into King Station. It was from a floor down, jagged, and as Sofia stumbled off the train it only grew in intensity. A boy in mismatched socks jogged alongside her. He was grinning. Morbid curiosity was all that could unite people nowadays, it seemed.

A little girl wearing a ratty skirt and a button-up was the one crying out, but she was unharmed. She was pointing, her hand shaking, and Sofia followed her gaze to see a woman.

The lady was propped face up against the train tracks. Waist-length dark hair, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling, and completely lifeless in a pool of her own blood. She was holding a wooden box, words carved into her chest, wearing the dark blue blazer Sofia had gotten her for her 50th birthday.

“Mom — ”

Someone grabbed her arm, too tight even as they gasped with some god-awful mix of surprise and pity. They pulled her back. They were pulling her away.

“Get the kid out of here, for fuck’s sake!”

“What — no, I — ”

She wasn’t a kid, Sofia wanted to hiss, but she was a bit preoccupied with not crumbling to the floor. Her ears were ringing, though she was fairly certain the little girl had stopped screaming. The screen of her visor flashed red.

WARNING: IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT; BREATHING RATE.

ARE YOU OK, SOFIA?

A cloud of men and women dressed in black descended, neon lettering sprawled across their jackets. Someone still had a hold of her arm. They were talking to her, something about the police arriving, and they kept tugging, their face pinched with distress.

“Mom.”

She watched the EMTs cover her mother in a blanket and let them drag her along like a rag doll. Her goggles stayed a bright, bloody red the rest of the night.

DISTRESS DETECTED. PLEASE WAIT…

> FEBRUARY 11TH, 2104. DOMENNA. 6:58 AM.

“I don’t give a shit that you’re not ‘open’ yet. Ok? Look at the news, man, my — a woman got killed and branded last night.”

Carlos snatched the phone from his daughter, ignoring her spluttering. “Hello. Sorry about that.” His smooth baritone put the frazzled secretary at ease, but to Sofia, it was yet another reminder that the world had turned on its axis. Atlas was no less merciful than his darker counterparts, it seemed.

She had to admit her father seemed to do well, zombie that he was.

“Ok, they said they’re free. We can — ”

Sofia cut him off with a laugh, crouching down so she could tie up her boots. “Yeah, no. You’re not coming with me. I’m the one who saw her dead, Carlos.”

The use of his first name made the man wince. She had been warming up, frowning at the scars on his arms and even calling him ‘Dad’, but the shock was still coursing through her system. Sofia needed to move. Her mother was dead now, and she was tired of choking on all the lies polluting the air. And yet, she was right about one thing: he hadn’t seen it happen.

“Let me come to the bus stop, at least,” Carlos said. Sofia shrugged, holding the door open just long enough not to hit him in the face.

He rode with her to Union and 13th. She said nothing, her hands fiddling by her side, and waved as she hopped off the bus. Text after text lit her phone up every few seconds.

APPROACHING: DOMENNA POLICE DEPARTMENT.

The department had to be open, Sofia reasoned. Even with a lack of insider knowledge, it seemed logical that a gruesome killing would break the police’s usual schedule, and it would help their PR to get the case solved. She thinned her lips as her stomach turned. It felt so wrong to be taking a heartless approach to this, but stopping to think too long wasn’t an option. Like a taskbar in a game.

She swung open the gate with a loathsome creak. The place was nice-looking enough, grey walls pressed edge-to-edge with apartments, but she couldn’t shake her worry. Police weren’t exactly flawless with investigating crimes.

Knocking once, then twice, Sofia leaned against the railing that ran perpendicular to the front of the department.

“Hello? It’s Sofia Rosario, I called earlier.” The absence of her father’s name felt odd, but it was the name on her records.

the engineer

sofia.

• aaaaaaaaa
• aaaaaaaaa

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