One of Us Chapter 4
A short one
Orange and yellow banged at the window of the train as the hungry seeking bread. The scent of oranges and lemons filled the train, residue left behind as the train moved at bullet speed. A small smile crept upon the older brother’s face, as they entered the Third Circle. The train slowed its approach, as it levitated by the citrus scent of the Circle. Darius then turned to David, despite picking up the conversation they had in the world of the Second Circle, “She can teach you something. I said what I said.” David jabbed him in the shoulder, knowing that his brother’s cocoa marble skin didn’t even feel it. The beautiful thing about seeing Darius enter this circle is that it seemed as though he was back at a time where he could feel something.
The train screeched to a stop, and opened its mouth to fresh passengers. Suffice to say the clientele of the train changed quite a bit. The seemingly indifferent dispelled the strong scent of citrus, the primary characteristic of the Third Circle. This merchant capital of the city brought about more diversity than other circles. David and Darius watched as folks from the Second Circle were joined by the bohemian in blazers, in pencil skirts, in aprons, in store-branded T-shirts, with baby carriages, and disdainful looks towards those from lower numbered circles. The suited looks’ broke upon David and Darius like water upon the shore. At times, David would maintain eye contact with the suits exchanging looks that communicated “fuck you” as elegantly as he could say it with his eyes. Darius had to reel him in at times for two reasons. One: you didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to yourself if you didn’t have to, especially if you were the two of them. Two: you never knew who was a police officer in plainclothes.
The police commissioner and the rank and file nestled their way into the Circle as well. Not only was the station in this Circle, but they would often burrow into the general populace looking for trouble.
Now Darius and David both had experience breaking against and being broken against law enforcement, but this was well before their time in being “civilians.” Now the most David could eke out against the uniformed was his occasional “try me” smirk. Any more than that (even that) could elicit deeper examination into their lives. And that’s all it would take. You’re in a bad situation if a police officer stops you for any reason. You’re damned if you are doing something illegal. Darius was 18, so they would find any reason to throw him in jail. Although David was 17, they had creative ways to punish juveniles like being sent to the military as penance, which is often worse than jail. What begins as a month of service becomes a life sentence “in the service. That’s almost assured once they find out you can use dimensional energy. They didn’t need that kind of energy in their lives.
As passengers piled onto the train, most would find their place out the window to stare. After all, you didn’t want to maintain eye contact with those from the Second Circle too long. Apartheid would be strong to describe this societal structure. But it’s interesting observing the dynamic in this piled train car. Let’s start with those you would never find in a train car like this: Circle 5 Residents. The most affluent of the most affluent. The Fifth Circle had trains that ran on pure dimensional energy, and one required a resident’s pass to take the train. Fifth Circle residents very very rarely had to leave the comfort of their circle. It was pretty self-contained. You’d also never find a First Circle person here. Although you don’t need a resident’s pass to get there, you needed special permissions to enter, not that the general population would know this, but David and Darius knew.
Imagine a city where law and order was completely abandoned, and criminals became the ruling class. A land of outlaws where strength ruled and the geography constantly quaked by extreme climate events. Then, take that city and open up a major dimensional rift there twice in the last fifty years, where monsters like the one David fought the night before poured through like spiders through a decrepit faucet. That’s the First Circle in a nutshell.
You needed passage to get there. Those who tried often were killed before they could get in. The police. Hell, the military wouldn’t try to storm it, not that they wanted to. And it seemed that “those in charge” of the First Circle didn’t want to leave. That gave the ruling authorities the belief that dimensional creatures were in charge there or “dimens” as some might say. You needed passage. From someone on the inside. It’s difficult to know what’s more frightening. Entering the First Circle or the being that one would have to deal with to be granted passage. But they wouldn’t need to worry about that today.
Today, mostly people who lived in the Second and Third Circle filled the train. Who would have thought there could be such a large difference in one integer? Being directly exposed to a dimensional rift destroyed a good deal of civilization found in the Second Circle. It still functioned. The necessities were there, but many of the facilities were destroyed, never to be rebuilt. Pharmacies, doctor’s offices, banks, all victim to an act of God, or perhaps something more tyrannical. Remnants of these community staples could still be seen, as if to mock the residents of what once was. If you needed something extra, something more, you had to invest in a train pass to get to the Third Circle to reach anything… discretionary. Speaking of…
“I need to stop by the bank after school today,” Darius said to his brother, who was in the midst of mean mugging someone.
“Got it,” he replied without looking back.
“Hey,” the elder smacked his brother’s arm to ensure he had his attention. “No gym for you today,” leveling a tone at him that would catch David’s attention, but no one else’s. The younger looked at him with pleading eyes for just a moment, then acquiesced with a nod. Without access to higher circles, economic mobility was impossible. Everything: grocery stores, daycares, bookstores, coffeeshops, and banks were found in Third Circle.
The world outside the window took on a different nature, as they passed through a tunnel, as if all the fruit died and the sun with it within the half mile tunnel from Circle Three to Four. The sun also hid its face, as the train penetrated the entrance to the Circle, giving the Fourth Circle a distinct grey feel, as if the entire zip code was in a state of mourning. The faces of those in the train seemed to reflect this, as if all life in the train took a collective inhale and breathed its last upon entry.
The skyscrapers didn’t seem to mind the sighing of those entering this limbo. They stood proudly to the skies, roaring at the heavens as Nimrod before the tongues were divided. Their darkened glass eyes peered upon its new interlopers coming upon their metallic worm. David was one of the sighers as well, as they were a few stops from their school. He looked over at his brother and said, “You know, it’s not too late to go back home. All it would take are a few steps, and then…”
The train stopped with the abruptness of a broken roller coaster ride. As the doors opened, more pencil necked suits entered the train. They never looked at anyone, only above and past you. The discontented wealthy. They had much, but wanted more. Take it like this. Imagine being able to see the Earthly Paradise, but the gates are locked to you. Even, what you have will never be enough when you know that the fruit of the Tree of Life, lay behind an angel with a flaming sword. That’s what the striving of those in the Fourth Circle to get to the Fifth was like. Being granted every type of fruit, except the one that would bring true immortality.
David didn’t find it fun to play the “look game” with the pencil necks.They were never reciprocated, dismantling any semblance of power or agency David felt he might have had. It didn’t matter that he could down creatures that would likely make Fourth Circle residents wet themselves. It didn’t matter that his hands wrought destruction: flaying flesh, cracking concrete. Regardless of what he did, it would never live up to these people. He didn’t know why he wanted to, but he did. The first minute of the uncomfortable ten to get to school began, as the gliders entered the train ensuring not to trust anyone.
Silence rang out on the train in the next ten minutes as folks got on and off and on and off and on, and…
David and Darius held silent looks towards one another as their stop approached. As they rose and lifted their bags, a few Fourth Circlers looked at the boys from their newspapers or behind the disdain in their pupils, a pity rose in their eyes for only a split second, a Tiresias-like insight rose in their eyes to boys fated to destruction due to their poverty. The boys looked back.The doors hissed open as they entered the world of the Fourth Circle.
