The Auction, Chapter 1
Title: The Auction
Rating: Eventual PG-13
Pairings: AH. NONE. (so far, i haven't decided on one yet)
Genre: Sci-Fi
Word Count: 1558
Summery: Three months ago, Edie Simon was just like every other girl in her class: getting ready for homecoming, squealing about the school's star cross-country/track star, and spending as little time as possible on her homework. Then her little sister Dot was taken. In a world where people are taken all the time and sold to the upper-classes, no one took it to mind except Edie and her brother, Greg. Even if her parents were sad, they knew nothing could be done about it; Dot was gone and that was that. But then Edie met Jonathon Malloy, her town's local hobo. He swore he could get Dot back, and Edie believed him for reasons she didn't fully understand herself. It wasn't long before Edie, Jonathon and Greg were off on the adventure of their lives trying to get Dot back and overthrow the head of The Auction.
"Are you challenging me, Edith Marie?" Greg sneered, obviously thinking he was clever and oh-so amazing for using my full first-middle name combo. I rolled my eyes and looked at him, unimpressed. I wasn't in the mood to deal with his angsty-teenage-boy antics, but as our parents were out and unable to mediate our fights. I missed my brother, though. He hadn't been the same since Dot had disappeared, and I knew I hadn't really, either. No one had. It was just different without her, which was to be expected, but there was a feeling like it wouldn't have quite have been as much of a tragedy of Greg or I had been taken in her place. At least our parents had a good seventeen and fifteen years with us, respectively. Four was too young for her to do much, anyway.
"No, Gregory James, I'm not. I'm just trying to get my chores done and you are in my way." I replied. He made a face and left me alone. I felt like he had gone down in maturity about twelve years, and, really, I couldn't stand it. If he was going to act like he was five, I'd treat him like it. I finished vacuuming the front hallway and was going to go to my room, only to discover a note from my mom reading,
"Edie,
I know you're going to come in here to spend all day reading or something, but for my sake, please at least go out for a walk. It's unhealthy for you to spend so much time cooped up indoors.
Love, mom." I sighed and grabbed a jacket.
"I'm going out." I shouted as I shut the door behind me. Honestly, I hated this. My parents tried to continue on like life was normal, but it wasn't, and Greg and I knew it. They acted like they cared, and they did, I knew they did, but they also knew that any hope of finding Dot was nonexistent. Everyone knew that once a person was taken, the next day they could be anywhere from the next town over to Bangladesh. And anyone who tried to look for the missing person was either taken themselves, or they died trying. It wasn't a good system, really, but people were happy with it. Or, at least, they knew that they couldn't fight it. I wanted my sister back, if it took me going in her place, I'd be glad for it. She deserved to live a free life, but there wasn't anything I could do. I was a fifteen-year-old girl with obsessive compulsive tendencies and a need to be in control. If slavery was wrong for anyone, it was me. But knowing that somewhere, Dot was getting punished for doing something she wasn't even aware she was doing wrong made my stomach clench and my head hurt. I kept myself sane by saying that it wasn't that she was chosen specially - it could have been anyone. That didn't help. I didn't want to think of my friends' sisters and brothers being taken, I couldn't even imagine life without Dot and her little friend Jess waking me up on Saturday morning at eight am so I could play Barbie with them. There was so much that was just...wrong.
"I can help you. I know how to get your sister back, and I know where she is." A voice - rough, strangled, raspy - took me from my thoughts. I turned and screamed a little, startled to see a very dirty young man. His face contorted a little in fright, and I apologized.
"Sorry, but you did scare me." I told him, shrugging a little and flicking my bangs from my eyes. "You said that you knew where my sister is. That's impossible, you can't know. No one knows."
"I always know." He stated. I stared at him in disbelief and with a little bit of humor even.
"You're not a creeper, are you?" I asked slowly, and he understood.
"What? No, sorry," He cleared his throat, trying to make his voice less raspy, "I'm Jon Malloy. I'm, uh, your friendly neighborhood hobo." I nodded, still unconvinced, but only out of habit. Hobos were common. They weren't just homeless people, though. They were people, mainly men, but women weren't unheard of, who just left homes, families, loved ones behind to travel around. They were the people who were taken the most often. I wasn't surprised that Jon was a hobo. Everything from his scraggly beard to his gummed-up eyes made it impossible to think he wasn't. But there were stories and warning that people told kids. Hobos weren't too satisfied in any sense of the word, for the most part, and we, especially girls, weren't supposed to talk to them. If I had seen Jon from a distance, or before Dot was taken, I would have turned and bolted the other way. But he was offering help, and comfort, even. I couldn't just run away. If he really did know where my sister was, I wanted to talk to him more. I quickly checked my cell phone - an ancient voice activated screen that was well overdue for a replacement - and looked in the direction of my house nervously. I couldn't see it, since I had been in the park for some time, but my parents were due home any minute and they have a habit of just knowing where I've been and who I've been with. They didn't need to know that I was hanging out with hobos in the park.
"We'll meet here tomorrow, ok? At, like, three." I said, almost running to my house. I heard him shout back, "It's a date." and grinned. I liked his humor.
I heard Greg asked where I had been, but I just said, "Rain-check, Gregory." And bolted into the shower. There was a certain calmness of a shower. Of letting water just run down your body, of being clean. This showed, however, wasn't very calm at all. It was hurried and really only there to hopefully take my parents off the trail of hanging-out-with-hobos. I had just gotten dressed when my parents came in.
"Did you go for a walk, Edie?" My mom asked, looking at me with her 'I'm serious, but joking'.
"Yeah, mom, I just wanted to take a shower because I felt kind of dirty afterward." Greg raised his eyebrow with typical boy perversion. I rolled my eyes at him for the umpteenth time.
"I was just walking and I got sweaty. So shut up. But, mom, tomorrow I'll be late getting home from school. I met this guy at the park today and we're hanging out." I grinned at her hopefully.
"How old is he?" Greg asked before my mom had a chance to say anything.
"Um. Seventeen." I knew I was lying - Jon was obviously older than that by at least three years, if not more.
"I'm going with you. I don't trust guys my own age - I know what we're like." Greg declared, looking at me as if daring me to challenge him. I just sighed and agreed to it.
"Well, that's settled, then." My dad said, clapping his hands and going to start dinner.
My stomach was churning as Greg and I walked to the park to meet with Jon. I could feel my breath shaking and my chest constricting every time I tried to take a breath deeper than half a second. I knew I had to tell Greg sooner or later that Jon was closer to 22 than 17. My head was starting to hurt.
"So, umm, I might have...exaggerated his age. A little." I finally blurted out into the solid silence that was standing between Greg and myself.
"Oh? And how old is he if he isn't 17?" I could tell Greg was trying to play it cool, nonchalant, but he was dying on the inside. The thought of his little sister with someone his age, even, was hard for him to accept.
"Umm...I'm not entirely sure. I think somewhere around, uhh," I dropped my voice to a mumble, "twenty, maybe twenty-two." It wasn't that I wanted to date Jon or thought of him in that light at all (after all, I'd only just met him), but I knew Greg would jump to conclusions.
"What? Edie! You don't even know how dangerous that is!" He had stopped abruptly. Heaving a sigh, I set about explaining the situation to him.
"I'm not going to do anything with him - he just said he could help us get Dot back. You want her back, don't you?"
"Of course I do, but why do you trust this guy? Do you even know his name?"
"I'm not stupid, Gregory. I asked him for his name. It's Jon Malloy. Just talk to him, please. If he's a creeper, you fight him off, we leave, call the cops, something to get him out of our lives. If you think he's legit, we keep meeting with him. Just give him a chance to prove himself!" It wasn't often that I pleaded with Greg, but at this point I was ready to do anything to give Jon a chance. Anything to get my sister back. I took Greg's silence as an ok.
.
Rating: Eventual PG-13
Pairings: AH. NONE. (so far, i haven't decided on one yet)
Genre: Sci-Fi
Word Count: 1558
Summery: Three months ago, Edie Simon was just like every other girl in her class: getting ready for homecoming, squealing about the school's star cross-country/track star, and spending as little time as possible on her homework. Then her little sister Dot was taken. In a world where people are taken all the time and sold to the upper-classes, no one took it to mind except Edie and her brother, Greg. Even if her parents were sad, they knew nothing could be done about it; Dot was gone and that was that. But then Edie met Jonathon Malloy, her town's local hobo. He swore he could get Dot back, and Edie believed him for reasons she didn't fully understand herself. It wasn't long before Edie, Jonathon and Greg were off on the adventure of their lives trying to get Dot back and overthrow the head of The Auction.
"Are you challenging me, Edith Marie?" Greg sneered, obviously thinking he was clever and oh-so amazing for using my full first-middle name combo. I rolled my eyes and looked at him, unimpressed. I wasn't in the mood to deal with his angsty-teenage-boy antics, but as our parents were out and unable to mediate our fights. I missed my brother, though. He hadn't been the same since Dot had disappeared, and I knew I hadn't really, either. No one had. It was just different without her, which was to be expected, but there was a feeling like it wouldn't have quite have been as much of a tragedy of Greg or I had been taken in her place. At least our parents had a good seventeen and fifteen years with us, respectively. Four was too young for her to do much, anyway.
"No, Gregory James, I'm not. I'm just trying to get my chores done and you are in my way." I replied. He made a face and left me alone. I felt like he had gone down in maturity about twelve years, and, really, I couldn't stand it. If he was going to act like he was five, I'd treat him like it. I finished vacuuming the front hallway and was going to go to my room, only to discover a note from my mom reading,
"Edie,
I know you're going to come in here to spend all day reading or something, but for my sake, please at least go out for a walk. It's unhealthy for you to spend so much time cooped up indoors.
Love, mom." I sighed and grabbed a jacket.
"I'm going out." I shouted as I shut the door behind me. Honestly, I hated this. My parents tried to continue on like life was normal, but it wasn't, and Greg and I knew it. They acted like they cared, and they did, I knew they did, but they also knew that any hope of finding Dot was nonexistent. Everyone knew that once a person was taken, the next day they could be anywhere from the next town over to Bangladesh. And anyone who tried to look for the missing person was either taken themselves, or they died trying. It wasn't a good system, really, but people were happy with it. Or, at least, they knew that they couldn't fight it. I wanted my sister back, if it took me going in her place, I'd be glad for it. She deserved to live a free life, but there wasn't anything I could do. I was a fifteen-year-old girl with obsessive compulsive tendencies and a need to be in control. If slavery was wrong for anyone, it was me. But knowing that somewhere, Dot was getting punished for doing something she wasn't even aware she was doing wrong made my stomach clench and my head hurt. I kept myself sane by saying that it wasn't that she was chosen specially - it could have been anyone. That didn't help. I didn't want to think of my friends' sisters and brothers being taken, I couldn't even imagine life without Dot and her little friend Jess waking me up on Saturday morning at eight am so I could play Barbie with them. There was so much that was just...wrong.
"I can help you. I know how to get your sister back, and I know where she is." A voice - rough, strangled, raspy - took me from my thoughts. I turned and screamed a little, startled to see a very dirty young man. His face contorted a little in fright, and I apologized.
"Sorry, but you did scare me." I told him, shrugging a little and flicking my bangs from my eyes. "You said that you knew where my sister is. That's impossible, you can't know. No one knows."
"I always know." He stated. I stared at him in disbelief and with a little bit of humor even.
"You're not a creeper, are you?" I asked slowly, and he understood.
"What? No, sorry," He cleared his throat, trying to make his voice less raspy, "I'm Jon Malloy. I'm, uh, your friendly neighborhood hobo." I nodded, still unconvinced, but only out of habit. Hobos were common. They weren't just homeless people, though. They were people, mainly men, but women weren't unheard of, who just left homes, families, loved ones behind to travel around. They were the people who were taken the most often. I wasn't surprised that Jon was a hobo. Everything from his scraggly beard to his gummed-up eyes made it impossible to think he wasn't. But there were stories and warning that people told kids. Hobos weren't too satisfied in any sense of the word, for the most part, and we, especially girls, weren't supposed to talk to them. If I had seen Jon from a distance, or before Dot was taken, I would have turned and bolted the other way. But he was offering help, and comfort, even. I couldn't just run away. If he really did know where my sister was, I wanted to talk to him more. I quickly checked my cell phone - an ancient voice activated screen that was well overdue for a replacement - and looked in the direction of my house nervously. I couldn't see it, since I had been in the park for some time, but my parents were due home any minute and they have a habit of just knowing where I've been and who I've been with. They didn't need to know that I was hanging out with hobos in the park.
"We'll meet here tomorrow, ok? At, like, three." I said, almost running to my house. I heard him shout back, "It's a date." and grinned. I liked his humor.
I heard Greg asked where I had been, but I just said, "Rain-check, Gregory." And bolted into the shower. There was a certain calmness of a shower. Of letting water just run down your body, of being clean. This showed, however, wasn't very calm at all. It was hurried and really only there to hopefully take my parents off the trail of hanging-out-with-hobos. I had just gotten dressed when my parents came in.
"Did you go for a walk, Edie?" My mom asked, looking at me with her 'I'm serious, but joking'.
"Yeah, mom, I just wanted to take a shower because I felt kind of dirty afterward." Greg raised his eyebrow with typical boy perversion. I rolled my eyes at him for the umpteenth time.
"I was just walking and I got sweaty. So shut up. But, mom, tomorrow I'll be late getting home from school. I met this guy at the park today and we're hanging out." I grinned at her hopefully.
"How old is he?" Greg asked before my mom had a chance to say anything.
"Um. Seventeen." I knew I was lying - Jon was obviously older than that by at least three years, if not more.
"I'm going with you. I don't trust guys my own age - I know what we're like." Greg declared, looking at me as if daring me to challenge him. I just sighed and agreed to it.
"Well, that's settled, then." My dad said, clapping his hands and going to start dinner.
My stomach was churning as Greg and I walked to the park to meet with Jon. I could feel my breath shaking and my chest constricting every time I tried to take a breath deeper than half a second. I knew I had to tell Greg sooner or later that Jon was closer to 22 than 17. My head was starting to hurt.
"So, umm, I might have...exaggerated his age. A little." I finally blurted out into the solid silence that was standing between Greg and myself.
"Oh? And how old is he if he isn't 17?" I could tell Greg was trying to play it cool, nonchalant, but he was dying on the inside. The thought of his little sister with someone his age, even, was hard for him to accept.
"Umm...I'm not entirely sure. I think somewhere around, uhh," I dropped my voice to a mumble, "twenty, maybe twenty-two." It wasn't that I wanted to date Jon or thought of him in that light at all (after all, I'd only just met him), but I knew Greg would jump to conclusions.
"What? Edie! You don't even know how dangerous that is!" He had stopped abruptly. Heaving a sigh, I set about explaining the situation to him.
"I'm not going to do anything with him - he just said he could help us get Dot back. You want her back, don't you?"
"Of course I do, but why do you trust this guy? Do you even know his name?"
"I'm not stupid, Gregory. I asked him for his name. It's Jon Malloy. Just talk to him, please. If he's a creeper, you fight him off, we leave, call the cops, something to get him out of our lives. If you think he's legit, we keep meeting with him. Just give him a chance to prove himself!" It wasn't often that I pleaded with Greg, but at this point I was ready to do anything to give Jon a chance. Anything to get my sister back. I took Greg's silence as an ok.
.