Eve's Hollow by Charles Bedlam (best free e reader .txt) 📕

“You're right,” she said after a few minutes, “it is because of her that I'm here. I have to do what I have to in order to get out. My only way is finding the Supernova Samurai. If I am a Seeker, then you'll understand when I tell you that he is my Guardian.”

His eyes were fixed on her. “You're persistent, aren't you?” Ransley asked.

Estelle's eyes were fixed on his. She conveyed emotion through them. They were large and dark, deep and full of meaning. Ransley stood to his feet and walked over to the window. It went up to the ceiling. Estelle tried to imagine what the city must have looked like once.

“See that tower out there,” he said.

Estelle went over to the window. She saw a large dark tower with a glowing circle in it. That was all she could make out.

“What is it?” she asked.

“That is a clock tower. It marks the center of Eve's Hollow's north eastern quarter. That is where I've seen thunderstorms. That's all I can tell you though. And it could be that woman.”

Estelle stood next to him.

“I have to tell you though,” he continued, “the thought of a young girl down there alone doesn't sit right with me. I really wish you wouldn't go.”

“I have to,” Estelle said. “I have to find him.”

There was a moment of silence. For a moment, unbeknownst to one another, they both were realizing that this would probably be the last time that they saw each other. From what Estelle saw so far, she knew that she'd either find the samurai or she would die trying. She knew she had to get out. She wanted this new life.

“Let me give you something,” Ransley said.

He quickly walked away and disappeared down a hallway. He was gone for several minutes and Estelle took this time to take in the scenery of the city. When her past life was alive, she dreamed of a man and he cared about her for who she was and not the lies that she fed to people. In her dreams, she would be able speak to him freely and he would bear her darkest fears with her. She quickly remembered not to raise her hopes. At that moment, she heard Ransley returning.

He put his hand forward and in his palm was what he called a tantō. It was a curved, one-sided knife that measured a little under a food in length. The sheath was covered with black lacquer and a purple fiber cord wrapped around it. The wrapping on the hilt of the knife was also purple. The guard was a dark brass color. She pulled the tantō from its sheath and examined its blade. It didn't appear to have been used, ever.

“It's probably sharper than any knife you've ever used. It's handmade. Very authentic,” he said. “I know it's not much, but it's better than nothing.”

“Thank you very much,” Estelle said wholeheartedly. It felt good to say those words and actually mean it. A lifetime of hatred made her forget what it was like to be grateful. “You're the first person to show me kindness here. Goodbye, Baron Ransley.”

“Farewell to you, Estelle,” he responded.

After that, she left. She heard Ransley lock the door behind her and she did not look back. She pressed onward and entered the elevator. While she descended to the rest area for the sky bridge, she wondered why the samurai would help her. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the crystal snowflake that the Goddess had given her. It spiraled on the chain and sparkled, casting sharp shapes of light all over the elevator. She was supposed to show this to him. It wasn't like her to put all of her faith into one person, but there weren't many options.

Estelle wanted honesty and truth to be the staple of her character. This would mean that she would need to come to terms with her past and truly deal with her own emotions toward her memories. She was aware of the feelings, but she chose to ignore them. In a way it was like walking around the chasm into Eve's Hollow and just choosing to never look directly at it. It wasn't good and she knew it, but she just wasn't ready to deal with the burden of her emotions. She already had so much to do, so much to think about. Part of her wanted to remain with Ransley so that perhaps she wouldn't have to deal with any of it and part of her knew that wasn't possible. Hiding from karma behind the love of fooled families was a talent that her past life had perfected and the very thought made Estelle's stomach churn.

She stepped out of the elevator and made her way back to the center of the rest area. She took one sky bridge to a rooftop. Here, there were four directions that the sky bridges climbed. Estelle found the one that most pertained to the direction of the clock tower. She put her foot on the first step, looking up. Everything was quiet. Estelle's hungry stomach broke that silence. She looked to her right. There sat a vending machine near the stairs. There were only a few bags of snacks left, but they looked intact. There was a hole in the glass on the front of the machine. Estelle felt that she should keep going. The moment the thought entered her head, she felt a hunger pain deep in her gut. The pain in her belly controlled her.

She reached through the hole in the glass and stretched upward to grab the bag. She felt the cold metal coil that held the products in place. She reached up and could feel the jagged edge of the glass digging into her arm. She reached just a little further and all at once, before she could react, the metal coil wrapped itself tightly around her wrist. With a painful jerk, the coil pulled her through the glass, shattering it, and into its body. A metal shade dropped down, engulfing her in its interior like a coffin. Poor Estelle couldn't help but scream as she felt the machine, with her inside of it, fall.

The dreaded box came to a screeching halt. Estelle was engulfed in complete darkness. Her body was sore from the sudden stop and her ears rang from the unpleasant sound of metal scraping against metal. Once the sound in her ears stopped, she could hear sad moaning and crying coming from several directions. The coil in the machine was still wrapped around her wrist. Carefully she unwrapped the metal. She winced in pain as the coil had cut into her skin. She could feel small a small amount of blood slowly dripping from the wound.

Once she worked herself free, she cradled her injured wrist and tried to assess the damage in the darkness. Although painful, she didn't think that it was severe. She tried to figure out what to do, but her mind felt just as claustrophobic as the box that she was trapped in.

“Are you still alive?” a young female voice called out.

Estelle was confused. Who was she talking to?

“Hello? Are you there?”

“Yes,” Estelle called.

“So you are alive,” the voice said.

“Where am I?”

“We're caught in a trap, I think.”

Too many thoughts flooded the girl's mind, but the notion that won out over all of the others is that the machine that she was trapped in was built in the form of a vending machine. Further more there was only one item to choose from and no matter how one looked at it, they would have to reach up through the glass to get it. In short, this machine was made to capture a human. If that was truly the case as Estelle suspected, then why would someone go to the trouble?

“Were you caught in a vending machine as well?” Estelle asked.

There was a significant pause, but the voice finally answered, “mine was a broken fridge with a single bottle of water on the top shelf. Seems so stupid, looking back on it.”

As Estelle adapted to her surroundings she began to hear more and more moaning and sobbing. It was then that she realized that she was among other captives. Other human beings. How many were there? Dozens? Hundreds? Her mind raced to the worst possible outcome of this situation. The worst that she had seen was the machine massacre that she had seen when she first entered the city. Would she now become a casualty in some freak experiment as well? There were so many questions and all she could do was think.

“What's your name?” the girl asked.

“Estelle,” she answered, hesitantly. “You?”

“I'm Aleena. Nice to meet you, Estelle.”

“You too. You don't seem upset.”

Estelle had noticed that despite being trapped in a sealed container, Aleena spoke very calmly. She wondered why this was. “It isn't that I'm not upset,” Aleena said. “The truth is that I'm terrified right now. However, panicking won't get me anywhere. If anything that'll get me killed faster. I want to stay alive so that I can be free. Freedom is everything. If you can't be free, you might as well be dead.”

“I suppose that's true,” Estelle said.

“So what's your story?” Aleena asked.

“I'd rather not say, if that's okay?”

Estelle wasn't comfortable putting her life, death, and rebirth on display, so she opted not to speak of it.

“Sure, sure. Lot's of people in Eve's Hollow feel that way. I'm sorry for asking.”

“Please don't be sorry. It's just... complicated.”

After a pause, Aleena said, “I understand. There must be some way out of here. If only I could see.”

Estelle heard a series of metal clanking noise. Aleena must have been trying to escape. She still gripped her wrist tightly. It had stopped bleeding, but she applied pressure to try and ease the pain.

“Did you say your name was Estelle?” Aleena asked.

“Yes...”

“Your name is familiar to me. Someone I once met was looking for an Estelle.”

“What? Who?”

“I forget his name. He saved me once though, a long time ago.”

Aleena spoke with a warm longing in her voice.

“He was brave,” she continued, “and very strong. I was alone and wandering the roof tops when the storm came. I couldn't get anywhere safe and I had nothing to draw the symbols with. I knew for sure that I was going to die. The sky turned black and they came right for me. A thousand ghostly demons. Then, as I waited for the pain to come, I was engulfed in a warm light. I opened my eyes and saw purple lightning dancing around me. Purple! The ghosts couldn't get to me through it.”

Estelle listened intently. This is the meeting that she had been waiting for. Aleena had met the Supernova Samurai.

“The lightning protected me until the storm ended and that's when we spoke. He said something about waiting for Estelle. He pointed me to the nearest Safe Shelter and