The more time passed, the more Lunarey learned about the world around her and the more she became indifferent to the many question marks that floated around her head.
After hearing about the Nucleus from Kelia, Lunarey dug through her books in search of information about it. She eventually managed to stumble upon several pages on the subject. It was said there that the Nucleus has been in existence for decades, but it wasn't always put to use for criminal purposes. At first, it was constructed for military use, with its main purpose being to transmit classified information without it reaching a third party. Also, several governments used it to communicate with their spies and undercover agents in foreign countries. However, over the years, most governments had moved on to much more sophisticated ways to do those things, while the Nucleus continued to exist. Eventually, people found out about it and used it for their own needs.
In a few short years, the Nucleus had become a place well known for its nefarious uses, mainly for having sites which allowed anyone to order illegal things like drugs and weapons.
In Alataria, several ringleaders had put the Nucleus to use. Men of Midas sell their drugs mostly through multiple sites that they own. Lady Dread runs her loan-sharking business using a site that offers loans to business owners. Harley Nation owns a site used for illegal gambling.
APD took down many sites of that sort over the years, but it seemed that every time a site was taken down, two more rose in its stead. Eventually, they've minimized their efforts on that front, seeing no point in it.
The police seem to be helpless against the mob gangs. It's no wonder that this country is so infested with crime. But it's not right. I see how Kelia and her mother live in poverty. Every day, Cynthia sends Kelia to school with a ridiculous amount of food, not to mention that the meals they eat at home are also small and rationed. Recently, Lunarey had gone to bed hungry, yet she didn’t cry or complain about it. It's not fair. Kelia took me in and helped me. Why does a person like her have to suffer while those ringleaders get to have such lavish lives? Why is no one fighting for justice?
It was then when she remembered the Justicars, another group she had recently became aware of. Kelia called them the White Knights of Alataria. Hoping to learn that they might be the answer to the justice she wished for, Lunarey ran through the pages until she found one that revolved around them. However, she was disappointed to learn of how little there was written about them.
In the book, it was said that no official information exists about the organization in almost every aspect, including its leadership, member count, headquarters location and recruitment process. They first appeared 5 years ago, in the year 2040. At first, they started spreading the word about themselves through posts on various propaganda sites on the internet, mostly ones that were on the Nucleus, before finally breaking into the mainstream media by hacking into the news channel's broadcast signal and airing a viral message to the people of Alataria. The viral message showed a man wearing white Elastics, speaking words of promise for a better future for the Alatarian citizens in a distorted voice. He promised that they would clear the streets of crime and restore to Alataria its sense of safety. Kelia told me that those promises were worthless. She said that during the 5 years that they have been active, crime hasn’t really decreased in Alataria and that many people don’t take them too seriously.
The one detail that most charmed Lunarey was a quote from a short poem that the Justicars used to attach to their posts on the Nucleus before they aired their video on national television.
Here everyone steals
And nothing is given
Here we scar the righteous
And crown the villain
Here we eat ashes
And see water in tears
Here we stand firm
And hope to rid us of these fears
Something about that poem charmed her. She liked the grand, profound meaning that stood behind the short lines and few words. She wished that the poem was depicting an exaggeration of Alataria's true current state, yet from everything she had learned so far, she tended to believe that the poem pictured the actual, grim reality of the country. Its last two lines were a cry for change. A call for a stand against everything wrong in the country. A hope to rid people of their fears.
Though many consider the Justicars a criminal organization just as much as other ones for their use of lethal force in the name of justice, others simply see them as vigilantes who are using the only way left to deal with the ever-rising crime rates.
One day, after finding herself reading her books for a little over an hour, a noise caught her attention. She could already recognize the voices coming from below. It wasn't the first time she’d heard them. She rushed to the window and witnessed what she feared. The same 4 girls were picking on the overweight girl again.
They were pushing her and throwing curse words at her, most of them having to do with her physical appearance. Lunarey felt her blood boiling all over again, but then she remembered what Kelia had said before. "Everyone else sees this all the time and just learns to shrug it off. It’s not like there's anything to do about it…" Those were her words. Lunarey recited them in her mind, trying to calm herself, yet they only infuriated her further.
The abused girl’s cries reached all the way to her window. “Stop it!” she cried. “Please…” she begged and begged, but the other girls were made of stone in Lunarey’s mind. They enjoyed it so much. They laughed and laughed, and with each laugh that she heard, Lunarey clenched her hands further and further into angry fists.
Why does she have to suffer like this? What wrong did she possibly do? The questions burned in her mind. Cynthia… Kelia… they ignore such things… they look the other way like many others do. I won’t be like them. I REFUSE to be like them.
As she walked out through the door of Kelia’s room, she was already starting to regret her decision, and once she walked out of the apartment her regret only grew, but she was still set on her course of action. She dashed down the stairwell and through the building entrance, showing up right in front of the girls.
Her hands clenched into fists again as soon as she spotted them. “Hey!” she yelled at them as she paced in their direction. By the time their 4 faces all turned to Lunarey, the closest one of them had already suffered a devastating punch to her face by Lunarey's hand. As the girl fell to the ground, she held her face in agony and whimpered. Lunarey didn't waste further time on that girl and instead approached the one beside her, who wore a pink shirt and had a red backpack on. “Who the fuck are you?!” she asked in fear, only to be met with an answer in the form of a knee driving into her stomach. She folded and dropped on all fours. Lunarey felt good about herself. She knew these girls had it coming, but her sense of satisfaction was abruptly cut short when she felt a mighty punch hitting her face. She lost her balance and fell on her butt. Before she could regain her sense and strike back, the same one of the two remaining girls sent a fierce kick at her jaw. Lunarey felt the taste of blood taking over her mouth while dizziness and disorientation affected her. She expected to be hit again, but that hit never came. She looked and noticed that the two girls that were left standing were picking up the two that fell and were leaving the scene.
She looked at the obese girl that they had been abusing. She stood with her back against the brick wall, her eyes wide open with shock and disbelief. “A-Are you okay?” she asked Lunarey. The girl rushed to her aid and helped her get up.
Lunarey still felt a bit dizzy. “Yeah, I'm alright,” Lunarey said as she wiped some blood off her lip. That last girl sure knew how to punch and kick.
“T-Thanks for doing that, but… who are you? Why did you do this?” the girl asked.
Lunarey pointed her finger upwards at her bedroom window. “I've seen this happen before from my window, and I couldn’t let this go on.” Lunarey noticed the glossiness in the girl’s eyes. She was tearing up.
“My name's Rosabell,” she presented a hand.
“Lunarey.” The two shook hands.
“You look familiar. Is it possible that I've seen you somewhere before? Do you go to our school or something?” Rosabell asked.
“No. I don’t go to school.”
“How come?”
“I-It’s a long story," she dodged the question. "Say… why do these girls always do this? How long has this been going on for?”
“There's no particular reason. They just enjoy it. They always make fun of me, tease me, call me ‘fat’ and whatnot.”
“Can’t you do something? Tell someone?”
“I tried telling some teachers a while back, but… it backfired on me. The teachers simply scolded them, and those bitches retaliated at me in return.”
“Well, what about your parents?”
“They don’t really like paying attention to me, so…”
"I-I'm sorry to hear that. So… you're saying that there's nothing you can do?"
"It's nice of you to worry about me like that. I've got to say, I'm… pretty shocked that you actually care. Usually… no one really cares about me." Rosabell's words saddened Lunarey. This girl… she looks so lonely.
"Well, I care about you," she reassured her.
"You don’t even know me," Rosabell shrugged.
"Yeah, but—" Lunarey stopped talking when something caught her attention. In the right corner of her eye, she spotted something. When she turned right, she saw a shadowed figure standing half a mile away from her. She could only see the outline of the figure from where she stood, yet she could have sworn at that moment that whoever that person was, he was staring straight at her. The figure stood there, refusing to move an inch or stop gazing at Lunarey. Who the hell is that? Why is he staring at me like that? Does he know me?
"Is everything alright?" Rosabell cut into her train of thought.
"W-What?" Lunarey turned back to Rosabell. "Oh, yeah, everything's alright," she said. When she turned her head right again, the shadowed figure was gone, as if it had vaporized into thin air. Where did he go? She begged to know.
"Anyway, I've got to get home," said Rosabell, strafing away while speaking. "Thanks again for your help, Lunarey," she waved goodbye at her. "Hope I get to see you again—"
"Wait!" Lunarey stopped her. She looked at Rosabell's waving hand and saw the SmartWrist on it. "Can I ask you for a small favor?"
"Yeah, sure. What is it?"
"Does your SmartWrist have internet access by any chance?"
"Uh, yeah, it does. Why?"
"Can I… look for something with it for a second?"
"Yeah, no problem." Rosabell snapped the thin bracelet from her wrist into its straight shape and handed it over to Lunarey.
The digital display on the SmartWrist greeted Lunarey with a show of the current time and date. She noticed a search bar at the top of the screen and tapped her finger on it. She reached into her pocket and took out the folded list of names that never left her since she had woken up in that alley. She opened the list and typed the first few names into the search bar. Theylon Summers, Jelion Rake and Lunarey Sykes.
Once the search results appeared, Lunarey's eyes darkened. All the results showed headlines of news reports and articles that pointed to the same conclusion. They all reported the names that Lunarey entered as people whose bodies were found in horrible states. According to the articles, Theylon Summers was a 30-year-old lawyer from Nexlin, Waterchester. Jelion Rake was a 28-year-old salesman from Oakleron, Flintwood, who got married only a few months before his body was discovered. His article was even accompanied by a picture of him, smiling and happy with his spouse. Lunarey Sykes was a 32-year-old bank clerk from Lyncastle, Brontspil, who was a single mother of a 3-year-old boy, who is now an orphan. It was too much for Lunarey. It was too overwhelming for her. She felt as if she was about to crack. She didn’t know what to make of it. This list… this damn list… what does it mean?! Why do I have it on me?!
She pressed on to enter the rest of the names on her list, only to come to up with the same result and a horrible conclusion. All of the people on her list were brutally murdered by an unknown person. All of them were in their 20s or 30s, and all came from the surrounding districts of Waterchester, Brontspil and Flintwood. The police never found their killers, claiming that most likely the use of Elastics was involved.
All this time I've been carrying a list of dead people. She struggled to keep herself from falling to her knees. Who am I? Do I even want to know?
