Borealis Twenty Two - Crumpled Heat

     Red light. Blood walls. The color. Howl was scared. The screeching, the flashing. Pulsating, highly audible and visible pain. It wouldn't stop. Everything had been white. Then. The hatch closed behind him. Above him. He had come from the ceiling. The desert. Pain. No sky. Pain. No wind. Stale air. Ears hurting. Howl clutched his ears. He never wanted to let them go. His head began to pound. He closed his eyes tighter and tighter and began to grimace. What was happening?
     Though full of flashing red light, the room lacked definition, save the ladder leading back up to the closed hatch. To the desert. To serenity. Nature. And concrete. Howl wanted out. He started running, tears leaking from his eyes at pain. He couldn't even hear his own feet frantically slapping against the ground. Why was there no sky? Keep running. Trip. Why was there no dust? The boy lay flat on the ground. Thought. I have to get up. Action. Crawling. Walking. Running. Defeating.
     Howl was angry. Rage was building. The more he felt, the less pain hurt. Sound was drowning out from the beat of his own heart. The flashing blurring into violent pink. Escape was becoming clearer as he lost control of his emotions. His brain overriding his senses. He no longer thought. He acted.
     He didn't see the wall. He didn't know there was a door. He wasn't expecting change. First his shoulder, then his torso and head. The door flung open into a dark hallway. Howl kept running. He didn't hear the siren becoming faint as he fled the pain room. Blue lasers shot from the wall and scanned his body as he ran down the hall. They beeped, one by one, as he passed. Ahead, green lights in a grid above an archway lit up. One by one. Howl's rage was about to break. Sweat poured from his glands and mixed into the sand all over his body. The touch of nature. He could feel it. Cooling down his body. He could comprehend parts of reality again. The pain had almost completely gone away. Only ringing remained. A headache would soon follow.
     The rage broke as soon as the boy cleared the archway. All eight lights green inside the grid. A door slid shut with a wisp and a click. Pitch black. But. Howl could see himself perfectly. Tears welled up inside his eyelids, waiting to spill. So much confusion. So much for a boy his age. Even for a boy who was said to have killed. Killer. He wasn't one in that moment. He wasn't even a Riser Dog. Just a child. A child who wanted the love of his mother. The protection of his father. The boy had neither. He had to be Howl. Killer had to be him. He needed bravery. He summoned it. But still a boy. It only did so much.
     The new room filled with images. People sleeping in beds. Mechanical arms monitoring glowing boxes lined with buttons and switches. Children being stuffed into bags. Adults dancing, looking half dead. Humans operating machinery. No one, a smile. All glazed. All working for nothing. More dancing. Men and women in handsome clothing, clean cut and smug. Handshakes. Green paper. Grounder Birds. Riser Dogs. Sun Cats. Roof Rats. Children plugged into walls. Lights turning red. Bulbs flashing green. Pens checking paper.
     Howl. "Where am I?"

Borealis Thirteen - I Got the Fuzzies

     Ember's chin was the first thing Aurora saw when she woke up. And, from what Aurora could tell, everything was slightly green and also very dark at the same time. It didn't make very much sense to her. Why was she waking up, again? It was starting to feel like the only thing she could do anymore was fall asleep and wake up.
     This time, consciousness brought with it an odd sensation that Aurora had never felt before, and it grew even more peculiar as the seconds passed. Aurora thought it was pain at first, but it didn't quite feel like pain. It almost tickled a little and made her body feel like mush. She wondered what would happen if she moved. She eventually tried, and when she did, her body shocked and tightened like a whip that had just been cracked. The tickling stopped, and a very high, shrill whisper then crawled from Aurora's lungs. Her body flinched involuntarily as well. She wanted to get her companion's attention, but no words wanted to come from her lips, and Ember remained oblivious to what was happening next to her.
     The fat man with the green eyes took a step forward and said, "Aurora!"
     "Aurora?" Ember said, confused. The girls had neglected to ever introduce themselves to one another. "Oh! Aurora!" She realized that the strange word was probably the girl's name. "Stay away from her. I know what you people do to each other out here!" Ember, aiming to guard her companion, slid over to what she thought was an empty spot in front of Aurora. However, it was actually the spot where Aurora's side was located.
     The hurried bump was not good for Aurora. In fact, it was incredibly excruciating. Her previous whisper of hurt left her, and an ear raking screech took its place, echoing up and down the city's walls.
     Ember jumped to her feet, startled now more than ever, screaming, "What?! I don't-- Aurora?!" She couldn't figure out how a little bump had garnered such a response from Aurora when entire buildings had elicited nothing from the girl.
     Suddenly, the fat man rushed over to the girls. The sight was threatening, to be sure, especially with the eerie green light the man carried with him, and had Ember been in her right mind after the screech, she might have stopped him, but it was better that she hadn't.
     "We need to get away from here. It's not safe," he said, his eyes focusing on Aurora, who was now frozen mid squirm, eyelids and teeth clenched tight. "The morning sun won't be waking up the denizens of Borealis today. They're already awake now, despite the gas." The man pulled up his sleeves and then reached into one of the pockets of his trench coat, retrieving from it a small sphere. "What I'm about to do will look very odd, but rest assured, Ember. I'm here to help Aurora."
     Ember, dumbfounded and full of panic, said, "Uh," again, wishing very much that her vocabulary and quick wit would stop abandoning her.
     The man turned his head toward Ember. "You're very unlike yourself today. You need more sleep or else this place is going to kill you." Then, he turned back to Aurora, knelt down, and squeezed the sphere over Aurora's head. "This will only take a second. As soon as it's done, and you'll know when it is, pick her up and follow me."
     "Okay," Ember said, brows furrowed.
     "Ready?" he said and dropped the sphere onto Aurora's forehead.
     The impact of the sphere produced no sound or any indication of an impact, really, and in a second, just as the man had said, the sphere had done its job. Ember didn't even see what happened since it had happened so quickly. One second, Aurora looked no different than she had before. The next, she was was covered in an ultra thin, transparent substance that encased her entire body. She no longer displayed signs of agony, either. Peace had overtaken her, and she was asleep again.
     Almost forgetting herself, Ember snapped to and grabbed up Aurora as the man had said. She was prepared to start running or jumping, but she noticed that the fat man with the green eyes wasn't moving like he was supposed to.
     The man grunted. "On second thought, just hold onto my shoulder. We don't want to risk harming her any further." And without waiting for Ember to do so on her own, the man plonked the girl's hand onto his shoulder.
     Had anyone been creeping nearby, they would have heard a snap. The green lit balcony switched back to darkness. A dark blue could be seen far above. The sun would soon rise above the horizon and illuminate the sky. The man and the girls had disappeared.

Borealis Ten - Funtastic Gymnastics

     Ember's eyes watered, and she strained to see what was ahead of her. She could just barely make out Aurora's frame as it catapulted from unseen ledge to unseen ledge, and she had to hope that when she landed after a jump that it was on the same exact spot Aurora had just left behind. The polluted, yellow air further down into the city's depths was next to ridiculous, Ember thought. And, if it wasn't bothering her eyes, then it was certainly giving her lungs a fit. Ember didn't know what she was going to do if she fell down or lost track of Aurora. The girl she had only just met really had no reason whatsoever to find her if she ever lost her. Aurora was only doing Ember a favor out of sheer curiosity. Then again, sheer curiosity was also the only reason why Ember had sought out the Roof Rat in the first place. Life was funny that way, she figured.
     "Hey!" Ember called out. "Think we could slow down a bit? I can barely see you!"
     Suddenly, life wasn't very funny anymore as Ember watched Aurora smack her shoulder against a large pipe and flop awkwardly away from the destination she had been soaring to. The next thing Ember knew, she was chasing after Aurora's limp, descending body.
     "No! I'm the one who's supposed to fall," Ember screamed at Aurora. It had been tough enough following someone who knew where they were going. It was something else entirely to follow someone who didn't seem to know that they were going anywhere at all. "Dammit! Why aren't you doing anything? Jump! Do something! Grab onto a ledge!" Ember was desperate, struggling as she barely managed to follow her own advice. "You live out here for crying out loud! Don't you know how to fall properly?"
     Aurora's body was fading from sight and would soon be lost to Ember forever. Fortunately, a pipe twice the size of the one from before jumped out of the thick yellow air and caught the majority of Aurora's body. Unfortunately, the girl stopped moving for no more than a second before she slid off the pipe, falling once more.
     At least I'm closer to her now, Ember thought. But, how the hell do I know the pipe didn't kill her?
     The answer to that question didn't seem to matter much to reality. Aurora's body continued to collide with the various odds and ends that jutted out of the buildings she fell between, and each successive hit sent her twirling in one direction or another. Ember wondered if this was God's cruel way of being helpful. After what seemed like much longer than thirty seconds, Ember finally managed to close the gap between her and Aurora and grabbed a hold of Aurora's arm with one hand, thankfully, right as she latched onto a gnarled ladder with the other. The abrupt stop jolted Ember and made her feel as though she had been ripped in two. She groaned and winced and looked around for a place to set down the girl she had just rescued. Next to her, she could just make out a large balcony that looked inviting enough. So she swung Aurora's body as best she could amidst the pain and flung the girl toward the balcony. Aurora crashed onto the surface of the balcony's floor and rolled to a stop, her face down to the ground. Ember soon followed, landing with much more grace than her companion had.
     Sore and exhausted, Ember walked over to Aurora and turned her over onto her back, hoping to find an unconscious girl who was still breathing, at least somewhat. But that wasn't exactly what she found. The Roof Rat was still breathing, sure, but she was doing something much more interesting than that. She was snoring, and doing so with the most peaceful looking face Ember had ever seen.

Borealis Nine - Talking Hands

     "So, where is it that you come from?" Aurora asked Ember as they leapt from rooftop to rooftop. Nighttime had finally arrived, and the sky was filled with pollution curated neon, the same as any night.
     "Are you serious?" said Ember.
     Embarrassed, Aurora looked over at the new "friend" next to her who was sailing across the same huge gap as she was with the same fearlessness she had. Granted, Ember was trailing Aurora ever so slightly, but it was apparent that the girl was rather tired.
     Ember hadn't noticed Aurora's look. Still, she responded, Aurora thought, as though she had. "Come on. I'm from the inside. I mean, have you ever even seen anyone else like me out here before?"
     They landed on the next building, hard. So it took Aurora a moment to gather her breath. "Not exactly," she said, breathing heavily. "But you certainly move like someone who lives out here. It's just that... I've never seen someone from the inside before. So, I wasn't sure. Granted, my first instinct was--"
    "The instinct you should have gone with?" Ember said with a smirk. "Listen, I can tell you're a pretty savvy girl. Otherwise, you wouldn't have made it out here for as long as you have. Trust me. I watch you guys a lot."
     "Really?"
     "Yeah, and I'm surprised those guys hadn't killed you by the time I got to them."
     "I can certainly agree with you there."
     Aurora remembered how she had failed to escape the Riser Dogs that morning. She then remembered how a bunch of glass and a puddle of champagne had prevented her escape. Suddenly, the palm of her left hand began to throb. Aurora had somehow managed to not notice or even remember the wound up until now. Of course, she hadn't really needed her hands for anything since she and Ember had been doing little more than running and jumping ever since they had met, but she would need the use of her hands again soon, as they were closing in on the place where they needed head down into the city, to the streets below. Aurora winced. That was not going to be a pleasant process. At least she had been through worse before. So, it wasn't going to be terrible.
     "Are we there yet?" Ember said, snapping Aurora back to reality.
     "What? Are we there yet?" Aurora laughed, trying to distract herself from the pain. It wasn't working. "We only just started. However, we won't be up here much longer."
     "Going down I take it?"
     "Yes. See that tall building we're approaching?" A building ahead of them stood slightly taller than any of the other buildings the two girls had traversed so far. "Once we're over that, we're going to start going straight down, keeping between the tall building and the one in front of it."
     Ember nodded. "Sounds good to me."
     "One thing, though. You need to fall back behind me a little more once we clear that building. There won't be enough room for two people on some of the things we'll have to jump on."
     "Fun."
     No, Aurora thought, it wasn't going to be fun. Her hand was hurting more and more by the second. And as they made their way up the tall building, Aurora had to bite her lip so as not to give away that she was hurting as badly as she was. An obvious Roof Rat was a dead Roof Rat, as far as she was concerned, even at night.
     Ember, however, had a knack for noticing things that she wasn't supposed to notice. "Are you gonna be alright?" She asked. "That hand of yours is looking pretty nasty."
     "I'm fine!" Aurora said, surprisingly abrupt in her tone. "Now stay behind me."
     They had reached the top of the building they needed to climb over. Quiet for once, Ember did as she was told, and the girls soon began their descent down into the bottom of the city. As she followed Aurora, Ember wondered what she had said to upset the outsider. It took a mysterious girl to smile at unnecessary sarcasm and scowl at legitimate concern. Then again, Ember wasn't exactly accustomed to the ways of the outsiders.

Borealis Four - Pillars and Folly

  
     It was the champagne bottle shattering next to her head and the spray of wasted alcohol that finally pulled Aurora away from her dreams. Above her stood four dark figures, their bodies silhouettes in front of the freshly risen sun. The figures swayed back and forth ever so slightly on the balls of their feet, their toes slanted up, pointing into the air. Aurora had a feeling that these were the Riser Dogs come to punish her for staying out in the sunlight for too long. She had never been this close to a group of them before, as she was usually very good at keeping her distance from them, but she knew all the same that she had to act very quickly, faster than she had ever acted before, if she wished to escape them. Only a few Roof Rats, to Aurora's knowledge, had managed to evade the Riser Dogs over the years, and they all said the same thing, "Do not let their toes touch the ground. If that happens, you are as good as dead."
     Fear filled every vessel, vein, and artery of Aurora's body. Her blood boiled and steamed adrenaline, and every sense shut down in order to send more power to sight. Aurora was ready to make her move. The Riser Dogs were still on the balls of their feet. The sun was high, and the champagne glistened. And the champagne... Aurora had forgotten about the champagne. She had forgotten about the bottle's destruction, about the sound it had made, about the sound that had woken her up. And so, Aurora reached out blindly, her eyes fixated on the Dog closest to her, and set her left hand down upon the surface of the roof, shifting her weight to the support of her hand as she went. It would have been a good first move, too, had the shards of glass and the puddle of champagne not rested between her hand and the roof's surface. Every shard, big and small, pushed into Aurora's palm as though fingers into the softest bread dough. Blood soon found its way out of the punctures and into the champagne and glass. Had it been up to Aurora, she would have soldiered on despite her sudden and unexpected pain, but the slickness of the champagne and blood and the cold sting of the glass and alcohol was too much. She had slipped.
     The sway of the Riser Dogs ceased, and their toes came down. They lunged. They grabbed. And they pulled. They did not, however, hit or harm. It was all very confusing. The world was a blur of dirty, tan muscles, dark green clothes, and blue sky to Aurora. Somewhere in the midst of it all, a hand emerged holding a sickly yellow, damp cloth. The cloth pressed against Aurora's mouth and nostrils, and the last thing she heard before she fell asleep once more was, "Where the hell did she find that bottle?"