Kaiya: Chapter 1, Beginnings

As sunlight drifts in through the dirty window a teenage girl struggles to pull herself out of the midnight dream world and back into reality.

Beyond her window the town is still. Silent. The only things that are moving are the workers bustling out of the mines, and the elevator that brought them up from the bowls of the earth. Accompanying their hurried footsteps is the sound of metal upon metal as the elevator slides back down into the darkness awaiting new passengers.

The girl is standing now, putting clothes on her skinny frame and tying up her light brown hair with a silver ribbon. Around her on the floor are hundreds of gears, blueprints, and mechanical parts scattered about in random. Next to her cracked and dusty mirror a photo of a smiling man gazes up at her. Dad.

From her doorway a voice calls.

“Kaiya. You need to get going. Your shift is starting soon.”

The voice belongs to a little girl, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and dragging a battered teddy bear behind her. She has the same hair as the other girl but shorter and falling around her face in curls.

“I know that Liz.” Replies the older of the two “I am always on time.”

At this the two laugh. Then they hug each other and head down the short hallway into the kitchen beyond, where the smell of slightly burnt food lingers in the air.

“Mom? Are you COOKING?!” Asks the older girl, Kaiya.

“Trying to!” Replies the mother with a short laugh.

The girl’s mother is dressed in casual clothes, baggy jeans and an oversized t-shirt. The only startling thing about her is the fact that she is beautiful and it looks like an oil-spewing monster attacked her. Oil stains cover her clothes and blueprints and a wrench are visible in her pockets. All the signs of a mechanic, which she happened to be. Evidently, it is an unusual sight to the girls. Their mom out of the workshop and trying to cook.

“You never tried to cook before dad left.” Mentioned the little girl Liz.

A tense silence followed her words and Kaiya clenches her fists.

“Today is special!” Says their mom in a poor attempt to break the silence, “Today is Kaiya’s first day of working in the mines!”

Suddenly Liz bursts into tears. Kaiya rushes over and tries to calm her wild sobbing.

“Why do you have to go Kaiya?” she cries as the tears stream down her anguished face, “I want you to stay and build machines like you always used to! I want to sneak into momma’s work shop to see what she’s doing!”

“I’m still going to be here!” Kaiya assures her, “I will only be gone for a few hours during the day then I will come right back home.”

“You promise?” Liz asks sniffing away her tears and gazing up hopefully at her sister.

“I promise,” Kaiya says, wiping away the lingering moisture in her sister’s eyes.

A short while later Kaiya is waving goodbye to her little sister and smiling in a reassuring way to hide the dread she felt inside. The mines. Deep, dark, and sinister. The very air is filled with the sick black coal and miles of heavy earth hide the sun from the workers tired eyes. At any moment the ground above you can collapse as it did so many weeks ago. She closes her eyes trying to shut out the image of the rows of coffins laid out in the grass. One reads Jake Rhode. Suddenly a clang brings her out of her awful daydream.

The elevator going down to the mines has appeared; ready to take her down into the blackness.