Metal Chains [Closed]

Arbor always had a fear of swings. She was always afraid of the metal chains twisting her hair into little wedged prisons, being caught on the swing and never being able to escape without a chunk of your locks missing. At fourteen-years old, the sentiment seemed ridiculous, with her short-cut hair and her hooded head. There was no way she'd get snagged. Still, as she sat on the swing alone in the middle of the park, the foggy day's smoky tendrils wafting around her like cartoon scent clouds, she kept her neck rigid. Her face was that of monotonous pondering, but it didn't hide the fact that she shook with stillness in her chin, as if balancing plates on her head, and she swung slowly and awkwardly.

Was she lonely? No. A short life had taught her that people downright sucked. There was so many overwhelming things wrong with them, their cons adding up in an exhausting cocktail that she never preferred to bother. It was easier on her own. She felt fine on her own. Still, her gut lurched with the idea that something was off. That it was a wrong way to act. She grit her teeth and cocked her jaw. Maybe she'd train, or pick on a lower gifted to get her mind off of it. She needed to get stronger, and she had been dropping the ball.

One-hundred and eleven. One hundred and twelve. One hundred and thirteen...

Serenity balanced precariously on her toes, taking small, foot-long steps one after another - seeing exactly how many it was from the warm inside of the daycare rooms to the park in all it's plastic, woodchipp-y glory. As soon as she reached step number one-hundred and twenty-six, her toes had met with the edge of the sidewalk, signaling at how how she was there.

Now, it was pretty difficult to see which direction you were going in a fog such as the big ones that she was seeing, but she had stayed determined, and was she ever glad for it. The park, that was usually filled with her classmates or older Beata students with nothing better to do was surprisingly empty, save for one lone girl who sat by herself on the swing.

It was nice for the park to be quiet, but that didn't mean it was fun being totally by yourself either. With a smile, Serenity climbed up onto the swing beside her, grabbing both of the chains and rocking back and forth as she stood. "Hey there," she called, wondering if the girl was even awake. It was hard to see much behind that good. "How come you're just sitting there, silly?"

A figure appeared from the mist, a small figure, and Arbor narrowed her eyes to look further. It was a child. She knew the daycare was nearby somewhere, but she didn't expect a kid to appear from the abyssal fog like that. She didn't think anyone would. Arbor didn't like kids, even when she was a kid, so she didn't brighten at the sight. Rather, as she got closer, she soured in expression, painted pallid and giving a mopey pout to no one in particular. "Go away," Arbor said cooly to the girl, not even looking at her, facing forward and still rigid as she swung back and forth, only moving her arms to tuck a stray hair back under the orange hood of her vest.

With each kick against the ground came a jingle from her pockets, until one reflexively strong kick sent a coin bouncing from her vest, further, rolling to Serenity where it lay flat on its side upon hitting her foot.

Serenity didn't seem all that amused. It was funny how most people around the school seemed to be the not-exactly-nice sort of people. Maybe that was a big kid thing, always being too cool or too busy to play around with the other kids. The girl tried not to pay much mind. Normally, the big kids came around and played sooner or later, and if not there was probably stuff she could do by herself. The tiny blonde leaned forward on the swing set, letting her eyes wander before she felt something tap against her foot.

It was some small coin. Curiously, she bent over and picked it up, looking it over before stepping around the swing set and in front of the hooded stranger, just off enough to where she wouldn't get caught in the midst of the swinging. "I think you dropped this miss," she said, waving it around for her to see.

"I've got it." She didn't like this girl's demeanor, the exaggeration in everything she did. Kids tended to do that though, she concluded, following the coin she waved around in her hand with an unpleased bite of her lip. She swiped her bangs once more and calmly rose her hand from the metal of the swing, putting out her palm as if she were giving a high-five.. The penny popped out of Serenity's hand and gravitated to Arbor's palm, where it slapped her hand with a dull sound, as dull as her reaction as she looked at it with a shrug and shoved it back into her vest pocket.

Whilst Arbor's reaction might have been dull, the small girl's reaction had grown wide in amazement. "That was cool!" How did she do that? Serenity knew she lived in a special town where everyone had superpowers, but sometimes it was a little much for her to take in. Before they moved there, her mommy had never talked about them and her daddy had said they just weren't real. She only knew of what she had seen. Her and her mommy and big sister could sing people to sleep, Hosa could turn into a dragon, and Leo could have wings like an angel-man.

And now this girl could be a magnet with pennies? Serenity was instantly shuffling through her pocket, digging around for change she'd found before on the ground. Thankfully, she was in luck. She had a whole two pennies! The girl pulled it out holding it out to Arbor. "Do it again!"

Arbor practically turned her nose up. "No," she said simply, though in moving her head got the sudden fear that her hair was trapped, that if she moved an inch she would rip it out. Of course, she had a hood on, and of course, she moved more than an inch in an automatic reflex, breaking her cool facade in a brief panic and almost falling off the swing. She'd twisted the swing's trajectory in the process, and found herself zigzagging and goofily trying to stop it, her knees meeting bowlegged in an attempt to halt its weird directions. When it was over, Arbor was breathing hard, looking like child that had just experienced some kind of irrational fear. She looked like a little girl that ran from her father in a mask, or refused a roller coaster after hearing people scream above. She seemed to have the expression of a child asserting to her parents she would not do something. She would not put up with something. She didn't want anything touching her, anyone touching her.

She stared at Serenity with a strange wide-eyed expression for a little while, catching her breath. Though her eyes were in the direction of Serenity, she seemed to look behind her, like the projection of a film played behind her.

The young girl's cheeks puffed up at the stubborn, stuck up no. Why not? It didn't look like what she did was hard for her at all. What was it hurting? And she could have totally kept the penny if she wanted. So, it was kinda like Serenity was even paying her to do the trick again! She was about to put on her best pouty face when suddenly the other girl seemed to be in a panic. She near fell right out of her swing, planting her feet oddly on the ground and giving off a creepy stare. "Hey... are you okay?" The little blonde asked, reaching a hand out.

"Yeah," Arbor answered a little distantly, before refocusing her eyes and blinking a little. A second passed, and she sighed, standing up from the swing. "Here," she said, raising her hand. The penny went up with it, floating in the air for a short moment and shaking with some kind of pressure. It shot a dozen meters across the park as Arbor thrust her hand forward in its direction. "Go get it." She began to walk away, her steps accented by the soft clinks and clanks of her pockets.

The girl took a step back as the penny pulled away from her hand and into the air. Facinated, Serenity's eyes stayed glued to it until the moment it shot across the park like a bullet, landing who knew where. It was so cool! But... so much for getting to keep or penny, or pay the older girl off. Oh, well. She wasn't about to go looking for it, chasing after the student instead. "Hey wait!" Serenity quickly jogged up beside her, joining her in her lazy walk. "Where are you going? What's your name...?"

So she was more persistent than that. She should have guessed. "Arbor," came a voice that seemed awfully akin to her own. It was. Why did she give her her name? The girl's heart was beating fast, a product of artificial panic from the swings that was still pulsing through her. She quickened her pace, though Arbor's answer to her first question was, "I don't know." Why was she giving this child the time of day? There was something in her that thought she would go away if she complied, but something in her that also knew she wouldn't. And that's why Arbor did it.

Although her legs were smaller than the other girl's, she found ways to manage to keep up, skipping up to her through the fog. She puffed the blonde locks out of her face, hopping ahead of Arbor and staring up at her, trying to get a good peek past her little hoodie. "Oh, maybe I can come with you wherever?" she asked with a small shrug. It wasn't like she had anything better to do. "My name's Serenity, by the way."

When Serenity hopped in front of her, Arbor came to a halt. Her eyes shot upwards and around, avoiding her look. "I don't want a kid following me around," she argued, though her monotonous tone was not one for arguing. She didn't care about her name. She didn't care about meeting this child. She wanted her to skip back to whence she came. "Where's your mom? Does she know you're wandering through the city when it's this foggy and hard to see?" She could get hit by a car or abducted. Granted, Arbor would go out no matter what the circumstances at her age. She was different, though. Or was she?

What was...Serenity...'s mom like? Was she like Arbor's?

Was Serenity like Arbor? She certainly didn't act that way.

Her shared words bounced carelessly off of Serenity as she leaned funnily to the side, trying to keep a look on Arbor's face as she turned her head away out if sight. After nearly tilting over to the ground, she straightened up and shrugged, folding her hands together innocently-enough behind her back. "In the daycare somewhere," The girl mused, "I'm supposed to stay at the park, but ... it's okay..." Rosebury was a small town so it wasn't like it was easy to get lost right? And she had Arbor now!

"I'll take you back, then," Arbor said, in a softer tone that seemed foreign to her. It was still layered with her trademark sort of nonchalance, the low uncaring voice she usually had. But it was softer, feathery, like a gossamer blanket was placed over her dreary tone. "I don't want to be charged with kidnapping. I'd rather not go to jail again." She took Serenity's hand and began walking in the direction she suspected the Daycare was in.