"Hi! Im Charlotte! What's your name?" The little girl stares at me peculiarly. "Uhh.. Hey i'm.. Jarvin Jameston Junior, but you can call me JJ. "Hi JJ." The girl says staring at the tv.
She was wearing a pink jacket with spikes on the shoulders. The zipper was down revealing a black shirt with a skull on it. Her pink skirt dangled around her leggings. I start to blush as I watch her dance to the music. She was exactly my type... no Jarvin you can't be thinking that way. I smack my cheeks together to snap myself into the right mindset.
She peeks at me and smiles, "You wanna play?" She pauses the game and hands me the guitar. "Uh.. um, sure." I say awkwardly.
Growing up I was always playing Arcade games. My parents couldn't afford a gaming console so whenever they went to the mines to work, I would sneak to the local arcade. I always played with a girl named Jackie and she would always be there when I snuck out. I even made jokes about how it seemed she lived there and the games were her children.
Every time we played she would challenge me to a dual and whoever lost had to buy the other a smoothie from the vending machines. I always lost, but because of that I became a master at Guitar Rock. Looking back I wonder how Jackie is doing now, in the slums of Inner World.
I grab the guitar and walk into the room swinging the strap over my shoulder. I start to play occasionally glancing at Charlotte to see her reaction to my skill. She sits on the bed beside me, hands on her lap with an attentive stare at the tv.
After a few minutes of playing she gestures me to stop. "Your bad." She says bluntly. "Very bad." "Uh", I gasp in shock. "I didn't miss a single button!" I yell. "Yeah yeah, call that skill but I can tell you clearly played this one before." "So what if I did, I still didn't miss any." I pull off the strap and lift the guitar over my head. "Give me that." She yanks the guitar from my hand and restarts the game.
She then turns around to face the wall opposite from the tv and begins to play, never missing a single string. Than she chuckles. "You see, when you've done something a gazillion times, you start to rely on memory." She reaches into her jackets pocket and pulls out a lollipop while playing with one hand. "But what happens when the pattern changes?"
All of a sudden the beat gets faster and the sequence starts to change. The lights flicker as the rhythm gets faster and faster. Charlotte still hitting every string.
"How are you doing that?" I ask surprised by her display. "Here's why you can never beat me. You think, talk and act like a human, but in the end your kind has the highest death rate on both Outter and Inner World. And that's simply because you idiots rely on past judgment in order to make decisions in the present."
"Isn't that what everyone does"? I say confusingly. "That's what dummies do". She throws the lollipop in the trash can behind me and pulls out a stick of gum, than pops it in.
"Have you ever seen an animal in the wild, imagine that animal being you in Outter World. Now you can either be the slithery snake. Or you can be the rabbit that gets eaten by the snake. Your choice." Charlotte shrugs.
"Most of those pour little creatures have to protect they're furry little selves all on their own.. Or else they will get eaten, roar!" Charlotte yells in my face causing me to jump back.
"What the hell!" I shriek. "You see what you just did." she teases. "Yea, I almost had a heart attack." "No dummy, you reacted without thinking. In the animal kingdom we call that instinct. The ability to react accordingly without using prior knowledge to cloud your judgement."
"None humans take this to another level, with a technique called higher instinct. This allows you to fight, dodge, and even do mundane tasks like playing Guitar Rock without having to use your mind at all. With your punny eyes you couldn't even doge a bullet, while I can do that and more in my sleep."
"But your just a kid." I say surprised by her level of knowledge. "No i'm not you big meanie, I might look little but inside im a mighty 200 year old women, who is also your new teacher!" She stomps and pouts. "200 years old huh, and you expect me to believe that?" I say unmoved by her display. "You say that like you haven't seen weirder stuff since you been here." She turns her head to the side and folds her hands in annoyance.
"It's true. The.. Young... And dazzling master... Is telling you the truth." A deep hollow voice echoes around us. "Who said that?" I say in a guarded stance. "Oh relax JJ it's just Murry ya see" She points to a shadow shaped like a figure on the wall.
The figure begins to move and crawl out of the wall, becoming a physical being in the process. I take a few steps back startled as the figure steps forward towering over me. It was completely pitch black with no physical features. My heart skips a beat.
"Hello friend... My.. name is... Mu... Ryy." He spoke so slow I could hardly make out what he was saying. "Oh.. Hi Murry." I say awkwardly. "Murry, this is JJ." Charlotte says. "J... J." Murry says pointing at me. "Yes exactly right, and you know what that means, whenever you get it right you get a treat!" Charlotte reaches into a chest that was next to her bed and pulls out a battery.
She then tosses the battery toward Murry and his face opens and catches the battery inside. "Yum, yummy". Murry digests the battery enjoying the shockwaves it emitted.
"Creepy" I mumble under my breath. This is all so weird to me, a girl with the body of a 10 year old is apparently old enough to be my great grandma, and she also has a talking shadow creature with no face as a pet. Just perfect, and Outter World is supposed to be bombarded with these monsters...
"Hey Charlotte, who is Catalyna?" I ask curiously. "Oh.. her." Charlotte rolls her eyes. "That old stone faced bitch is sadly my mother." "Hey its not good to talk about your mom that way." I cross my hands scolding her angrily.
"Why not, if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be overseeing this stupid organization." Than and there an epiphany strikes me. I think back to the gate and recall the gold letters. CSS.. Those must have been abbreviations for some sort of organization.
The gears began to turn in my head, suddenly I come to a conclusion. "Thats it! Charlotte's Sacred Sorority." I yell satisfied with my answer. Charlotte and Murry stare at me confused, than they burst out in laughter. "No you dummy. Its Catalyna's Secret Society." "Oh whatever, close enough." I yell feeling embarrassed and shattered. I could've sworn I was spot on. This is what I get for using my good for nothing brain.
Suddenly a loud scream comes from the main hall.
"What was that," Charlotte yells. We head for the halls in search for answers.