Virga City

Season One; page 1

_{SEASON ONE:: EMPTY NEST SYNDROME}


The description of where he was perched, looking out onto the water as he fiddled with sand, was most definitely once written in a romance. It was most likely before the protagonist met the soul mate, or the slow motion narration before a kiss. They would sit with their toes dipped into the water that sent chills up to their heart, a stirring that made them even more unready, unstable, and ultimately steady for the next moment. Of course, this would be no regular moment, in fact this moment would last forever, a short amount of time in the future lovers’ joined heart. Their soulmate’s lips would gain speed, although it would still lose a race against the tortoise, and the protagonist would do the same.

And there the pairs of lips would meet forever in a harmless bliss even after the couple had gotten up and raced home hand in hand.

At least, that’s what Nikolai had playing in his head as the pebbles rolled between his thumb and index finger. Iris, he knew, would be able to narrate it better. She would tell the story in a way that brought both the past that brought the people to the bay and the future of their romance into that present. His sister could make better pictures out of words like she was a spider weaving the web, and all the little details would get stuck….
No, that wasn’t right. Even describing describing was difficult for him. One day he’d be half as good as her and when that happened he’d be famous.

For now, all he could do was dangle his feet in the water and stare at the nature that surrounded him.

Season One; page 3

Out in the distance on the bay water, a boat zoomed by. It was a long way from shore, merely a small white shape moving on the blue waves, but it was most obviously a boat. There was a bit of a rustle behind it, a line of intense slashing at the water. Nikolai leaned forward and squinted. He couldn’t see it.

But he rationalized to himself what it could be. Maybe they were water skiing and the person was underwater now? No, no, the rope would break under all that pressure…right? Wasn’t there that sport where you floated above it by a rope? Yes, Nikolai remembered joining Iris for an episode of The Simpsons. The fat yellow fellow with little hair and uncontrollable rage was flying above the boat, urging them over and over again to go higher without any care for what they said. And then the rope caught fire and he was cut loose. The loud mouthed moron flew over houses until he crashed into a house and landed on a celebrity and the C story began.

So…where was the person who was once connected by the rope? If it was a skier then they would probably be trying to swim way behind the boat. And if it was a flier, they were, like Homer, about to crash somewhere on land.

He couldn’t find a skier so where was the flie-

A mixture of smooth sounds of the sand moving, human grunts, and objects breaking suddenly filled Niko’s ears. He was responsible for probably half of the moans and groans and a few Oofs here and there. There was another body, however, making the other noises, and they sounded superbly feminine.

There was a few slashes against his skins and large amounts of pressure focused on one part of his body at a time. Sand seeped into his clothing, although that was barely noticeable with everything else going on. He felt air pierce cuts on his arm and legs, a stinging nuisance.

But even all that wasn’t really notable. It was the confusion that swept over him. What was going on?

The attack of the unknown was over relatively quickly, and everything landed about 8 yards away from where Nikolai was previously relaxing. He was sprawled on the sand floor, a fabric with hard, compact structures concealed inside it over his chest. His eyelids dared to open, revealing a nearly cloudless light blue sky with a strong light coming from the left.

Nikolai breathed and heard other breaths from near him. His fingers found the ends of the structure and started to pull it away from him.

Season One; page 5

The other person was doing much better at this Houdini escape. He felt pretty useless, there was a lot on him and his feet, he realized after trying to move them, were tied together by fabric. He wondered if there was any possible way the other person could have landed better…because this was horrible.

While the girl uncovered his body, he unwrapped his lower body. She sounded just as hurt as him, maybe even more. He wasn’t helping in any way, she was doing all the work.

But, really, he did have an excuse. Nikolai had trouble going to public restrooms, so what was he supposed to do in this situation? The cleanliness of the material and people. What if the other person had AIDs and their blood had somehow gotten on him? His cuts were open, probably dirtying and being succumbed by bacteria as the seconds passed by. In hours he’d end up in the hospital, a machine breathing for him.

He was going to die. The uncertainty of what the hell was going on certainly didn’t help. He’d tried rationalizing with himself. By the process of elimination…he was screwed! His heart beat quickened but he did his best to breathe normally or else he’d use up all of his oxygen. Death by lack of oxygen? What was that like? That had to suck. Damnit, why wasn’t this girl working faster? Earth to girl: loss of oxygen!

:|Shut up, shut up|:
:|It’s going to be okay|:
:|No it’s not, no it’s not|:
:|What’s happening?|:
:|I can’t breathe|:
:|I can’t breathe…|:

He’d managed to calm down by the time his partner in crash unveiled him. She looked at him in a weird twist of amazement and confusion, probably the same face he was giving her. Overall, she appeared a plain jane chick; brunette, green/blue eyes, white, average height, etcetera. But even with her confusion she felt…confident. Something like that, he wasn’t that great at the thought process right then.

The same words he was about to emit she beat him to, “Who the hell are you?”

He groaned, sitting up and pulling away from the debris, “Right back at you. I’m Niko, the guy you smashed into, if you couldn’t tell. But thanks for helping me out…same question.”

Season One; page 7

“My name’s Clementine. But don’t you dare call me that. Only my mother does. It’s Clem to you.”

He raised his eyebrow, wasn’t she just a ray of sunshine? Who called their kid Clementine, anyway? That was like naming a kid Pineapple. Niko urged to say, ‘Don’t worry, I wouldn’t be tempted to use such a stupid name,’ but the girl was unraveling herself and that would probably make her storm towards him but then fall on her face in the process. That would just be pathetic.

Well…actually, maybe he should…

But it was too late, she emerged from the fabric and looked out onto the bay. Her eyes scanned the whole place silently, Nikolai marveled inwardly that it was like watching a wolf stare into the forest for prey. Suddenly, like the first stomp before a chase, she stomped her foot into the sand. He stifled his laughter. What was she…five? Having a tantrum? Oh, this was priceless.

With a weary voice she asked him, “How far away do you think those docks are?”

Well, he did live about that way. It had taken him three hours to walk to the bay yesterday, although that was walking and he did live at least a mile farther than the other side of Seagull Bay. Today he had brought the car since there had been an accident earlier and he had worried he’d step on glass.

“Two hour walk,” he estimated as he came to his feet. “Why?”

Season One; page 9

He reckoned this was all a pretty good excuse for killing her brothers. No sarcasm whatsoever. But, even though he understood, he knew he would never even have the thought of murdering his sister, even if he was kidding. Niko just wasn’t a violent person. That was probably the result of being raised by Spencer, the level headed man who took Nikolai and Iris in.

With a hand on his hip, he watched her gather all of the debris. He was amazed when it actually rested fully in her arm, but it was probably going to fall out piece by piece as she walked. She would be Gretel and drop little pieces of her equipment so she could drag her brothers bodies back where she had to start so they’d have to do the same. What a murderous Gretel, that witch would never stand a chance.

Clem bid him adieu, “Well. Nice meeting you,” he doubted she meant it, “But I have to go now. Or else my brothers are going to leave without me. Bye.”

:|Her brothers sound like quite the jerkwads|:
:|Wait…|:
:|Is she actually going to try and carry that for two hours?|:
:|How self-righteous can you get?|:

“Wait!” he stepped forward, “I can give you a ride. You can put it in the back and in fifteen minutes we’ll be at your brothers. How are you supposed to kill them when by the time you reach them you’ll just pass out?” Nikolai stared holes in her, “Seriously.”

Season One; page 11

What was she on? Was there any insult in that? It would take her two hours to walk there with that jumble of that thing she had flown in with. To say she would make it was a compliment. Especially if her brothers were as much of the asses as she let on, leaving without her and everything. If there was a chance for her to make it without all of the dragging it, it was way too small to see.

He watched, concrete feet. She had to come back, she wasn’t that stupid. Well, he wasn’t too sure about her intelligence. And, just as Niko expected, all of the structure fell out of her arms and took her down with them.

Of course he couldn’t fully stuff his laughter. It probably infuriated her to hear his chuckles, but she just dusted herself off and stood straight before coming to her senses and asking for a ride. Actually, all she did was wonder aloud about his car’s location.

Niko did his best to keep a straight face, “Oh…it’s that way,” he tilted his head slightly to the nearby parking lot, “why do you ask?”

But he quickly started off for the car because he was sure this Clem chick would pummel him. She may have come to her senses, but she was going to beat him senseless. “You can carry the stuff,” he stated, a few feet from the car, “just to prove you can to yourself.”

He was probably bluffing with his life on the table, but that was okay for now. She spat some more at him, stuffing everything in the backseat before adjusting herself into the passenger seat. Niko had disinfected his cuts, they had been on his mind, while she did, and wiped all the small pieces of debris off of him before buckling himself.

“Sit tight,” his hands were at ten and two o’clock on the wheel, “you’ll be back to your kin soon enough,” and drove.

Season One; page 13

As far as Niko could tell, when she saw the whites of her brothers’ eyes she was out the door. She had something about a thank you and then shoveled everything out of his backseat in one swipe. He stopped his head from jerking at all the movement and looked through the passenger window at her brothers.

:|2…4…6…|:
:|SEVEN?!?|:

He watched the scene. This was way too interesting to just drive off. She had seven brothers? Had they all been on the boat? Maybe one of them was her cousin or something. Distant relative. There had to be a few twins in there.

How did you mother that many children? Their dad must’ve been ecstatic to have a whole baseball team, though.

Clem dumped all the pieces and parts on one of her brothers’ heads, “What the hell were you thinking?” she cried.

One of the younger males told her to, ”Chill Clem,” as he lied down, “It was just a joke.” He pointed to Niko, “What happened anyways? Did you land on the poor guy or did he just feel sorry for you and offer you a ride home.”

He heard her distant reply, ”Shut up.”

:|Is she going to take that?|:
:|No, no she can’t|:
:|She couldn’t possibly have the capacity|:

Niko was tempted to walk out and go talk to the eight. Give them all a good ol’ chat. But he didn’t have any reason to…wait. Was that some remaining debris? Did she forget it in her hurry to escape? Come on!

That was his excuse to leave the car and he took it. The door clicked open and shut, the soft tool sound that’s easy to recall, and then the passenger door in an alike rhythm. He laid the pieces across his arms, laying them down where the others had fallen off her brother’s head.

He turned to face her, “Are you seriously gonna take that? You were so close to bustin’ out my lights and you’re just going to let your brother screw with you like that? Who are you?” 

In a swift motion, he then spoke to her brothers, “You guessed right, by the way; she landed on me,” he stated, glancing at her and her balled up fists. What was she going to do, fight him? Yeah right. “And like an idiot she was goin’ to walk all the way over here with all of that broken crap,” he nudged in the direction of the pile next to Jason, “in her arms,” Niko’s eyes rolled. “Seriously.”

Season One; page 15

He really had no respect for her brothers anymore, but that didn’t mean he didn’t like them. They were all going to team on one person? Were they that weak? He doubted they were…so what was up with that?

“Good one Clem. Just like you land on someone when there was miles of ocean for you to choose to fall into. She’s such a klutz, I swear. Your probably lucky you didn’t break something. You didn’t let her walk all over you did you? She’s been known to do that, Clem has.”

Niko started worrying again and he had just gotten over it with his disinfectants. Maybe he had broken something and he just hadn’t realized, although he was pretty sure the pain would make him cry. And there was now a bone broken in his body, cutting his muscle open, blood spreading around. Later all the pain would finally reach his nerves and it would cause him to faint and he would have to go to the doctor and the doctor would tell him he had lost the ability of that limb and, and, and…

“Wait,” he paused, a slow-motion rotation of his head until it stopped dead at Clem’s face. “You didn’t even look when you were fallin’, did you?” Niko’s body shook off all the emotions that started to spread

That. Stupid. Little. Girl.

“You just thought, ‘Hey, let’s triple the chance of killin’ someone else and not look! Yeah! Casualties!’” His eyes bore bullet holes in her, “Let me congratulate you on ajoooob well done!”

His fingers traced the middle of his skull, where the individual arks started. The pink and blue streaks pulled back in unison as the frustration tried to boil in him. But he would let it go, it was just a bad day. In ten minutes it would just be a funny memory. 

Well, probably not that funny.

He patted his shorts before waving, “Well, it was nice meeting everybody…but I think I’ll take my leave.”