"So, you have the goods?"
"We're not doing anything illegal, Decey. Don't make it weird."
We were in the middle of the streets, which oozed with depression and a side of anxiety, with a humble dash in suicidal triggers, just for extra measures.
The 'Outskirts of Jead' was a place briming with people who want to get away from the Defined and the prejudice. Or they just find this weird cul-de-sac very fulfilling to them.
Heet shoved the paper bag, filled with a colorful assortment of jelly beans, at me.
I could see she tried her damned hardest to not take any for herself. I laughed inside and took a peek and grinned aggressively at the sight of a future self-induced sugar rush that would certainly piss off Uncle and Aunt Oris.
I fished for a random jelly bean, examining it in the dull sunshine, the color was slightly faded but resembled a poor blue. Once I could feel my mouth salivating, I popped one in my mouth and instantly felt goosebumps. The taste totally made up for the lack of presentation.
I tossed one of the beans to Heet, who caught it the moment it left my hand. Heet ate the beans and it was obvious she enjoyed it, squinting from either it being too sweet or the sunshine getting in her eyes.
"You throw like a sissy." She taunted.
"You catch like one too, Heet. You didn't get caught right?" I asked, keeping in mind of how reckless she is.
"What do you mean? That's the whole point of being invisible.
Out of sight, out of...
err...
I don't know how that saying goes, but you know!"
Heet raised her arms in confusion and turned around, her luscious hair following after her.
I caught myself watching Heet too long before I noticed the twig tangled in her hair.
"Uh, Heet. There's something in your hair.", trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.
"What? Where?"
She tried to find the small twig for a very uncomfortable amount of time, cracking me up.
I let out a stifled laugh, which might have potentially pissed her off.
"I'm glad I could be your jester for today. How bout helping me out?" She rolled her eyes, as she walked backwards towards me, fully knowing what she was doing.
*thump* *thump* *thump*
My chest tightened, every heartbeat thumping like I'd swallowed a drum.
"Eh, I don't know about this, Heet. Your fashion sense has been horrible lately but, this weirdly makes you look prettier." I said, hiding the fact that my mouth felt completely dry.
Heet didn't turn around, but I could see she was flustered, her arms freezing up.
'Mission Accomplished, let's take this home, Decey'
"Prettier? So, without the twig you think I'm pretty?" She said coyly, trying to edge a response from me.
"According to how Comparatives work—'prettier' with twig, 'pretty' without."
She laughed, spun, and plucked out the twig from her hair. She held it out like a sword, pointing it at my heart.
"See you tomorrow then?"
"Not if I see you first!"
"Good luck with that."
She winked at me, took one step back, and suddenly her body shimmered—like a heat wave rippling on asphalt. Her hair dissolved into thin air, shoes leaving silent footprints for a heartbeat longer.
*thump thump thump*
My raging heart sure took its time to stop thumping.
As far as confessions go, I think I succeeded. I've always liked Heet, ever since I met her. Her tanned silky skin, along with her hazelnut eyes. Who wouldn't fall for her?
Not to mention she's a fighter, borderline egotistical, to the point where if she sees anyone who even dares to say something bad about her and the people she cares for, she unleashes hell upon those poor souls, but that just makes her hotter in my opinion.
>>
I walked back home, contemplating the view.
The Outskirts smothered color out of the world—cracked pavement, faded shopfronts, trash snaking through alleyways on the wind. A man up ahead kicked dented soda cans, the clatter echoing while his tune fought to be heard over the rumble of distant couples arguing- The classic infidelity saga that I almost never fail to miss.
This place is filled with Normals who'd been driven away from the insides of Jead, because of them being 'Normal'. It's a very stupid concept but for some reason I see it.
The Complex Realm, it's this otherworldly world I assume, and it spat out whatever it wanted into the Real Realm, Jead had been abused over and over again, from cities being destroyed to the annihilation of continents.
Ever since then, everything is of short supply. Agricultural products saw a huge decline in general because of the negative Domain affecting it. So they had to weed out the 'weak'. From a spectator's standpoint, one would say "Hey, it was a tough call, but it was the best for the sake of humanity."
Yeah, the sake of humanity and I get along pretty well. Delusions of grandeur is what seemed to me that fueled these guys to make the 'tough call'. Realistically speaking, sure. Send the weak away and the strong can have a fighting chance due to more resources allocated to them, but you can't call it saving humanity if you're abandoning your own.
There's just no scenario I see when it comes to these situations where everyone sings kumbaya, and it angers me.
What good does my anger have on this though? I'm just a Normal orphan with incredible people around me.
I knocked on my door, but the knocks just pushed it aside, revealing a sweet house that made anyone warm inside once they stepped in.
Maybe after tomorrow, things could change. Maybe my emotions can have an effect on the world.
Then again, I'm speaking out of my ass.
Seemed like Uncle Oris is outside and Aunt Oris is probably buying stuff for dinner.
I trotted up the stairs and navigate through my book-littered room, for this diary I've been taking care of.
I searched wildly for this diary I've been maintaining. It was a gift Heet gave me.
After minutes of exhaustive searching, I found the diary. It was this Red and Black colored leather covered book. I opened it, flipping through the pages to add on a certain fact.
>>
## Defined
Someone, who at the age of 15, gets 'defined'. It is unclear what it means to get 'defined' but it is best described as an event where an individual gains their own Function.
## Domain
It is described as the fundamental force that exists in everything. Only once someone gets their Function, can they utilize their Domain.
## Function
It is the 'power' that gets bestowed upon during one's Definition. It allows them to use their Domain to achieve inconceivable actions.
The way it works--
The domain is the input, and the function is the output.
Currently, 80% of humanity are Defined.
The rest of the 20% are known as Normal.
ex: Atlas Oris-----
Function = Logarithm (Natural)
Heet Treaf-----
Function = Subtraction (Loosely Defined)
note to self: ' She likes me??'
December----
Function = (Hoping for something really really cool!!!)
note to self: ' soon I'll be 15.'
note to the optimistic me: "maybe you should stop hoping for it.....
Atleast figure out what happened that day...."
>>
"Kiss my ass, Downer Decey." I scowled at the fact that I knew myself better than I did.
I wrote down next Heet's name: 'She likey me !!!!' and dwelled on the fact that I did what I did.
'I am not a 10 year old girl....' I thought to myself.
I groaned in disgust and belly flopped on my bed.
My mom and dad never had functions, which was weird. There was no theory that getting Defined was hereditary, considering Aunt Oris had it but not my mom, but I sure as hell would love to be under that presumption. I don't know them well anyways, died when I was very young apparently.
I stopped asking Aunt Oris about it because she seemed like she didn't want to relive those years.
So all I had were books. Sure, I never could've been able to jump across a pond or punch through walls, but I liked staying in my own little world, just reading and reading and reading.
Especially mathematics. It's weird you know? How people say it's the hardest/worst subject in the world. It's annoying, bullshit, unnecessary, etc etc.
I wouldn't know since I rarely go to school. Aunt Oris home-tutored me since me not having a shred of Domain inside me would give a tough time with the kids and teachers.
My trade secret? Ideas. It's always about ideas. That's what math teaches us, to not think outside the box, but just to think.
Thinking lets us burn the box down and reveal to us, the breathtaking world that is mathematics.
And whenever I did visit this fantasy land of mine, it always used to take me into this trance. Where everything else gets singled out and its as if everything simply makes sense.
If its not my weird obsession books, it was my huge group of friends-
Mali
Heet
Atlas, my cousin.
Mali was a Normal, like me. I met him during the time I attended school. He was the only one who didn't find me insufferable.
Atlas was like that too, but now he's in Zahl Academy, the most prestigious Academy in all of Jead. I'm very happy however, because he got Defined with a Transcendent Function, functions that are extremely rare amongst people. Maybe 1/50,000,000?
But it really scared the fuck out of me, when he suddenly fell ill with pneumonia, right after he had gotten Defined. Since both Uncle and Aunt Oris were swamped with work, Heet and I had to take care of him. There was this hill ravaged with certain man-eating bears (very convenient), but also had this special elixir that had healing properties.
Heet had me piggy-back riding her, and she zoomed past the bears using her Domain to boost herself. It made her super super fast which saved us a lot of time.
However the effects of the elixir stopped working at a point. Atlas had begun to struggle to even breath and move, so he was in bed rest.
It was like every night for the past few months, where I used to go to his room, checking up on him.
>
"Natural Log." He whispered.
"What?"
"It's my function."
I was shocked. He hadn't even told his parents about this. Not knowing what to do, I grabbed the flask.
"You shouldn't speak right now, Atlas. Open up." I asked, holding up the flask of elixir desperately.
He pushes it aside gently.
"You know that shit stopped working on me weeks ago." He scoffed.
"What do you want me to do then?"
I felt defeated. This 'miracle elixir' gave us so much hope but it couldn't even hold the pneumonia off for six days.
"I just told you my function. Use your head Decey. Think of something I can do. I would, but I'm too fucking sick." He said before going on a coughing fit.
The Natural Logarithm.
From what I've heard about Domain, it's that we treat it like a variable to our Function.
Whatever input we give a function, it spits out an output.
For the Defined, it seemed to work that way as well, instead they harness that output according to the Laws.
Pneumonia...
Spreading of pathogen to the lungs...
We cannot kill it...
But...
If we could stop the spreading, we could wait for that one contact Aunt has been trying to reach...
Best we could do is slow it down...
...
...
The graph of Ln( X ) shows us that the function is increasing, but does it in a ridiculously slow manner.
What if we could use that property here?
"Atlas. Are you able to use your function on yourself? Make it so that you feed it as little Domain as you can.
And whatever happens to you, just let it happen. You trust me right?"
Yes..
If he could do that, he could potentially stop any wound from opening...
Wait, using this concept...
He could create a shield that would make him impenetrable...
"I don't know about this, Decey..
But I'll trust you." Atlas said softly, trying not to cry in pain.
A low hum resonated within the room. The complementary vase he had got began vibrating, as Atlas's breathing slowed down till it wasn't noticeable.
I couldn't believe it...
I was seeing something, like purple spikes covering a sea urchin, enveloping Atlas's body.
His shallow breaths slowly came to a halt.
After a while, I ignored it and checked his pulse.
It took me a while for me to calculate it but it came out as 0.001
He was officially in a stasis. His entire metabolism process had been frozen.
This surely meant that the pneumonia wouldn't spread throughout his lungs..
But...
What was that I saw....?
It couldn't have been Domain right?
>
I laid down on my bed for hours, thinking about I knew I should've been happy then, but curiosity was eating me up.
I did call it out though, saving time until Aunt's contact 'subtracted' the pneumonia.
But...
Why did I see his Domain?
How is that even possible?
No one could ever do that from what I know, which wasn't much but still.
The door swung open, revealing a very muscular silhouette.
"Atlas's copy of his monthly homework." The silhouette spoke in a deep voice.
"Thanks Uncle." I said, grabbing for the letters in pure darkness.
A crack sound into the illumination of the room revealed his uncle holding up a lantern, setting it on Decey's table.
Without wasting time, I opened the letters and now began another hour or two of work.
"How are you, Decey? I know Kela and I have been busy lately but if there's anything you want, just tell us."
I looked up at Uncle and smiled.
"It's fine. I have all of these." I said, gesturing to the hundreds of books splattered across my room.
I handed the bag of beans to my Uncle.
"I guess a picnic would be nice?" Uncle asked, picking up a couple of them and downing them at once.
"Seems like you decided without me?" I laughed.
"Well, to be fair, you did. Also these are way too sweet. "
"Maybe don't eat 10 at once? And I don't recall ever saying I wanted a picnic."
"Look. Tomorrow is your 15th birthday. I know you're not big on parties and to be honest, I suck at planning them too.
A picnic could give all of us a breather. Besides, you love nature." Uncle said, hoping his blind shot would hit.
"I morbidly hate the feeling of dirt between my toes. But sure." I said blandly, not particularly sold on this plan.
"I'll give it to you straight. That thing you told me, 2 months ago? When I told Kela about what you saw, her eyes glistened with joy.
You know when that happens don't you?
Whenever she gets contracted to kill a shit ton of people, or if it means something good for you and Atlas." Uncle stopped his sales pitch, waiting for my response.
He knew what he was doing, it was working alright.
I felt something tight in my chest, like a knot confused if it wanted to be untied or not.
"Are you trying to say...?"
"Yes. There's a chance you're going to get Defined."