With a Roll of the Dice

There has been no given reason for this meeting to have happened early like it is.

The scarf that she wore was unconventional and more times than notwould threaten to drag the ground whenever she walked. It was not that she was short, it was that the scarf that she had been designated was unnaturally longer than it would ever need to be. She had worn it out in the first snow of the winter, more out of convention than anything, and came into the house, plastered with masses of melting precipitation that had matted into the knit fibers of the scarf. Her hair had not fared much better than the scarf; it was damp and met in wet clusters all over her head. She, however, did not seem to mind, and as usual, no one really paid her any unneeded notation. She exhaled sharply as she unzipped her coat, self-consciously aware that her face was red because of the cold weather.

She was greeted by a friendly face and a warm cup of coffee. He, however, was not the first to speak. “Glad you could make it,” A voice called in from the back room. It was obvious that the salutation was one of mockery and jest rather than warm welcoming. The girl paid it no heed, and gratefully accepted the coffee offered to her by the other individual who made no comments. She felt the warm of the mug seep into her hands and inhaled the comforting scent before she ventured further into the house she had arrived at. This, after all, was an important meeting and she wished with all her mind that she would be able to get though it with an uninfluenced mind.

“Aria, come on already. We’ll all be dead by the time you decide to join us.” The one who called was the one who had made the mocking comment earlier. Aria’s only response was to stick her tongue out at him in the most undignified and childlike of manners. After all, what’s the sense in being an adult if you could never act like a child? At this point, it was merely reciprocation; he had been the first to pose as a child. However, with this gesture, she relented and shuffled over to the sitting area where all the other members had gathered.

“I know I’m late,” Aria began as she sat on the floor near the table. Everyone else was also seated upon the floor. No one dared sit in a chair. It was forbidden after certain accidents deemed the removal of such furniture. No one was allowed to talk about what happened, it was reserved to being something that everyone occasionally laughed in vague reference to such. It was, after all, quite the ridiculous story-- just not that anyone else would know.

The meeting was started by the general call to attention; one that everyone did only out of routine anymore, and it was accomplished without much deep thought or regard. Each of the members feigned shooting one another in a circular fashion. The motion itself had nothing to do with why we met, but had originated from the same story as to why there were no chairs. It was funny at first, but after a while it became unnecessarily tedious, yet no one stopped doing it; it felt like something that was necessary in order for meetings like this to start.

It was Aria’s day to roll the 9 sided dice for this meeting. It was often debated why exactly there was a rolling of the dice, but since no one was able to come up with an answer, it was decided that it was merely a formality and kept fights from breaking out. Aria rolled a seven. Seven days until the next meeting after the end of the current. Anything that was not addressed now would be unable to be said for the next week. Communication, you could say, did not exist outside of these walls.

There was no time wasted delving into what all had come to accomplish. Anton was the first to speak, and although Aria had never asked him, she assumed he was of Russian descent. This conclusion was reached due to his accent, and Aria loved his accent. There was extra care put into the uninterested face that she sported while listening; she was unequivocally attracted to his voice, but did not really have all that much to say about Anton as a person. She did not want to give off the wrong impression.

“It has then come to my attention that we are here today, ahead of the time given by the dice roll to meet about something pressing.” Everyone was silent. Aria took this as a time to sip her coffee; an action that seemed rather inappropriate given the silence of the others. She already knew what was coming in terms of news, while the others did not. She had sipped the coffee out of anxiety than anything else.

Author's Note

Don't we all love finding unfinished stories cluttering the subfiles of our computers? I don't remember where I was going with this, quite honestly. If no one comments commissioning a continuation, I see no need to continue it.