IMPERIUMA Story by Kat MarieCall now and you can be everything you've ever wanted! All you need is our little box...IMPERIUM " SHORT STORY
Reagan
The
new rule of The Imperium was inspired by a vengeance. The end was lethal,
unruly.
Maybe
it would be more efficient if I started from the beginning. My name is Reagan. I
hated my life, and would’ve done anything to change it. I’d do anything to drop
an extra 10 pounds, or wake up one day with frizz-less hair. And most
importantly, I wanted to be popular. And so did ‘she’.
Elizabeth
Farrow was the lowest of low… in social status. High school doesn’t treat
people with a million freckles, braces, glasses and a single squirrel for
eyebrows in the best manner. Nobody sat with her at lunch, partnered up with
her for projects, or invited her to anything.
One
day, Elizabeth showed up to school as a completely different person. It was
after Christmas break when I overheard somebody talking about the ‘Newbie’.
What a surprise it was when she spoke her name. But the surprise wasn’t because
it was Liz, the surprise was that she spoke.
Liz
is what she made us call her. ‘Liz’ had redheaded locks that cascaded down her
spine in waves, and eyes so piercingly blue that a person could say they felt
the ocean splash their face. She learned how to control anyone she came into
contact with. Guys swooned for her, girls wanted to be her, and teachers wanted
to teach her.
What
was even more surprising is that for once, we’d actually spoken at lunch. I
would’ve hoped for a more normal conversation about projects and music, but
instead she invited me over that night. She continued to mention something
about this box she wanted to show me… But the subject was vague.
So
that night, I went to Liz’ house.
“Hey,
Reagan! I’m so glad you came,” she said as she opened the door to greet me. Her
smile was toxically welcoming. “Come in, I can’t wait to show you.”
She
led me into a room that consisted of a simple color frame. When I saw the
collection of glasses in a bowl, I knew it was hers.
Then
I noticed the black cube that sat on the edge of her bed. It looked the size of
the head of a full-grown man, and was as dark as a black hole.
“Beautiful,
isn’t it?” Liz asked, interrupting my thoughts. She marveled at the box.
“It’s
a black box.”
“That’s
what I thought, too,” she said, as she picked up the box, “until I opened it.”
She
pushed in one side of the box and the top begun to slowly open. Inside was a
bottle of white powder, four necklaces like Liz’, and a small envelope.
“Here,
I want you to have the second necklace. You’ve always been such a great friend,
even though I was never one back. You were there for me. So thanks,” she said,
smiling widely and handing me the clunky necklace.
“Thanks,
Liz,” I said, taken back by her sudden show of friendship. “Is there coke in
that jar?”
“I
don’t know what it is! I had this weird dream about it a couple nights ago. I
was sitting by my window over there and I poured the powder into my hand. I
woke up the next morning with a scar. Weird, right?”
I
grabbed her hand impulsively and examined it. What I saw was not a scar, but a
faint and thin black mark that resembled an italic I.
“So
what about the envelope?”
“Haven’t
even opened it yet. I was too distracted by the dream and all.”
I
took the box from her right hand and extracted the envelope. The envelope was
not sealed, but instead had the tip of the seal tucked inside.
I
put down the box and lifted the seal to reveal two pieces of paper, one black,
and one white and lined. I passed the black paper to Liz. She held it and
looked at me anxiously. I opened the lined sheet, one fold at a time.
Flush. Burry. Run.
The
handwriting seemed feminine and juvenile.
“What
does this mean?” I asked, thinking out loud.
“Let
me see it.” I passed the paper to Liz and swapped it for the black one.
This
piece of paper was folded vertically down the middle. In white, embroidered
letters, the word IMPERIUM was
scrolled across it.
“Hey,
genius, translate?” I said, facing the card towards her.
She
bent her head to read it. “Imperium, Latin, means ‘power to command’,
superiority.”
“Woah,”
I whispered to myself. “What have you done.”
***
That
night, I stayed at Liz’ house to further investigate the box.
“I
think that dream you had might have been some sort of initiation. Maybe it’s
the necklace. Do you think"“ the sound of Liz’ head hitting her pillow stopped me.
I
decided to take the rest of the investigation into my own hands. I set up my
phone in one corner of the room, and hit record. My clock read 11:58pm.
“Time
to catch some Z’s I guess.”
The
next morning, I woke up with a sore body.
“Liz
wake up!” I threw a pillow at the sleeping beauty.
“Whoa,
what time is it?” she mumbled.
“Around
9, now look.” I crawled towards the phone that sat on Liz’ counter and picked
it up.
“Remember
that dream you had the other night?”
“The
one with Gary from history class?” Liz looked flushed and giggled.
I
made a mental note to search for a Gary in the yearbook.
“No,
the one about the box.”
“Oh.
What about it?”
“It
wasn’t a dream! You were sleep walking, just like I did last night. I video
taped the entire thing.”
Liz bent down to put her head right next to mine. I
scrolled the video back to where I first woke up.
Liz watched with deep concentration. The tip of her
tongue touched her upper lip, like she used to when she would be deep in
thought.
I turned my attention back to the screen and watched as I
sat at her dresser and opened the mysterious box. I took out the powder,
screwed off the cap, and then sat it next to the box. The scariest of events
were yet to come, as I watched myself stare blankly at the mirror and cut the
top of my hand. Blood poured from the fresh cut, and I thoughtlessly sprinkled
a pinch of the mysterious powder into the open wound, and went back to sleep.
“Dude… that’s some effed up stuff,” I mumbled.
“Look at yourself, Reag! You’re gorgeous…” Liz exclaimed.
I turned to look at myself in her full-length mirror. My
exposed legs were shaped, and I had an actual butt. My b***s were bigger, my
lips were fuller, and my hair lost its frizz and became a waterfall of black
curls.
*** “So what you’re saying to me is that we’ve uncovered some
sort of ‘popular potion’ that has somehow made the two of us the most adored
socialites in school?” Liz questioned.
“I
guess so. Relating to the box directly, legend says it was first rediscovered by a group of girls who
were in their teens during the 1920’s. They were all smart and independent, but
wanted to break away from societies wishes for them to get married and be
housewives; they wanted to be like the flapper girls. One day, one of them came
across a picture in a book that led her to the box. All but one of the girls
was in for experimenting with it, but they pressured her into doing so. She
tried to back out, but it was too late. There was a fire, and NONE of the girls
were ever seen again. The box was discovered exactly 10 years after the fire.” “You do understand we have to use this to our advantage,
right?” Liz suggested.
“Absolutely not! I was already pulled in by accident.
Every bedtime story, ghost story, everything we dismissed as folklore has
become real. We CANNOT mess with this kind of power!” I warned, growing
increasingly impatient with Liz’ newfound naivety. Must have been a symptom of
being pretty. As we continued to walk to our usual lunch table
together, I noticed the stares from other people. There were whispers and wide
eyes that passed like bullets in our direction. The space around us grew quiet
as we passed, then filled with chatter as we left.
“He-hey Reagan, Liz,” stuttered out a voice from beside
us.
I switched my focus to the boy next to me.
The boy was Nathaniel Wilson, the hipster-dork I’ve been
in love with since the beginning of high school. “Hey,
Nate. Sit with us, we must discuss our plans,” Liz smiled comfortably.
A brief and quiet growl escaped under my breath.
“I told Nate about the box. We went to grade school
together, and endured some of the same stuff. I thought I’d let him in after we
caught up over the phone yesterday. I told him about how you and I found a way to fix everything. Right, Nate?”
Nate nodded quickly.
“Liz, I told you this was a bad idea!”
“But I’d already told Nate, it was too late to go back.”
“Have you told anyone else?” I pondered.
“No, promise,” she assured, “Nate wants it just was bad
as we do.”
“And what is ‘it’ exactly?”
“To destroy what’s left of The Poplars’ empire.”
***
It was Friday and the day that Liz’ plan would be put
into action. I can’t even explain what had convinced me to do such a terrible
thing to them, but then again I can’t explain why a magic bottle of cocaine
made me wake up pretty.
I stood in front of the full-length mirror in Liz’
bedroom and examined myself. I looked more like myself than I ever did. Or
maybe I just looked more like who I’ve wanted to be.
“No one can get hurt tonight. Or else you KNOW what I’m going
to do,” I nagged.
“Yeah, I promise. The worse there could be is some mild
collateral damage.”
“I hope you’re fully dressed because I’m coming in,”
Nathaniel announced as he barged in.
Nathaniel had changed the least out of all of us. The Imperium
had given him the 20/20 vision he needed, and his scrawny shape filled out to
straighten his hunched neck.
I had always thought Nathaniel was perfect. His
thick-rimmed glasses, 6”4 stature, scruffy hair… he was poetry. Nathaniel was
intelligent when it came to people. He had a great eye for how the social
ladder worked; he had made an entire journal with years worth of charts and
observations about The Populars. He mastered everything about The Populars,
except how to get in. I always felt he was good enough to be one of them,
though.
“Tonight’s the night it all changes, baby. No second
thoughts, right?” Liz tested.
“I’m in. You, Reag?”
I looked over to Nathaniel. His confidence was reassuring.
“I’m ready.”
“Lets set up. Nate, pass the box,” Liz ordered.
Nate
followed the order, and she pushed in the side like she did the first time I
saw her open the box. She fished around until she pulled out the thick black
card with Imperium written on it. She
pursed her lips and fiddled with it, before taking a seat at her dresser and searching
through another drawer. Finally her eyes landed on an envelope opener in the
corner of her desk.
She began to try and slice into the paper from the edges,
as if she was trying to reach for something that was inside the paper. Finally,
the opener slid between the thick card, and she moved it around to make the
card into two.
“What is that?” Nathaniel puzzled.
“Instructions.”
“How the heck did you know that the card was really two
cards? What are the instructions for?” I pressed.
“’She’ told me.”
“You keep going on about ‘she’ or ‘her’. Who the heck is
‘she’?”
The doorbell rang, interrupting me.
“Don’t worry about it, just greet our special guests.”
I rolled my eyes as I turned from Liz.
I need to find out who ‘she’ is before I go through with
any plan of ‘hers’. “Hey,
come on in. Party’s downstairs,” I greeted.
The Populars eagerly walked into the house, but not
before waving an excited hello to me.
It felt nice to be acknowledged, but I missed my more
humble and private life.
Nate tapped on my shoulder. “Want to go down together?”
he asked, expectantly.
I nodded, giving him a small smile.
We descended the creaky stairs to Liz’ roomy basement with
synchronized steps.
“Liz spiked the drinks, want me to grab you a coke from
the back?” Nathaniel whispered.
I was about to say yes when I realized his prior
statement. “She did what?”
“Spiked
with Imperium, it’s a part of the plan or something. She said it would just
cloud their judgment, kind of like alcohol.”
“Yeah, sure. Thanks, Nathaniel,” I said.
He beamed at me at the mention of his name, then left to
get fresh drinks.
Katy P. blared from the speakers, and The Populars
chatted and danced, spread throughout the room. There were about 30 people, a
mixture of preps, jocks, cheerleaders and valedictorians from the junior and
senior class.
They
seemed like a diverse bunch on the surface, but when you looked at the big
picture, they were all the same. They way the girls laughed, the shoes they
wore, their straightened hair and fading blonde highlights. The guys had the
same height, same build, and all bathed in Axe.
I
felt like when someone was a Popular, you could smell it coming off of them.
They would get it, even if they didn’t ask for it. And there is no way to
change it, whether you wanted in or out.
Unless
you had a magic box.
I
played with the clunky charm that lay between my chest and belly button. The
once Imperial Topaz gem inside had become an Onyx Diamond. Maybe it was a mood
necklace and black meant nervous.
Or
dying.
“Welcome
to my coming out party!” a voice rang out from the top of the staircase.
Nathaniel
returned with two cokes and handed me one.
The
music softened before she continued her speech. “Coming out as a new, well
polished individual. I’m so glad you could all come. I hope you’re posting lots
of photos, because this is a night you’ll never
want to forget. Now, the dancing will continue, but first I have a little game
I want to play. Ever heard of Never Have I Ever?”
The
room filled with cheers.
“Everyone
grab a drink, ‘cause we’re about to play! I’ll go first.”
People
gathered into after refilling their cups with lemonade and vodka.
“Never
have I ever kissed anyone that’s in this room right now,” she stated.
Most
of the circle took drinks, some laughing and gasping in fake shock.
“Looks
like I go again! Never have I ever wanted
to hook up with someone who’s here right now.”
Some
people looked around, a handful of guys looking at Liz, before taking a swig of
their drinks. Even I had a sip, thinking about my infamous crush on Nathaniel.
Suddenly, the room got really quiet,
then some groaning started, and people started acting irritated.
Liz
smiled smugly, then stood up, and walked over to us.
“What
did you do, Liz,” I pressed.
“Wait
for it,” she said expectantly.
A
single scream erupted among the crowd, and people looked toward a girl with a
handful of her hair in her hand.
Everyone
started screaming and groaning, pulling out their own hair, holding their
mouths and their faces. One guy fell to the ground; his left thighbone
completely crushed. There was chaos, screaming, running, glass shattering, and
the sound of things cracking and breaking. It was a warless bloodbath.
“WHAT
DID YOU DO TO THEM?” I screamed at Liz.
“Without
their beauty, they’re nothing! It’s our turn to rule the school. No more of
their airheaded comments and perfect hair.”
“You’re
a psychopath!”
This
party was turning into the Carrie movie fast.
“Nathaniel,
you have to get them all out of here. There’s a back door that leads outside.
Hurry!”
He
nodded at me, and rushed to the boy with the broken leg. “Everyone, back door,
now!” he commanded.
People
continued to scream as they ran. Some stumbled, some limped, all but one girl
who was helping people escape the madness. She must not have drunk anything
during the game. Liz was nowhere to be found. At this point, I knew what I had
to do.
I
pushed through the rampage of teenagers to
the middle of the floor. I ripped the necklace from my neck and put it
on the ground. I took the microphone from the DJ table. I smashed and shattered
every last bit of the necklace until it turned to metallic dust. When I was
satisfied, I stopped, dropped the microphone, and backed away from it. The
rubble suddenly burst with flames. The fire spread as if the air had been
exchanged with gasoline. I searched for Liz, but only found the box. So I took
it and ran.
And that’s what started the fire. It was the most
surreal experience of my life. And I know it sounds like a dream, or just my
imagination going wild, but I wish that were true. Then I would have a better
explanation as for why no one ever saw Liz again after that night, or why I’ve
suddenly acquired a skinny frame and good grades. It’s the Imperium. I may have
buried the box under the river and destroyed one of the four necklaces, but its
power has not worn off.
Imperium: Latin;
(em-peer-ee-um); power to command. And wow, did ‘she’ have that power.
Sincerely, Reagan
© 2015 Kat MarieAuthor's Note
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StatsAuthorKat MarieBelle River, Ontario, CanadaAboutI'm a 15 year old writer from Canada... I want to be Beyonce, but if not that I'll be a romance novelist. For right now? It's all poetry and dreams. more..Writing
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