Phantasia

Dante pulled his scarf over his nose, taking comfort in the warm damp of his breath. At least Phantasia wasn’t holding his hand any more – he’d been quick to let her know he had his limits. The lithe albino was now skipping alongside him, eyes as brilliant and unnaturally white as always. As much as he disliked the current situation, he knew this strange girl held the key to his sanity. Anxiety churned away in his stomach as he contemplated how and where his future would be decided. Not in the Smith’s electronics and repair store at any rate.

“John always has exciting things to look at!” said Phantasia, “Don’t you think moving picture screens are amazing?”

‘Moving picture screens’? He’d always suspected she was from some wandering tribe that shunned technology and emphasised all those naïve things Phantasia herself was fond of, like friendship and harmony. After all there were plenty of people in the world who believed civilisation’s reliance on it had brought about… No, it was better not to let his thoughts dwell on that. The past did him no favours. He had to keep thinking of the future, like his councillor had told him before she’d abandoned him to fate.

John was adjusting a customer’s palm computer when they entered, and almost slipped up the delicate rewiring when he noticed Dante. Not surprising, since Dante had only been in the shop once this year when he’d brought Katrina some new films for her photography.

Phantasia, ignoring all the rules he’d outlined before, grabbed Dante’s hand and dragged him over to the wall-mounted televisions. “We should have a look at some stuff while John’s busy!” she said with her usual giddy enthusiasm, like a child who was perpetually overdosed on sugar. Dante tried not to glare.

Without asking for permission she began rooting through a box of memory cards, tossing them around as if she were rooting for a lost button in a box of stones. With a squeal of glee she pulled one out and Dante waited with crossed arms as she slipped it into one of the screens. Some options swirled to life on the display but she just stood watching them, as if the random patterns had locked her into a trance. Had she come this far without realising?

“You know it’s a touch screen, right?” asked Dante.

“Of course!” she replied, “I just don’t like…touching them. I don’t want to break it!”

Dante noticed John was smiling to himself. How many times had this girl blundered in here to do this? Dante reached forward and tapped the play icon for her and she made the sort of noise he’d expect to hear from an infant being shown images of crazy puppets. That the first image that appeared featured plumes of black smoke and tiny people running around in panic made her reaction all the more disturbing.

“Oh! Oh! This looks like something to do with the Great Cataclysm!” she chirped.

Talk about stating the obvious! It was another collection of news reports and documentary footage that had been salvaged from some collection or another. Dante avoided the footage and glanced over at John, who had just finished serving his customer and shuffling over to meet them.

“Hullo,” he said.

“Hey,” replied Dante.

Chapter 35
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