Chapter Ten
***Savanah***
You would think that in a place considered to be a Utopia, that a person would have more independence and liberties. But as with most things, the expectation is rarely the delivered result, and Savanah had begun to feel like a rare and exotic bird, caged and controlled to ensure an optimum living environment. Savanah didn’t feel that her life was being optimized at all. In fact, Savanah was beginning to go stir-crazy. She understood why her sister and friends were so adamant about her care. It wasn’t hard to see where they were coming from, but Savanah also didn’t feel like any of them were giving her the kind of respect or concern she needed.
Savanah wasn’t a complete fool, and she had to be honest with herself. She knew she needed help, but it was beginning to frustrate and upset her that nobody else wanted to give her the help she needed and instead were using the opportunity and her disadvantage, as a reason to lock her down in safekeeping. As far as Savanah could see it, it was an excuse to latch her down, and she was beginning to resent the way it made her feel. She felt like a rope had been tied around her neck and every day it was getting a little tighter, choking the life from her body a little bit at a time.
Savanah had just about given up hope of it changing when she finally realized it could change at any time she wanted it to, and having been cooped up for as long as she had been, Savanah made a decision within herself: she was going to get some time out on the town and enjoy living, something that she felt was being denied. It was one thing to survive, but a completely different thing to thrive, and that was the tug-of-war emotional rope that Savanah had been tugging for a while.
“All I have to do is drop the rope, and the tug-of-war game ends,” she muttered to herself. Sure, the episodes were serious enough to give cause for concern, but they weren’t a life sentence in prison, so why did it seem like everyone was treating her like she was merely a viewer in her own life, instead of an active person living it? These thoughts continued to run through her mind in a revolving loop until she determined it was either keep going through the mental torture or decide to do something.
Savanah decided it was best to do something. She bit her lip slightly as she thought about it. What was the best way to get out without anyone seeing her? Quietly, Savanah tiptoed toward the door and peered out into the hallway to see if the coast was clear. It looked like the average empty hall, and Savanah perked a brow, wondering why it was so empty. They must not have considered her much of a threat when it came to be sneaking out again, which kind of surprised Savanah. She smirked to herself. This was going to be easier than she thought. Inching the door closed, Savanah grabbed her jacket and threw it on. She pulled her hair back and tied it off with a cord, pulling a hat over it. Her platinum blonde locks were one of the hardest things to hide, and since her hair was so shiny, it was almost like having a metallic helmet on her head. That was the first thing she had to get rid of, and the hat did a perfect job of covering it up. Savanah took one final glance over at herself in the tiny mirror that she had and shrugged. You could still tell she was Savanah by looking at her face, but the clothes did enough of their job for her to sneak by on, and so Savanah creaked the door open and slithered outside.
She looked down the hall both ways to see if anyone else was coming and finding it clear still, began to increase her stride as she walked down the hall toward the exit door. The whole time, Savanah could feel her heart beating wildly within her chest, afraid of being caught and excited at the opportunity to get out. She sped up her steps and finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Savanah creaked open the exit door and hurried out, closing it quietly behind her and grinning from ear to ear as she looked out over the city ahead of her. There was a lot to see and a little time to see it, but Savanah didn’t care. She quickly crossed the street and disappeared down a long alley, shoving her hands into her pockets as she walked through the lane. Some distance ahead, she noticed a group of people gathered together in the street.
“Wonder what they’re doing?” she murmured. Talking to herself wasn’t her favorite thing to do but being in good company was a rare thing for her, so she spoke aloud to rid herself of the loneliness. For all she knew, the episodes were affecting her in many ways, and that could just be another of them, but she dismissed that thought and started walking toward the group of people.
“I think that there’s more to this than you realize,” Savanah overheard one woman talking as she approached the group.
“Well, of course, there is. Isn’t there always?” a gentleman standing close to the woman replied. Savanah perked her eyebrow. She didn’t have any clue what they were talking about, but it seemed to be something political.
“Well, maybe we should have him talk to his dad about it?” a third woman interjected. Savanah stayed toward the back of the group and continued to listen closely.
“I’m not sure that will do anything. He doesn’t seem to like Kyllian that much,” the first woman stated. Savanah’s eyes widened upon hearing that name, and she looked around the crowd wondering if Kyllian was there too.
“Well, anything is worth trying to make things better,” the third woman stated, shaking her head as she broke away from the group. She turned to walk past Savanah and brushed her shoulder in the process, “Watch out,” she said as she passed her.
Savanah stepped back; it seemed like everywhere she went someone was ordering her out of the way, and here didn’t seem to be much different, but hearing Kyllian’s name had piqued her curiosity, and she was more than curious to find out if he was anywhere nearby. She broke away from the group and continued walking down the alleyway, searching the faces of each person she passed, but none of them were Kyllian.
“Hey!” A voice broke through Savanah’s thoughts, and as she turned around, she came face to face with Kyllian.
“Oh, hey,” Savanah said, looking up at him and smiling vaguely. She hadn’t expected him to pick her face out of the crowd and it became evident that her hat trick hadn’t worked at all.
“How are you doing?” Kyllian asked her.
“I mean, I guess I am okay,” Savanah said, smiling slightly. “How about yourself?” she asked.
“I’m here to talk about some of my new inventions with these people, but everyone seems to be on another topic tonight,” he stated. Savanah nodded, recalling the bits of conversation she had heard earlier.
“Right, so tell me about your inventions then,” she said.
Kyllian grinned, glancing down at her. “Well, I’ve got a few cool things I have been working on. There’s this particularly interesting thing I discovered recently, and I’m trying to optimize a way to engineer this new idea. I wanted to run some things by some people, but there’s the politics of things to consider,” he muttered. Savanah quirked her brows wondering what Kyllian might have to do with politics but refrained from asking, as if she felt it would be pushing boundaries she didn’t really know she had the right to push yet.
“Wow, I never realized there were so many things you had to think about when being an inventor,” Savanah stated.
Kyllian nodded and sighed. “Yeah, if I had my way, there wouldn’t be, but life isn’t that simple, I guess,” Kyllian said, “Here, have a seat,” he waved his hand over to a stack of wooden crates, “I know it’s not fine seating, but it’s nice for a one-on-one chat, if you have the time?” he asked.
Savanah smiled gently. Rarely did she ever get time to herself for anything she wanted to do, and the question was almost comical when she considered it.
“I think I have some time for that,” she finally replied. Kyllian smiled and sat down on the furthest crate nodding at her. Savanah sat down and leaned her head back against the wall behind them. Kyllian was a good-looking guy, and she noted that the color of his hair was almost as troublesome as her own shining golden locks.
“Where did the red hair come from?” she asked him suddenly.
“I’m not quite positive on that one, but I imagine it came from the fiery veins of my sire,” Kyllian chuckled as he made the joke.
“The fiery veins of your sire? Do you mean your father?” Savanah asked, laughing at his description.
“Yeah, something like that. I don’t really like the red hair myself,” Kyllian admitted, much to Savanah’s shock.
