[Industrial Breathing] Chapter Two



Industrial Breathing
"Enduring my last breath, I will never back down."



In this world, humans are rare specimens. Only a few are said to be alive. However, in this town, the town known as 'Dream', there's a master that creates robots as a living. Now, there are machines to fill in the gaps of humanity that was once there. But a war broke out between the world, and it was then divided in twos. Two worlds, different from each other fight till the death, and only one master shall rule both kingdoms. There shall only be one master, and two kingdoms. Who will survive? And who will die in pure solitary?


Chapter Two
Dream Headquarters

The two metal doors slid open from either side of the building, welcoming the two into a wide, spacious area. I scanned around the area to find tinted windows in a shape of a Cathedral framework, which reached as high as the ceiling. Candles were lit on the walls, and wooden doors had heavy metal linings to prevent intruders from entering the chamber of the lair. Bookshelves stood neatly by the windows on the far end, as well as a couple of tables and seats surrounding the area.

“Welcome to the Dream Headquarters,” the tall built male said proudly as he directed me straight ahead.  I narrowed my eyes to the back of his head where I noticed his messy brunette hair layering down to his neck, and a left ear cuff piercing on the edge of his ear.  My pupils shifted down where I inspected his broad shoulders sticking out of his crimson red tailcoat vest, and two leather strappings tied on his upper right arm, which was secured by a silver buckle.

“Isn’t this just a library?” I continued to scan the large building. My head tilted up where I was faced with an enormous lion chandelier which was chained to the top of the ceiling. I smirked at the impressive base this boy was living in. Whether it was safe or not, the fact that it had a stone lion chained to the top of the ceiling made the environment seemed immensely more intimidating and fascinating at the same time.

“It used to be,” he replied, taking off his heavy load of weapons equipped to his belt one blade at a time.  “It’s a tough world out there,” his fingers ran through the tip of the blades to test its sharpness. “There are creatures out there; monsters that are willing to skin you alive if you aren’t careful. They’re here to annihilate all human races and begin a kingdom where robots are the only rulers to the world.”

I scoffed on purpose, gathering his attention as his head eyed my way. “No kidding—tell me something that I don’t know,” I rolled my eyes before walking towards the table wear his weapons were placed. “Like your name,” I threw my hand under my chin, elbow to the table, and raised a brow, wondering if he was willing to improvise and go along with my simple question.

“I’ll only answer your question if I get to finish telling you the history about this town,” he cocked an eyebrow back as a way to tease me to finish his own lame-as story. I nodded as I walked towards the ‘L’ shaped leather couch.  I planted my body onto the black seating then rolled over onto my back where I stared blankly onto the cracked ceilings of the library.

“Touché,” I grumbled under my breath. A calm sensation washed over me as my body began to relax. Reminisce of sour memories of tough adventures I’d been through pondered my mind. “I hadn’t felt this comfortable in so long,” my soft voice gave out.

“So as I was saying,” the boy walked over to the kitchen area where it was located on the opposite side of the bookshelves on the right side of the building. “The town is called ‘Dream’ for one reason: It’s where people often come to when they’ve hoped for good fortune, wealth, and not to mention, a healthy life. This town has often been known for that,” his hand pulled open the refrigerator. He bent down, levelling his sight down to whatever was left inside the cool cabinet.

“What about it? Get to the point already,” I raised my hand into the air, spinning my index finger around, indicating to hurry up and wrap up the whole history talk.

“A decade ago, people created machines to make life so much easier for everyone. They’ve made toasters, waffle makers, irons, and whatnot. It was successful; businesses were booming. Profits weren’t high, but because people liked these sorts of ideas, companies began making more. It didn’t seem like much then,” the brunette male gave a long sigh before continuing. “However, a few years ago, people decided it was a better idea to create robots. It wasn’t a great invention in the first place since technologies arose and began taking over the place—that’s all people ever wanted! That’s all they’ve been talking about!” He shook his head in disapproval from the lack of knowledge people had been over simple machineries that took over human’s ideology of living life. “Robots have feelings too. They can hear, see, and feel. Before this town knew it, robots from all over the districts would reach the town of Dream because they were either disbanded by their creators, a malfunctioning robot, or was simply a reject.”

“That’s quite sad, isn’t it? Being a simple reject from its own creator…”

“Of course it is, but the society isn’t able to realize the damage they’re doing to themselves by wanting an item that isn’t necessarily needed in our daily lives. Yet, they yearn for these sorts of things. Why is it that human-beings are so vulnerable into craving certain desires, whether it’s feelings, a particular item, or a simple person?”

“I guess that’s how, we, human-beings were made in the first place. Without those, do you think we’d be able to live societies without growing? It’s capitalism, after all. They do this to you; to all of us. Yet, here we are,” I pushed myself up into a seating position, leaning my back against the cushioning leather couch. “You’ve got a refrigerator there, a working television, and I assume a running washing machine too?” My hands directed as I pointed out each items.

“Washing machine’s down the hall if that’s what you’re implying.”

“Good, ‘cause I needed it,” the edge of my lip curled up, giving a small smirk before heading towards the ladies room. “My point is,” I ran my fingers through my hair. I shuffled my hair around, wondering whether I should take a hot shower while I was going down the hallway anyway. “Even if Dream has become infected with monsters created by alchemy, heavy robotic weaponry machineries that are out there to kill us all, it won’t change the fact that human races are still at risk. What capitalists have done has already happened. You’ll just have to survive as it is now.”

Silence slipped the room and I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Was he really that delicate to be hurt with a simple criticism, I considered as words rolled into my mind, one by one. I shrugged the feeling off before I started to feel a slight regret for whatever I’d done to make the atmosphere seem so solemn.

“Alright, so it’s that way, right?” I asked while self-directing myself towards an empty hallway that was filled with many doors. “I’ll go wash up. Great talk, huh?” My hands rummaged through my messy, baby blue hair. I took a quick whiff and checked for split ends on the roots of my hair, seeking how much shampoo I needed to smoother my hair with.

“The name’s Skylar, by the way,” he finally blurted out calmly. He wasn’t mad, but his voice was clear. He had the same deep, reassuring voice since the first time I’d heard him call my name when he picked me up from an alley way.

“Oh, so you’re not dead?” I froze my movement for a slight moment.

“Nope,” he smiled, “just thinking, that’s all.”

Odd, my mind thought. It wasn’t like him, but I guess it was because I wasn’t sure what was running through his mind at all. I hadn’t known him for that long, so it was only natural for me to not know every single flaws or traits of his, right?

“Yeah, okay,” I replied. I didn’t even bat a single eye or turn my head back right after noticing him smiling after zoning out. Was it really genuine, or was it just a fake mask he’d put on like girls’ do to pretend they’re alright? I wasn’t too sure, but whatever it was, it was beginning to get on my nerves. Instead, I walked ahead towards my intended destination.

“Good to see you’re okay, Lilith.”

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