Plug-in Insomniacs
by Kynna Alforque

The fascination of death eventually led the living to the dying to the dead. Nobody could see. Nobody could tell. I am the child from hell. Smile, it's your day. Our day. I love you, Vivienne.

Minute androgynous bug used its rows of tiny legs to creep up one after another in the journey ahead. It smiled without the presence of teeth, biological nature permits them not. Sexless centipede scratched off human skin cells and left little mud prints to follow on its return-it was happy, as could bugs be, trapped in their little world detached from human reality. It kept moving. There was no indication the Chinese red-headed centipede knew.

In a world, driven by specific purpose and meaning, subjected by the need to survive and nothing more, there is no need for love, for hate, for conflict, no need for the over-complexities wrought by human capability and life. A small world would make everything easier. However, there is always the bigger picture. It does not involve the insect. It's almost insignificant, compared to the wholeness of it all.

Dark hair matted with rain and loam stood out. Centipedes do not sport hair, nor did it acknowledge the fact it scurried past a length of leg, past an exposed waist, past the mounds of her flesh and rested moments on top of the nape of her neck. Until, it found an abyss, parted by the unprocessed information of pale blue lips. In it went, deeper into the source of air, lingering.

Then came the rhythm of the heart, pumping blood through channels, it beat human fingers to tic. Her senses returned. Eyes shot open like a revelation from the devil. Memento Mori. It held her from breathing, from swallowing. Panic choked her with the bug in her throat. She writhed against the numbness and spat it out. Knowing nothing, it kept on its journey headed anywhere.

Silence.

Doe eyes glossed over with saline liquid, tears filled up to the brim of accompanied repetition from her feeble, haggard breaths. She enclosed herself, legs folded to her chest. Arms wrapped around her face hidden in the gap. Bittersweet cries turned her sudden hunger insipid. It sparked a nervous giggle. Furiously, she rubbed her eyes dry. There it was again, another dream where it never ends.

I watched her again. I watched Vivienne Olivia in her counted episodes of terror and current torment. It was entertaining, but not much. My heart yearned for more as I saw her filled with life and relapse back into the arms of sleep. I chanced a closer study of her soul.

The same dark curls framed her big grey eyes, which led to a dainty nose matching her pretty lips. She changed from a sickly girl to the woman I yearned for. She never knew, never knew what she did to me and many. Just once-I stopped myself. Patience paid a price on my soul and rewards will be reaped...Soon enough.

I  promised.

Vivienne flinched from the streaks of sunlight. She questioned her surroundings with frantic glances, but the touch of familiarity calmed her. In her room, where her dreams left her for a new day. She showered, dressed, ate and left the house entranced-like symphonic clockwork. It was almost robotic-except she moved with grace past the school gates and answered the call of her name from schoolmates. Girls. Another species aimed to bore or behold, they frolicked like bees in spring. She was not sad anymore, it was disappointing.

She sat demurely on the seat nearest to the window, nearest to her flock. Still possessed in the alien's tongue, I heard them say boys. I scoffed, now loathing their trivial talks. My entrance came from the arrival of a man in dark blue. Students zoomed to their seats and zipped their mouths shut. Noisily, I fell on the free seat beside her. She finally found me. I smiled, "Morticia thinks Vincent doesn't suit them at all. You can do better than those yobs, you know?"

She glared ice at me and pursed her lips back in stillness. I sighed, so this is how you'll play? I crossed my legs and feminised my body's angle: "They're probably monsters in bed beside the handsome looks, sculpted bodies and, for the privileged: a functioning brain-they'll disappear in time."

"Why are you doing this?" I noted sadness amidst the crescendo of her despair. The scratches of her pen on paper raised my curiosity, she was not even writing notes from the board. She held her breath, "I've told you so many times to leave me be, to stop following me. You're not supposed to be here."

The lines on my face deepened, I wondered if it was from being hurt with her cold commands or plain annoyance at her stubbornness. I chose nothing, "Vivienne, Morticia knows you're spouting rubbish out of that dainty mouth of yours. What would dear mother think? You can't stop me from telling!"

What a sight it was to see, her tears shed for me. I stepped back as she threw her things and thrashed against everything, against everyone. Grey eyes on me, only me. I knew I had her.

I felt the fearful, the disgusted and the confused. Different shades of human emotion painted in negative hues. Authority came to spout nonsense Vivienne refused to hear, "Miss Olivia, I suggest you calm yourself immediately!" He came closer, clearly concerned. "We can go through this together, hold my hand and we'll talk." Too concerned, my smugness died and gave birth to haste. He liked her and he can never. She's mine.

Her words disappeared.  Enough is the end. Her hair, lustred with natural gleam, strewed as her eyes emptied. She slid a window open and welcomed an eerie clam. Anxious for whatever was to happen next, I stayed silent though our hearts beat the same rhythm. Resistance is futile. Like the centipede, she became insignificant to the bigger picture and without further adieu, she fell. At 10:01, she died. Blood pooled around her head. I crowned her an angel for a brother's true love.

We were together again. As time stretches on, it didn't matter. The bigger picture is never complete. Centipedes are luckier, to die in bliss of ignorance. They don't need to wake up. I wouldn't want to be a centipede, would you? Too bad, you can't answer. Another day is here, but don't forget, I'll always be waiting. So smile, one day it'll be our day. Until the end, my love is...