Orion

Posted on Thu Dec 29th, 2022 @ 9:06pm by Unawakened Juliette Erickson

Mission: Tales of the Unawakened
Location: Bryce Canyon, Utah, United States

Juli focused the large telescope and waited for the maximum amount of darkness from the cabin she had rented. For the summer, she desired to spend it here, staring at the stars, with her books and other intellectual pursuits.. This was paradise for the introverted Juliette Erickson. A mind that needed space from other people, including cell phone service, in order to think and ponder. Including two brothers who were interested only in manipulating people, and two sisters who delighted in who they slept with and what they posted on social media for their followers. But it was this place where Juliette wanted to spend the summer. She focused her rather large telescope on the constellation orion. Below Orion's belt.

"The Orion Nebula." Juli noted. "In all of its splendor.." She adjusted the focus and began to watch it. Taking notes.

There was one thing she always wanted to do.. Go into space.. Meet whoever was out there.. Learn their art and history.

She was not normal to her peers. She didn't want to be normal. She simply wanted her own life and her own interests. Her mind was an ever expanding domain of possibilities and terrors.

Her cellphone rang... out here. Figured...

Juli walked over to look at the android phone and then pushed the answer button. "Hello, Father." She began talking to him. "Oh so you finally have need of me? What is it that you want?"

"So you want me in LA so we can give the semblance of being a family in two weeks?" Juli sighed. "Fine.. I'll be your pawn. Just so you can appeal to yet another crowd of voters. But after I am finished, I will resume my studies. I have two years to prepare for my inevitable admittance to the Air Force Academy."

She listened more.

"Because I am not a lawyer, or a doctor. I am an explorer. Doing well at the Air Force Academy will open the door to NASA." She continued. "No I do not need your influence to build my life. You need me.. I do not need you. I'm doing this campaigning for you because I am two years away from growing up." She continued to talk.

"Oh you don't want to do that father.. I can destroy people too.. It's just I don't destroy people without cause." Juli noted. "You however have made a career doing the old 'bait-an-switch,' but as you learned last year. You are playing checkers... I am playing chess. Consider your idiotic campaigning done." Juli rolled her eyes as she talked.

"Oh that is certainly none of your concern, father." Juli shot back. I'll be in LA in two weeks, before I start my next boarding school. And no, my education is not your concern. This is the way you like it, father. Hands off, throw money at your children. And so you spawned two party boys, two black widows, and two normal girls. And we're just trying to survive you." Juli noted. "We're not a family, we're an association. Good evening, father." She turned off the phone.

A few minutes later she got another phone call. Picking up, she smiled. "Hey Sar.. I see you got the message."

She talked to her in a more relaxed tone.

"Father wants to appeal to the voters again and make us look like a wholesome, American family. What a joke." Juli noted. "Be careful with this. I think there's things about this publicity stunt he's not telling us."

Sarah responded. "You mean to say, we are not a normal family? Shocking."

"If we were, we wouldn't be completely neglected. Whenever I needed love. It was always you, Sar. But whenever we needed something. They threw money at their kids, including us, and went back to work. That's why our brothers and sisters are so fucked up." Juli noted.

"Why are we so normal then? What happened?"

"We had fucked up, sociopathic brothers and sisters that viewed us as things." Juli noted. "It's different when it comes from family, Bullied at school, and bullied at home." Juli mentioned. "Normal girls would have committed suicide by now, but we're not normal girls, are we? We're survivors. And we had each other."

"Juli... are you really going to do it." Sarah asked.

"You know what's at stake, Sarah. Even when we turn eighteen, out on our own. Our brothers and sisters will never leave us along. Janice and Alice will just take their poisonous Social Media escapades to the next level.. and our brothers are already talking about us to their friends behind our backs. Our parents like to use people, Sar... That's why our family is stupidly rich. Not because of the Law Firm. Mom and Dad had no intention of just being mere Lawyers. They've been on search and destroy mode for years. They do the same to our siblings, they'll do the same to us." Juli mentioned. "We need to be free of them."

"I know.." One thing Juli noticed about the phones her mother and father provided for her family. There was a background android app that was recording calls. She didn't trust anything that came from her parents. Her father had the politician's habit of recording important conversations for inconvenient truths. Being Micheal Erickson's daughter was a constant game of wits.. In a family of sociopaths. Encouraged by two people who married each other for their careers, their ambitions, and even sex.

Juli and Sarah talked on their own private phones. Bought from a drug store without a contract. They were simple, and they were not androids or iPhones.

"Listen Sar. In two years we will have to do it.. There's no way around it. We're slaves to our own family, and they've done worse things that karma will kill them for anyway."

Sarah sighed. "Can't we be good people?"

"No such thing in this world."

"Alright.. We'll talk about this soon."

TBC