LOCKED DOWN

CHAPTER 1

A MAGICAL PARADISE

Another swift slap came on her other cheek after the other.

"I really don't like you the first day you transferred to our school," said the girl in a heavy black eye make up as she pulled Adira's hair.

Her only answered was a spit after a laugh, and it made the bullies more angry.

"How dare you!" the girl with make up ordered her other minions to hold her. She grabbed her hair once more and raised a scissors.

"Oh, Nika. We didn't sign up for this. You are not going to stab her, do you?"

"No. Silly. I will just be a hairdresser for today," she grinned and started giving Adira a long cut from behind.

She really cut her hair from waist up to her nape.

"I want to graduate high school and I am not going to be a criminal until that." The bully threw off her hair in front of Adira. "I am not going to be a murderer like her brother," she said.

And with that sentence, Adira's eyes darkened. "You talked too much," she whispered. With all her might, she pushed the two girls who were holding her and began attacking the girl who cut her hair. She gave her a punch in her face and dived to her, pinning her on the ground with her legs. She began choking her with the raging emotions she had inside. The other girls came to rescue their friend but she was overflowing with anger.

A loud impact banged behind her head. It made her fall on the ground. She could feel a drop of blood on her temple.

The teachers and the school guard came to stop their fight and put them in the faculty office. Her eyes rolled as the girl who cut her hair keeps on crying.

"She wanted to kill me," she said as if she did not start the fight.

The head teacher talked to them and because she was the one who always have a recon fighting, she lost once again.

"I am calling your mother. I am sorry miss Raven but you have to transfer again. I will ready your papers."

And there, she left the room while looking at the girl who was grinning like a real bitch.

She went home that same day and her mother even fetched her.

"Three schools in a semester Adira? You are impossible!" her mother shouted at her as they arrived home.

Adira plunged herself on the couch as she dropped her backpack on the floor.

"Are you not tired of these troubles?" her mother asked. "Can you at least try to stay calm even if you are angry?"

"Calm? I cannot stay calm when they are telling me that my family member is a murderer." She crossed her hands on her chest. "I can kill her if she wishes me to prove her," she mumbled.

"Adira!" her mother shouted.

She picked up her bag and stood up. "I won't shut my mouth like you did. This teenager has become a rebel and you have to accept it."

Her mother was breathing so deeply, trying to contain her anger.

While she lend her mother the phone and wallet from her pocket. "I will be grounded, right?" She took herself to her room and closed it, hanging the sign "DO NOT DISTURB!"outside her door.

She threw her bag by the corner and laid her back on her bed. She put her hand on her head and felt a pain from the part where she was hit with a wood. The nurse did not even cured her wounds well. It was very obvious the school don't want her there. With that, she got up and look for her med kit that she always opened every time she was kicked out of school. She changed the bandage and her eyes settled on the scissors on the kit. With that, she looked at the mirror and started crying. She looked at herself with pity. If only Odin was still with them. Wiping her tears, she took a deep sigh. And with the scissors and comb, she started to fix her hair, cutting it with the same length as the shortest part. Pretty soon, she achieved a nice decent bobcat herself.

After that, she opened her window and carefully went to the window of the room next door. It was Odin's room that her mother locked for years. But little did she knew that she had been going there since she could remember. It was maybe the times she feels alone and angry.

She looked around the room. It was still the same as what her brother left it, except it was dust-free because she had been cleaning it and maintaining the places of the things incase her brother returns one day. She took a seat on his chair and swiveled around. By the move she did, the drawer on the table opened on its own. She almost jumped because of that. When she took a look at it, the lock was rusty and finally gave up locking what was inside. The black notebook in that drawer caught her attention. She never opened it because it was locked. Her fingers glided on the gold letters on its covers.

"Adira!"

She could hear her mother calling her from her room door. She quickly returned there while carrying with her the notebook. She hid it under her pillow and opened the door.

"You need something?" she asked.

"You fixed your hair?"

"Yeah?" she answered.

"It looks good on you."

"Thanks?" she doesn't know what to answer exactly.

"Ahmm. I wanted to tell you that I am sorry for raising my voice a while ago. I know you are a teenager now, and I should know that tiny things can easily swayed your mood."

She smiled. She knows they are still a loving family. "I love you, mom."

"I love you too, dear." She smiled, almost crying. "Well, I was jut wondering. Maybe we can visit Juliet at the hospital?"

"Oh, sure. I'll just change my clothes."

Her mother nodded and gave her a minute.

She wore a black hoodie on top of her tank top. She changed her shorts to a ripped jeans and wore her worn out black ankle boots.

"I am ready."

They went to the hospital after fetching a bouquet of flowers. Her mother showed her id on the front seat of the car and the window showed buttons. Her mother glided and pressed few buttons to input the address of the hospital they are going.

They were greeted by a few bot-nurses that has the same face. They have their unique barcodes that serves as their nameplates.

By the corridor, she could hear a nurse saying that they did what they could do but the family member still die in their hands.

Adira grinned sadly because of that. Other technologies were still operating even if it obviously not on its perfect design. Yet, the government still shut her brother's game.

"Adira Come on," her mother called on her as she enter the room.

There they saw Juliet laying on her hospital bed. He hair was quite long and still bright red-haired. She had life support and the game gear is still on her head. They have found out that if the head gear was taken out, the person will also eventually die. She was in come since her brother disappeared. They never tell but Juliet dated Odin for a year.

Adira sat beside her bed while her mother talked to the parents of Juliet on the living area of her private room.

"How are you? It's been a while since we visited. You are still pretty. I bet Odin still would fall for that," she said.

She looked down at her index finger that lifted up. She was doubting what she just saw.

"You can hear me?" she asked and waited for her to respond again, but she did not move any.

"Odin must have put a ring on your pretty finger before he left."

And with that, her finger lifted. She wanted to confirm what she was thinking, and so she uttered her brother's name again. Once again, her finger reacted.

"Did you see that? Her finger moved," she said excitedly.

The adults moved closer to see for themselves.

"I was just telling about Odin and she responded," she explained.

Juliet's finger once again lifted and it made her mother cry.

"I will call the doctor," Adira's mother volunteered.

"She's not waking up. But this is a good news, right?" her mother said, still crying.

"I guess, we will have her life support extended," the father stated. "Oh, our dear Juliet."

A human doctor came with a bot-nurse following. They began checking her vitals and the apparatus beside the bed. They have concluded that the chance of Juliet waking up went up. And said that it was a miracle.

After that, they went home with the good news. She went straight to her room to rest. As she laid on her bed, her head hit the notebook she left under her pillow. There, she began reading the journal her brother kept.

The sketches, programs, functions, and story line of the game her brother developed was written in the journal.

"A paradise world that can change the world," she read on the last page of the journal. "That's it! I can change the way they talk about Odin."

Besides, Juliet can possibly wake up. She would be the first one to wake up from the players of the game who had been in coma.

Secretly, she went back to Odin's room and began to screw and unscrew things on her brother's invention. She went there almost every day and night, trying to figure out how the game works. She would type on the keyboard and back on the head gear. She was trying to make it work again. A smoke appeared from her wiring and she blew it before it turned into a spark.

After that, the monitor of the computer turned on in pixelated animation. Not long after, the images became clear.

"It worked!" she blurted in so much joy. She wonders if her brother feels the same excitement when he was making his game.

She held the head gear and sat down on her brother's bed. "I will prove that your game has nothing to do with the incidents."

She laid on her back and put the head gear on her. She closed her eyes to sleep. Seconds after, she could feel her body sucked up in another dimension. Upon opening her eyes, a new different world was shown.

It was a magical paradise world and she couldn't help herself to say "Wow!"