The Electoral Center

Mars

High above the Valles, in the distance, heavy clouds of deadly sand was forming strange structures in the sky. Deep in the darker areas, lightning was brewing. A granular army was preparing an offensive against the Center ignored only by Marilyn and the Attractor herself. The men living in the Center kept their worries to themselves.

It had nearly been a week since the Communion and Marilyn broadcasted most of it around the world, but the Attractor remained in seclusion.

“Cute one,” spoke Liam in Sophie’s hear. She was now resting on her bed, eyes closed to the ceiling. She was contemplative. “Sophie,” he insisted.

Ever since the Cold’s Avatar returned from the Underworlds, she remained rather distant and secretive, even to her newfound mentor. Her once jovial and outgoing persona was replaced with a more serious one. She now acted as if none of strange cascade of events leading up to this day in the fall of 2072 were ongoing. She now stayed away from Marilyn, the journalist and her cameras as life returned on Earth and Mars to some strange level of normalcy. On Earth, a mission to Mercury was launched but Sophie ignored it. Doctor Shin, always a monument of respect of one’s privacy shared the Attractor’s island of tranquillity pretending like the game was all that mattered.

Sophie’s core had been shaken in a personal way. Grown men returned from a battlefields with post depression syndromes after hearing a handful of bullets fly above their heads, this young girl had summoned the Multiverse and her mind had touched creation itself.

During the last few days, the Attractor found solice in her schooling. Tutor on her lap, she studied the same way geniuses watched shitty action movies to relax. The large electronic book dinged and bleeped as the young girl now flew past amounts of information. Sophie’s teacher sitting back home, receiving notices of grade completion at all hours of the day. Each evening, leaving a shimmering aura behind her as she walked, she ventured in the hallway to her father’s room only to quickly enter her father’s digital reality once a quick meal had been eaten. In it, she enjoyed his world and insisted on doing the most mundane family things. Today she played with Malik, her brother the mouse board game. In a matter of hours, on the first day, she made it clear all she needed was ‘normalcy’ to process her communion with the Multiverse and her family was happy to oblige. But days were rolling in and she seemed stuck on this new normal.

Once in the digital world, the long ‘shimmer’ from the real world had begun to appear as if her newfound power extended to other realms. Malik and Laurent ignored the change.

“Yes?” finally answered Sophie. The mentor perked up.

“Everyone is a little concerned. Well, I am concerned. The voyage to the Underworld seems to have changed you.” He was very careful with his choice of words.

“It did,” she answered simply. “It did.”

Liam let her time to expound but no words came. “It pains me to even say the next words, but I fear I must. You have always insisted on my honesty.”

“Yes, of course.”

“I fear the Multiverse picked you, the reckless you. The young Sophie able to jump into trouble and I fear more evolved emotions might change you in a fundamental way that will pull you from your goal. Or maybe I am wrong and she needs you to be different.”

She gave thought and simply answered, “I was wondering the same.”

“Your father and I may have a solution.”

Surprised she said, “You do?” Sophie’s heart warmed. She felt everyone genuinely cared for her. “I am unsure how you can help, what I felt was...” Again, the words failed her.

“We have pondered long and hard on this. We have a gift. Something that may shake you back to the core of who you must be. ”

“A gift?”

“Yes, more than a coincidence. Something that turns 200 years old, this Multiverse loves key numbers. I have been looking hard for the perfect thing.” The young sat bach up in her bed. “Close your mind’s eye and imagine a large white void with both of us standing in it.” Her powers were growing exponentially and as soon as he completed his last word, they both were in the void. Sophie standing wearing jeans and a new white t-shirt which read ‘Humbled’ and Liam’s crystal body floating above the ground. “Now keep an open mind and let things unfold. Imagine a door.”

Sophie smiled, this was interesting. Her friends cared. A door quickly appeared. It opened and behind walked Laurent and Malik. They both stepped from the digital real to this new reality. The young brother was holding a large wrapped gift, it seemed heavy. A table appeared just in time on which Malik set the gift.

“You did not have to.”

Laurent and Malik’s smiles were infectious.

“Open it,” quipped the boy clapping his hands in excitement.

In a second, part of the old Sophie was back. In the box was a very old book. The title read “Through the Looking-Glass” by Lewis Carroll. On the cover was an illustration and a date, 1872.

“It’s the sequel to the Adventure of Alice in Wonderland,” offered Malik. “Your favorite. I read both books, it’s much better than the first. That’s where I saw. You first.”

The was genuinely in awe. She was unaware her favorite book had a sequel? How come no one ever told her. Sophie’s eyes teared up as she opened the cover. It was a simple book, no illustration only words. Laurent was a father who loved his daughter above all else. Colors in the bubble body of Liam sparkled. Clearly the gift was a big success and the older. Edition helped.

Her full attention was on the words, she was unable to rip her attention from it. As visitors leave the room of a healing patient, Laurent grabbed the hand of Malik and walked out of the white space, closing the door behind them. Liam’s body also vanished as the young girl, transfixed by the book, sat and began to read in the empty void of her mind.

No one was able to see but her eyes filled with energy as she began to read what would become her new favorite book.

***

Chapter 5...

‘I don’t understand you,’ said Alice. ‘It’s dreadfully confusing!’

‘That’s the effect of living backwards,’ the Queen said kindly: ‘it always makes one a little giddy at first—’

‘Living backwards!’ Alice repeated in great astonishment. ‘I never heard of such a thing!’

‘—but there’s one great advantage in it, that one’s memory works both ways.’

‘I’m sure mine only works one way,’ Alice remarked. ‘I can’t remember things before they happen.’

‘It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,’ the Queen remarked.

‘What sort of things do you remember best?’ Alice ventured to ask.

‘Oh, things that happened the week after next,’ the Queen replied in a careless tone. ‘For instance, now,’ she went on, sticking a large piece of plaster on her finger as she spoke, ‘there’s the King’s Messenger. He’s in prison now, being punished: and the trial doesn’t even begin till next Wednesday: and of course the crime comes last of all.’

‘Suppose he never commits the crime?’ said Alice.

‘That would be all the better, wouldn’t it?’ the Queen said, as she bound the plaster round her finger with a bit of ribbon.

Alice felt there was no denying that. ‘Of course it would be all the better,’ she said: ‘but it wouldn’t be all the better his being punished.’

‘You’re wrong there, at any rate,’ said the Queen: ‘were you ever punished?’

‘Only for faults,’ said Alice.

‘And you were all the better for it, I know!’ the Queen said triumphantly.

‘Yes, but then I had done the things I was punished for,’ said Alice: ‘that makes all the difference.’

‘But if you hadn’t done them,’ the Queen said, ‘that would have been better still; better, and better, and better!’ Her voice went higher with each ‘better,’ till it got quite to a squeak at last.

Alice was just beginning to say ‘There’s a mistake somewhere—,’ when the Queen began screaming so loud that she had to leave the sentence unfinished. ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ shouted the Queen, shaking her hand about as if she wanted to shake it off. ‘My finger’s bleeding! Oh, oh, oh, oh!’

Her screams were so exactly like the whistle of a steam-engine, that Alice had to hold both her hands over her ears.

‘What is the matter?’ she said, as soon as there was a chance of making herself heard. ‘Have you pricked your finger?’

‘I haven’t pricked it yet,’ the Queen said, ‘but I soon shall—oh, oh, oh!’

‘When do you expect to do it?’ Alice asked, feeling very much inclined to laugh.

‘When I fasten my shawl again,’ the poor Queen groaned out: ‘the brooch will come undone directly. Oh, oh!’ As she said the words the brooch flew open, and the Queen clutched wildly at it, and tried to clasp it again.

‘Take care!’ cried Alice. ‘You’re holding it all crooked!’ And she caught at the brooch; but it was too late: the pin had slipped, and the Queen had pricked her finger.

‘That accounts for the bleeding, you see,’ she said to Alice with a smile. ‘Now you understand the way things happen here.’

‘But why don’t you scream now?’ Alice asked, holding her hands ready to put over her ears again.

‘Why, I’ve done all the screaming already,’ said the Queen. ‘What would be the good of having it all over again?’

***

Sophie’s mind particularly loved this section of the book. She spend an endless amount of time reading it. Over time, her mind began to heal. The Multiverse wasn’t a linear thing, the future now existed in her mind. She felt emotions trickling in from the future, she knew it. Unlike the White Queen who could remember things, there was no clear face to the emotions, but she would have to deal with them. “I’ve done all the screaming already,” was a powerful line — it meant a lot. She read it over and over. The Queen felt things once, not twice. She needed to feel once, today and be ready for what would come next.

Sophie smiled as the outside world moved closer to the Attraction.

Liam and Laurent agreed, Sophie would decide when she would emerge. In the real world, the young girl’s body appeared to have fallen asleep. Then, as if to shield her, a large bubble of energy began to protect her. The cocoon was impenetrable, even by Marilyn.