It was moving, speedily like a train, nose crumpled like thrown out paper.

Tick Tock. The time was ticking.

Not for the first time, had the young girl fed off a crispy loft of expired bread at the back of the kitchen door, in the middle of an event. Her mouth covered with its crumbs and molds like the pile of dirt stuck to the edges of the door, bounced as she chewed with a purpose. She had till the mid hour to get back to work, which was only two minutes away.

Tick, Tick. The taste was unbearable.

She had to be fast, quicker if possible, for her Master could call her name anytime to serve lunch to his guests.

Her heart stopped when she heard the sound of a cough.

"Zyca. Where is the food?" she heard him roar like thunder clapping in the skies. Zyca jerked, not expecting the call, letting go of the leftover she held in her hands to fall with a boisterous thud. She stood static for a second, two and three, praying her Master had not heard the sound. She didn't want to be punished again for eating without his permission.

"Yes, Master Kane," she whispered in a minuscule voice after a while, tip-toeing as quietly as she could, more like a mouse, out of the kitchen door to stand next to him rocking on her feet.

Master Kane stood beside the kitchen table by sink, harboring glistering silver dishes, with boring white snacks and fatty red meat in a kimono and a hat, moving his mouth with his eyes strained to nothing. His blue skin turned greyish in an instant as he chocked, unable to breathe. A hand pounded on his chest, the other searching for a cup to drink, she presumed.

"It's too salty," he roared again after he greedily drained liquid down his throat. "What will the guest say, huh? Do you want to cloud my name? You know how important this event is to me." His pointy eyes twitched. She knew he was mad, mad with fury, she almost saw a cloudy smoke come off his head.

"I only put in a pinch or two," she tried to explain yet again. "I promise, Master Kane." Apparently, it was not the first time he had complained about her food being too salty, too soggy or too raw. He seemed to find something wrong anytime she did something or was involved with something.

"Well your pinch is like a fist," he snarled whipping his head to her to which she squirmed like a scared game ready to be caught by a herd of hunters.

"I'm sorry master. It won't happen again," she whimpered almost going on her knees.

Master Kane exchanged dark looks above her head, the corners of his lips raising in a one-sided smirk. Zyca knew what that meant, his fiancée, Lady Penicillin must have walked in or passed by. She wished so much for the latter.

Zyca backed up against the counter when her eyes caught the woolen shawl of the Lady parading the ground like its owner, which told her she indeed did not pass by like she wished. Lady Penicillin's skin, silky blue like sparking fine wine with a tea cup in her hands, swaying her hips from side to side.

Zyca tried to bid her a good morning, "G-good..." But her voice was drowned by the kissing noises she and her Master made when she placed her lips on his, grabbing his violet collars and he, her buxom back. It was embarrassing, she thought, she was right there. Have they no shame! She did not think she would portray such if she were bound to a boy.

"You look pale darling," Lady Penicillin finally spoke after many, many, many sucking hullabaloos.

Dear no, he was going to tell.

"There is too much spice in the food." She thought it was only salty. "I had a taste and now I'm as white as a ghost," Master Kane cried wining like an infant in need of milk and pointed at Zyca whose heart flew at the call of her name. "Your family can't eat this! They won't like it."

"I did tell you, she'll be your poison." Lady Penicillin snorted stretching forth her hand, taking a piece from the boring dishes and placed it in her mouth sucking her inner gum. She made a nasty sound. Her blue skin remained the same, not reacting the way Master Kane did.

"Hmm...It's edible. My parents can manage." Lady Penicillin said. "Here," she placed her mouth on his again and released a mashed-up goo mixed with her saliva into his mouth to which he chewed in delight. Zyca looked away again in repugnance but she was glad she hadn't gotten whipped at the courtyard for the neighbors to see.

"I made green vegetables too. I can get it from the fridge if you wish," she offered.

Master Kane and Lady Penicillin entangled from their holds and stared at Zyca wide eyed. It was mixture of surprise, and anger, more of anger she saw. Zyca knew she had done it again, made the same mistake she always did.

See, it was outlawed for her or anyone else to mention the word 'GREEN' in the house or anywhere else. The citizens frowned at the mere word for it brought humiliation and dishonor to the world of Genies, a realm they lived in.

"DID I NOT WARN YOU, THAT THAT WORD IS FORBIDDEN?" Master Kane thundered, marching forth like a seething beast to slap his hefty hand across her mushy cheeks. The sound was nightmarish. "TIMES WITHOUT NUMBER, I'VE TOLD YOU,

CAUTIONED YOU. BUT YOU STILL MAKE THE SAME FLIMSY MISTAKE LIKE THE IMP YOU ARE," he bashed her cheeks again and again, advancing as she moved rearward in fright. Her green face now bore the throbbing marks from his palms.

"I'm s-sorry," Zyca stuttered, a train of tears marring her skin. "I promise it'll never happen again. Please

Master..." Her face stung.

"TO HELL WITH YOUR PROMISES," he spoke in irritation and kicked the counter which jangled from the intensity.

"Oh, the stupid girl never listens," Lady Penicillin took a sip from her cup, whipping her tongue on her upper lip to rid it from the coffee stain.

A man, blue and thin in a shirt and shorts, emerged from the door, into the kitchen when Master Kane raised his hand to strike her again. He glanced at Zyca whose skin was blot and pale and like she expected he looked away but she was glad he entered at that time, unless she would have spent hours after hours pressing her cheeks with a towel of hot liquid.

"Mom and dad are getting reckless. They are hungry and tired of waiting," he said calmly addressing the both of them.

"A minute or two will do. Keep them calm, will you? I'm sure you know what to do, Charles." Lady Penicillin said and walked to Master Kane whose chest heaved in and out. Of course, he would get tired after exerting his strength like he did, the man could barely move up the stairs for he weighed possibly more than a thousand.

"Ok Penicillin but be quick, they can't wait to have a chat," the man drew a smile and backed away into the empty hall with a wave of his left hand.

Lady penicillin took Master Kane's hands in hers, knotting her fingers in his like the python she was, Zyca thought for a moment.

"Serve the guest," she hissed jerking her head to the way Charles left as she tugged on Master Kane's arm. "Come on Darling, we can't keep your employer waiting," she kissed his cheek. "And your soon to be in-laws," she kissed again and then they were out the returning door at the side.

It had never been this bad, never had it, that the green genies were punished severally for the mere mention of the color of their skin. Ever since, her father, Naxeremis Abram, had tried to take for his self the genie realm, the green genies were treated like a ticking bomb ready to explode by the second and like gum under a crummy shoe. Zyca understood them though, the fear they had some other green may have the same moonstruck idea her father had. Well that was why a golden cuff, with a splash of dirty black was placed around their very green wrists and thrown into a life of slavery to be controlled by the blue genies after inaugurating the master's program (a rotation of greens).

Zyca Abram lived in a hamlet of genies - where the greens were an accessory of the blues. They did not have the privilege to do as they pleased, move as they pleased, and sleep as they please nor eat as they pleased. They lived to serve their masters till they saw the deeper earthen soil six feet down below. From time to time, the blues go on a quest of mission, granting three wishes to their human masters (an irony of a sought), in their tiny golden pot where they lived in that short while and after that, they come whooshing like the wind back home or so she heard.

Zyca brought to mind the stories she heard from babble mouthed greens in similar cuffs as she sashayed passed their neighborhood to get things downtown for the house, of the times where the greens were respected, and of course they gave her an obscene eye to which she looked away. It was all because of her father, always her father, he was to blame. Naxeremis wanted to grope the powers from the higher ups, taking for himself one of the Bayer crystals (she still didn't know what that meant), which lead to so many deaths, off their hands to rule, he wanted power. They said, his act of struggle was the reason their once blue and vibrant sky had turned ashy Grey like dust on a wood panel.

Zyca had never met her father, she had only seen him in the compendium of rebels, on the dusty top shelf in Master Kane's unused library. Surprisingly, he was not the only one who had caused havoc on the genie world, they were blues and other greens, but he's stood out on the list as it read.

NAXEREMIS ABRAM

Terrorist and a Murder. A mad man who wants power for himself and a sorry excuse for a genie.

That was quite a punitive description. From his snapshot of his bearded face just above his name, she noticed she looked nothing like the six footed man except for his green skin which they had in common and all other greens had in common. Zyca's hair was ink like black like the witching hour, her cheeks had a light sprinkle of white spots and a barely visible scratch on her bottom eye lid.

It was a scratch she wasn't born with. Allet, her little sister had marked her face in the darkness of the night on a Tuesday, when she convulsed on their cold hard floor, just before she fell asleep. At the age of eight, Allet fell into a deep sleep, a rare disease that did not lead to death but to an everlasting slumber until she is cured by the genie doctor who of course were blues. And being graced with such skin color as theirs, such privileges were not given to them.

Master Kane, a clerk for Lady Penicillin's family who owned a booming hotel business known all over, was the father she never had-- took her and Allet in when no one wanted anything to do with the children of the man who caused an uproar and rained terror in their realm. He had found them one evening on his drunken spree on his day off from work, in a trash can of old papers and bottling caps where they had been dumped by the higher ups to rot and die after their former master abandoned them. That was one thing masters could do, they could swap a green if they found no use for them anymore. Zyca still thanked him till this day - what would have happened if they hadn't been found? Zyca shook her head and jiggled to rid herself of such an atrocious thought.

Today was his meet with Lady Penicillin's family, to settle the arrangements for their wedding the latter week. She dreaded having to live with her in the forthcoming days for she believed, her life would turn for the worse. Ever since she crawled into Master Kane's life, she had fed only on molded leftovers or worse, none at all and he said nothing about it. Lady Penicillin was poisonous. She was sure she spat in every drink she was given.

At that moment she heard Lady Penicillin screech meters away, "The food, Zyca. The food!"

Zyca quickly placed a number of empty plates with the silver dishes in a metallic tray and raced speedily out of the room trying to balance the weight.

"I'm coming!"

****

Zyca placed the tray on a miniature cuisine table in the beige living room and stood by it waiting for a guest to request something to eat. She watched Master Kane pull a beaming expression, with a certain gleam in his eyes every now and then, sucking up to three other blue genies including the young man who entered the kitchen a while ago, all on the comfy couch. She presumed the slightly hairless man with a deep voice and a curly mustache like a bouncy spring sitting beside a next to a red-haired willowy woman with a trickle of freckles on both her cheeks were Lady Penicillin's parents.

"Isn't it fine day?" A voice said. Zyca had not noticed the woman who stood by her placing another piece of food in her mouth. "Oh! This is really good," she moaned, chewing with her mouth wide open just to peeve her.

Unexpectedly, Zyca's tummy rumbled, a little too loudly and enough for Lady Penicillin to hear - it seemed the expired bread had only been enough to quench her hunger for only a few minutes. She gulped down a lump of spittle.

Lady Penicillin smirked as she took another piece slowly from the plate with her fingers. She stepped closer to her, one, two and three and patted the piece on the tip of her nose, dragging it down to meet her lips and her eyes watching, waiting for a reaction. Just a bite, Zyca pleaded in her head, just a little bite, she almost gave in, ready to snap her teeth around its sides.

"You want it. Don't you?" said Lady Penicillin. Zyca felt her head bop downward and upwards involuntary, looking at the crispy sides of the deep-fried delicacy.

"Then fetch," she laughed, throwing the piece in her mouth and waited for a few seconds after which she started chewing louder than before when she made no move to reach in as she wished. Well, Zyca wished to reach in, not to take the food, but to make her tongueless for eternity. "C'mon, take it." she opened her mouth and slipped out her tongue filled with chewed up the food. Thin elastic lines of saliva nested her mouth around the repulsive pile of scrunched up food.

Zyca glanced away.

Of course, she thought bitterly, she would never get a taste of the food when Lady Penicillin was involved. What an evil, evil person she was.

"Did you think, I would give it to you?" she started moving the back of her hand across her still stinging cheeks. "You are a waste of space Zyca. Good heaven knew I would have left you and your sister in the trash can to rot if I were Kane - but of course he is too kind for his own good," she snarled, breathing like a bag of winded pipes fanning her face with spicy breath.

"Penicillin darling please come here for a minute," Master Kane called.

"I'll be right there," Lady Penicillin answered promptly. She took another piece of food and walked to the bunch without sparing another glance.

Zyca heaved a sigh, she had unknowingly held since Lady Penicillin's first tormenting sentence. She felt naked, as seethed eyes watched her from the couch as little noises echoed from outside. She wished she could run to that noise, even if it killed her, it was better than having more than one Lady Penicillin at her neck.

"A nice day indeed," she whispered more to herself.

Zyca watched as Lady Penicillin's mother say something to Master Kane to which he stood up, stepping quickly towards her with his hands tucked deeply in his pockets.

"You may leave Zyca. I can serve them myself," he said. "They don't want you around and neither do I - it's uncomfortable."

Zyca couldn't be any gladder. "Call me when it's time to do the chores," she replied. "Enjoy your stay," she knew she did not have to wish the snarling genies to enjoy their stay when she wished them to chock and die, but she felt it was right etiquette, just like her mother taught her.

With a bow of her head, she bolted out the back door raising her bare feet, to the withered grasses and landed with her back on them and closed her eyes. Finally, some peace, she thought.

Although she was hated practically by everyone, there was one person she did not repulse -Colt Aster, a generous blue Genie was her best friend, her only friend. She had met him in the glare of an afternoon sun, on an errand to the wet-brook market on the cloud to get the ingredients for Master Kane's birthday cake.

Colt had collided with her, making her bag spin away, out of sight. He offered to replace everything she had lost, only if he got a signed autograph from her. At first, she had wondered why? But she did it none the less for she feared getting whipped again and worse of all, for something which was not her fault. After bumping into each other so very often, which she found weird, they had become good friends and kept in touch until he left for genie school where communication was prohibited with anyone outside the grounds.

Zyca was eighteen, a year older than Colt and she had never seen the fore walls of the school, green genies were not allowed that luxury too - she had learned how to read and write herself in Master Kane's library every time she was free from her chores. Whenever she read, she would hide away at the back of one of the book shelves to avoid being seen, not like the library was ever used - it was better to be safe than sorry.

Zyca missed her friend dearly and wished for him to come back from school as soon as he could.

A lump of male specimen with a tint of stinging aroma crashed on her stomach, pressing down her already flat tummy with his weight. Chubby arms appeared from the corners of their cotton shirt attacking her sides rapidly with all ten fingers. Zyca laughed and wiggled and squirmed, wheezed and chocked in agony, dancing her legs on the grasses until she was sure her foot had dug out some grasses. With the tiny strength she could muster, she knocked her forehead into her attackers, pushing him away with the balls of her feet.

"AHHH!" The person screamed, crashing into a bench with a loud SMACK. "Ouch," he cried again crunching in pain.

Zyca bolted straight up, palms of the floor to look at Colt with a smile on her face. Speak of the devil she thought. Her lips spread widely as she continued smiling at the prospect of having her best friend back. They could play again, stare at the darkened sky and read his school books as he told her of his school adventures.

"You deserved that," said Zyca. "Next time, you will think twice before you try that again."

"I just wanted to surprise you. Duh," Colt forced out, getting up as he wheezed in pain. "Now my sides are all broken and my forehead - because of you!"

Zyca sniffled a snort and went over to him to help him up to which he took without a second thought. Colt paused for a moment, her hand still in his, zooning in on her marred cheeks. He raised his eyebrows quizzically and turned to look her straight in the eye.

"Were you slapped again?" Colt sneered, wadding closer towards her.

Zyca withdrew her hands, and her body and tried to cover her skin with the collars of her shirt. "W-what are you t-talking about?" she stuttered withdrawing further away from him.

"Were you slapped again?" He repeated coming right up in her face.

She had to say something, something at least to get him off her back. "It was just an accident. I blame the wall I palmed my face with," she laughed nervously. Zyca knew why she did it, why she did not want to let him know she was hurt again - did not want him to make things worse for her, like the last time he saw her in tears.