Amber's Suspicions

     “Are you coming tonight?”

     Amber looked up from her book, slightly startled by the abrupt question. “What?”

     “Are you coming?” Klia questioned again excitedly, literally bouncing up and down on the couch. “To the Halloween party at the Shinsei Temple tonight! It’s completely free, no admission fees or food sales whatsoever! And everything is funded by the Goddess herself!”

     “Ah yes, the Goddess…” Amber forced out a small, fake smile. “I’m afraid I can’t go. I still have yet to order the ingredients for the diner for next week.”

     “But come onnnn!” Klira whined, stomping her feet adorably like the cute nine year old she was. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience! The first time the Goddess has publicly funded anything in the past one hundred years! Who knows, maybe the Goddess will make an appearance at the party as well!”

     “Sorry, Klira, but I’m not interested. Like I said, too busy.” Amber apologized genuinely. She always wanted to spend more time with her younger sister, especially after their parents died, but many times more urgent things took its place. “You can go with Cinder and her family, they wouldn’t miss out on such a big party.”

     “Fiiine.” Klira sulked. “But promise that you’ll take me to the park tomorrow?”

     “Of course.” Amber agreed happily. Klira immediately brightened up.

     “Yay! See you soon, big sis!” Klira said cheerfully as she dashed out the door, her too-big backpack bouncing up and down as she did so. Amber let out a sigh and closed the door that Klira always neglected to shut, before heading back to her research.

     The Goddess was hosting a party at the Shinsei Temple tonight…

     The Goddess…

     All her life, Amber had been told that the world was a lifeless rock, barren of any life. There was water, yes, preserved in the frozen ice up north, but other than that? It was just empty caves, littered with ores and the occasional gemstone deposit. There was no way that anything could have survived long in the harsh circumstances.

     Then came the Goddess. Her official name was Reito Tsuki, but she could only be called Reito by those blessed with the gift of seeing her in person. To everyday ordinary people, she was called the Goddess and the Goddess only.

     The Goddess created life. After creating the human race, she realized that they needed food. Water. Shelter. So the Goddess carved out a city in the rock, created a large nearby cave full of mineral deposits and ores, as well as a freshwater lake on the lowest level that drew its water from melting glacier ice up north. She also created animals such as pigs, sheep, chickens, cows, and horses, as means of poultry and transportation. She built buildings out of the ground, filled each and every level of the city that the humans would live in with everything they would need.

     The humans were ever so thankful for the life that the Goddess had granted them, and vowed to let her stay in their city for as long as she wanted. 

     Amber had grown up like everyone else in their city. Living a happy life, going to school, praying to the Goddess, and taking care of her little sister Klira when their parents perished in a fire. She reclaimed their parents’ diner when she turned 16, and it had been running successfully for the past months.

     Then all it took was one rogue stone to come sailing into the vision of Amber’s perfect world to break the illusion and make it come crashing down.

     It had started as another ordinary day; Amber woke up, got Klira to reluctantly go to school instead of bombing an apartment building(that kind of stuff always got her in serious trouble), and ran the diner. She closed the diner an hour before 11 o’clock, which was lights out in the entire city. But then there was an incident with one of her coworkers, which left Amber cleaning up the result, which took longer than she had expected.

     Amber left the diner too late to return safely to her home. It was forbidden to be out on the streets after lights out, let alone light any source of light, let it be a flashlight, a candle, or a torch. But halfway home, the lights turned out and Amber was trapped in utter darkness.

     She naturally sought shelter in the closest building, which happened to be a newly opened bank owned by the government. The next part wasn’t completely clear to Amber, as it all happened in a flash, but she remembered something about the Goddess and something called ‘The Surface’ and someone had called the Goddess by her real name, Reito! Amber hadn’t caught the full conversation, but from what she caught on about, someone had something about the Goddess hiding a secret from the people of the city.

     One of Amber’s more distant friends Arthur had then come along and led her home. 

     Amber slammed another book on the Goddess shut, rubbing her temple and letting out a frustrated sigh. Nothing. All of her research on the Goddess so far had been fruitless. Heck, most of them just went on and on about how holy and divine humanity’s creator and savior was! Nothing she had found helped with her yearning question: what was the Goddess hiding from everyone?

     Could she have misheard? Was it all just a figure of her imagination? Amber refused to believe that anything she heard with her very own ears was ‘made up.’ Yet a part of her also refused to believe that the savior of humanity would hide something important from the people. And what was ‘The Surface,’ anyways?

     Amber decided a walk outside would help calm her nerves. She grabbed her white jacket and headed out the door, into the street bustling with excitement of all the people headed to the Halloween party. Maybe she would go, just to surprise Klira.

     The evening was chill, just like every other time of day. The lights were slightly dimmed starting around this time in the evening. The people on the streets were all laughing and conversing animatedly, most likely about either the party or the new movie that had recently been released.

     Amber closed her eyes and breathed in the cool cavernous air. Strolling along their neighborhood was always a peaceful experience that calmed her nerves and refocused her attention to the task at hand—

     CRASH.

     Orrrr not. Or maybe something could explode three floors up. Something that happened to explode right on the floor where the Temple and the party was located. Or the ceiling could crack severely with the noise and threaten to come crashing down. Sure. Why not.

     Amidst the frightened screams and panicked people, all Amber could do was sigh, turn around, and head back into her house.