Domonico

There’s a community with a population of 600, their location unknown to everyone but their two very powerful leaders, King and Prince. 10 years back, a child was having a dream, not realizing that what was happening in their dream was actually happening in real life. In the child’s dream they were slaying their parents. King and Prince didn’t want anything like this to happen again, so they made dream protectors... aka Domonico. At this, they came up with their new motto, “Maintain your happiness!”. 

Welcome to the community! Here is a message from your leaders! “Greetings resident or visitor! Welcome to our wonderful community. King and I have recently distributed a new form of technology, a dream protector or a ‘Domonico’.

 ‘Domonico’ watch over your dreams as you sleep, but also can perform a number of other jobs as they learn easily. They are necessary to maintain our happiness, and also to protect ourselves from another “dream accident.” Please read through the rules and laws of owning a ‘Domonico’ thoroughly, a copy was sent out to every individual and/or family who has received a ‘Domonico’ Enjoy the rest of your day, and maintain your happiness! 

Today Lestari’s domonico, Nessa, was scheduled for her doctor's appointment. It was just a checkup, but Ness still hated it.

“Hey, I’m here to check Nessa out, she got the basic checkup.” Lestari told the domonico, Cassie, at the counter of the domonico clinic. She looked over at Nessa who smiled happily at her. She smiled back, and grabbed her wallet. 

“Thank you! Last name please!” Cassie chimed with the tinny voice Lestari had always hated. Why couldn’t they change the clinic domonico’s voices? Everyone hated them, even a few of the domonico owned by the citizens reacted poorly.

“Oh, Nessa Spears, Apologies.”

“No Problem, Lestari!” Cassie clacked her sharp nails across the keyboard quickly, then looked back up at Lestari, “that would be $50.” She held out her hand for her card, blinking a few times. 

Lestari handed her the card and waited for her to finish the transaction, quietly speaking to Nessa, “Okay Ness, we have to go to the grocery store after we finish up here, can you take a note of the items we need? Milk, eggs, a few fruits and vegetables, and some oil for your eyes.” Tess nodded and blinked at Her. “Noted!” she affirmed with a cheerful tone in her voice. Seems the doctor had given her a sticker, that had always cheered her up after going to the doctors. 

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO? YOU HAVE TO SAY YES! MY DOMONICO IS MALFUNCTIONING!” Lestari heard a loud voice yelling beside her. A tall girl with dark hair, and ear piercings stood there with her domonico, who seemed to be fine. The domonico behind the desk didn’t move, staring at her with the same expression she always wore, which was blank. “Hey, calm down. The domonico is trying to do her job, why can’t you get in?” Lestari tried to calm her down, which caused more and more yelling. 

“SHE SAYS BECAUSE I’M NOT 18 I CANNOT CREATE AN APPOINTMENT FOR MY DOMONICO, BUT SHE NEEDS TO COME IN. I DON’T HAVE A LEGAL GUARDIAN.” Just then, Nessa began making a small whirring noise. Ness was making eye contact with the girl’s domonico; they were scanning each other. 

“Scan complete! Izzy Ziegler is now a friend of Nessa Spears.” Lestari grabbed the screaming girl by the arm and ripped her out of the office onto the sidewalk outside of the clinic. The girl looked at Lestari and began yelling at her about grabbing her suddenly, and Lestari snapped back, 

“Do you have an idea what they just did?”

“Huh? What do you mean? What did they do?” she tilted her head, clearly confused about the situation. Of course she doesn’t know what happened, she clearly didn’t read the laws of owning a domonico. 

The first rule is you cannot own a domonico until you’re 18. The second, she was about to find out. 

“They scanned each other! It is illegal for a domonico to scan another one. You’re lucky Nessa saw Izzy as a friend, otherwise we would be tearing these two apart from each other.” Lestari breathed heavily, she knew King was watching her heavier than the rest of the community, she would be expecting company soon. 

“I’m so confused right now, my name is Alex by the way.” Alex held her hand out and firmly shook Lestari’s hand. 

“Lestari. Look, we gotta get out of here or we will both be brought to King and Prince.” Lestari was starting to feel her anxiety rise again as she ran to her friend Erica’s house. Erica always knew what to do in these situations. Once she reached her place she turned to Alex. 

“Okay, this is a pretty safe place, but don’t be disrespectful of Erica. She has two domonico guard dogs, though I'm not sure if they’re active, so be careful.” She turned back to Erica’s home, and knocked on the door. Her domonico, Raphael, answered.

“She’s here!” Raph yelled back toward the kitchen. 

“Let 'em in!” Erica yelled back from the room, “the doggies aren’t active.” 

Lestari followed Raph in, accompanied by Alex close behind. Her heart was still pounding. King has had a tracker on Lestari since she tried to leave the community a few years back. Each domonico has cameras in their eyes, so of course they always have Nessa’s on their screens. Erica joined them in the living room, drying her hands with a towel that she gave to Raphael, who took it back to the kitchen. She looked at Lestari with angry eyes after realizing Alex was there.

“Who is this? Why did you bring a random person into my house?” she scolded her, gesturing toward Alex.

“I’m Alex-” 

“I don’t care who you are, why are you here?” she snapped, glaring at Alex with her arms folded across her chest. 

“Her domonico interacted with Ness,” Lestari responded, causing Erica’s anger to change quickly to fear.“They both scanned each other, and Nessa said ‘Izzy is now a friend of Nessa’ or something along those lines.” she concluded, watching Erica start to rummage around her drawers. 

Alex stood in between them, looking dumbfounded, “I still don’t get what’s so bad abo-”

“Did either of them show any signs of aggression or anger?” Erica asked Lestari, to which she responded with a simple “No.”

Erica sighed, pulling out a phone from her messy drawer, and started dialing some numbers. Her foot was tapping on the ground, Lestari could tell she was anxious, which wasn’t like her. She left the room when the person on the other end picked up. 

Alex shrugged and plopped herself down on the couch, “I don’t know what her deal is, she keeps interrupting me.” Lestari snapped her head back and walked up to Alex, getting close to her. 

“You don’t even know how much she goes through to help me, and now she’s helping you, and you can’t even be respectful of her in her own home? I’ve known Erica since we were kids, she’s been my best friend for years, and she has a tracker too because of me. So be respectful because she’s helping you so that YOU don’t get killed.” Lestari backed off and sat down in a chair on the opposite end of the room.

Alex rolled her eyes and slouched down further into the couch, picking at her nails and playing with her hair. He was clearly 16 or 17, she wasn’t able to legally own a domonico, and she has no guardians. Lestari wondered if she was an orphan. If she is, she wouldn’t be allowed to live alone, especially with Izzy. Izzy was standing in a corner with Ness, who was repeating to herself the grocery list. 

“Lestari, we were supposed to go shopping.” Ness sounded disappointed, like she did something wrong. 

Lestari nodded, “It’s okay Nessa, we can go shopping tomorrow.” Nessa nodded happily and took a mental note. Lestari was happy she had Nessa, she was always there for her. She didn’t care if it was her job, it was still nice to have her company since her mother was working so much.

Erica came back into the room, and made an announcement Lestari wasn’t expecting, “King and Prince are on their way.”

“What? They’re coming themselves, not sending someone?” King had always been very careful when it meant coming into the city, so this must be serious. 

“I was just informed by King himself, he said he’ll be here in a few minutes, so be ready to talk.” Erica cautioned. She looked worried, of course, but she still looked confident, which gave Lestari some security. 

Just as Erica said, 5 minutes later a knock was heard at the door. Erica ran to answer it, wiping her hands on her skirt she had changed into. 

“Greetings King, please come inside.” she backed away, letting King enter the room. A short, stubby man with white hair and a monocle stepped inside. 

He bowed his head, “Greetings Erica and Lestari! Long time no see,” he said with a smile, “and this must be Alex, I heard you were making some noise at the clinic today.” he looked at Alex with hooded eyes. Alex gave a nervous laugh and wiped her hand on her pants.

“Y- yes sir. I apologize, making an appointment for Izzy has been difficult since my parents being uh-” she paused and looked at King with tears in her eyes. King gave her a soft, yet impish smile. “I know little girl, and I'm sorry you have to go through that, but you must understand what they did was wrong.” He lifted an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side at Alex as if he was questioning her. Alex nodded and stood, shaking King's hand, then took her seat again. 

“Moving on, I want you all to come to dinner tonight, at my place.” King announced excitedly, clapping his hands together loudly.

Lestari’s heart began to race, “Why would you want to have dinner with us? I thought what Nessa and Izzy did was wrong.” 

King looked quite offended by her question, then dismissed her, ignoring the question. “I will have a Limo arrive here at 6pm tonight, make sure to look your best!”

he turned, then left the house, Erica closing the door behind him. She looked like she had seen a ghost, which was understandable, King was just in her home. 

“Well, I guess we should go shopping for clothes, because I have nothing nice.” Alex chimed in. Lestari also had no nice clothes that fit her. The last time she wore a dress was her high school graduation, and that was years ago. Erica nodded in agreement, then looked at her phone.

“We won’t even have to spend our money, Prince just sent me $20,000.” Erica gasped. Alex ran over to her phone to check, her jaw dropping at the zeros. Lestari wasn’t shocked, the only reason she was still alive was because of Prince’ crush on Erica when they were caught trying to escape two years earlier. 

“Well, let’s get going then.” Lestari said, cracking a smile. With their newfound wealth, they were determined to give themselves the makeover of a lifetime. 

Hours of shopping later, Alex and Lestari found some nice clothes, and got them tailored right away, which made Lestari feel rich. Erica was making them rate some dresses she was trying on, which made Lestari permanently a bright shade of red and unable to talk, so Alex was the only one giving input. 

Erica stepped out of the dressing room wearing a dress made from light green and silver fabrics. An elastic band within the dress perfectly accentuates her waist and breaks up the dress nicely. The dress reaches all the way down to her feet and is longer at the sides and back of the dress. She maneuvered around the small stage, every movement she made the dress followed her, making her look like a princess.

“I really like this one!” Erica beamed proudly, flipping her hair. Alex and Lestari both got red and looked away. Erica frowned, “Does it look bad? I thought this was the one!” 

She was about to go back when the store owner chimed in, “I think they do like it, you took their breath away, and they look like tomatoes! You look stunning darling.” 

“Thank you! So, should I go with this?” She turned toward them again, her hands on her hips, and they both nodded sheepishly. She blushed a little, and went back behind the curtain to change. Lestari quickly went back to worrying about what was going to happen at the dinner, and Alex started winking in the large mirror on the wall. After the dresses were paid for, they all went to get Erica’s and Lestari’s hair and makeup done, which took about an hour. Alex refused to get her’s done, and said a dress was enough. 

At 5’oclock everyone was waiting at Erica’s house in their attire, waiting for the limo, which pulled in right as King said it would. It had tinted windows, which Lestari assumed was for safety reasons, but it seemed unnecessary considering neither King nor Prince was there- or so she thought. 

“Hello, everyone! My, you all look so dashing today. Erica, it’s so nice to see you again!” Prince’s voice burst, causing Lestari to wince. Erica gave him an awkward smile and thanked him for his kindness. Even though she was clearly uncomfortable, Prince was persistent with his compliments, not backing down. Of course, Prince noticed Lestari and Alex. He chose to ignore them, thinking they wouldn’t care, but Alex liked attention, and she wasn’t getting it. 

Alex wrapped her arm around Erica, gave her a peck on the cheek, and winked at Prince. “So, what’s this dinner for? Are you giving us a final meal before executing us?” she laughed at her own joke, but was quick to realize Prince was burning with anger.

“Alex, please get your arm off of me, why are you doing that?” Erica scolded, throwing her arm off of her, Prince smiled at her rejection. Erica scoffed, rolling her eyes. Lestari decided to ignore the banter and look out the windows. There were trees lining the dark, winding road, and behind them was a large stone wall, which kept the citizens inside the city. Lestari could feel Herself drifting to sleep, as she closed her eyes and rested her head against the cold car window, finally accepting what was to come, or not.