I AM NOTHING

Eyes open, feet touch the ground, he goes to a mirror, looks at himself, he proceeds to focus on every flaw that his face holds, his thoughts filled with an amalgamation of insecurities and hate, he wants to be fixed, he wants to be better.

The sink below his nose is clean, perhaps the maids have visited his abode while he was asleep, the tap gushes a laminar flow of water only to be used as a wakeup call rather than for hygiene. He walks over to the shower compartment of his rather 'expensive' bathroom, he reaches over to a button which allows a special fluid to be excreted by the shower head, there is minimal requirement for human effort the fluid cleans and exfoliates all the areas it touches on the human body, the only task for him is to dry himself afterwards.

He walks out of the shower and opens a wardrobe directly opposite to the shower compartment, its white background with metalic rims, handles with engravings on it, "it's probably coated with gold" he thinks to himself, he slowly walks over to it being careful not to slip on the fluid that drips down his body still doing its job of cleaning, as he walks over to the wardrobe he can feel the slight viscosity of the fluid on the soles of his feet. He reaches for the handle and tugs at it. It doesn't budge. "Haha, it must be one of those new models", he runs his fingers across shaded sections of the metallic rim, it dispenses a razor, the blades were blue, it was a specific alloy, usually used for weaponry, "people must be spoilt for using it for a mere razor", not being able to realise the irony, he grabs it by the neck and runs the blades across his heavily built jaw, ripping through every hair, picking up the dead skin along with each stroke, he cuts himself three times as his square jaw is too hard to manoeuvre around. Though the wardrobe could act as the mirror, it only angered him, "I wish I was a little taller. Although my frame is heavily built, I am pretty average in height."

He walks out of the bathroom hurriedly, realising he spent too much time grooming and runs down. This household follows strict discipline. "I have to greet the heads of the household" He tells himself as he stomps on every two steps of the staircase, he has to run up as his room is located at the basement of this 4 story building, he makes it in time to the main hall, he could see his mother working on the Plasmagnifier, a small device, no larger that a hairpin, once its activated its a fully functional atomic computer, it allows a user to design layouts of miniature Dyson spheres used in fusion reactors, her fingers quickly tapping away, perhaps her design was on the verge of completion. She looks at him, "Took you long enough," she says in voice devoid of emotion, "My apologies, mother, I was merely rectifying the shabbiness of my attire."

"Hmm," she replies.

...................

Father was nowhere to be seen, he was the one who summoned me today, a shiver went up my spine, the mere weight of the shadow was pushing me to my knees, the scent reeked of musk, even the breathing was akin to a lions bellow, I immediately turn around, without even making eye contact, I drop to my knees and touch the feet of the man who has given me life, "I bow down to my creator!" I exclaim.

He grabs me by collar and puts me on my feet, "Sit down," he says calmly. It wasn't that he was large and beastly, he was in fact a normal sized man, it was his aura, it was the method in which he instigated discipline in me which caused me to behave that way.

I proceeded to walk towards his chair, I sit down on the floor, which was dressed with an artistic carpet, I had yet to achieve the authority to sit level across him, I am still nothing.

"You managed to pass out of university?"

"Yes, father."

"Your final score is rather average,"

"...."

"You are now 21, far too old for a scolding, I had to pull many strings to put you in that academy. Now you are on your own, I need you to join the Reconnaissance Squadron of our city, it pays well, and at least then can I use you as a political asset." He says in his bellowing voice.

"I will get on it right away." I say as I get up and march towards the exit of the hall.

"GRAHASANKRAKAH RAVANA," He calls out my full name, all souls in this room now surrendering to him, I turn around and get on my knees, my mother stops her work and stands up completely fazed, the head butler at the back whom I only noticed now tucks his fist behind his back and stands in attention.

I was afraid to even open my mouth.

"Yes, father," I sheepishly address him.

"DO NOT DISSAPOINT!" He exclaims.

"I understand, Father," I say as I run out of the hall.

That was my name, 'Grahasankrakah Ravan'

although my surename is grand (it means the destroyer of planets). I was named after a demon called Ravana. it's not surprising that I can get away with it. Many people don't even know that name. It's been thousands of years since people heard of such a person called Ravana, I do not know why I was named after him. My parents have never told me, they simply said it suited me.

It hurt when they said that.

"Young Man, here is the venue and required documents for the entrance into the Reconnaissance Squadron. Please embark on your journey as soon as possible, " said a voice behind my back, I look a round to see that it was one of our managers, I took the folder from him, without even looking at his face I turn around and walk away.

"How prudent," he says as he sneers at me. The later cusses become inaudible as he could not say any more to the heir of the clan.

I hated it...

I hate how I am not referred to with respect, "Young Man, *tsk*." I quarrel with myself, deep inside, I know why I am spoken to that way, I have achieved nothing. The university I went to was the greatest of all lands. It would have been a lifetime achievement if only I got into it with my own hands. My father had to pull a few strings to get me in... or that's what I think he did.

I quickly run down the stairs making it towards the ground floor, just before I leave I pay respects to my ancestors whose statues were placed on either sides of the corridor, I rush towards the exit, as I approach the door, I check whether my hair is parted correctly and rummage through all my pockets just to see if I forgot anything. I am good to go, I push the heavy metal alloy door, which slowly opens as it lets the glorious rays of the sun slip through.

The world outside was 'beautiful' according to my mother, I wonder if she knew that we did not even have a front yard. Perhaps I was too spoilt. The door opens onto the pavements of the cruel planet, I scanned the foot-path from left to right running my eyes over the saliva of an uncultured human and across the copper coloured stone now mandated by the Republic Empire.

"Today's not so bad," I said to myself.

A black coloured two seated hover car arrives in front of me.

"Get in." Says the chauffeur without an ounce of respect to his future feudal lord, I get into the vehicle without responding. The journey was swift we went across the city like a knife cutting through butter. I loved looking out through this vehicle, though its not the grandest hover car in the market, it's the only one with a curved glass hood, it's shaped like a horizontal rocket, it's even more wonderful to enjoy the view from this car at night.

My house was rather ancient in regards to current infrastructure, it was a 2000's model shelter, with only the insides modern, I kept telling my parents to save money and refrain from spending currency on the interiors and move to a better house, unfortunately they have no financial wisdom. I kept looking at the outside world while reminiscing my own little world... How different.

The buildings were grand, they weren't those boxy ancient buildings, every piece infrastructure was an art display, they were carved into shapes of mythical beasts and deities, some were shaped like the hood of the almost extinct king Cobra, it was unique, I could never get used to this architecture.

We finally arrive at the venue, I get down to see a holographic banner with the words, ["ADMISSIONS FOR LOCAL CADETS NOW OPEN"].

"WHAT?!" I shout in surprise.

"MY FATHER IS SENDING ME TO THE HUNTING GROUNDS?!" I question my chauffeur while emphasizing the word 'Father'.

"I am in no position to answer anything, complain to your father after you've completed your registration." says the chauffeur nonchalantly.

*tsk*, I click my tongue and walk into the venue guarded by the large gates, which are, in turn, guarded by the Empires soldiers.

"ID!" shouts one of the guards, I immediately reach into my pocket and hand over my National Identification Card without hesitation, I knew this is how the empires guards speak in general. He scans through my card while the other guard places a small machine shaped like a creepy spider on my solar plexus. "What is this? A prank?" I ask in confusion, "NEW RULES FROM THE EMPIRE!" He shouts the answer back.

The metal bugs' eyes start glowing and it runs across my entire body and into my clothes, even my underwear searching every nook an cranny of my body at the speed of sound, just as it enters into my rear end, I scream, the spider stops moving, the guard touches his wrist with the built in computer and the spider crawls out of my shirt and jumps into his hand.

The people behind me laugh. I tried to change the angle of my face so that no one could see it, I was embarrassed. "YOU MAY GO!" shouts the guard as he opens the gates. I walk through, and after a meter or two, I stop and look back so that I can laugh back on the people who ridiculed me.

They were being scanned normally! I ran to one of the officers nearby and asked her what was going on.

"The empires is testing new tech, augmented humans and cyborgs can dodge the normal scanning and we had to test it on people we knew weren't normal humans, unfortunately you were one of them, Hehehe," she explains while chuckling.

I have fixed morals and values, but the urge to punch this woman in the face was a strong rival to those morals.

"The gods really like testing me," I say to myself as I walk towards the entrance of the building, now that I was focused on the task at hand, I starded admiring the infrastructure of this place, the entire place was a grand estate with a single pyramid like structure in the middle with a levitating torus around it like the rings of Saturn, I heard someone saying that even the rings had people and offices in it. I proceeded to walk into the entrance, only to see the last person I wanted to meet...

Fair skin, large eyes with gold irises, slim, with a muscular structure, silky locks of hair which curl as they reach her back.

The one who was supposed to be my wife but now despises me...

To be continued...