The High Society

It happen’s on each full moon. The lights above the city intensify, reaching a peak at around 2 am. A continuous drone as deep as doom vibrates the citizens cells to their very nucleus. And, at some point during this, those individuals deemed beautiful enough to have received a golden, heart shaped locket, vanish into the lights above. Into what is known as The High Society.

To those left below, The High Society alludes to the possibility of a greater existence, albeit one which feels unattainable. Either you’re lucky enough to be born with it- ‘it’ being the desirable mix of genes thought necessary for a suitable level of beauty- or, you can afford to buy it, upgrading one self as and when the means allowed.

Sally was abundant in neither beauty nor funds. She had all but given up on the dream of The High Society the moment she had failed to graduate high school. No money, no looks, no chance of a better life. Like others with limited options, she took jobs as she could get them, finally settling in a role making sandwiches in a government cafeteria. The work was much like the sandwiches she had to create- unfulfilling and bland. Sally could feel her mind melting with each cheddar cheese toastie toasted. Could feel her soul become saltier with each speed of salted butter. Each salty spread.

It was the unfortunate electrical fire that changed her fortunes. On a mind melting morning, dark smoke filled the kitchen after a power surge. Sally could not escape. Flames surrounded her. Surrounded and burned her all over till she passed out, her lungs devoid of oxygen from all the screaming and smoke. The government took responsibility for the incident and compensated Sally handsomely.

She awoke in a hospital, a monitor blinking at her from the corner of the room. A beeping began and a nurse soon appeared and called out to a doctor, whom came in smiling with a group of students at her tail.

‘Now here we have a very special case; observe the symmetry of her face, the shape of her legs, the roundness of her breasts. All this achieved in less than a days work,’ she said to the onlooking students. The group gasped as they stared at Sally. She had become a beauty to behold.

Having left the hospital it was smooth sailing Sally. She was offered high end modelling jobs, she moved into an upmarket area, she was living the dream and surely The High Society would welcome her soon.

Soon was not as soon as Sally hoped however. Sally assumed it was her ass that was the problem and paid for implants to make it rounder. But, The High Society did not come round to the decision to accept her. Sally stared at her lips each morning desiring them fuller. She fulfilled the wish weeks later. Sally felt too blue that her eyes were not blue enough. The results of the operation to change them was eye-catching. So blue. Change after changed after change, until one morning she awoke with a golden locket around her neck. It felt warmer than it ought to, as though somehow it could generate it’s own heat. There were inscriptions on both sides in a language she could not understand but which filled her with simultaneous dread and wonder.

For days, Sally’s dreams were possessed by images of dark, monstrous and amorphous shadows. Shadows which whispered tales of other life forms communicating in a language she did not understand and she soon began to feel a great, growing discomfort about the fast approaching full moon.

Weeks passed and Sally awoke one night under lunar lights. A low humming shook her to the very nucleus of her cells. Clock hands clicked and clacked, moving themselves to show the time to be 2 am and the humming intensified. The heart shaped locket buzzed and whispered in acrid tones, then the inscriptions glowed. Sally felt a burning that dwarfed that of her kitchen accident. She screamed as the heat engulfed her and the world dimmed before her eyes.

A new world came into vision almost immediately. Sally’s eyes adjusted and she could see other in a line to her left and right. All of them beautiful, all of them with a heart shaped locket dangling around their necks, all of them looking confused and frightened.

It was then that Sally saw them. The amorphous blobs towering well above ten feet tall, gathered in droves before the line as though they were watching a theatrical performance. It soon became apparent that this was not the case. The blobs, like human’s wore fabrics, but ones which were clearly made from fibres not of this world, ghastly yet mesmerising. Sally looked at her fellow human’s all of whom seemed equally shocked judging from their shuffling body language.

An amorphous blob came towards the line and muttered something. A dark and handsome young man stepped forward and followed the blob to stand before the crowd. Different sounds emanated from the audience in short, individual bursts. They grew more excited and somehow, competitive, building to a crescendo and then a sudden, sullen silence. Next to the man, the towering blob made a gesture, a gesture which summoned a shadow. A shadow which wrapped around the terrified man’s neck.

A blob from the crowed stepped forward opening up an object that resembled a travel bag and put the man inside with his head sicking out adorably out of the top. Spurned on by the happenings and scared almost to death, Sally decided to run, but it was no use. A shadow suddenly formed around her neck and after a brief period of commotion in the crowd she too was bourn upwards towards an eager, gurgling blob. She yelped and yelped for help. As she was embraced by the blob her skin felt as though it had been drenched in a hot jelly. The weird feeling was soon over, as the blob placed her in it’s own bag, her head sticking out of the top. She felt as blue as her eyes. So blue.

Soon, all too soon, Sally felt a gentle swaying as her new owner set off, happy with it’s purchase and oblivious to the pleading words that Sally had began to shout, translating them as the exited barks of a pedigree pet going to it’s new home in The High Society.