Above The Law

Chapter 5~ What's happening?~

As Eclipse started to close their eyes, Sky shuffled around a bit. She was trying to get herself comfortable for the night ahead. Outside, it had began to get really noisy- the snow had turned into hail- and was banging on the windows, desperate to get inside. The wind howled like werewolves on a full moon's night- they tried to drown the noises with their thoughts. Eclipse's thoughts were thorns- whenever they thought about them, they always seemed to hurt them in some way. 

For Eclipse, today seemed like a dream- and a nightmare. On one hand, they'd made a wonderful friend- someone who actually seemed to care- someone who wanted to be there. On the other hand, Eclipse had found out that the government seemed to have 'deployed robots out into the city'- or at least, that's what Mx Claire had shown them. Eclipse still didn't know whether or not to believe Mx Claire for the article that they had found- but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Sky was looking up at the ceiling. She had never thought that someone would have decided to be friends with her. She seemed too caught up in her obsessions, but she was glad that someone wanted to listen to those obsessions. Everyone else that she had tried to become friends with left her, for reasons she could and could not decipher. 

After a while, Sky had finally fallen asleep. Eclipse was still wide awake, trying to distract themselves from both the weather and their thoughts. If they could get their mind away from them both- for just a minute- they could finally, finally, get to sleep.

Breathe in... breathe out...

They blinked their eyes open again after a few minutes.

Eclipse found themselves in a drowsy state- but was handcuffed, surrounded by men in police outfits- in a court room. 

"Order in the court! I hereby ask Estella Garcia to stand up and defend herself." The judge asked.

Eclipse was confused. They didn't go by Estella anymore. They didn't go by 'she/her' anymore.

Unconsciously, the body they were in stood up, and started to talk. They started to talk about how they didn't go by Estella anymore. How they didn't go by 'she/her' anymore.

"Well- that's the reason you're in court today! You aren't classified as normal in the government's books- you aren't meant to be here. You aren't meant to be alive. Your opinions do not matter. Your defence does not matter. Final order. You are guilty as charged." The judge laughed.

Next to the judge in this crazy courtroom was a familiar figure. Eclipse looked at the figure more carefully. It was their mother. She seemed to be defending the judge- did she not care about Eclipse anymore?

"Estella, I'm so sorry." Their mother called out.

"But- I go by Eclipse now, Mom, haven't I told you so many times?" The confused Eclipse remained paralysed in shock. Why couldn't they move? They wanted to move. Why couldn't they lift up their hand to point ahead, or to move their hair out of their face?

Their hair. How was it in their face? They'd cut it specifically so it'd be out of their face. They moved their eyes around. Their hair was long again- and brown. Why was it back to normal again? 

Why did this world seem peculiar? Strange? Extraordinary? They couldn't find a word to explain it. It just seemed so weird. 

Was this what Mx Claire was talking about? Or was this just an element of their imagination- something that had emerged from them overthinking about their life- overthinking about all the information that they had gathered from that talk with Mx Claire after school?

This must be fake. Or maybe it was real. Maybe something happened to someone else- maybe a memory of someone else's life was playing in their mind- and all the names and faces had just been switched out and changed to suit them. 

They still couldn't move. Eclipse was getting distressed. They had to do something.

"Guilty as charged." The judge spoke up again. "Guilty as charged." He started to sound like a record player. "Guilty as charged." He seemed to be on a repeat. 

"Mom. Help me. Please." Eclipse cried out, struggling to come out of the handcuffs. Two of the police officers grabbed their arms and dragged them back into their seat. 

"Stop please! What have I done wrong?" Eclipse teared up.

"According to the law book, and stated by the government, you must not change your name to become anything different to what it is. You must not change how you identify as, as that would ruin whether you identify as a Moon or a Sun. According to your words, you have failed to obey by either of these, and are hereby arrested and sentenced to death. Nobody is allowed to disobey. Nobody is allowed to steer away from the rules. What is said is done." The police officers all said in unison.

"Mom-" Eclipse tried to call out.

"I'm sorry." She replied.

Suddenly, their handcuffs broke apart- and they tried to run. The term 'run for your lives' had suddenly became real. But it was too late. 

The police officers gathered around Eclipse, in an oval like shape, before biting their arms. Immediately, they transformed into robot like figures.

"Now you see, this is what you were warned about." The judge said one more time, before disappearing into thin air.

This couldn't be real. None of this could be real. Or could it? It couldn't. But it might? Or maybe it was just all a mistake. Or maybe not?

Eclipse froze.

They reached out, but they were suddenly pinned to the ground with a net. They couldn't move now.

Their mind whirled.

Words, phrases, figures of speech. Gestures of kindness. They weren't sure of what to think about everything now. 

"I'm sorry." was the last thing they heard.

Eclipse's mind went blank.

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Writers notes:

sorry for the cliffhanger lmao <3 but you'll get the jist of it throughout the story, I like cliffhangers.

moral of the story is- stop overthinking.

anyway

have a good day lols

see you next week :)

-saratheshrimp