Chipped Heartz & Broken Smilez

Pregnancy

Just like light and dark existed, there were the creatures that roamed above the earth and those that lived below. The labyrinth waited beneath the earth's surface, filled with society's rejects; murderers, thieves, rule breakers, and monsters. Anyone who failed to walk a straight line and stick to the good path ended up there.

People like my mother and now Ivan. As to how they would survive, well, I doubted I would see them again. My mother had never been physically strong. In my memories, she was a slender, pale-faced woman who wore her long black hair in a ponytail. She had hated the boxy grey dresses she had been ordered to wear to work. She had hated standing for hours, the total weight of her body pressuring the soles of her feet as she laboured in an assembly line, putting together watches for people in higher grids to wear.

I don't remember a time my mother had ever been happy. Sure, she might smile or laugh, and sometimes she would envelop me in her warm embrace, and all my fears and discontent would vanish, but those times were few and far apart. Most times, she was sad, gazing at the wall or soot-stained window as if she were waiting for something. As a child, I had been too preoccupied with games, friends, or the books I read to notice. But as I got older, I saw her dissatisfaction with life increasing almost daily. And so did my father.

He had tried to talk to her, coax her into accepting her position in life and enjoying the simple pleasures, but her unhappiness remained.

Like my mother, Ivan had never existed.

I had never seen his smile, heard his voice, or felt his touch.

His name had been removed from his team's registry. Any pictures of him and his team members had vanished. The fact that he had been tortured and bullied for months by his team members was also forgotten.

No one mentioned his name; he had simply faded from existence. His family members, including the younger sister who had sent him a boatload of strawberry milk, would be forced to forget him if they didn't want to infringe the law. There would be no court case, no chance to explain his actions. Instead, he would simply disappear, and whatever threat he had posed to the structure and functioning of society would vanish.

***

"You told him." I sat on the other side of Yolinda's desk. My chair was smaller than hers and less comfortable.

Yolinda smirked. "Whether I told Ivan about the duel or Fred told him, it doesn't matter. The deed is done, and now you're free."

"He had a family that loved him. A sister who would do anything for him. If you hadn't encouraged him to fight Fred, he would still be here."

"And you would both still be miserable." She rolled her eyes. "I did what I thought was best. The chances of you dying were higher than Ivan's. I have never seen you try to kill anything, but I knew Ivan loved you and had no trouble killing someone if it ensured your survival. You, on the other hand...." She shrugged, making no attempt to finish her sentence.

"If I had the chance to prove myself, I would have done the same."

She sighed; some of the humour left her eyes. "You got what you wanted; now, leave me alone." She paused; her gaze flicked back to the form she was filling out. The title at the top suggested it was a marriage registration form with some guy named Thomas Gendron. Her eyes filled with scorn as she signed the line at the bottom and tucked it into a brown folder. Her sigh lasted roughly five seconds as she leaned back against the chair and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she said, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you. When was the last time you had your period? You haven't requested anything from the inventory in almost three months."