[lowercase intended]
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there is a girl, and she is alone. she doesn't have a name. she doesn't have an identity. she only has the weight of her body, frozen and still against the ground.
an empty throbbing pulses against the girl's skull, nausea forcing her eyes to continue to stay closed. taking in a gulp of air for the first time, she does not bear to move, only assesses the aching of her body. a warm breeze wafts over her, blowing heat onto her face.
the girl's breathing is slow, each gasp loud and clear, and her senses feel dull. but slowly, she stirs back to life, her eyes opening. the azure sky above her is rich in color, swirls of clouds drifting across it. only when she starts to shift, does she notice there is sand underneath her.
'where am i? ' she thinks. the thought brings a wave a panic upon her. it is already hard to think straight through the haze of her mind, and she is struggling to remember something she hasn't even forgotten.
with effort, she struggles up to her feet, looking at the desolate land before her. the landscape is barren, full of pink and white hued hills and mountains that scatter the desert floor.
in the distance, she can make out the skyline of a city if she squints hard enough.
the same feeling of panic rises in her throat again, scalding it.
jarringly, she's snapped out of her daze when she hears a slight shifting of sand. she turns her head, only to see a woman bundled in swathing dark blue rags, hunched over.
"excuse me," the girl gasps out for the first time, her voice raspy.
"where are- uh, where are we?" she finishes, struggling to get the words out. her throat burns from thirst.
the woman stares at her for a long time.
"us? we are nowhere," she responds vaguely, her voice gravelly. shivers run down the girl's spine.
"who is us?" she asks the old woman slowly.
"we're the outcasts. we live away from there." the ragged woman draws a breath, pointing to the city in the horizon.
"what is that?" she cranes her head to look.
"those are the badlands," she pulls her shawl tighter around her head, looking the girl in the eyes. "we don't go there."
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COPYRIGHT:
© romancasualty, june 2015
YOU ARE READING
BADLANDS
Fanfictiona lost girl without a name heads into the grimy streets of the badlands headfirst, imprisoning her not only in the ghost of a city, but inside of her own mind. the city is a dystopian paradox, built off of the sins and lies that hold her captive lo...
