Static

INTRODUCTION AND CHAPTER ONE

The Block was claimed to be heated but it was not warm. The first floor was the mess hall which unfortunately did not serve breakfast so there was no need for anyone to stop there. So we kept walking to the stair case at the far end of the building. We walked down one flight to the training center. It was even colder in the basement which didn't help my already shivering body.

Here we had more freedom than I'm sure the monitors would have liked. Here we were able to talk and move around on our own free will. Sure they were still watching us closely, making sure we didn't use our abilities against each other in a way that could suggest we really were trying to kill someone.

Ha. Abilities. That makes it sound like what we can do is a privilege. Like others would do anything to be in our shoes so that they could do the same things we can. Trust me when I say, there isn't a soul left in this world who wants to swap places with me or any of the other girls and boys in our zone. The things we can do are not Abilities, they are curses. Curses that we pay for everyday. Curses that haunt us during the day and devour us when we sleep. Everyone's curse is different but we all suffer in the same way and it kills us more than the monitors ever could. The monitors are just big bullies but these curses, they're monsters in the dark that hit and kick us harder than the fists and feet of any of the monitors. We can't get them back, we can't stand back up and fight.

I file further into the cold, clammy room along with the rest of the girls in my bunker and in bunker number 2. They join us down here for the first 6 hours of the day and then we eat lunch and finally diverge while we carry out the rest of our duties in the afternoon and evening.

The room is some odd material that squishes when you step on it. It could be some sort of styrofoam, I think, only, it's a metallic color, shiny and lustrous. The walls are made of it, the floor and the ceiling are made of it, the targets across the room are made of it.

"Roach, wanna spar?" I have my eyes focused a girl from bunker two being beaten to a pulp by one of her monitors. I hardly even heard Flea calling me since the disgust and the hatred I was feeling drowned everything else out. She had to ask several more times, apparently, before I actually responded.

"Roach?" She inquired, placing a hand on my shoulder. I shook myself out of my trance and slid my gaze over to her as she stood beside me.
"Don't look at them, you don't want them to think you care." I nod and she ruffles my brown hair with her hand. I think at one point, in Flea's other life, the life before this one, she was the definition of beauty. She had creamy brown skin that was the color of the hazelnut coffee my mom used to drink on Saturday mornings. Her eyes were a striking blue that contrasted greatly to her tan skin and dark black hair. Her high cheekbones and petal pink lips were just another factor that added to her flawless physique. However, the dark circles under her eyes and her frail limbs that seemed to have her skin sucked tight to her bones made her look weak and broken. But she wasn't.

"You said you want to spar?" I ask her, trying to block out the screaming from the girl being pounded in the corner. Don't look, I think, they might catch your eye and you'll be next.
I stand about ten paces away from Flea, facing her down.
I don't know how to explain the feeling that comes when you summon a curse. It's almost like a rumble, like a train is driving circles in the pit of your stomach and its presence suddenly becomes the only thing your aware of. Then the sensation spreads, it spreads to every limb, every nerve in your body, electrifying every last atom that makes up your existence. It paralyzes you, permitting you from doing anything other than feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins and the power that's mixed in your blood pumping through you to the beat of your heart. The process is as painful as it is exhilarating, but it doesn't last longer than a few seconds even if it feels like an eternity when you actually experience it for yourself.