A Girl Named Cactus

t h r e e

I woke up in bed. It wasn't my bed either. It was my sisters bed.

MY SISTER?! WHAT?!

My sister. She's 17 now. Only four more years until she moves into another bubble of containment. Jail. A place with no escape and no entry.

I mean, you can't tell it's a bubble. Unless you're curious like me and like to go to the edge of the forest.

Not everyone has a sibling. The ones who do share a apartment sized house with them. Others have their own. Some share with old family friends. Which is confusing. How do they remember? I hardly remember the guys name. The one with the fabric wad. And I opened it up.

It was a photo. Of a blonde kid, squinting his eyes at a camera, his mother and fathers hands on his shoulders, his brother and another girl, (probably his girlfriend) standing together in a park.

Why did they pick on Lucas? Like how they left his brother out of this bubble society . But not Lucas. Maybe he is here, or are they in different bubbles? Because of what they choose? So many questions.

I don't even remember my sister when I was younger. It was all erased. But the expressions in her face, the way she responds to things, it's an older version of me. I guess. The same small nose, the brown hair, the auburn eyes, I've gone through a time machine. I wish I did. I've wanted to leave this place as soon as I can.

Chaos. Every. Single. Night.

All the 20 year olds. All acting stupid and have the urge to set fire to the first thing they see.

The city isn't very pretty. Just a bunch of abandon buildings, and the food the people provide us is awful. They only give us what we need, nothing sentimental. But what was I thinking, people that stab you with syringes give you presents every Christmas?

I have no track of days, anyways, so no more holidays.

Sometimes it rains, or snows, but we can't feel it. And that's another way we know it's a dome. It just rolls off. I don't know how the snow does, but usually they shovel it out. Or we're just covered in snow. No one escapes. The people, which we call Reapers, enter through the roof of this thing. They tend to do that a lot. And if we get too carried away, or start killing people or something, they don't really stop us. Unless we kill someone of their kind. What am I thinking, we're not aliens! Maybe they're aliens.

"Cactus."

I forgot about that. My name isn't Opal. I can't even have the nerve to say my name. It's Cactus. A weird name, to give a girl in a bubble. No one cares about Cactus. My sisters name used to be Hera, but now it's Sophie. Why do we stick to these names? Because if we show signs of resistance, we go away. I don't know if we get killed or sent to another place, but we just do. Last week, one of the girls, she was strong, too much of a rebel. And they stabbed her with a syringe and took her up with the Reapers.

"Yes Sophie." I said, almost whispered.

"We have to get up now." Sophie fumbled for her shoes.

"Why.. We have nothing to do today." I groaned, squinting my eyes.

"I'm meeting Kai and Lauryn at the barn today."

"Doesn't mean I have to wake up."

"Plus, there's a new kid, and he's not starting out as a 12 year old. He's 15. Maybe you'll make friends like a regular human being."

If we are still human.

I rather not talk about how I get dressed. Or get ready for the morning. The clothes we use are just 7 pairs of everything, socks, shoes, tops, you name it. I usually wear some boots and my jeans. Oh, and my favorite top. The black one with a pretty red stiletto on it.

~

The barn is pretty wicked if you ask me. It's red, filled with random junk. We've made it our hangout. Well just Sophie and her friends. And Cactus, the girl with a weird name. We strung up some lights, made seats out of hay bales. Got our record player and just jammed out for hours.

"Hey Orion! This is meh girls right over here!" Kai was more on the shorter side, but he was the happy every single second, I mean for a person locked up in a bubble.

Orion. Must be the 15 year old guy.

We all piled up in the inside balcony of the barn, laughing. Orion was tall, with brown hair that looked gelled up. And green eyes you couldn't miss. It reminded me of summer leafs.

"ORION! DO NOT TOUCH! THATS LAURENS STUFF SHE WILL KILL YOU!" Oh here we go. It's so obvious Kai likes Lauren. Either way, Orion is probably about to cry from all this stress. But all I hear is laughter.

"Kill who?" The black haired girl Entered the barn, book bag in hand. "LAUREN! This is Orion. He's 15. Weird right?"

"Uh-huh." Lauren mumbled, rummaging for something in her bag.

"Orion, that's Cactus right there." Kai pointed at me, and I laughed.

"You guys like close? Nice nickname though." Orion replied, leaning back on the wall.

My smile faltered. "It's not a nickname. My renewed name is Cactus."

"Weird name." "Yours is to, Orion." I gave him an annoyed glance. He stepped forward, sitting cross legged next to me. "I'm just trying to figure you out." "Okay."

Then he got closer, and leaned into my ear. Cupping my cheek, "Don't judge a book by its cover, Opal."

~sorry Ik it's short, but lots a day, right? And why does Opal have two aliases? Opal Maria Velpose and Opal Hessia Otis? What is going on? And how does Orion know her real name?

WERE HALF WAY THERE! OHHH LIVING ON A PRAYERRRR. I'm jk, we're lots away from the half of the book.

Keep reading you little monsters~