Aries (#Wattys2018)

Chapter One

***

The Minhazai home was a small two-bedroom flat located on the outskirts of Dexamic. They were forced to sell their old house after Azah's father was killed, since her mother's work as a part time accountant didn't make enough to afford it.
Their apartment was part of a giant grey block of buildings called Luxury Living. The elevator never worked, drunk men liked to hang around the telephone box across the street, and homeless people slept in the big garbage bins outside the door. Teenagers had a habit of leaving cigarette butts underneath people's doormats, making the hallways smell like smoke.
On the way back, Azah took a shortcut through an alleyway that had rude messages graffitied all over the brick walls. Old wrappers, bags and other trash flurried around in the wind by her ankles. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice them watching her until their shoes slammed the concrete behind her.
Whipping around with her mind already battling between fight or flight, she saw more of them drop from the second and third floor windows lining either side of the narrow path. In moments, she was surrounded by at least fifteen 20-to-25 year old men and women who had swung down from windowsill to windowsill like monkeys.
One of the girls stepped forward, staggering a little. A pocket knife was grasped in her left hand, a glazed look in her eyes. She was wearing a thick black jacket that was unzipped from the front but ripped on the sides.
'What do you want?' Azah asked, trying to control her quavering voice. It came out as barely more than a whisper.
Some of the men laughed. The girl in front made a beeline towards her, forcing her to back up. She tripped over a broken glass bottle. The girl kept getting closer until she was right in her face, filling her mouth and nose with the uncomfortable smell of alcohol. She had obviously been drinking. A lot.
About two metres to Azah's left was a hingeless fence a little taller than her head. She could climb over it easily, but surely there were too many of them. Not enough time for climbing.
'Better watch your step, little girl. The president has more grace than you.' she sneered. The mob behind her roared with laughter. Azah blinked. That ... was random. Maybe that was the joke, albeit a humourless one. Her mom absolutely abhorred the president, since it was his fault their neighborhood was like this. No amount of complaints changed anything.
The mob moved closer. Would she ever see her mother again?
A motorcycle roared in the distance.
'What do you want?' Azah said again, getting quite a bit impatient. It must have showed on her face, because the girl looked taken aback, then angry.
'I just wanted a little favour, that's all.'
'Which is?'
'Loan a sister a bit of money, will you? I ran out.'
'Why, so you can go buy yourself some brains?'
The motorcycle grew even louder.
The girl snarled, bringing her pocket knife up. Everyone walked towards her slowly, pulling out their own weapons and forcing Azah to shuffle backwards until she was pressed right against the fence.
'You don't want to make us mad. Now just hand over what you've got like a good lit-'
The girl slumped forwards, and fell to her knees before faceplanting, her grip on the pocket knife slackened.
'Come on! Quick!'
Azah grinned, running towards her sister's motorcycle as people fell to the floor around her. She climbed on the back as Amina threw a last book, and they screeched into a U-turn before careering out of the alley.
'You okay?' she called over the thunder of her bike. 'What were you doing, hanging around people like that!'
Azah felt a prick of annoyance. Her sister actually thought she would be lingering in an alley with a bunch of alcoholics by choice?
'It's not like they're my friends or something, I got cornered!'
'It's lucky for you I was nearby, really,' Amina continued, as though she hadn't heard her. 'I was at the library, picking up a few books for some extra reading, but when I got home you weren't there! I remembered that you keep cutting through alleyways on the way home from school (and I told you to stop doing it, you're so irresponsible!) so I rode around the area until I heard commotion in one of them.'
By now, they were smoothly gliding past a bridge overlooking orange water. The sun, a giant golden orb in the pink sky up ahead, shrouded Luxury Living in shimmering light a couple blocks away.
'But honestly, it's been two hours since school ended, where have you-'
Amina killed the engine so suddenly that Azah nearly tipped over the side of the motorcycle into the water.
'Azah ... did you go to see him again?' Her voice was wavering, quiet - the kind of quiet that reminded Azah of lava. It was rising up in the volcano quickly, preparing to descend into chaos any second.
'Him?' she asked dumbly.
'You did, didn't you?' Amina shouted, looping around in her seat to face her younger sister. 'He's dangerous, he's a criminal! Stop going to that prison all the time!'
'Well, why not!' Azah yelled back, springing off the bike. 'He's still our uncle!'
'There's a REASON he's in prison!'
'I JUST HAVE TO SEE HIM!'
'WHY?!' Amina's arms waved around in the air like windmills.
'Because I - I-'
'HE KILLED OUR DAD!!!'
They both seemed moments away from attacking each other, when they heard a noise. It was like millions and millions of keys, clattering together. Azah saw her sister freeze in place and knew she wasn't the only one who heard it. The noise got louder and louder, until it surrounded them completely, coming from nowhere yet everywhere.
She stood, paralyzed.
'Get on!'
She had less than a moment to fall onto the seat before Amina restarted her bike and raced away, but the sound followed them. Azah swatted at invisible bees in the air as they sped forwards, breaking every speed limit law ever put into effect. The clinking filled her ears, almost like she was drowning, and that was when she lurched forwards and smacked her head against the concrete.
Azah tilted her head slightly to the side, the whole right side of her face scratched from the road, and blood from a head wound obscuring her vision. In front of Amina's handles stood a silhouette. It was black, completely black, darker than even black could ever be. They weren't in Kaar anymore. The sky had turned gray as the road and all the buildings and water and bridges were gone. They seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't day, but it wasn't night - this was dystopia.
Suddenly, the man and Amina disappeared. Azah blearily sat up, her head spinning. There was nothing around, no one around. The gray sky and ground spanned out as far as the eye could see. She turned around slowly and the silhouette was right in front of her face. She was too dizzy to even scream.
'I know you have it.'
She fell backwards and caught sight of a brown blood stain on the road before blacking out.