𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯 · 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘥 ¹

𝟏.𝟏

『 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥,
    𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 』

- 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 // 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯 -

𝙈𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤

⋯⋯⋯

     Another day, same old shit. Was that what they used to say? It didn't really matter because the truth was that was how things were going these days. Quick recap, I had been there for what seemed like a hundred years, but apparently, it had only been twenty-five months and 18 days -which is ironic, considering today is my 18th birthday. Some may have expected me to be excited about it; excited about the party, the people, the presents.... not in this lifetime. Living in the Ark was... different to put it simply.

It was especially unconventional considering I was in jail and the laws of the Ark meant that if you were locked up when you turned 18, you got floated —aka murdered, but the high spheres would never refer to it as such; to keep up appearances, I supposed. No matter the crime, everyone's hearing at 18 went the same: guilty and sentenced to death.

I wasn't sure exactly when that new law had been passed, but I was certain it hadn't been there since the beginning, since Earth died around 100 years ago and the human race was forced to live in space —which I had always thought was horrible in ways I could explain in two words: recycled water.

There was also the inconvenience of always being watched, for there was no way to escape the scrutiny of the guard. We were floating in a ship in space, so even if you got out of it, there was nowhere for you to go. Just the immense vastness of a dark nothingness. I had always hated it.

I knew the day would come before I realized, the day of my hearing. I wasn't surprised but I had expected, hoped to feel some way about it: it wasn't exciting —being murdered, but my lack of emotional response worried me; not that that would last long, but still. What did feeling nothing about the day I was to die say about me? I wasn't sure, but I also couldn't find much in me to care.

I had wondered how being floated would feel like. It sounded fun, leaving the ship, being light as a feather around the universe; that is until you realized you weren't going to have any oxygen in you and you'd die. Everything always had a trick.

"Prisoner 366, stand back and hold out your left arm." A voice as robotic as they came stated from the outside of my cell. Oh well, what now? Oh, it's probably the time. "Prisoner 366, st.."

"Do you think I went deaf since yesterday?" I snapped, eyeing as the door opened from my makeshift bed. "Why are you in such a rush? It's not like I could escape from this anyway."

"Today may be your lucky day." The guard walked into my cell, eyeing me with something in his eyes I couldn't exactly read.

"Well, I've heard that before and I never liked where it went," I retorted getting up from the bed and facing the man. "And the one who says it usually doesn't end up well."

"Hold out your left arm. Now."

I didn't move. If he wanted to do something to me, he would have to fight me first. He could probably kill me in two seconds, but hey! it wasn't as if I had anything to lose and maybe I could get some fun out of my last hours, right? He started moving towards me as another guard entered the cell.