The Eradication Trials

Prologue

^^^Veronica Parnell^^^

My toys on the floor were all sprawled out. A small wooden horse that was fading with ware. A couple of wooden blocks that were covered in dirt. A doll that my brother gave to me, with big blue eyes and porcelain skin. It's blonde hair all knotted from play. It was my favorite. They all lay side by side, each one begging to be chosen for me to play with for the day.

After many minutes of constant consideration, I go with the doll. Like I do every day. I pick it up from the middle and stare at it, wondering if I will ever have her kind of hair. Always perfect, never dirty. My hair is brown like the old wooden floorboards nailed to every house is my village. Like the small table we were very lucky to own.

Her eyes were so bright and filled with hope. Hope that one day there is a better future, and that I would be able to escape my already decided fate. But no one can change that, even if we really wanted to. My eyes are very different from what others have. Mother says that my eyes change color.

Sometimes green, like the forest that was once thriving. Blue, the sea that never was. They can be grey as the thunderstorm that only comes every couple of years. Today I hoped for grey, my brother likes that color. He should be coming home today. He said he had to go away for a while, but he also said he would come back today.

I always loved getting his letters. He would tell me everything that went on around him. How he made friends and learned some new skills. Sometimes he would send something small for me. Like a piece of cloth or a crushed flower. He always knew what to get me. He knew me for what I was and what I wanted to be.

So saying I was excited for him to come home would be an understatement. I was thrilled in every sense of the word. I just needed a distraction until he did come. I was going to tell him what I did over the past 6 months. I had grown taller, and stronger, at least I think I did. I learned how to help Mama and Papa do chores. I also learned how to write as Blaise did, my brother.

Mama taught me, she didn't live in the village like everyone else. She came from a different land, far away from here. She married Papa and stayed with him here. Even over the accommodations of her family. She taught Blaise how to read and write, once I was born, she taught me as well. She thought it would be a good skill to get me out of the village and as far away as possible. That is how she worded it.

Here in the village, we call home, also called Stead, we have a couple of rules: One, no leaving the village. Two, no one out past eight o'clock. Three, you are only allowed to have one child. Four, all children of the age of eighteen are to be sent to the castle for Trials. Five, if any rules are broken, one is punished by execution.

No one ever breaks these rules. I have only seen a couple, since everyone is to see their execution. But I think Mama and Papa went alone soon after, so I didn't need to be scared anymore.

They passed rule number three after I was born. After a lot of arguing, I was able to stay. We did not break any rules, so I guess we were safe, for the time being. Blaise was 18 and I was 10, so he had to go. That was 6 months ago, so he should be escorted home by late afternoon. I was so hyper that I needed an outlet, I needed a place where I could run around and not hurt anybody.

But no one really has a yard. Everyone here in Stead had very small houses, only one to two rooms. Three if they were lucky, but not always. Each house was made by hand, by the family that lives there. With mud and whatever else you could find. Sometimes the shield officers would bring extra bricks from the Windsor Palace as a reward for our human contribution.

We have a few, but not many. I used to share a room with Blaise, so I had the room all to myself for 6 months. He left some stuff here, I reminded him but he said, "I don't need it anymore, I never will. You keep it as a momentum until I get back. You better not break it." He laughed and tickled me until I couldn't breathe, he got to my tender spot underneath my ear.