Pure - The Broken Society

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The people around me walk slowly, calmly. Each one greets their neighbor with a subtle wave and nice, "How're you doing?" In which sparks a conversation that carries on for the length of the walk to the dining hall. I smile and wave to those who wave to me first, returning the nicety and trying to prove myself to be something they don't see me as: kind, respectful, and worthy of my place here in the Sectors.

I avert my gaze up towards a sign I never noticed before.

Magecliff
Sector 3 - Area Code 206

I peer back down to the path again, and from the corner of my eye I catch a familiar head of auburn red locks. My heart picks up pace as my head gains a second heartbeat, I watch her disappear around the corner, looking over her shoulder suspiciously before slipping behind the vines.

Follow her. Follow her. Follow her!

I ski my way through the moving current of men and women, muttering faint "excuse me"'s and "I'm sorry"'s. They all give me strange and questioned glances, but I don't pay attention to them, my gaze locked on the pathway she disappeared through.

Suddenly, I hear a deep voice call after me, "Hey!" He bellows, "The dining hall's this way!"

I turn, "I know!" I shout back, I turn just after I witness the elderly man roll his eyes and under his breath mutter, "Pures," with a huff.

I shrugged off his abrasive comment as I rounded the corner. My eyes narrow as they connect with her figure, still striding straight to an unknown destination. I pick up my pace, my fast walking morphing into a brisk jog to keep the trail warm.

I stay back far enough, yet close to see where she turns next, which is around the next corner. I slow down, peering my head around the bend and watch as she reaches into her pocket, fumbling with a ring of keys. I watch closely as she peers over her shoulder once more, before sticking the key into the lock, her eyes scornful and heavy with grotesque suspicion.

She slips inside, the door closing softly behind her, a soft echo bouncing from wall to wall, all the way down the chasm and back, like a boomerang thrown harshly. I step out from behind the vines, my body fully visible to the naked eye for miles any selected way. My aching feet carry me to the door, my arm shaking, hesitantly reaching for the door handle still warm from her touch.

I inhale, holding my breath as I turn the door handle, the heavy piece of metal coming free from the lock as the hinges scream and squeal the most unpleasant tune.

I'm met with darkness, my features twisting into an incredulous and confused stare.

"What the heck?" I whisper under my breath, stepping inside farther as the door leading to the outside world slams shut behind me. I nearly jump four feet out of place, my heartbeat never returning to the resting BPM.

I stagger forward, my hands in front of me as guides as I stride further into the chamber, my eyes lost of any and all signs of movement. But that's when my heart finally drops to the sound of her voice and a small footstep sounding from just behind my figure.

"Hello, Madelynn," and abruptly, the world around me goes blank.

***

Black spots surround my line of vision as my eyelids flicker open and closed for a few moments, my head throbbing and back smarting in enormous amounts of pain. My head hangs dreary, my limbs unable to move, for it is now that I realize they are tied tightly with cable and wires to a metal folding chair.

My neck shoots up, craning every direction to scan my surroundings. A single stage light propped above my head shines down, illuminating a perfect circle around the chair, revealing more cracked stone with weeds and crabgrass sprouting between every fissure.

"I swear, you remind me of my younger self," Raelynn chuckles lightly, stepping into the light in front of me.

I let out a breath, resentment and a newfound feeling of anger seething into my mouth as it suddenly goes dry. I open my mouth as if to say something, but nothing comes out but empty grunts.

I watch as she grabs a chair of her own, placing it a few feet away from me as she takes a seat backwards, her arms resting on the metal back.

She lets out a sigh, "Ah, you know it amazes me that you were able to make it this far. I mean, it's no surprise you did 'cause you had Quinn with you," she states, "Man, he's such a smart kid," she says after pausing, "He saved all of your asses with that heart filled speech, our father used us as servants and never treated us like a family." She mockingly sobs flailing her hands, to which only makes my blood boil to a temperature beyond a measurable boiling point.

"All six of you looked like wounded puppies, it was quite humorous to me to watch that, especially the whole spectacle you put on in front of everyone, Madelynn."

"Why?" I manage to say through gritted teeth, my jaw clenching and my tongue pressed to the roof of my mouth.

"Why what?"

"Why did you act like you didn't know us, huh? Do you have any idea how painful that is? Think of little Rebecca, she's a child who doesn't even know who you are! She asked me who you were and I didn't have the heart to tell her that that was her mother! Because that woman who was standing there in front of everyone...was nowhere near the person I once knew," my voice quivers as I struggle to hold back tears. My throat burns as it begins to close.

"You know why I left the city?" She says, brushing off my previous monologue, "I left to get away from all of the bullshit, from William, and the irrelevant laws of control. I left because I didn't belong there, I wanted a new life for myself, and believe me I wanted to take you with me, but I couldn't. I knew it was for the best to-"

"For the best?" I cut her clear off, "You seriously thought that it was for the best to leave your three children, one who wasn't even a year old yet, motherless and with a man who didn't even allow us to call him 'dad'?! You're so selfish, and I am ashamed to be related to you," I shout, my throat burning at this point from the bile raising in my throat. My stomach churns violently, suddenly feeling the need to throw up.

She pauses, her identical chocolate brown eyes sparkling under the spotlight as she watches me struggle to get free from the restraints. She doesn't say anything, and I finally find my voice again.

"You know what I've had to tell myself over and over again, to help cope with your absence? I told myself that you were like a limb in my life, and when I lost you it was like losing a leg...and you can live without a leg, just like how I managed to live without you for six years."

She remained silent, my booming voice echoing through the walls. Finally, she speaks, "You've lived without me for six years, don't expect that to change now that you're here with me...as far as I'm concerned, you and the rest of your siblings are from a life I no longer associate with." She strides to me, taking off my restraints one by one.

"I'm sorry for the way things happened," she begins to state, "I really am. But I was forced into a life I didn't want, and the best thing I've learned that you can do to cope with it...is just to forget about it. I suggest you do the same," and with those last words, she walks out of the threshold, the metal shutting behind her auburn locks, leaving me in a broken heap on the metal chair.

My blood is now flowing cold in my veins.