Bad Bleed | ✔️

Three// Skid:

"I've been awarded the privilege to address you today and give a few words of advice that will make the next few hours and thereafter the next few days of your life come a little easier to you.

"For a lot of you Selection Day sprouts a ripple of fear and nervousness and rightly so. Today's proceedings will help decide your future which in turn will largely affect the future of your children or your spouse and even your lifespan. This is not something to be taken lightly."

A murmur of acknowledgment looms in the atmosphere as Juniper's lips part once again.

"All of you sitting before me are the future of our race. You are what continues to set us apart from our barbaric, backwards thinking predecessors. You are what will make the human race truly great. Nine years of erudition has prepped you for this moment. Your teachers have devoted their lives to helping unearth a new generation of innovative thinkers and with it a society that will put its wellbeing before individuals."

I can't say I fully expected the string of words that flowed so easily from her mouth. The passion and fire blazing in her voice has the entire hall hanging onto every syllable, every curl of her tongue, every quake and quiver of her voice. But I know what she's really here to say. This message isn't for me.

"I cannot stress the importance of this result and what it will mean to you enough. While it is necessary to acknowledge the weight on your shoulders, when you are in that room you cannot allow yourself to think about any of that. Close your mind off to the worry and the nervousness in your gut. Embrace the circumstances you will be faced with and lastly relax, because all the answers are in your genes," she croons with a sultry smile hacking away at the length of my existence.

But what about me? I have none of those answers.

Her eyes flutter closed for a moment as the audience applauds and I begin to feel my spirit draw away from me. I wonder if Juniper is really going to live up to the reputation my mother's made known to me. They never could get along, both too hard headed to back down whenever they disagreed in council meetings.

Juniper's orbs remain shut for a little too long and it begins to look like she's involved in an internal struggle, like she's fighting something off. I wonder if I'm the only one that sees it, but then the green of her irises greets us once again, her voice accompanying it.

"But as we all know ... every year around this time we unearth a little more than just the extent of our genetic greatness," it comes out as more of a purr than anything else.

And like that the icy hold of her presence wraps itself around my heart and squeezes. Her eyes stare directly into my own at that very moment and I worry that I may have given myself away somehow.

One scary glare.

Two scary glares.

Three scary glares.

Four.

Then her gaze flits off in a different direction, remaining on that person's profile for a second longer than it did mine.

"We find the Pukkas ... the Retrogrades and let us not be fooled, I know there are a few of you sitting in front of me. I know you are scared. I know you know that there is no escape, but my message to you is not one that I hope will strike fear into your hearts. I give you words of encouragement."

If my heart was beating any faster, it would be doing cartwheels on the podium right in front of Juniper.

"Do not fight. Do not fear. I know that death is not an easy pill to swallow, but there are hundreds that have been in your shoes before. Hundreds that have dutifully met their end. Hundreds that have done their part in preventing further spread of the old and broken genome in our strive for genetic perfection.