Young Writers Society

Chapter 3

“Tac. Tac. Tac.” The splatters of transparent paint dripping down the window beat at the same rhythm as my heart. It is the sound of steadiness; but not necessarily calmness. The clouds have finally opened, at least a tiny bit, and have allowed some feelings to pass through. A crack forming in the grey blanket up above, only knowing there was rain concealed inside you when it is ready to fall. Although the drops dancing every second on my window make it hard to see, looking across at Skylar’s room I can tell that once again, it is empty. He’s probably just getting ready for Lexi’s Ceremony, I reassure myself, but even though I have not heard the words out loud, I feel the uncertainty and preoccupation in my tone.

“Ember! Ember get down here!” sometimes I wonder whether the whiteness surrounding our home makes our voices echo more than usual. My elbow that had now stuck against the wood of my windowsill, quickly detaches itself and I run downstairs.

“What is it—” I stop midsentence, another, always familiar and monotone voice interrupting me from out of nowhere.

“Citizens. Incompletes and Completes. I would like to congratulate numbers 28, 12, 76, 94…” I feel my heart bumping faster and faster against my ribcage, losing beat with the still-steady rain. My ears take in every little word, letter, sound the robotic lady makes, fixing my mind on the only two numbers I hope to hear her say. “…13,…” I slowly raise a finger to my lips to check if those words hadn’t come out of my mouth instead of hers. By the way my mother is smiling and coming closer to me with her hands raised in the air ready to have me wrapped inside them, I realize that it was really her who announced them. I can’t even tell whether my heart has stopped or is beating too hard for me to even notice. The warmth from my mother seems to calm me, decreasing my beat to match once again with the rain. Nobody says anything, apart from the rest of the two-digit numbers being called out, my brother just stares at me lovingly and curious as always and suddenly I notice my father only walking into the room now. There is no emotion on his face, none that’s showing anyway. “Congratulate them for completing the 2nd stage and finally arriving to the 3rd. The third to Completeness but really the first to the real start of their own, independent lives. Their job will be the beginning of their new era, one of the most crucial stages and significant not only to themselves as the previous stages were, but to society. We salute and congratulate you once again.” The ‘click’ snaps and her voice disappears. I look around the room, the same room I’ve been in all my life, but strangely it seems distant to me now. It’s like I’m not there anymore, my mind being the only room open to me right now.

“Well, Ember. Congratulations. Not long now until you’re like your parents.” My mother’s smile brings me back into her arms, and there’s nothing I can answer.

“Not long until you’re like everybody else you mean. A Complete.” He does not say it as a compliment, like my mother had, and something about the way my father’s face is empty and emotionless gave me the sensation he was almost correcting my mother, who had said ‘your parents’.

Com-ple-te. I feel as though a huge, heavy rock was being thrown into a small bath, the water not yet ready for this immediate impact, forced to not help it stay up on the surface and making it sink down below. Those three simple syllables are disguised as a tiny stone, meaningless and innocent; instead they have the force of an anchor, pulling all my thoughts down with them all at once, not giving me any chance to stop them. Complete. All these years of preparation, being Incomplete, awaiting the final Fourth Ceremony. I feel a mental slap, scowling at my thoughts and reminding myself that this is still just the third. Abruptly the anchor starts freeing itself from the frail sand beneath, the waves of my wonderings carrying it elsewhere to land. What happens after I’m Complete? Preparing as an Incomplete, that has been my life ever since I was born, the First Ceremony. It’s my life mission, everything us as humans look up to in life. Being Complete, being ready, being full…being perfect. Equality is what the Authority has transformed our society into,

‘With equality comes perfection.

A perfect society leads to a perfect world.

Completes are what fills our Earth,

what completes our planet.’

This is what they have always taught us in school. What we have always believed, our top priority in life. Incompletion is all I’ve ever known. Life for me has always been mission to become Complete. As time passes, I’ve learnt what I fear the most in life is difference. Daring to be different in an equal society, what becomes of me if I change in a way the Authority does not want me to?

***

Nolan is far ahead of us, skipping and pirouetting in the tiny drops of rain that are starting to fall from the sky. It is considered magical to rain on someone’s Fourth Ceremony; it demonstrates that it’s time to let the water fall from the full grey clouds and in its place appear a bright blue sky. It symbolizes the start of a new life. Luckily for us, it’s just a little drizzle, so there’s no need to find shelter. We start emerging into the crowd outside the Hall, a sea of grey, and the raindrops seem almost as if to be paint splattering on all of us, bringing life. In the front are the red flowers, ready to bloom; the Matches soon-to-be Complete couples in their crimson outfits ready to embark on a new journey. The families stand close behind, their excited faces like rays escaping from their flowers. I can easily see Lexi, and my eyes widen. I had never seen her like this, so elegant and regal she reminds me of some princesses of the stories the Authority allowed us. She had always kept her blonde, long hair, tied up. Now, a thousand golden threads streamed down until her lower back, untangling themselves and roaming free, then finding each other again and knotting together, again and again to the slow sway of the breeze. I look around her, not realizing why; until I do not find what my mind is wanting and I understand that there’s one puzzle piece missing. Skylar. I unlock from my brother’s grip on my arm as we wait in line, starting for Sky’s family, in hope of finding him. I’m just freeing my arm as Nolan says,

“Where are you going?” his deep blue eyes lock into mine and give me no choice but to stop looking at the popping heads out of the crowd.

“Uhm, I, just--”

I am interrupted by my mother’s short ‘gasp’ behind us. I don’t think Nolan heard; because as I turn my head to face her, he still stares at me with his unanswered question. Absentmindedly, I answer, “I’m gonna go look for him.”

My eyes follow my mother’s shocked expression as she disappears away from the crowd. Skylar immediately disappears from my thoughts, and I wonder whether the look on my mother’s face is one of surprise or worry. Her back is turned to me, she is practically running away from everyone else, lagging at the end of the line, several steps behind the last people. I don’t go as far, and hide a few lines in front of her. She has not noticed me, and as I turn around I realize that her emotions were neither. It is fear that crosses her face as a woman approaches her. I’m just about to free myself and go save my mother; but then her arms widen in front of her, and she hugs the stranger. I stay where I am, my ears blocking out anything else apart from their voices.

“Jai…” it is a soft voice, mixed with concern and relief, happiness but fear for someone who’s returned that shouldn’t have. “What are you…” it is definitely my mother’s voice.

“I had to. I had to come.” The other voice is rougher than I had imagined, like a warrior’s but still evidently feminine and delicate. “Something’s not right, Amelia.” It is like she is spitting out the words before something happens to make her stop. “They are reinforcing everything, preparing for something, and we keep being told to be extra careful.” My mother’s silence tells me this is something she was not expecting to hear. “There are more of us now, they have put double security in all cities… They won’t tell us what’s going on. Amelia, everything seems more violent. It’s as if they’re preparing us for a war. Or trying to stop it from coming.”

My mother tries to say something, she mutters short words but nothing complete enough to form a sentence.

“I have to leave soon, I came to warn you. I came back because you know that all my dreams are haunted. You know that all I want for in life is your family’s safety. I will do anything. Be careful, Amelia. Everything is about to change.”

I hear footsteps running, stomping against the ground like bigger drops of rain escaped from the cloud. My mother remains where she is, and I hear a faint whisper, “Thank you.” But I know that the stranger is gone.

***

I am back next to my brother and so is my mother; although I know that both our thoughts are on a completely different planet. Everything is about to change. Their conversation echoes through my mind endlessly; and I know that no matter how many times I’ll repeat it, it’ll till make no sense to me. It’s like when you repeat a simple word over and over again until it means nothing to you, but this time it never meant anything in the first place.

Too many emotions pass in and out of me, they come and go so quickly I can’t say what they are. However they are slowly draining all feelings from my face, leaving everything inside; I wouldn’t even know what to show on the outside. I’m not used to change. The Authority tells us change is bad, change does not give equality and equality is what leads to a perfect world. I’m starting to think I don’t even know of a world known to change. Even though I’ve been always taught these things, in these past few days they are becoming more like learned by heart, recited lines from a book, not what I believe in.

My eyes are not looking straight in front of me as they appear to be, as if I were keeping them open underwater but not seeing at all, the water blurring all my vision. Instead, my eyes are racing through the narrow alleys in my mind, crowded with confused information which I can’t classify into anything. A bright, blonde head interrupts all my questions, and I run in front to catch up to him. Sky’s emotionless face is something I definitely cannot miss, dulling the air behind his mother’s excitement and his sister’s smile dashing at her new Match.

“Sky!” he looks to his left, where I now stand, and a bit of colour reappears in his eyes, and I can see bit of myself in them. “Where were you?”

“Ember, hi.” His mouth is still open but no words come out, as if he’s thinking of too many and cannot filter them to decide which go out. “I was just—”

Three ‘dongs’ of an old bell ring at that moment, and we are all forced silent in a matter of seconds. I look to my right and see that immediately Skylar has taken the opportunity to avoid me and my question, and I can sense a look of relief on his face. I stick my hand out to lock with his, as all the pairs in front and ahead of us are doing in a formal, straight line. His does not meet mine and I look down to see it is in his trouser pocket, struggling to keep something there hidden, as he gets it free and joins mine. He looks at me for a second, a fake smile flashing against his rough cheekbones. I give one back, realizing that he is not the only one keeping secrets. I cannot tell him what I’ve heard, I can’t. It would completely ruin him, he is already tangled up in too many mysteries and one more would just rend his whole life a question even to me.

***

I feel everyone’s feet ahead and in front of me tapping against the marble floor, scurrying inside like tiny mice hurrying to scramble into the hole before the cat catches up to them; and I don’t only hear them. I feel the footsteps in my heart, they’re beating fast inside my chest, the rhythm rising and rising until the doors of the Hall close, all the mice safe inside. The pace falls now, everybody halting their feet and staring up at the skies. It feels as though I am not in Newbrook anymore. The ceiling is made up of hundreds, thousands of tiny rectangular mirrors, rising up into a dome about 10 metres above my head. At the top, there is a huge, antique bell rusted from all the years of Matching so many Incompletes. We are all awed by this new and strange design, and as I look around me I see the look of enchantment on everyone’s faces as they recognize, like me, that it is not our reflection which we see in those mirrors. Instead of being faced with the dull grey and few splotches of red which should be reflecting from the ceiling, bright light jumps down like rays of the sun onto our faces. I don’ understand how this could possibly be; as I place my neck down to turn to Skylar I see he is neither facing me nor the mysterious mirrored ceiling. I follow his gaze, his eyes are now a type of topaz brown, luminous and blazing with wonder. Against the wall he is facing there stands a tall and narrow heptagon window, arching and reaching up until the top of the dome. Golden streaks shatter onto the floor, and my eyes follow the light as it bounces off the clear marble onto the mirrors above my head; and that is why the Hall feels as though we’re all crossing paths with one of the rays coming from the sun, billion of miles away from us. On each side of the long window are others exactly the same, surrounding the walls all around us, exactly 14 windows.

I can’t help the curves forming at the edges of my lips, and neither can Sky as we both look at each other and practically let out giggles of delight as if we were little children receiving a brand new toy. As always, there’s something more to his smile than what he shows; I notice his hand still jiggling with something in his pocket, and as he takes it out to reach out to touch mine once again, I feel it is much sweatier than before.

‘DONGG. DONGG. DONGGG.’

The bell above us sounds again, now more piercing than before, the mirrors ringing at the same time. This means it is time to start the Ceremony. All Completes and Incompletes have been taught exactly what to do in each Ceremony ever since they started school; so as I look around me I see nobody hesitates to link with another person and go stand at one of the planting aisles carved into the marble floor, seven round patches of soil on both sides of the corridor which we’re standing on now, starting from the door to the far end. Sky and I head over to the closest near us on the left hand side alongside three other pairs, including a Match of soon-to-be Completes.

We both sit quietly on our knees and wait for an Authority Member to come round and hand us our Seeds. The Seeds are technologically engineered plant seeds made to grow into flowers; however they are mechanical so do not require light nor water. The Authority has created it especially for that; and us as humans should not interfere with nature, we should not watch living things die every day right in front of us without being able to help the poor plant. Another small adjustment rending our earth what it is now. It is tradition that on the Fourth Ceremony all invited have to plant a Seed, and just before we leave, it will have grown and bloomed into a marvellous flower; representing the start of a new era for the Completes. A middle-aged woman with a tight, pulled back ponytail sticking out the top of her rectangular face comes toward us in her Member uniform, a white long shirt, almost like a tunic, and matching white trousers and shoes. Just as each Citizen has our grey ensemble, the Members have theirs white, as if they were the clear clouds guiding the grey ones into Completeness. She bends down and places the Seed into my psalm with a smile. I smile back with respect and turn to face Sky’s rolling eyes. Sometimes I wonder if one day they’ll just roll right out of his face for how much he does it.

“Are you going to help me or not?” I tell him, as my hands dig deep into the soil.

His gaze is fixed across the hall, in his sister’s direction, but he neither looks proud or excited as his mother does, his is a face of pure disgust.

“Ember do you see that?” His expression now revolted but he keeps looking without turning away. “It’s sick. It’s weird. It’s just plain wrong.” He emphasizes with his hands and points to Lexi and her Match. Embarrassed and worried somebody might notice him, I quickly place his hands down and try to calm him down.

“Sky, what are you going on about now?” I hush at him; his eyes still fixed elsewhere.

“They don’t even know each other, Em.” Sky’s mouth is still open and he’s stammering something, but not yet a whole sentence. “It’s all part of their plan. Their game. They’re using us as puppets, mindless human beings, completely unaware of the strings controlling our whole lives.” He pauses for a second, finally looking away from his sister and into my eyes instead. I look away, trying to look uninterested and keep working on our Seed. “It’s all pretence. It’s pretence the Authority puts in our heads, places false beliefs in our helpless minds, making us think things we would never have before. Lexi doesn’t love him.” I look away from my work to watch her behind me, her eyes staring deep into her Match’s as he plants a kiss on her cheek.

“She looks pretty interested if you ask me…”

“Oh, please. The Authority told her that Ian is her soul mate.” He makes a groan of disgust as he speaks. “Her one, true love. The one she’s destined to be with. Her perfect match. The one. Her prince---”

I stop looking at the soil and face him, giving him such a look that he understands perfectly that he needs to stop. The truth is, he wasn’t completely lying. When you’re 21/22 years old, the Authority takes you in to prepare you for the Fourth Ceremony. They have you Scanned to check your current and final personality and combine that with your genetic and DNA data, and with that they are able to find the exact person you belong with to make you and your society happy. ‘An environment reflects its people’ is what the Authority taught us, as in, if humans are unhappy and battle constantly, their society will be affected as will the environment and earth. So yes, Sky is right. The Authority does tell us who we’re destined to be with.

He lets it go for a couple of minutes and even goes as far as to help me with our Seed. However, I know Sky well enough to understand that he was just taking time to let his next bomb out.

“Fine, fine fine. But tell me this: do you remember Ty?” There it is, already ticking and about to explode. “You don’t do you? Well, I’ll tell you who Ty was. Nobody even remembers him. Yeah. He was Lexi’s boyfriend. They only dated a couple of months but they used to be best friends before that. Lexi was madly in love with him. You know why they broke up? They were 20. They were about to become Completes. What if they weren’t their compatible? Huh? So yeah, they broke up even though they were still in love. Who knows? Maybe her heart still belongs somewhere in his and vice versa. Maybe not all of it, but definitely a part of it will be lost in his forever. She’ll never understand that her heart is still speaking for Ty, not Ian.” BAM! Exploded. He finally lets a breath in, and his chest starts panting as if he’d lost too much air to let so much escape from his mouth.

I have nothing to say.

***

I stare at the ground beneath my feet and nothing seems to be real anymore. They don’t look like my shoes, they’re just an image, moving back and forth and in and out with the other feet around me. It feels as though I am looking through a grey and red kaleidoscope, with a soft touch of icy marble in the background.

On my left I recognize my brother’s shoes, his feet always a bit too small for his age, and his hand is tugging on mine with energy, guiding me through the dance moves. The hand on my right is as dull as the face of the person holding it. Sky has gone from a complete explosion to a total black out. He keeps gazing into the air around us, and I know that his eyes see something else entirely, deep within his thoughts. Every once in a while his vision comes back to Earth and I see him glancing at his pocket, but that’s all.

I turn my neck as my feet continue to tie and untie into each other like knots on a rope; and I see the mirrors above are covered by grey, shimmering clouds. Yet, the rain that appears to be falling from it, the many tiny dots, are not water. They are red. almost as if the sky was weeping blood instead of tears. My first instinct would be to think how eerie it all seemed, and maybe escape that visual and find somewhere safe to hide; however now my mind sees it in a completely different way. It is not the blood of a victim, the blood of someone hurt, it is the blood that bonds everyone together. The blood that runs through Matches’ veins, their bodies, their souls and hearts; and with the Final Ceremony fuse together to form a whole new person. One person of two minds.

The bell rings and we all know this will be the last ‘dongs’ of the Ceremony. Slowly, everyone comes to a stop, the whirls of the girl’s skirts falling to the ground and the waves of our arms brought down by our waists. Sky immediately drops his hand from mine and his other arm goes up to look at his watch. A second was all it took, I don’t even know if he read the time; but he turned the opposite direction as everyone else and started for the entrance. I want to call for him, but the silence echoes so loudly in the Hall I’m afraid to break it. It is obvious he took this opportunity for a reason, being the last ring of the bell, everyone is intent and anxious to greet the newly born Completes. I follow his slim, running figure as the doors slam quietly behind him and I know he is gone and there’s nothing I can do to stop him. The last thing I see as the light from the doors escapes through a tiny gap is Sky reaching for his pocket, something colourful sneaking out from inside.

All of the matching pairs scurry elegantly into the light reflecting from one of the 14 windows around the Hall. The rays are still bright, but won’t be for long. The guests follow the Matches they came here for closely behind, everyone excited for the last step and hiding outside the reflection of the windows. Lexi and Ian are at the farthest window to the West, where the sun is going to set. Each pair waits anxiously for the sun to escape from their window, symbolizing their Completeness, the start of a new day and a new life. Skylar’s mother has no idea of his absence, her face fixed on her daughter, but she is not smiling. To think of it, I have not seen her smile in so long, ever since his father was taken. Her mouth might not say anything, but there’s no need for a smile. Her eyes are glistening, tears covering the iris and the grey colour beneath. Of course, Lexi has no notice of anything outside the light at the moment; her and Ian. Where is Skylar? He cannot miss this. How could he? I feel a shade covering the right side of my body, and I turn to find already the first three windows dark, marking the Completeness of three pairs. The doors are still closed, no sign of opening again. My mind races, as do my feet as I look down to find them rushing to where I last saw Sky. Nobody notices as I create a tiny crack by opening the doors just enough to quickly pass through. I am ready to run down the front stairs, rush through every alley and every block to find him; but my body halts to a stop as something strikes my eyes, making me almost squint.

Blonde, sandy hair, his eyes transformed from a bored, dull light brown to a burning, practically golden colour. His face looks wild, his hands are clenched into tight fists at his sides, blue veins more visible than before and sweat meaning fear shining on his forehead.

It’s Sky, but I wish it wasn’t.

It takes me a moment to realize what expression is being mirrored on my face at the moment. My mouth drops open and immediately I realize it’s panic. I hear a muffled noise coming from my throat, but I don’t know what to say. His name? Scream? Cry for help? But what good would that give me? Only trouble.

I look up and notice that the drops I’ve been feeling streaming down my cheeks are not rain drops. They are tears. My feet start running, running towards him, and I put my arms around him, trying to cover as much as possible. My mind is running as well; but with nowhere to go, no solution in sight. In my arms is my deepest fear. Change. I look down at him, at his clothes, and they are no longer the same as mine. The same as my brother’s, his mother’s, my parents’, everyone around us. Splatters of yellow, blue, red, purple and colours we haven’t even learnt in school are decorating his whole body. I know that this is no ordinary child’s game. No ‘accident’ or act. This is an infraction. This is Sky’s way to tell me, to tell his family, everyone he knows, most importantly the Authority, that he believes he is different. That he demands something different.

“What are you doing Sky?!” I say between sobs and hugs to cover him. He pushes me away, heading for the Hall’s doors.

“Ember, get off of me.” He still says it gently, but with an edge to his voice telling me there is nothing stopping him. Although still in fists, his hands are trembling and something falls from his right. It’s an empty, transparent box, and it is evident that before there used to be the splotches of paint which are now on his clothes.

“Why are you doing this? Do you want to get yourself sent away—” I stop, knowing what memories that will bring back to him. His father. “Skylar, you know what happens---”

“Yes! I do! And don’t you see, Em? That’s the problem,” He’s shouting now, a tone of desperation in his tone, too strong to cry but too weak to hide it any longer. “Look at you. You’re terrified. You’re scared of this!” His eyes are not burning with fire anymore, but something shiny, water. His hands point at his clothes, “Difference. And why? You don’t even know! The Authority has put this all in your head, in our heads. I will not let them control my thoughts anymore, Ember. I can’t!”

Skylar turns before I can say anything to change his mind, but it’s not me anymore to stop him. Behind me I hear stern voices; I can feel my heart missing a beat and my tears finally exhausting themselves, my cheeks too shaky for the water to flow down. Members of the Authority. I know how it works, Skylar knows how it works. Whenever something out of the normal happens, they know. They always come. There’s no way out. I have never felt more out of myself in my life. It is like seeing this scene in your life from someone else’s eyes, not knowing what you’re about to do and what is about to happen. I can see the same look on Skylar’s drained face. His feet face the doors, leading to his doom, and his eyes towards his ambuscade. He collapses onto the white marble ground, his hard cheekbones suddenly becoming softer, like a little boy who cracks his shell and admits of being scared of the monsters hiding in his closet.

Before my mind fully processes what is happening, I feel a rough hand caressing my shoulder. I turn, and behind me a pair of strikingly clear blue eyes stare deep into mine, bringing calmness and relaxation like the blue of the seas’ waves. The enchanting stranger from the Greenhouse. My thoughts don’t even have time to question, What is he doing here?, as he elegantly walks towards the white, formal suits approaching us. I cannot see his face anymore and I watch attentively as the Members react to him. He puts his hands toward his neck or at the top of his chest, as if to show them something. Then he points at Skylar and as he faces me I see the shape of his mouth and I manage to hear something like, “I’ll take care of it.”

I don’t care what he said or what just happened, all I know is that the white Members are slowly disappearing in the opposite direction while Sky’s head is still buried in between his knees at the top of the stairs, right next to me where he has always belonged. And all I know is that it is all because of the blue-eyed stranger.