Cityscape (prologue)

Prologue

When I was little, I used to look up at the sky and marvel at the wondrous sight of Cityscape. I wondered how a city could float in the sky and not fall, and how its elegant beauty was seemingly untouchable by destruction.

   Cityscape was my dream. Whenever my life was proving to be just like everyone else’s, I would escape to the sight of Cityscape. I would block out the world and think about the one thing that kept me going.  There was not a day that went by that I did not think of millions of ways I could get there. I was told that it was a place where no one hungered or thirsted. I was also told that it was a place of wretched lies, but I was too young to think for myself. My mind stuck with the idea that it was a glorious haven.

   Thoughts about getting to Cityscape was my only comfort on some days, but few people could blame me for that, when all around us on the Ground Level there was poverty and famine. However, there were a few people who could, and did.

   The kids in the orphanage I lived at hated Cityscape and everything it stood for. They took to blaming me for their despair. They said it took away the hurt, the hunger. They said it felt good.

   “Give it up.” Grayling told me. “Cityscape is nothing but a cowards retreat. It’s where everyone loves everything.”

   “Except us,” Hazel put in. “We’re inferior. You’ll never get there, Mira. Never.”

   But I was stubborn. I didn’t listen. I kept on thinking about Cityscape, and about one day getting there and never going hungry again.

   When I was little, I was an optimist. There was little hate in my young mind. There was no need, not with Cityscape in the sky. Not with my hopes and dreams still soaring fresh in my mind. I never gave up on it.

   Grayling and Hazel and everyone else made fun of me. They told me I was a dreamer. “The real world has no need for dreamers.” Grayling told me.

   “It’ll only jeopardize everything us Bottom Dwellers stand for.” Hazel put in.

   “We want peace, and that will only come with the downfall of Cityscape,” Grayling said.

   In response, I told him that he was the dreamer. I told him that Cityscape would never fall. “It will always be a lantern in the sky.” I said.

   No one liked what I said about Cityscape. Everyone in the orphanage hated me, even the caretakers. The more I talked, the more their hate and disgust lengthened. It got bad. Very bad. One day, everyone had enough. They drove me away.

   “And take your dreams with you!” Grayling shouted at me just as I disappeared into the thick downfall of rain. I would never return to that place again.

   I ran and ran. I’m not too sure how far, or for how long, but when I finally stopped, I felt like my insides would burst. I could move no longer. No farther. I was stuck in one place for the time being.

   I remember searching around me, squinting through the rain, looking for anything familiar to tell me where I was; to tell me which way to go next. But there was nothing; nothing but an unfamiliar alley in and unfamiliar town.

   Panic. That’s what was rushing through me after that. I was young, with nowhere to go, and with no place to call my own. I had no family to retreat to.

   I looked up at Cityscape. Even in the rain, it glowed brightly. It made me smile. It made me continue thinking.

   I’ll get there, I thought. Someday. Somehow.

   With that thought on my mind, I stood to my feet and looked around for a place to rest for the night. It took some time, but finally, I found somewhere.

   That’s when I met him. The boy with steel grey eyes and a wild, strong side I longed for.

   I was unaware of the future impact he would have on my life and on my thoughts concerning Cityscape. Because of this, I said the word. One simple word that tied the knot—tied us together—forever.

    “Hello.”

Link to chapter1: http://www.youngwriterssociety.com/work.php?id=100696