Young Writers Society

Introduction

Isn’t it funny, how in your life you’ve always got one little issue that can change the course of how your life. Since I was born I never wanted to live the life I was given. I hate the people that my family choose to surround themselves with; they are always so fake (not just their plastic faces but they also have plastic personalities).

My Father always demands that as the State Family we should show off our riches and to play the role that our ancestors have left for us, however according to the ancestors my role is to do everything I am told by my Father till the day of my Initiation. Over the years, this has changed and now I must focus more on not being an embarrassment and dishonouring my families name.

The State Family use to be a name that people would be proud of saying that they live under their protection, then 45 years ago that all changed. The streets began to run red in blood and fear was a natural emotion to everyone who lived in Peradora. The new government that had taken controlled wanted to make our nation great again and to seceded this, they forced children who did not live in the capital, also known as the Globe), and other major cities to either work or join the military. In many places food cuts were made to encourage parents to give their children to the State Government for this opportunity. A group of underground fighters called the Alliance started to rise up to stop the reign of terror. They would have succeeded if their leader known as the Commander did not disappear and caused them to lose their battle. Many citizens died on both sides, but the families of the Alliance were the ones who paid the price for the betrayal, their children were taken in the middle of the night to workhouses and many never got to say their last good byes to their family.

When I was born my Father was expecting a boy, as it is only boys who have ever been first in line for the title. A miracle happened and I turned out to be a twin, and that was how Cyrus and Marcella became the sweethearts of Peradora, which in other words means that nothing can be kept a secret from anyone and your every move would be stalked by hysterical admirers.

Freedom from this life is just a dream and living it is hell, these are the words I want written on my grave. Which could be soon from the amount of mistakes I have done in my life. The name ‘Marcella Aries heir to the State’ is most known for destroying a government advent by saying that it just full of old, posh, fat, bold men who have never set foot in one of the villages. This is what caused me to be walking on thin ice for five years from the age of twelve.

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Chapter 1 - THE Beginning

I awoke to the noise of a song bird, it sounds of sadness and solitude. I try to move out of my cocoon, that I made out of my sheets last night from the icy cold weather. Scurrying across the bleak room, I stop at once as I come across my reflection in the mirror. It surprises me as my long messy brown hair sweeps over my shoulders along with my dark blue eyes which are the only resemblance of which I share with my Father. My facial features are not like the beautiful, wild, party going girls from the Globe however they are just ordinary. Nothing like Cyrus who is strong and outgoing. At school he catches the eyes of every girl in the corridors; it’s pathetic because the FAT (it’s what they call their group; it stands for Farrah, Ava and Tara) giggle whenever he walks by or swoon over him when he sits down near them.

I pour the water for the bath and can feel the hot steam which brings a shiver down my spine. I slip into it and try to cleanse myself of the thoughts I had last night. It doesn’t work very well but still, it’s a good start I guess. Wrapping myself in my cotton towel is like hugging an old friend, cotton is the only fabric that isn’t expensive and like myself is ordinary. I dry myself down and cover myself with a dress robe that had been placed there earlier by a servant.

By the time I exit the bathroom, light is flooding in through the windows and the song birds have been replaced with a gentle noise from trees swaying from a warm breeze. I look around my bedroom and see hanging up over the wardrobe is a grey silk sleeveless dress. So this is what has been chosen for me to wear for Forgiving Day. I walk over and run my fingers through the material, it is so delicate. I move a part of the dress in to the light to have a better look and there is an engravement made into the hem of the dress. It is two doves flying over a fire, is my Father trying to say something to me?

There’s a knock on my door then enters Lucy who is my maid and possibly the only girl I can stand, maybe in another life we could have been friends without worrying about Lucy losing her job. Lucy is very kind and patient, she understands me so well and I try my hardest to help her with problems she has. The thing is, I have never done anything she has, or had the courage to say such wonderful things like her.

I give Lucy a smile and say “Good Morning and what time do you call this? I could have died from actually doing something for once”

“I’m so sorry ma’am, I will make sure that you will never have to even close your own eye lids to blink again”. We both pause and look at each other for a second then burst into a fit of laughter as it’s our little joke we came up with years ago. Lucy then walks over to the dressing table where I am sat and starts on my hair for today.

She slowly brushes it into sections and wraps it into a bun and leaves my side fringe hanging down. She finishes it of by placing a silver, metal flower into the side of my bun. I look into the mirror to see her expression of delight that she always does whenever she finishes my hair. I can tell that she’s happy with herself, she once said that if she wasn’t forced into becoming a maid, she would have wanted to be a stylist if that wasn’t just a job for only the more privileged.

“Is this the dress they’ve given you?” She asked, I simply nodded my head and she carried on examining it closely. “It’s been nicely made and will suit you very well, not mentioning it will make Sam unable to keep his hands of you” She laughs again; her laugh is so weird, it is like a cross between a dying cat and hyena laughing.

“You know this is a public event so Father will want me on my best behaviour. We don’t want the people to get a bad image of the State Family”

“You mean your Father doesn’t want to show us people how normal your family really is and that we shouldn’t be seeing you as gods” Lucy rolls her eyes; I try to correct her which was pointless as it never works. She helps me get into the dress and as the silk garment is finally all zipped up I see the version of me that shows my resemblance to my family. It’s not real I tell myself, it’s just the artificial version of me.

“You look stunning” Says a voice from behind me. It makes my soul jump out of my body and then back in. Cyrus head pops out from behind the door. He’s grinning and nods at Lucy. She gives a bow of the head to me and leaves. My brother enters fully into the room wearing a matching grey suit.

“Thank you, you scrub up well I suppose”

“Who are you kidding? I look great as always. Anyway we are late and must be getting to breakfast before our heads are served as the appetizers for one of Mothers dinner part. After you my gracious lady”. When we walk out of my bedroom door, I notice a guard standing beside it and turns to follow me as I walk with Cyrus. I look to see his face, it is covered by a helmet, he is dressed all in black with a white symbol of a star within a tree. So this is my new guard that has been sent to watch over me.

Entering the enormous dining room, I see my parent sat already there in silence. They never talk to each other for as long as I can remember. Every now and then they will nod or do a stern look at each other but never speak. When Father sees us he stands and gestures us to sit down, he then claps his hands and the servants give us our food. This time it’s a thick, gloopy substance unknown to me with raspberries placed on top. Cyrus makes conversation to Mother about winter fashion which leaves me to try and talk to the wolf. I think he knows I don’t want to so Father carries on reading his paper and I just push my raspberries around, which causes a splash of my food to go flying across the table hitting a glass vase. Cyrus and Mother stop talking at once and you can hear Mother gasping in shock.

“Marcella! How many times have I told you not to play with your food? You are sixteen, going on seventeen, you are not five, you nearly broke the turquoise, Citrine vase that I only picked out four days ago! Four days it’s been here and of course it would be you to try and destroy it” Mother shouts as she rises from her seat to see the damage.

“I’m sorry Mother it was an accident; it could have happened to anyone”

“Anyone would have not been foolish enough to fling traditional Forgiving Day gruel”

“Come on Mother she didn’t do it on purpose now did she” Cyrus sighs as Mother always gets so worked up over this stuff.

“Cyrus don’t talk over me when I speak. Marcella you need to learn how to eat like an adult, do you think Sam will want to marry you if you play with your food like a child?” At the word marry I spit my food out in shock. I’m sixteen, I shouldn’t have to be thinking about marrying my boyfriend should I? “Oh dear lord! You are meant to sallow not spit!”

“Which do you prefer Mother?” Cyrus sniggers, Mothers face gets flushed with fury and turns to look at me proceeding to give me a lecture about what a real wife must do and then Cyrus interrupts every second to correct her and I keep apologising and trying to tell her that I don’t want to think about marriage and how over dramatic she’s being about a little spillage of gruel, when a hard slam on the table comes from my Father end and he is standing up frustrated about the scene in front of him.

“Enough! Adelina please sit down and I will get a servant to clean your vase don’t worry” Mother tries to speak back but he dismisses her, he then turns to Cyrus who is smirking, then his expression changes fast as he realises it’s his turn.

“My son, I do not ever want to hear that crude language coming from your mouth again otherwise I will personally cut your tongue out with this butter knife. Understand? Now Marcella. Oh darling innocent Marcella” He pause and walks over to my seat. I am frozen in fear, this is all my fault as usual and I am the one who will take the burn of his rage.

“You know how our family strives on being the most powerful and richest people in this Nation. Do you know how it makes me feel when I see my servants seeing the heir to the State messing around like a guttersnipe? It makes me disappointed. Now this is your last chance to impress me. Your reputation is on the line and let’s face it you are not doing very well to start with. Now when we go out today I want us all to look like a picture perfect family. These people need someone they can look up to and honour. We own these people and they are nothing but simply just tools to get what we want. In under any circumnutates today must run smoothly as I have a big announcement for the nation”. He looks around at us all and smiles.

“Anyway Marcella, will Samson be joining us? I have some friends I want him to meet” continues Father as if the last five minutes didn’t happen.

“I… I don’t know, we haven’t spoken since last night” I feel so nervous as at any second he might explode and I have to make sure that I make no more slip ups.

“He most certainly will. I’ll get Winston to give the Barlette residents notice that they shall be accompanying us to the ceremony. Now Marcella you are excused from the table, don’t stray too far as we will leave in ten minutes’”

I rise and bow my head to Father. The doors open for me and I feel like doing a leap of joy as I have ten flipping minutes to myself… and sadly this new guard. I really need to get rid of him. Maybe if I lock him in a broom cupboard or what if I just run away from him? No that wouldn’t work in these heels. Nobody told me that if I wear heels, even though I look amazing in them, it comes with draw backs. Not only can I not run away from this guard but my feet feel like they are being ripped to pieces.

Despite all my planning I don’t really want to leave him. There’s something between me and this mysterious guard that makes me want to know what’s under that helmet. I stop in my tracks and turn to face the guard.

“We haven’t been introduced, I’m Marcella but please call me Marcy and you are?” I pull my hand out to shake his hand, he steps back steers me around.

“Marcy you are nearly 0.45 seconds late and I’m your guard that’s all you need to know”. He guides me through the twisting hall way all the way outside to the Jeep where I find Cyrus and Sam already sitting there. They are in deep conversation, when Sam finally sees me, he stops and smiles at me. My heart flutters and smile back him. He leans in to kiss me and I return that gesture. His lips are warm and soft. Cyrus coughs, which is obliviously fake, I realise that it’s just not us three in the care and that my guard has got in the front and has finally taken his helmet off.

“Marcy you have one smoking guard! He can’t be much older than us. I’m guessing from those cheekbones he’s only eighteen/nineteen” Cyrus says checking my guard out. I try to have a look at him too but then Sam pushes me back to me seat and gives a points to show that the vehicle is moving.

“I don’t see what’s so good about him? He’s just one of those bumpkin boys. He’s nobody”. I hate it when Sam is like this. He is big-headed and so obnoxious which is a common Globe trait. I just give Sam a glare which I learnt from watching many years of my parent’s toxic marriage. “Don’t give me that look Marcy, you know I don’t mean to sound like. I’m sorry, I don’t want to let this come in between us”. He wraps his pink finger around mine and gives me the puppy eyes, he knows I can’t stay mad at him for long. Part of me hates him for being so controlling and rude about my guard.

“I suppose I forgive you but only because I love you” I say giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“I know you do” he replies. My heart sinks a bit, he never says ‘I love you’ back to me, maybe I’m just being paranoid about today and forgetting all the times he has said it.

“Psst Marcy Psst!” Cyrus whispers pushing Sam out of the way. Sam swops places with Cyrus because apparently he has some urgent twin business to do quickly. He ignores the driver telling him to sit down or he could get us all killed and slides into the seat next to me.

“Sis what is the deal with your guard? I can totally see him checking you out every two minutes in the mirror and I’m pretty sure he rolled his eyes when Sam said ‘I know you do’. For real are you okay because you seem pretty upset about something. My twin powers are sensing it”

“Woah Cyrus, too many questions at once. I think you are just imagining my guard doing that because he doesn’t want anything to do with me apart from doing his job and your ‘twin powers’ must be broken as I am 100% fine” I ignore the rest of Cyrus moaning on about probably some girl at school who won’t leave him alone and just watch the green meadows of the outskirts of the Globe go rolling on into the distance. I realise we aren’t far away from the biggest town called Ailton, I check the fields for farmers and unwind the window, a chuckle comes from the front.

“There isn’t anyone working today Marcy. No one in any of the major town and villages works on Forgiving Day”. It was my guard who spoke and every word he said made me want to hear him say more. “We’re there now, if I was you I would put that window back up”. Then the Jeep went back to silence as we drove past the sign that said WELCOME TO AILTON EVERYONE. I notice that there is some writing painted on in red which has been tried to be scrubbed off lots. It reads NOT IF YOU’RE FROM GLOBE. Maybe things are worse than I expected.

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Chapter 2- Forgiving Day

The door opens and standing there is my guard, he has his helmet on again. He gives me his hand to help me out and walks me towards the Town Hall. His hands are warm and make me feel a bit safer in this old run down town, I look to my left and see children dressed in black laying against a building shivering and then on my right a small group of men hunched over a bin which they set on light. Cyrus walks past me and gives me a funny look, it takes me a moment to realise and then it hits me like a bus, I’m still holding hands with my guard. I quickly let go and walk slower so Sam can catch up, he does and gives me a big smile. His eyes light up and he slips his arm around my waist, did he not notice me holding the guards hand or is he not both. We walk on into the building Father is waiting for us. He nods at the guard to go with the rest and gives each one of us a check before we can enter the room.

“Remember we are the State Family and we are victorious among these street rats. Now chins up and do not make eye contact with anyone”. He turns to go and takes one step then stops and looks at me. “Marcella please try not to ruin this for us all today. There will be consequences”. He then walks in. The anthem begins to play and I see people’s heads turn to watch us walk in. Sam squeezes my hand and gives me a little kiss on the cheek as we sit on the side of the stage waiting for the room to settle down.

The room is full, the cameras are rolling and the blinding lights are up. The advisor gets up and says a few words about how Peradora was formed and that the State family became our saviours. The crowd applauds slowly. I look into the crowd and only see a few children, even then they are weak looking and dressed shabby like.

Father stands up and takes his position. He does not look at the people, instead straight into the camera. He acts if they don’t exist like always and does it so perfectly; he does not make eye contact and he does not flinch. He begins his speech.

“People of Peradora, today is the day we mourn the loss of our courageous fighters that fought to keep our State safe. We cannot forget the heroes who died to protect us. The deaths of our State Guards will always be within our hearts and prayers and there is a price to pay. 45 years ago the war ended and I made a promise, that promise was I would not let the deaths on both sides of the war go unmissed. It has been brought to my attention that these freedom fighters were the reason why 194 civilians died. This shall not go unpunished! I make a new promise that you as the children of the Alliance will pay. From this day on new laws shall being enforced across the nation”. I am shocked as he says this, he knows that it wasn’t the Alliances fault. I’m about to stand up and say this. I feel Sam holding on to my arm pulling me down, he moves closer next to me.

“Marcy you can’t stop this. It’s just politics” Sam whispers. I turn my head to face him, it’s hard to hear anyone over the noise from shouting and booing coming from the people on the floor, my farther is still talking telling them about the new laws. I catch on to the last bit which was ‘breaking these rules are punishable by death’. This time I push Sam away and shout over the crowd at my Father.

“Look at what you are doing to these people? Haven’t they gone through enough pain already!” I shout at him. He turns around and points at me. My guard comes and takes me away. I keep resisting shouting that it’s not fair and that he’s the murderer. Just as I nearly can’t see the stage anymore, I hear screaming and an old man diving at my Father shouting ‘For Hestia! For the Alliance’. There is a flood of people after that, State Guards come running past my guard and I down the hall way. From outside the window there is banging on the windows and bits of broken glass rains on us.

“Where are you taking me?” I say panicking

“I’m trying to find somewhere safe to hide, if those people even see you for a second they will kill you”

“I need to go back. My family. Those people!” He pushes me into a cupboard and then follows locking the door afterwards. What is happening? Is my family okay? I curl up into a ball and count to ten. I feel like all of this is my fault, if I just didn’t outburst in front of everyone. I look up and see my guard looking down at me.

“You know its creepy just seeing you stand there and I can’t even see your face”. He bends down to be at my height and takes his helmet off. My heart stops. His emerald green eyes look deep into mine, he has messy black hair and his face looks like the Gods sculpted it themselves. I am speechless for the first time ever, he is unlike no boy I’ve ever met, a feeling of desire that I have never had before begins to build in my heart. For almost a second I forgot how worked up I got and just focused on studying his face.

“Hey Marcy” he wipes the tear of my cheek “It’s going to be okay, believe me, you’re safe now and they will be as well”. He puts his arms arounds me and tightly hugs me. “You shouldn’t be worried, you did what you thought was right and I respect that”. I have never had anyone say that before, it makes me feel like I am somebody for once and that I do have a purpose.

“Thank you um... um. I’m sorry you never told me your name”, he laughs and smiles again, his smile make his eyes get wrinkles around them but they don’t make him look old, just a bit rugged and worn down which is his true self.

“It’s just Angus, I have no last name” Oh Angus, that’s such a perfect name for him. I repeat his name a couple of times in my head ‘Just Angus’. It makes me feel happy thinking about his name.

“Angus, do you believe in freedom?” His smile fades away, he lets go of me and moves away.

“Freedom is not a belief Marcy, it’s something everyone should have. It got ripped away off us when we were born, by the State Government” He doesn’t look at me for a while. We hear the odd shouting and shots; it makes me more tense. Angus pulls me in again and I rest my head on his chest. I hear his heart beat, it’s steady and makes me wants to hold him closer and never let go.

For a while there is silence then it is broken by Angus.

“Why are you even with someone like Samson? He seems to treat you like an object” Angus asks. I tense up and look at the ground. I have been thinking about that myself a lot lately. Maybe me and Sam are staring to drift apart. We met when we were children and soon I will no longer be a carefree child, instead I must think about the future

“I have only known love for him. He is my first and someday he might be my husband” I lie. I don’t want that, I don’t even want to get married, I just don’t want to Angus that yet. I hardly know him enough to tell him that sort of stuff.

“I think you are kidding yourself being with him. You are worried what would happen if you stopped loving him. I’m not even sure that you love him or know even what love is” he sniggers and pulls his gun out of it case. He seems so obnoxious and that annoys me. I know what love is, I do love Sam. At least I think I do, we haven’t spent much time together since he got a job being an ambassador to my Father.

“How do you know that? You hardly know me or my life. You are just my guard. How do you know what love actually is?” I say glaring at him. He smiles and then moves closer to me, he puts his hand on my neck and rest his forehead on mine. I feel a tingling feeling which makes me start to blush, I move my hand so it is resting on his chest. I can feel his heart beat, it is beating fast and his palms feel sweaty on my neck.

“Love is when you would do anything to stop that one person getting hurt. It is when you have uncontrollable feelings that drive you to do the craziest things. Seeing that one person in pain cause you to want to take it away just so you could go through that pain to save them. Love is passion that you have never felt before. Love has no boundaries, no timings, no waiting around. Love is wanting to be the best person you can be…. Just so you can see your love smile”

I start to smile and rest my hand on his hand. He is right, even if I don’t want him to be right, he is and I can’t deny it. I haven’t felt love for Sam in ages, maybe our spark has gone. I begin to fall to sleep from the overwhelming heat within the cupboards when the door opens. Angus reaches for his gun ready to fire, I hold him back. Standing there is Sam, he stares at me in disgust.

“Well isn’t this cosy, you cuddled up with my girlfriend. Come on Marcella your parents have been worried sick about you” he begins to walk off and I know that he’s upset this, so I run after him shouting his name but he does not stop.

“What is wrong with you Sam? Can’t you tell all that happened was him doing his job He was only protecting me” Sam finally stops, he turns around he is rubbing his hand on his cheek, looking down at the floor.

“Maybe it’s not just his job he’s doing it for… Sorry I didn’t mean it like that, I thought I lost you today. I don’t know what I would do without you” I walk over to same, I can tell he means it. I cover his hand with mine and brush his hair with my fingers.

“Don’t worry at all, I’m going to be here for a long time. It’s team you and I remember?”. I kiss him, the same way I’ve kissed him for years. He moves apart and looks me in the eyes.

“I never got to tell you how beautiful you look today” It comes to me unexpectedly. I stutter to say thank you, the only words that are able to come out of my mouth are gibberish. Sam goes back in to kiss me but I turn my head as I see Angus waiting a bit down the corridor.

“Oh forget it. He’s the one you would rather be with!” Sam begins to walk away shoving into Angus, knocking him of balance. The guilt begins to eat away in my stomach then Angus comes and rest a hand on my back guiding me.

“It’s time for us to leave. They have made the building secure again” he says. I don’t want to be with the others, they will just ask what happened and tell me off for my mistakes. We go through a back door and I see a line of bodies covered in white sheets. There deaths were my fault, I should have just done what my Father said.

“Angus, do you think it would be okay if we went in a separate car? I don’t think I’m ready to see them all”

“Of course you can. The Governors will just have to wait a bit longer”. I give him a half smile and wait for our car to pull up. When the car arrives, the hair piece holding my bun falls out and rolls along the path. I go to chase it when suddenly I stop as I notice a group of people gathered under a street light. I can see Father talking to some ladies dressed all in black. He paces them a wallet of money, the tallest one takes it and her cloak slips to reveal a tattoo of an arrow along her arm and they walk away as if nothing happened. Father turns to go towards the cars, we catch each other’s eyes and he shakes his head slowly at me. I know this time I have failed and that there is only one way to make my way out of this hole I’ve made myself into this time. It’s time I finally stop fighting for what little freedom I have left and do what I was born to do.

Car journey is quite on the way back. Angus tries to talk to me but I ignore him. All I can do is just replay the day’s events and how I could have done everything differently. I see the driver sending a message to the car ahead asking which exit to take off the roads. Maybe he could do me a favour.

“Eric please could you send a message for me to Samson’s care. Please could it say that I’m sorry for today”

“Of course Marcella, it will be no problem”. Angus mutters something under his breath, I ignore it. I know he doesn’t like Sam, at least he tries to be nice about him.

Once we are back at the palace, there is no one waiting for our return. No flowers or screaming fans. Just one person leaning next to a column. It’s Sam waiting for me! Angus walks beside me as we make our way into the Palace. Then Sam gives him a dirty look and pushes him into a one of the marble walls. There is a cracking noise and Angus’s face is smashed into the wall. When he turns around, his face is stained in blood, his hands catching it. I let out a gasp and tare part of my dress off to use as a tissue. I wipe away the blood around his eyes and mouth and then hold it on his nose. I turn to look at Sam but he is smiling devilish at us.

“Oops sorry I’m so clumsy, didn’t see that they allowed dregs into the Palace now” he laughs and keeps walking. I don’t know what’s going on with Sam at the moment.

“We need to get you to the medics or at least a bathroom” I start to walk him towards the nearest bathroom, however he stops and wipes his hands on his trousers.

“Please don’t worry about me, I’ve had worse”

“I’m really sorry. He isn’t usually such a douche-bag. Are you okay? Should I go get help?”. Angus pushes me away and wipes the rest of the blood away.

“Its fine you can’t help if he gets jealous”

“Ha! He’s not jealous, there’s nothing to be jealous of”

“Are you saying that I’m not good enough to be lover of the Great Marcella Aries? That breaks my heart”. Angus then pretends to be shocked and over dramatic, I start to laugh uncontrollably and then it becomes an infection as Angus gets it too. I notice that when I’m with Angus, I’m not afraid of ruining anything or upsetting him because he’s been brought up to think very selfless thoughts and it just feels natural being with him.

“Angus?”

“Yes Marcy, what is it?” We stare into each other’s eyes but the moment is broken when I see Cyrus from the corner of my eye.

“Um Marcy? Father has called a family meeting. He says that is important” judging from the look on Cyrus’s face when he told me, I must have really screwed up. I walk to the dining room with Angus in silence now. I’m so afraid of what my punishment will be, I know that he won’t take my title of being Heir to the State away but I know he will make me wait longer to receive it even though my Initiation begins in two days. I walk in to see the table set for five, Sam must be staying over for dinner, that will make things awkward.

Everyone is already there speaking about the events of today. My Mother sits nursing her glass of wine telling a servant, who’s topping her glass up, about the ugly clothing the people wore. Cyrus takes his place and starts to discuss with Sam about a man with a tattoo all down the left side of his face who tried to grab Mother and called her Hestia. Sam does not look at me as if I do not exist, then Father hushes them when I sit down, he looks at me plainly with two fingers resting on a scar on his forehead, he does not say a word to me and I feel the tension building up, waiting for one of us to speak.

“I’m sorry Father. I didn’t know that they would start to riot, I just thought I was doing the right thing and I... I”. I look up at the end and see if he’s listening, he is, he rests his head on top of his hands and shakes his head.

“Tut tut, Marcella you really have out down yourself this time” He pauses, waiting for my response, I decide not to give him the satisfaction and begin to eat my steak. “I thought you of all people would understand how important the start of our new laws would be. It gives us more control and in the long run it will prevent anything like that riot happening again. Because of you speaking out, I must take action now” He rises now and walks over to me and leans down so I can hear him breathing down my neck. He pushes my plate away from me “you performed an act of defiance against your leader. What is that punishable by Cyrus?”

“Um I don’t know sir”

“It’s punishable by death, sir” mutters Sam, his head is bowed and will not look up. I can tell that he is disappointed in me, I’m not bothered though, I did what I thought was right and I do not regret it.

“Well done Sam, I will be proud to call you son someday. So yes, death is what should be given to you Marcella, consequently I am not a savage killer. That is why your death punishment shall be shared in your name and go to the people today who started the riot. And I want you to be the one who pulls that trigger, just like you pulled the trigger for that rampage to start”. I let out a cry. I can’t believe it. He is a tyrant and is going to cause so much pain. I can feel my blood boiling as he breathes louder. I feel a drop of blood hit my hand, he is bleeding from the side of his neck.

He lowers his head down and whispers into my ear “Oh before I forget, Sam told me about your new little friend, Angus is his name? I will be getting a supervisor to see if what he did today was protocol” I am unable to hold my anger in anymore, how dare Sam betray me to look good in front of my Father just because he feels jealous about Angus, then Father wants me to kill theses innocent people to prove a point. I am surrounded by selfish people and I need to escape, I feel all my anger I’ve kept bottled up about the Globe about to explode. I go to eat the food on my plate when another drop of blood hits me and without thinking I pick my steak knife up and stab it into the gap between my Fathers had on the table.

“I would rather die than be one who is heir to the title after you!”

I storm out of the room, not bothering to look back, I hear my Mother gasping and Father shouting for me to come back. I don’t care anymore I just want today to be done. I can hear someone running after me from behind, it’s probably Sam going to get me to calm down and apologise, I don’t want to stop, I start to walk faster than it turns into a run. It’s like I feel that if I can run fast enough I might be able to outrun this problem.

I run into the garden and slip as the rain has made the grass muddy. I don’t know what to do anymore, I just cry, no one will be able to notice in the rain. A hand reaches down to my shoulder, I turn around hoping to see Sam but it is not him, it’s Angus.

“Do you want to go somewhere to talk?” He asks, I’m grateful his first question is if I’m okay, I hate it when I’m asked that. I nod my head and begin to get up of the muddy puddle of grass and rain water. I keep slipping so Angus sweeps me of my feet and carries me back inside. I’m soaking wet and so is he. There’s no point bothering about trying to look nice as I ruined the dress. My vision is blurred from the flood of tears streaming down my face.

“That was a pretty crazy thing you did back there Princess” He’s looking straight at me with a very serious face. I can tell he’s disappointed about my actions.

“It’s not like I did stab him!” He laughs at me.

“You’ve got courage but a lot of stupidity”

“Here I was thinking you were going to be understanding. No, you’re being rude”

“I’m sorry, I was joking. I just think you should be more careful. At least stay alive for a couple more days”. I hesitate before saying anything. He is right, soon I’ll be able to be in control and abolish the rules. It hits me though; I won’t be able to. He’ll still be alive controlling me and forcing me to do everything his way.

“I can’t do this anymore; I need to escape, if I can just hold on for a bit longer, I will be able to save my people” I let out another tear, its’ too hard to hide my pain now. “I’ll just do what my Father says but… but”

“You don’t have to do this Marcy. You’re trying too hard to be some you’re not” He moves my damp hair out of my face and wipes away the dripping make up. “The Marcy I like is the girl who I saw today fighting against the law, that was the real Marcy”.

I look at him for a second and then I kiss him. I don’t know what came over me, I had all these different emotions and the urge to kiss him over powered. It felt so good, I never wanted it to end, he was strong yet steady. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he pulled me in and put an arm gently along my back to hold me and support me.

It had to stop though. I thought about how kissing Angus made me just as bad as any of the other Globe people. I was being selfish and that made me like my Father.

“Look Angus, I shouldn’t have done that”

I turn to walk back to my room, however he grabs my arm and says “that doesn’t make you into a bad person. I understand you are a bit confused and have many mix emotions but I meant what I said before I do like you”. He lets go and walks the opposite direction. Before he turns around the corner I shout his name and run after him. He stops.

“You might want to be careful. Sam told my Father about what you did today. He said you will be inspected, so try to stay out of trouble for a bit” I turn away and walk back to my bedroom. I shut the door and lean against it. I touch my lips trying to place the pieces of what just happened, it’s no hope, that kiss takes over my mind.

As I go to bed that night, all I can think about is how I am going to sort out my Initiation Ceremony tomorrow and if I should tell Sam about what happened. That is all forgotten about as I start to feel heavy and my eyes close going into a deep slumber.

There was a time when I was ten and I ran away into the Old City because I didn’t want to see my ghoul like Auntie and all my bratty cousins. The main gates were open for deliveries, so I ran for it. I have always been small and bony, which made me fast and lightweight. When I got into all the maze like streets, I couldn’t decide where to go, I was lost and looked out of place. A group of teenagers stood watching me while they leant against a wall near a market stall. One of the boys had his arm around a girl who had deep brown hair and a red strip going through it. She pointed in my direction and pushed him to go speak to me.

I started to run again, afraid that they would hurt me, like my teacher said they were ruthless. He caught up with me. He grabbed hold of my shoulders and picked me up.

“Hey are you okay? Seemed a bit lost” he said. He looked just a bit older than me. He had black messy hair and big dreamy eyes. He had this thing about him that I could trust. I told him what I had done and he called me a nutter which is a slang word of the Old City, but when I started to cry, he gave me a hug and believed me. He was nice and took me to his friends Uncles pub who knew a way that could get me back to the palace. He out me on his back and walks to a pub full of workers with a young man with a wiry beard poring a beer behind the bar.

“Hey Jake, You here for Gus?” He said to Jake. “Just shout for him will you, I’m a bit busy”

“Thanks Oli, will do” Jake puts me down and holds my hand. There was a lot of men talking in loud booming voices and the smell could kill you if you stayed in there for too long. “Oi Gus! Can you get this girl back into the palace?” Jake said to his friend he called Gus. Gus appeared from behind the bar. He was handsome and strong also had a smile that could light up a dark room.

“Why does she need to get back there, unless… Oh god no! You didn’t kidnap the Princess did you, Jake?”. Jake begins to laugh and pushes me forward.

“No, she ran away and we need to get her back”. Gus jumps over the bar and punches Jake in the arm.

“You are such an dumbstick! We can be arrested for this or worse sent to a workhouse. What will your old women say when I tell her?”

“Come on Gus look at her. She needs to get home. Some day she will be our leader”. Gus looks at me and knells down to my height and smiles.

“If we get you home, do you promise to never speak about this to anyone?” Gus says sticking his little finger out. I grab it with mine and say I promise. The rest is a blur, I will always be grateful to Jake and Gus. They were the first people to really care about me.

****

Chapter 3 – THE Last Day

So today is my last day of being a child. For years I have dreamed about how this would go. I would start of having pancakes and pink lemonade for breakfast with my family, after that Sam and I would spend the majority of the day together talking and thinking about our future. Finally, to end of the day, Father and I would read my favourite book and he would wish me look and say a speech he’s been writing since I was born.

Except now I ruined everything, my relationship with Sam probably has no future and my family are ashamed because of my actions. Today I must stay away from everyone and go somewhere where I can’t cause any more trouble. I find an old hoodie hidden behind a trunk and jeans, they are not my typical clothing. Today is not my typical day, which is ironic.

It’s a sunny with a bit of a hidden wind outside, I decide to take advantage of this weather and go out into the garden, maybe I’ll hide away up in a tree and live within the branches. I start to climb and the pain I had moments ago begins to disappear the higher I get. When I find a thick enough branch, high enough to see over the palace walls, I slowly shift on to it being careful that I don’t fall. From here I can see into the old part of the Globe, the Old City, where all the workers live. I wonder if Angus will be there living next door to Lucy. All the people walk past as if they have no problems in their own little world, I like watching all the people walking around, not having a single thought to care about.

A gust of wind makes the entire tree shake, I hug the tree to stop myself from slipping, I let go and go back to looking over the wall when unexpectedly, a second shake of the tree knocks me off my guard and I fall off my branch. I scream and wave my arms around to try and catch anything to help me, I reach out and grab hold of the closest branch. I’m so afraid, if I let go I will fall and probably break my back. Or on the other hand I might have a chance of just really bad bruises. My fingers are getting numb, time is running out, if I don’t think quickly I could do some damage. I’m going to jump before it’s too late. I tightly close my eyes and let go. I fall so fast; I regret doing this now. As I prepare myself for impact, arms wrap around me and stop me from hitting the floor. I open one eye and there he is, my angels face smiling down at me, saving me from my death.

“You always seem to have a way falling into my arms”. Angus smiles and puts me down on to the floor. “Do I even need to ask why you were in a tree in the first place or is it another added bonus of your crazy behaviour?”

“I’m not crazy! I just wanted to escape for a while, I didn’t think it through”. He chuckles and pushes a stray hair back behind my ear. I like it when he does that, I like it when we are close to each other. These are all terrible thoughts that I need to stop because I still don’t know what’s going on with my relationship.

“I like crazy, be as crazy as you want as long as you aren’t murderess crazy”. Is he flirting with me? I look at him so I can see his expression, it’s happy and carefree. It isn’t until he goes to says something that I realise that I’ve been staring at him for too long. I don’t want to make him get the wrong idea, not even sure myself if there is something to get a wrong idea.

“Well thank you for saving me. If you don’t mind though, I have a busy day of loneliness and trying to fix my screw up of a life” I walk back towards the palace, zipping up my hoodie as the chill running down my spine.

“Marcy! How would you like to spend a day running wild?” This sentence is what warms me up, I’m curious about what he means but running wild.

“By wild you better have something that I’ve never done before”. He smiles and reaches his hand out to take mine.

“It’s crazy wild, which is right up your street” He walks over to the wall that separates us from the city streets. He stops and waits for me to follow. “Are you any good at climbing?”

“Are you kidding? That wall is impossible to climb”

“I was just asking, there’s a door behind loads of vines somewhere”. He starts to push a bunch of vines away and it reviles an old oak door. “Locals say this door has magic powers. I just think it’s a door that your family used to escape from all the drama years ago” He pushes it open and for the first time ever I get my proper look of the Old Cities street. I am amazed, I feel like the weight on my shoulders has been lifted off. I don’t want to wait another second. I grab hold of Angus’s arm and drag him into the street.

“Take me anywhere and let’s do everything. Is that a stall selling bread and apples?” I begin to spin around and run along the street looking at everything it has to offer me. I feel so free, like a bird flying high. In the old city streets, it feels lighter and easier to breathe than it is within the walls., no one watching my every move. Angus catches up and puts his arms around me from behind and rests his head on my shoulder. I can feel his heart beat beating in my ear. It’s fast as if he is nervous, it makes me feel relaxed knowing I’m not the only one worried about breaking the rules.

“There’s this pub just down the road, they are having a party, do you fancy going?”

“What’s the party for?” I say, Angus turns me arounds so we are eye to eye, he has a smile on his face as he slides his arms around me waist.

“It’s just a gathering really, today we are celebrating your last day of freedom!” He knows how much that make me happy and this makes me wonder if today I spent it with Sam would he have done if I was with him right now. Would we have run away for the day or stayed within the walls?

“What are you waiting for? We only have today so let’s start now” I begin to drag him down the street, my walk gets faster and it becomes a run.

“Slow down, Marcy you are going to run past it if you’re not careful!” He stops outside an old, dull building with a dirty sign hanging above the door which has a broken mirror drawn on it. The wind slowly blows the sign and it creeks. If Angus didn’t stop, I wouldn’t have noticed it. The windows are small and blacked out, and the door looks as if Angus would not even be able to walk through it with a straight back. We walk closer towards the door and I see that what I thought was just a bit of broken would was actually a sign. It has on it ‘The Broken Mirror; Home to the Biggest Pies in Peradora’. I feel like I remember being here before but I shake the feeling away.

Angus pushes the door open and from the outside it seems dull and disgusting, when I walk in the light emerges and reveals what I expected, a nearly empty bar with a few tables covered in dust. The bar tender seems to be asleep in the corner hugging a broom. Sat at the bar is some women with straight dark brown hair that covers her face from the sides. She sits nursing a glass of whisky, Angus coughs and she jumps in her stool, she turns around and smiles. I feel like I recognise her, her hair covers her eyes and nose so I can’t really tell.

“I knew I would find you here. I must say 11 o’clock is a bit early to be on that stuff” Angus picks up her glass and drinks the rest.

“You’ve never minded before, you brought her with you so I should be on my best behaviour” she begins to laugh and pushes her hair back. It’s Lucy however I’ve never seen this side of her. She is wearing heavy makeup and she is not wearing her normal grey dress instead she’s all in black with a leather jacket hanging around her waist. “So are you going to buy me a new drink and treat Marcy?”

“I’ll get the drinks” I peep. They both look at me as if I was a toddler who just swore.

“There’s no need, I will get them”

“Angus please just let me do something for once, I’ve got plenty of money”

“Look Marcy you don’t get it. We don’t pay here. My Uncle owns the place”

“Oh you idiot, she was trying to be a normal person and you just ruin it”. Lucy slurs and laughs again. I can feel my cheeks burning up, hopefully Angus doesn’t notice. He jumps over the bar and pulls out two beer bottles and tries to drag the whiskey bottle away from Lucy. She gives him a glare and begins to growl like a wild dog. I begin to laugh, I have never had friends like this before, I feel guilty as I will never get to enjoy moment like this again. I take a sip of the beer. It’s a strong and bitter as it goes down my throat.

“You don’t have to drink like that here. Swing it back so we can get another drink down you!” Lucy starts cackling again. I take her advice and pour the remaining drink down, feeling it warming up my insides. Lucy pushes her bottle of whisky towards me and does a drinking gesture. I look at Angus to see what he thinks. He’s leaning against the wall with a bottle pursed on his lips, he smiles and goes for the whiskey. He started drinking it when Lucy pulled it away and pushed it into the palm of my hand. “Hey! Didn’t your mum teach you is rude to not share”

“I don’t know, never met her. Uncle Oli brought me up right here in this spot”

“Well we would all love to hear your nightmare of a childhood but we have a plan to get Little Miss Princess drunk before she become a real lady. Now Marcy drink the bloody whisky” So that what I do. I drink it. If I only have tonight, I better free my mind from stress. I keep drinking it till its empty and for the first time ever I just feel like running around dancing with no care in the world.

“Angus take me dancing, take me everywhere, show me the world” I say as I begin to dance around the pub, falling over a bit every two steps. Angus runs behind me and holds my waist and I move my hands to hold his. I rest my head against his chest and breath. We start to slow dance. He brushes his fingers through my hair.

“Marcy do you think you’d be able to go for a little walk?”

“What about Lucy? Is she going to come with us” I turn to look towards her and see she’s laying on the bar, fast asleep.

“Well if you want to stay here for the rest of the day and listen to her snoring be my guest but I’ve got other plans” He begins to walk out and waits for me to follow. “Come on Princess”.

We walk around for while down an old little court yard when it us out to a muddy green hill. I could see hundreds of wild flowers that shaped out a path to the top. I feel Angus’s fingers around my hand, it’s different this time, he isn’t dragging me around or holding me back. This time he’s waiting for me. This time we are finally on the same page and ready to go together, like it is that we belong to be with each other.

“How do you know about this place. It’s beautiful”

“It’s not as half as beautiful as the girl in front of me”. I turn away feeling my cheeks burn red, I start to smile uncontrollably. However, I think that could be the alcohol thinking and taking control of my actions. “Do you want to go up there and talk?” Yes, finally, someone that talk to without worrying. Looking at the hill it doesn’t seem steep but walking up it feels like you’re climbing a never ending staircase.

Reaching the top, I can see all of the Globe and part of the palace walls. It feels strange being so far away from home, I am not really bothered. Being able to see the world from a different perspective, it’s like reading your favourite book. I sit down on an old log that must have broken off one of the trees, Angus sits next to me looking out at the city.

“Are you worried?” He says still looking out into the distance. Worried isn’t really the word I would use. Maybe terrified, frightened or how about I feel like I will let down my family. These are none of the words I would say out loud. I shrug my shoulders.

“I’ve spent my whole life preparing for this and now it’s here, I really am clueless”. His head turns to look at me. He no longer seems like the friend jokes-a lot boy I was with two minutes ago. He looks caring towards me and genially wants to know how I feel.

“You would make a good leader. Maybe even the best. I have a feeling and I am never wrong” he’s being honest even though I don’t believe him.

“How do you know? I could be the worse. The first ever female to take the title, what if I mess up?”. I begin to click my fingers. I always do this when I am getting anxious, ever since I was six and I had my first public outing without my parents. I remember my Nanny would beat me for doing it. I still have one of the scars on my lower right hip from where she hit me with the belt for climbing a tree in my dinner clothes. She was some bitter old women who I am glad to never see anyone like her again.

Angus has his hand on my knee, staring straight into my eyes. “I don’t need to explain why I think so; I just know you are the one who will do some good for people like me”

There is a long pause. I don’t know how to answer to that. For a while I think, today has shown me that I must put these people first. I have seen how they live and the conditions they work in and I shall bring an end to their pain.

“I promise you, I will make life better for you” I see him smile and he knows I mean it.

“Do you?” He holds out his little finger and I link with it tightly. It feels as if we have done this before, maybe in a dream.

“Always” I smile.

“Don’t forget me Princess because I will never be able to forget you”

“I don’t think you will let me”. I start to get that racing feeling again like when I was in that cupboard with him and when I kissed him last night. I know I can never forget him, I will always have these feelings for him, even if do not get returned.

“Marcy” He looks at me longingly “I think I’m….”. I wait for him to finish but he doesn’t. He seems to get distracted by something behind me. I look around and I see nothing, he rubs his eyes, then forgets about it.

“What were you going to tell me?” I ask him curiously. He jumps a bit and gives me a dough look.

“Oh it doesn’t matter; it was silly” he places a hand on his neck and tilts his head to the side. I have notice he does this a lot when he lies. I start to think about tomorrow and get shivers. I don’t think I will be able to do it; I might just ruin everything I have be practicing for years.

“Run away with me. We can go somewhere far away from here, just you and I. Cyrus would be able to take the Title. He would be better at it then me”

He puts his hands behind my ears and slides the down the back of neck. He laughs a little and says “no, you belong here, it’s your birth right. I know you are nervous, never the less you have to see this through. I promise you, it is all going to be okay”. I was not thinking; Cyrus probably doesn’t even want all the responsibilities of what comes being Head of State.

For the rest of the night we just talk and cuddle up to each other. We both know when tomorrow comes we will never get this chance again. I just want this to last forever and that I can be with Angus until I die. He is like no other boy. He isn’t perfect in every way; everybody has their problems. He may be eighteen and I am only sixteen, it doesn’t matter, he makes me feel happy and I’ve not felt that way in years. I just need to know if he doesn’t just see me as a little child or someone he works for. I want him to see me the way I see him.

“Tell me something that I can’t find in a cheap gossip magazine?” Angus asks as we walk down the empty streets. I have a think for a bit. I remember a memory from when I was five, when life was easy and I wasn’t so afraid of my future.

“There was a time when I was younger and Cyrus and I were really bored and hungry so we decide to break into Fathers office and steal these special chocolates he keeps in a silver tin underneath his desk. Cyrus was on look out and I was the one who had to get the chocolate and make it look like no one broke in. I used a hair clip from one of my dolls to unlock the tin and only stole one chocolate. To this day I can still remember the taste of it, stealing it was so fun” I laugh then I remember the pain afterwards when Father found out and the beating he gave me. I didn’t want Cyrus to get into trouble so I took all of the blame.

“You know something; I think you should really become a jewel thief instead of Head of State. They are very alike as jobs”

“What about you? What was your childhood like?” He gives me a faint smile and I can see him thinking about.

“Well when I was born my Mum had to leave me as she was still a child herself and was forced to go work in one of the workhouse, so she left me with my Uncle Oli. She never came back, it’s fine though, I don’t really remember her. I do want to though; it’s not like I had a bad childhood. Oli did look after me, he used to sit me on top of the bar and let me listen to all the factory workers come in for a drink and they would tell me stories of the olden days. I guess they were all my family really and I didn’t need my Mum for that” his eyes widen as he talks and smiles to himself. He looks younger when he smiles with his dimples showing.

The night is starting to come to a close, we walk back to the palace. The blue sky has gone, an orange red colour replaces it, as it reflects in puddles. Past the Broken Mirror, now looking busier than before, all the little stalls all packed away. Back to the vine covered door within the great wall. Angus walks a bit slower as if he was trying to put this bit off.

Once we were within the safety of the walls it was time to say our good byes. I didn’t think for one second this would be easy. I had finally found someone that I think I might be falling for and I had to say good bye too, acting like today never happened.

“I guess this is the end. Tomorrow you will be starting Initiation and for me, I will be travelling to join a different regiment of State Guards. Tomorrow is a new start for the both of us”. It feels as if some has just ripped my heart out. I didn’t know he was leaving. Part of me hoped I would still get to see him every day but maybe that would be selfish of me to think.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I say looking down at the floor. Too afraid to look up in case I let out a cry.

“I didn’t want to hurt you and it would be too hard for me to stay here seeing you with that brat, Sam” I look up and realise that he might even care for me. I take a step closer and hold his hand.

“I don’t know how I can ever love him, especially after yesterday”

He laughs and kisses me on the cheek. “See you around Princess. We may meet sooner than expected”

“Good bye Angus, I would like for that to be true”. I feel a tear running down my cheek, I catch it quickly before it is noticeable and I watch him walk out of my life forever. I want to scream his name and tell him how I feel, beg him not to go and for us to run away together but I don’t think I could bring myself to go through the pain of saying good bye to him again. I really wanted him to be the one, I thought he would have stayed. Maybe I was wrong about that, yet falling for him will forever be right and unforgettable.

***

Chapter 4- THE Initiation

It’s here. The day my life has been waiting for. I sit looking in the mirror, trying to cover up the black bags that hang under eyes. I couldn’t sleep last night; all I could think about was Angus. He is probably half away across Peradora now and most defiantly isn’t thinking about me, if he cared he would have stayed. He does care, that’s why he left, it is selfish of me to think that. He will always care like I will. Today isn’t about wondering if he cares about me or not. It’s about starting my life’s purpose and doing what is right for my people. Even if it takes time to get the rest of the governors on board, it will work.

Lucy does not come to prepare me. I am meant to take this journey alone as that is what all my ancestors have done. To become Head of State I need to do all the rituals on my own. I begin by washing my hair in the oils of crushed flowers and coal. This is so I become pure and to clean my spirt from all that is bad. I have to dress myself, which may sound like a normal thing that everyone does yet I usually have a maid to drees me. I put on a golden top and leather trousers. No one would see it though because I have to wear a red giant coat, which has golden writing around it. I don’t understand the writing; it has something about wearing the coat brings the power to you. Wearing the coat, it just looks like an oversized dress.

I light a candle on my dresser and begin to pray. God if you are there, please watch over me today, I need you to show me the way that will be for the best. Please let me be my best. I blow the candle out and wait to be called.

There is a knock on the door and Mother enters. She looks so plain and ordinary. She is so beautiful when she is naturally he1rself. She comes is caring a box n with her. She gives me a big cheerful smile and sits next to me on my bed.

“I know that you are meant to be alone until you are called, however it is a mother’s duty to make sure her daughter looks perfect for her Initiation. Now let’s see what are you wearing underneath that coat?” I pull back my coat and show her my clothes. She has a good look and shakes her head. “No that will not do. You can’t wear that for your Initiation Day. No, you shall wear what I wore on the day of you Fathers Initiation”. I am shocked when she says this. My Mother has never let me have anything from her past. I didn’t even know she would still have any of this.

“Mother I don’t know what to say”

“You don’t to say anything, just please accept it” She begins to open the box to reveal a black and golden jumpsuit. It’s made all out of lace. It is just pure beauty. There is no way I could accept the jumpsuit, it is too special for my mother, it wouldn’t suit me anyway.

“Thank you, I can’t wear it though, it’s yours” I push the box back on to her lap.

“Marcella please just have it. I have waited for this day for years and I insist you have it”

“Will you help me put it on?” She smiles and gives me a hug.

“I’d love too. I can do your hair for you well!”. It is like she has been practicing for this moment. She puts the jumpsuit on me carefully and brushes my hair away from the button. I have r really told my mother how much I love her and this is moment I will treasure for ever. It is just our memory and no one else’s.

She curls my hair while talking about how that tonight she has planned a ball for me and that she is fine if Sam stays over even though she knows it won’t be the first time. My cheeks begin to blush because it turns she must not be as dumb as everyone makes out. I enjoy just listening to her talking and for once I am not annoyed about her taking control. All she wants is the best for us all.

I look in the mirror and I seem to look more like myself than I have ever looked. I am ready now, ready to take my place. I know what my path is now. I don’t want to let anyone down. A servant comes and gives me my breakfast. Its dry bread and water. I nibble on it slowly and wait for the longest time ever.

My mother looks at her watch and says it time to go. I hold her and tightly like I did when I was younger and Mother walks me to the car, there are thousands of people when we step outside calling my name and throwing flowers. A young girl walks up to me and gives me a bunch of green roses.

“I can’t wait to have you as our leader, Miss Aries” She bows and walks back to her parents. I smell the roses and wave to the crowd that screams my name.

Sam is in the car along with two old guards. He smiles and gives me a hand helping me into the car. He goes in to kiss me; I turn away from him. The guilt comes back and now there is no Angus to support me. I must tell Sam everything.

“Marcy, are you okay?”. He is looking at me curiously. I can’t wait any longer to tell him. It is either now or never, I can’t keep stringing him along.

“No Sam, I must tell you something and please do not get mad when I tell you” I look down and I take his hand. He no longer looks curious, he squeezes my hand back, and smiles.

“I know what you going to say because I know what you did yesterday. Don’t think that you can hide anything from me, Marcy. I’ve known you all my life and when I went to get you yesterday I was told that you were in the garden. So I went out there and saw you running out of a gate with Angus. Originally I was going to follow you, then I thought that would be weird. You must know, you’re aren’t the only with friends in the old city. I know that you kissed him, do you know how heartbroken I am?”

I don’t answer. I feel so embarrassed about it, until it bits m, he sounds like my Father when he would tell my Mother off, when she went partying late. It makes me feel scared and weak

“Sam, I’m sorry”. He is looking away from me now, no longer holding my hand.

“You have changed, ever since you met Angus. That’s why I asked some friends to give him a message to make sure he never comes back. It won’t just be a broken nose he will have this time” A cold laugh comes from him. I can’t believe what he is saying. He can’t harm Angus; he could never do that.

“It’s against the law! You will be arrested, YOU CAN’T HURT HIM!” I’m screaming now, tears streaming all down my face. I begin to hit Sam over and over again. The driver is looking at the guards nervously. Sam shouts for me to stop. I ignore him for doing this. There is a pinch on my neck, I start to feel my muscles relax. No. They have injected a muscle relaxing serum. I fall back into my seat. I can’t move at all, I’m paralyzed. The tears are still falling down my face, my nose is runny.

“Marcy, it wasn’t my idea, it was your Fathers. We did it for your best interest at heart”. I try to speak, to tell him that he shouldn’t have told my Father, I’m frozen, the words won’t come out. I let out of sob. Sam moves over and strokes my face. He wipes the tears away and kisses me on the lips. His voice is croaky and low when he says “I love you Marcy and I don’t want to lose you. You might not see it now; some day you will understand” He pauses. “That is why your Father has said that we will be getting married. The engagement will be getting announced as we speak to every town and city in Peradora. I just want to make you happy. We just want that for you”

I can feel my heart breaking into a million unfixable pieces. I don’t want to marry Sam, I can’t be the person he wants me to be anymore, I can’t say that though. How will Angus feel when he finds out? That is if he is alive or even if he will know what it once those people are done with him.

The serum begins to wear off. I don’t to hurt Sam again, just in case we are close to the Temple. I look in the window to see my reflection, worried I would see a mess, it isn’t as bad as I thought. Sam passes me a tissue to sort myself out and doesn’t say anything else until the car stops.

I don’t realise how long we have been driving for. When we left the Globe it was sunny but not now. Night has fallen and right in front of my is a pathway light up by torches of fire. The Temple is an old broken down Abbey. It is hold to the most religious people of our state. The Sisterhood of Io are women that were chosen at birth to be the keepers of the secrets for the State family. To show the pathway to the heir to the title. They were not happy when I was born. They said that I would bring great power to Peradora as the prophet told, they were unsure about giving me my title. They stopped when they remembered it is their purpose to serve the State family no matter what.

No one apart from those who take the Initiation knows what these women look like, apart from that they are ladies of pureness and do not damage their skin. This is because they think evil spirts can get in a manipulate their soul. I always thought I wanted to be one of the Sisters and live a life where it’s simple and planned out. We all have a purpose, mine doesn’t seem so clear to me yet.

My family are already waiting for me. All dressed in red and gold clothing. Cyrus is smiling when he sees me, it fades away fast when he sees the mark left on my neck from where they injected the serum. He walks over and gives me a hug.

“What happened?” He whispers still hugging me. I hesitate to tell him; I won’t hear the end if I don’t say anything.

“Let’s just say I will have to start acting more like a lady as I don’t want to embarrass my fiancé”. I pull away, rubbing the scar. You would think by now I should be used to being stabbed in the neck by needles. It takes Cyrus no time to work out what I meant, and he gasps and shakes his head like crazy, whispering no repeatedly.

“Um well good luck Marcy. You really need it now”. He gives me one more hug and walks over to the group of guards.

Next to say good bye is Sam. I don’t want to speak to him, I can’t bring myself to even care about him.

“I just want to say good bye and that you are my first love and always will be” He kisses me on the cheek and follows Cyrus where he is. Good bye? What does he mean? I put that to the back of my mind. My mother is coming now. Her eyes are watery and her lip does a sort of curvier.

“My little baby, all grown up. I know you will do the right thing. Remember that you don’t always have to do what everyone expects from you. Sometimes you have to fight to let that real break free” She takes off the necklace she wears around her neck. “I want you to have this. It is what my mother gave me when I didn’t know who my real self was. I hope that it helps you”. She puts it on me. It is a silver locket with writing along the sides of it. I look close to read it ‘Numquam obliviscaris qui vos vere sunt’. I don’t know the language, it’s the same as the one written on my coat. “I’m going to leave you now before I break down in to tear”.

Finally, it was my Fathers turn. He is talking to Sam about something I walk over to them. They don’t notice coming. Father has just said something to Sam which made him not happy.

“I did what you said, you can’t back out of our deal. You are going to hurt to many people” Sam sees me there and walks away. Father looks at me and smiles.

“Father what was that about?” I need to know. If it is worrying Sam than I should be concerned.

“Oh Marcella it doesn’t matter. Do you mind if I walk you to the door? I can’t walk you in at least I want to be the one to take you to the start of your journey” He reaches his arm out for me to link with. We begin to walk down the path. I’m nervous for this to happen.

“You know I have always been proud of you. Your courage and passion is what I’ve always envied. I want you to know that everything I’ve ever done has always been in the best interest of you and Peradora. Don’t forget that” He lets go of me “The day you were born I was so happy when I first go to hold you, I never wanted to let you go. I watched you grow up so fast and I don’t know where the time has gone. It’s now time to let go. Good bye my little girl” and like that he was gone, and I was left all alone to walk in the Temple.

***

Inside the Temple, there are tokens of past leaders who have walked through these halls. I see that there is a dagger leaning next to the wall. I want to leave my mark that can’t be moved so I begin to carve my initials into the wall. I take a look at my work, M.A. Someday my child will see this and know that I will always be here for them. I hear a cough come from behind me. I jump with panic and tuck the dagger into a pocket within the coat.

“Are you finished?” Says a women dressed all in white. She had a hood covering her face.

“Yes, I mean no, I was just… sorry about that” I point to my carving. The woman says nothing apart from walks towards the centre of the building. There is a hole in the ground filled with water and the ceiling is a glass dome showing the night sky. There is very dull lighting all around me. She stops and points to the ground.

“Please kneel her. I will be back. Must finish ritual with the others” She walks away leaving me kneeling next to this pool of water. I can see the sky reflecting in it, it is so beautiful. When I see the stars it reminds me how small my life actually is. How small Peradora is. One star shines the brightest and it reminds me as Angus. My feelings for him came so fast, it shines over everything else, but Sam is the one I will be marrying and spending my life with. ‘For the good of Peradora’ that’s what Father tells me.

When the white hooded woman comes back, she has two other women following, all dressed the same. They form a triangle around me and slit the palms of their hands. They join their hands together and begin the ritual.

“You have made a long journey to get here and now the gates are opening for you to begin the start of everything”. The second woman says “Marcella Cleo Aries the first born of Gwenaël Ivan Aries, do you take responsibility of the State of Peradora, when time gives it to you?”

“I do” my voice shakes a bit, this is the start of my path to be me, I need to just focus on that. The third woman starts to speak in gibberish and sways side to side. She is tugging on the first woman’s sleeve and I notice on her arm is a tattoo of arrow. These aren’t the Sisterhood of Io. These are assassins.

I am going to die; I must find a way to get out of here. I remember I have the dagger in my pocket. If I can just get to it without the assassins noticing. I slowly shift my hand into the pocket, there is something wrong though. The chanting has stopped and they have moved their formation. The woman in front of me punches me in the face while the others grab both my arms and stop me from struggling. I drop the dagger and it hits the floor with a bang. The arrow tattoo woman picks it up and does a cold hearted laugh while wiping the dagger in a yellow rag.

“You thought you could get away with using a little dagger. Your Father did say you would be easy; I didn’t expect it to be this easy”. She grabs my right hand off the second woman and digs a different dagger blade into the palm of my hand. She cuts an X shape into it, I wince and let out a scream. The pain in unbearable. “Now it’s time to finish our business”. She grips the dagger with two hands and lifts it above her head. I try to struggle; I will not die! I scream hoping my family will hear me, no one comes to save me. “Good bye”. She lowers the dagger at a fast speed, I close my eyes, this can’t be the end. There is a bang. I open my eyes to see blood. It is not mine but the tattoo woman’s. She tries to move, her eyes go blank and she falls.

“Lara is dead! We must finish it, Kat” The second woman says as she drops me to the ground and pulls out two guns. She throws one to the other woman. I kick her in the stomach and she drops the gun. I scurry across to grab the gun. Another shot is fired, it misses me. I get the gun and fire it at Kat. My hands are shaking, the pain in my right hand is burning. I fire with my left hand however it shakes and is weaker. I drop the gun and it falls into the pool of water.

“Jo! Don’t just stand there. Kill her now” Kat screams and runs at me. A shot is fired and Kats body becomes limp. Jo grabs my neck from behind and throws me to the floor. She kicks me in the stomach twice.

“How are you doing it? Tell me now!” She kicks me in the face. “Tell me now!” I can hear someone screaming however she keeps kicking me.

“I don’t know. Please stop. STOP!” I try to roll away, it is impossible, all my muscles ache.

I feel the blood running down my face. She picks me up so we are at eye level “Stop screaming. No one is coming for you”. I spit at her in the eyes. She pushes me to the ground right next to the pool of water, she walks over to me and grabs my hair, pulling my head back. She plunges me into the water. I start to kick and scream, gasping for air every chance I get. “How do you like it now? You will die, you witch” She cackles, it pierces my ears, I’m blacking out as I have no oxygen left in my lungs.

“Get away from her” shouts a familiar voice in the distance. Finally, someone is here to save me. There is a gunshot and the water on front of me has turned a dark red colour. I breathe attacking the air. All I can hear is a ringing in my ears, I cough and it stops. I begin to float away from the ground, is this what happens when your soul leaves the body. The light around me starts to become more clear. I roll my head over and see that I’m being carried. I reach out and see that it’s a boy’s face. He smiles down at me, like a guardian angel.

“Hey Princess, glad you’re still alive” Its Angus.

“Angus, you came back!” He puts me down and I tightly hug him because I’m so afraid of losing him. “I thought you were going to join a different regiment”. He holds me closer and runs his hands through my wet hair.

“I had a change of plan. Heard you were getting married, even though it wasn’t to me” He smiles and laughs “you are always worth coming back for”

“I could have died if you didn’t come”

“I’m here now, we still aren’t safe though. The guards will be coming back to collect your body, which as you can tell isn’t there. Now let’s go. My motorbike is just around the corner”

“Since when did you have a motorbike?”. Angus grabs my hand and begins to run. When we get outside, the cold bitter wind makes my hair stand on edge. I pull the torn up coat off, there is no need for it anymore for it. Angus picks me up and places me on the back of the bike and gives me a helmet.

“Put that on. They may start looking for you”. He starts the motorbike with a roaring noise like a hungry lion. There is shouting in the back ground. A side door bust opens with a group of guards pouring out. They wait for a signal; someone else appears afterwards. At first I think my eyes are seeing things, it must be, who else could it have been? It is Sam. He gives them a sign and they begin to fire at will. Angus speeds out of there faster than the bullets. I grip on to his waist tighter than I ever have before, the wind pushes me closer to him as we ride on into the night. Everything has changed now and there is no going back, unless I want to die.

How could Sam have betrayed me like that? Could he have known about the assassins all along and let me walk into my death? He may have planned to get Angus killed, surely he wouldn’t allow that for me. He did say everything he has done is because he cares about me. Maybe he was just doing what my Father told him to do. No, that doesn’t make it right, he gave the order for hundreds of bullets to be showered down at Angus and I.

When Sam and I first met it was because I was when I was six waiting for my Father to finish a meeting with Mr Barlette, the head of security at the time. I was sat e front porch playing with one of my dolls, when I got bored and started to go adventuring. The Barlette family on a cotton farm. Their house was surrounded by thousands of acers of fields. I ran into pretending it was a jungle on the hunt for cursed treasure. It wasn’t until I noticed I was being followed when I stopped. The plants behind me made a snapping noise and I thought it was my Father coming to give me a serum for running away. I picked the closes stick and used it as a sword.

A young boy a bit taller than me at the time appeared. He had curly blond hair and big bottle glasses that covered half of his face. He asked me if he could join but I poked him with the stick and said “you can only join if you don’t slow me down to find the treasure” he nodded and the he said “I know where it will be, in my secret tree house by the hill”. So we went to the tree house and that was the start of our Sunday ritual. Every Sunday we went to that same tree house and talked. At the age of eleven he asked me to be his there and at the age of sixteen we decide when we would express our love. A lot changed after that. We never went back to that tree house ever since.

I don’t know for how long we have been riding for, all I know is that I am tired, scared and hungry, and that the agonising pain in my hip feels like someone is stabbing needles into me. My eyes start to feel hazy and my heart beat slows down. The palms of my hands become clammy which loosens my grip around Angus. The darkness starts to take over my eyes and with one blink I am gone.

Chapter 5- THE Rise of the Phoenix

The grass is long, swaying in the wind. Running my hand through the ribbon like meadow. I can see at the bottom of the valley a small house. Steam blows from the chimney into the white clouds that lay within the blue icy sky. A picture perfect family are waiting for me. Smiling and waving, calling me to join them, a little girl runs and holds my hand. “Come on Marcella we’ve been waiting” and she runs away. I begin to run towards them, the ground beneath my feet is opening up, fire catches the bottom of my feet. Like a chain it wraps around my legs and pulls me in. I scream and scream. My throat closes in, the screaming stops. I am now in white room. No windows or doors, the ceiling is open with no blue skies, just white. “Marcy! Marcy it’s okay. I’m here now” an Angel calls down from the heavens and blinds me with golden rays. “Marcy it’s time to wake up, don’t be afraid, you’ll be okay. All you need to do is wake up for me”.

The first thing I see is Angus sitting on an old wooden stall, next to my watching me as I awake, his smile is the only medicine I need. I try to sit up but all of me burns with pain, I groan and clench my arms around myself. Angus jumps up and holds me close.

“Princess careful now. You must have been stabbed by something, it had poison on it. You wouldn’t wake up for two days. You fell of the bike and I was so afraid, I thought… I thought you were…” He stops and turns his head away. I reach out and hug him, I can’t let him take all the fault. “If I just killed them all straight away and didn’t let them cut your hand. If I just got there faster you wouldn’t be in this pain, I don’t know what I would’ve done if I lost you” he cries and looks away.

I look up to him and hold his face to turn it to look at me. I stare into his sad puppy like eyes and smile. He is no longer smiling, which is more pain than the physical pain I am going through. “Angus, it is not your fault. You saved me and did the best anyone could ask for. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you”. He doesn’t believe me, all he does is just shake his head and kisses my forehead.

“We better be getting down stairs. There are some painkillers on the bed side table. Hopeful they will help you. There are clothes on the radiator, just shout for me when you’re ready”. With that he walks out of the door and leaves me to get ready.

I take the two tablets with my glass of water and limp over to pick up my clothes, they don’t belong to me. It was a plain black vest top with some skinny jeans and knee high boots. This whole outfit screamed Lucy. She must be here than, where ever here actually is. As I get changed fast in this bleak small room, the pain seems like a distant memory now, I freely move around. “Angus!” I call, he comes rushing in, a towel wrapped around his bottom half. I don’t mean to stare at him, it just his body is like what you expect. He has a tattoo on his hip, which is of a line of number. 24102312. It seems like a date; I don’t ask in case it is personal.

“You didn’t have to shout so loudly, I thought you had set an alarm off with the fog horn you have for a voice” he laughs goes over to the side of the bed where he neatly folded his clothes. I turn around not wanting to watch him get dress even though part of me did. Not the way many girls would want too but study him so more, see what the real him is like.

“I don’t have a loud voice. You told me to shout for you when I am finished. I didn’t think you would run in half naked” I say with my back still facing him. I hear a snigger which makes me a smirk slowly grow on my face.

“I know you just wanted an excuse to see me in all my glory. Don’t lie, I saw you checking me out”

“I was not doing that. I simply curious about your tattoo”

“Hmmm yeah of course you were. Anyway let’s go now. Don’t want to keep the Mums waiting for us now” he says while taking my hand and walking out of the room.

As we make our way through the landing, I realise we are stain one of the old mining house on the outskirts of the steel district. It has been abandoned for many years ever since steel became an unwanted material. There was no electric thing anyway, no carpet and the glass had been swopped with wooden shutters. It was the last place I would have thought to look for anyone apart from a rat.

We walk into makeshift kitchen, in fact actually is a cooking pot hanging over an open fire with some sort of soup boiling away. In the corner near a shard of sun light sits two women holding hands. Lucy and someone I have never met before. When Lucy sees me, she gets up and gives me one of her big hugs. She doesn’t smell of whiskey and cigarettes now, I am intoxicated by the smell of perfume and powder make up. I look over her shoulder to see the other woman sitting broader now and her shoulders rolled back.

“Oh Marcy, I’m so glad you are better now. Rayven and I spent two days trying to nurse you back to health and not to forget that big whimpering mess over there. Really strange that poison made you hallucinate and kept calling us angels. Nice clothes by the way” She jokes. Rayven stands up and shakes my hand. Then realising it’s the cut one she starts to panic and says sorry over and over again.

Rayven has long blonde hair, it has part of it shaved off on the side where she wears a long, gold and green feather for an ear ring. She is very tall, maybe nearly as tall as Angus, nearly as strong as him as well, judging by her structure. She is so beautiful and strong; I am jealous of how blessed she is.

“Hey I’m Rayven” She shakes my hand with a firm grip. “My girlfriend has told me lots about you over the years working to keep you looking half decent” she says in a cool steady tone. It takes me a while to realise what she said. I thought that she couldn’t be talking and Lucy because she’s always going on about her sweet heart Ray, it fits together perfectly like a jigsaw. Ray is Rayven! It makes so much sense now and I love it. I have always been taught that you can never help who you fall in love with, no matter what sexuality, skin colour, religion or beliefs, love is still the same and should be treated the same.

“You have your work cut out with that girl. She is a perfectionist” I laugh so does Rayven. She flips her golden main and pushes it behind her ear.

“One of the many reasons why I love her. Anyway we need to have the talk with you and think it would be better if it was just the two of us” Lucy sniggers and kisses Rayven.

“Can’t it wait, until she has eaten, the poor thing has only just recovered” Lucy says being motherly.

“She can eat while I speak to her. She isn’t a child” Rayven barks.

“Be careful what you say Rayven. We have to go by the rules her over half has set us” Angus laughs and guides me to a seat with one hand holding tightly to my shoulder.

“I don’t have too. I can say whatever I want to say” Rayven rises and squares up to him. I feel the tension between them, he pushes her and she spits on him. Lucy holds Rayven back and sits her down on at the table.

“It’s for your own good. John told us what will happen if we make another mistake again and I will not be stuck in that bloody wash room for another month just because of your big mouth” Angus jokes. I like watching them joke around with each other, it makes me wonder if I would have friends like this if I lived a normal life and not be seen as a social outcast. Angus sits next to me and sides a cup of soup in front of me. “It might taste like cat piss, the only cook we have is Lucy and she has a special talent on burning air with just one look”. Lucy punches Angus in the arm and gives him the middle finger then she skips out of the room

“How do you know what cat piss taste likes?” I say in my most serious voice trying not to laugh.

“When you live in the Old City you don’t have much choice of fun dares” he gives me a wink and the others laugh. Rayven takes a sip of the soup and spits it out, running as fast as she can out of the room. It goes quiet and you her a sick noise. “That was my reaction when I drank the cat piss!”

“Angus there’s someone calling you on the radio. They say its urgent” Lucy shouts from upstairs. Angus gives me a pat on the shoulder and walks away to Lucy, leaving me all alone with a bowl of strong smelling soup that is making me feel sleepy. I take a sip of it, forcing myself to swallow as it burns my throat. Whatever Lucy had made it out of, it must have been out of date.

When Rayven has recovered, she pulls out a crate and sits on it twiddling her thumbs, looking at me. “Did you ever learn about the Rebellion don’t you?” I nod my head “You know how it ended all those years ago, when the Commander left and the State Guards got a tip off and killed most of the rebels. Most of us lost grandparents and Dads…” She does not flinch or cry, she just waits for me to nod. “A few years ago there was a rumour of that the Commander had risen again from the ashes and had plans to make Peradora back to the old ways. The old rebels were not prepared which lead to their fall. The Alliance is alive and has new blood, stronger than both and more powerful” Her eyes are beaming with hope, yet the rest of her face is still strong and fearless. “But it can only work if we have you. The people are too afraid to join, if they saw you as our leader they would have hope, they would see that not even the Head of States own daughter stands by him. So I know it’s a lot to ask and the consequences will change your life, but Marcella will you not just join us, become one of us?”.

I let it all sink in and I realise what she asks from me. My destiny lies in front of me, to take the power back to the people. For equal living and a simpler life for all around the Peradora and my Father already tried to kill me, I don’t see how it could get worse. “Yes I’ll do it! Let me help”. Rayven smiles and calls for Lucy.

“What do you want? Angus was speaking to me” She says as she walks into the room carrying a pile of clothes. “Did she really just agree to it that fast?”. Begin to think this through and maybe I didn’t give it a proper thin. If I became leader I would be going against my family and all our friends. Breaking my family’s traditions that we have worked so hard to keep and now I will be the one who brings it all crashing down. Am I really ready for this?

“Yes, I did. I can do this!” I shout standing up so fast my chair falls to the ground. Rayven holds me down as she thinks I will blow away like a balloon. I calm myself down from the rush of blood going to my brain.

“All that’s left is for me to work my magic and get rid of this Globe version of you. Realise the inner phoenix. How would you like to have auburn hair and maybe some clothes that fit you better?”. She starts to pass the clothes. “Go get changed upstairs then I will come with the dye, are you okay with that?”

“When have you ever asked me if something is fine by me?” I laugh and walk off upstairs to get changed. I see the one of the rooms doors are partly open. I peek inside and see Angus radioing someone.

“You need to tell her; I can’t keep keeping this a secret. She has been through too much. Don’t tell me what’s at stake. I am no longer you lap dog, I have someone I really care about now and I am putting them first!” He slams the radio down and begins to walk to the door. I run quickly into the bedroom I was sleeping in and begin to get changed. What secrets has he been keeping from me? It has nothing to do with me and I shouldn’t have listened in.

I put on the white t-shirt and zip up the black pants. I keep the boots because they are the only shoes that are easy to run in and lately I have done more running than ever before. I wait for Lucy to come, I sit brush my hair over and over again. It goes all the way down my back, I get the brush caught on something around my neck and then I remember the necklace my Mother gave me, the last time I saw her, I miss her so much. A pain in my stomach twists, maybe she didn’t know about me being sent to my death. What could have happened to her and Cyrus? We haven’t spent more than a night not being in the same building, I have hardly thought about this. I have become so selfish.

There is a knock. ‘Come in?’ and Lucy enters with a bowl. “I didn’t have chance to make real dye so I got some berries and tea bags, mixed them together and hopefully it will work”. I wrap a sheet around my neck and lean my head into the bowl. Lucy begins to rub the mixture into my hair and leaves it to rest. The smell of old tea and fresh raspberries flies around the room as if they are doing a dance together. I close my eyes to rest and all I can imagine is how I left Cyrus behind. I am awoken by Lucy smiling away.

“It’s done and once again I have done brilliant” she flips her hair and walks across the room to pick up a mirror laying on the floor with a crack in it. Looking in the mirror I see a different girl, no longer the Globe girl that did not know her future. Now free and ready to grab my destiny with two hand and never letting go.

“You really are the best at changing appearances for someone on the run” Lucy laughs and starts to clean up, I go to help her, she suddenly slaps my hand and gives me a stern look.

“No, you need to go outside and see Angus. It’s time you make your mind up about one more thing” I know what she means, I try to act like I don’t know what she means but she just glares and points to the door.

“What if I disappoint him? I am not like your type of girls, I’m too weak and selfish” I look down at the ground and sigh. Lucy gives me a hug and a reassuring smile.

“Marcy, you are the most caring person I know. Angus needs someone like you. He has never felt the way he feels ever since he met you. You both have been running away from this for too long. Go now”

I run out of that room, down the wooden stairs out of the broken front door into the over grown garden and I start searching for him.

“Angus! Angus?” I shout. Where is he? Lucy said he was outside, the real question is though, where? There is a whispering noise in the wind, it gets louder. The grass starts to move and it reminds me of my dream. I run away and something grabs hold of me.

“Marcy what the hell is wrong?” It’s Angus thankfully. He pulls me towards a wall and pushes me up against it. I let him run his fingers through my new hair, he puts it behind my ears. “I like your hair. Um it looks different” he seems nervous. His shoulders are hunched up and he rubs his elbows. He is wearing a black jacket that covers his neck. “Look I need to tell you something and I don’t know how to say this but...”

“Who were you talking to when you were in the house?” I had to know before I could talk to him about us becoming a thing. He gives me big eyes and is speechless.

“Um…It doesn’t matter. What does though is how much I am unable to stop thinking about you in that top and with that hair” he moves his arms around me and touches my collar bone. I let out at little giggle because it tickles. He then kisses my forehead, my nose and finally on the lips. I pull away though. Sam pops into my head, the way he use to kiss me on my forehead, nose then lips. I can never let him go even if he did betray me. He was my first love, he still is.

“Angus, it is too soon, I was meant to be with Sam even though he’s not meant to be for me, however I want you, I need you. You are like no one I have ever met and I love you”. He starts to laugh and look away.

“Do you think he even cares? He’s like the rest of the Globe people, He uses you as an accessory and now your gone he will have girls queuing to be his next. Marcy I... I think… no, I know I am in love with you”. My heart pounds harder. I have only ever had that said to me in that way once. I am speechless, standing there like a goldfish. Angus starts to walk off but stops and turns on his heels. “You know what, I’m not going to let that Posh Prick stop me from kissing you and being so in love with you” he runs up to me and lifts me up. I wrap my legs around him and we start to kiss. This time it’s not out of frustration or sadness. It is what feels right. He is the one. It is full of passion and I feel so light headed.

I gasp for air when we break apart. “Angus, are you really in love with me?”, he smiles and holds me closer to him.

“Of course I am; I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it! You are the only person I have ever felt this way for” I kiss him once more and rest my head on his shoulder. There are many forms of love, the way I feel for Angus is like light. It is bright, warm and something you need.

“I am sorry, about saying that stuff about Sam. He was my first everything and I guess part of me will always care about him. Even though he is twisted in so many ways”

“He may have been your first but I am going to be your last and forever”. We kiss again slowly and fast as the heavens open and we get soaked. We run for shelter in an old log shed, and we stay there till the rain goes away. I feel so cold and start to shiver.

“Hey here have my coat. I can’t have you die again on me”. He takes his coat off and wraps it around me. It feels warm and smells like him. It smells like soap and alcohol. I thank him and hold tightly on to it. His radio buzzes and he ignores it. It buzzes repeatedly none stop.

“Just pick it up. It’s probably important” I say, he shakes his head and brushes his fingers against my cheek.

“Nothing is more important than just spending these few moments we have alone before reality comes crashing in”. What can be worse than the reality I already have been living in? I thought things would start turning around for me now I am out of the eye of the storm never the less it seems its calm before the real storm begins.

****

Chapter 6 – THE Nest

The warm wind blows through the curtains letting streams of light hit the bed. I roll over expecting to see Angus but I reach out to an empty space. Nothing happened, I didn’t want to rush into it yet. We just spoke for most of the night. He told me about the time he first met me when I was little and I had escaped from my home so he decided to take me back. I remembered that day so well but he didn’t mention the other boy he was with. It was as if he was never alive or I imagined him.

The door slowly started to open, I instantly cover myself in all the blankets to hide away from the world. I feel someone’s hand rest on knee and a pull at the cover, I let go to see Angus smiling down at me.

“Hey there” He leans in and kisses me on the forehead. I reach out to hold his hand and pull him down onto the bed beside me, he looks at my hand and stokes the X mark scar, carefully following it. “Do you know what that’s for?” I ask, he nods slowly and let’s go. It never accrued to me before what that scar was apart from just letting poison enter my blood stream.

“It’s just a scar, nothing special” Angus shakes his head and stands up facing his back to. I walk over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, he shakes it off. “Angus, what is it?” my stomach tightens until it is on brink of snapping in half. He turns to face me and he stares straight into my eyes, red rings surrounded his dark misty eyes.

“I didn’t know if it was possible. I’ve only seen this mark once and I know the outcome was not pleasant. Marcy, you have the mark of a traitor, you carry a death sentence”. I don’t believe it, I am not a traitor, Father would never trial me as a traitor, Mother wouldn’t allow it or could it be that it was their idea together to have me die. I was never the daughter they wanted me to be, I was always messing things up. They want me gone because I am threat to them, still I will not let them win. This time it’s my life that is on the line and I will not let my parents stop me from doing what I believe in.

“I am not going to die, I’m not going to let them. I’m no longer. I will not let them get the last word this time”.

“I know you aren’t going to die, I am going to protect you until my last breath, I won’t let any of that happen” he holds me close, I break away, I feel guilty for him wanting to protect me. It’s my mess, I am the one who needs to protect him. I move to look out of the window, I only see one bike out of the two.

“Have Lucy and Rayven left?” Angus joins me and looks out of the window, by the look on his face his smile slowly fades away.

“Oh damn! We were meant to leave an hour ago” He grabs my hand and starts to run down the stairs bringing me with him. “They will be coming any moment”. He drops to the floor and rips a floor bored off. Three knifes and seven guns are there lying in a bundle. Angus gives me a pistol and slides a knife into the side of my boot. “To keep yourself alive”. He stuffs the rest into a bag and runs outsides with me following. I don’t want to ask questions because he seems so desperate to get away.

We get on to the motor bike and it lets out a roaring noise and drives away. I cling on, not knowing where we are going, I just know we had to go as far away as possible. The streets are empty, the sun is just rising and the street lights flicker. It’s like a ghost town with the wind pushing dust around. We were about to leave the village when a crashing noise came from behind. Two State Guards drive out on motor bikes, with guns firing at us. I try to shout to Angus yet he can’t hear me, I reach out for one of the helmets and I hear a voice. Angus’s voice.

“Glad you finally put safety first” he speaks through the speakers.

“What are we going to do? They won’t stop shooting” I panic; my arms begin to shake.

“Get the pistol I gave you out” He demands. I keep one hand on him and use the other to slowly get the pistol. “Right Marcy, you are going to have to trust me here” I am worried what it is, I haven’t used a gun in a long time, not since the accident. There’s a bang on the side of the bike and we skid from side to side.

“Marcy! Please trust me”

“I… I, okay I trust you. What do I do?”

“You need to fire at the bike on the left. Can you do that?” his voice cracks, I hesitate, this would mean killing someone and there would be no missing him, I have never missed a target before in my life even if I tried to. “Don’t hit the person, hit the brakes”

I turn around and take aim. The guards move around crossing each other as the drive. Firing ten bullets a second. I take a deep breath and remember what my Father taught me when I first picked a gun up. ‘To hit it perfectly you must not think as it as doing it in stages like it is a dance. Breathe, hold fire and count to four, fire’

“Okay, breathe…” Angus shouts my name “hold fire” He starts swearing, more bullets shower at us.

“Fire! Just fire” Angus screams. He swerves out of the way.

“1...2...”

“Marcy!” I squint my eyes and see the bikes brakes.

“Hit!” I fire and it hits the left bikes breaks. He is out of control and drives into the other bike knocking them both off the road. A dust cloud rises over us, feeling the heat burning my skin. A tear runs down my cheek and falls onto Angus’s shoulder as I hold myself closer to him, not wanting to let go before it’s too late. I killed two people, even though they were trying to do the same to me, they were working under my Fathers orders. Their blood is now on my hands and will never wash off.

The road goes on for ages, silence falls between us, every now and then Angus tries to make conversation, I ignore him like usual. We ride into an open field, the trees sway with the wind blowing through them. There are no workers in the fields, just bare emptiness and rings of freedom. A high wall stands in the middle of the road with five people all dressed in black with a blue band tied on their arm.

Angus pulls over and takes his helmet off. I stay sitting on the back of the bike watching him walk over to two of the wall guards. To my surprise, they hug as if they are old friends and comes over to give me a hand.

“Marcy? Welcome to the Nest” Angus says as he picks me up and walks me towards his friends, a tall man shakes my hand. He has a scar on his right eye and a tattoo covering the rest of his left side, he seems young yet much older than Angus.

“Hello Lady Marcella, it is an honour to have you with us. I am John, Head of Training which is good because usually I am on the wall. We haven’t had many of your lot lately however we had a load come in last night”

“Thank you John, the honour is all mine”

He laughs and turns to Angus as if I don’t exist “and Angus, the ones you told me to tell you about are here, in a bit of a bad state one of them is”

“And is she here?” Angus gives shifty look from John to me. It was like he was walking on glass making sure he was keeping whatever it was away from me.

“No she hasn’t. Angus you need to let it go though, she isn’t coming back, not now” John turns to me and places a hand on my shoulder “you’ve had a long day young Marcella, it is time I believe you should go to your quarters with the other cadets”

“John, I think it would be better if she stayed with me” Angus takes my hand and squeezes it, he smiles down at me.

“No, it is better if she gets to know her peers, she will be a better leader if she is not always by your side. You of all people know what it is like to be a lap dog to someone”. Angus goes to punch John; I step in front of him to stop him from hurting John. I am not afraid of being hurt, I see the anger in his face. There is so little I don’t know about him, even though I care deeply for him as if I have known him all my life.

“Get out of my way Marcy, you don’t need to get involved with this!” His rage does not disappear nor do I not move away.

“No, I’m not letting you do this” I stare into his eyes trying to be as powerful as I can be “you are going to listen to me because you know that is you hurt him, there is no going back”

“You were right John. She does have courage I wouldn’t expect from a girl from the Globe. Calm down now Angus, my son was only testing you, now come and give me a hug it’s been too long” says a middle age woman with purple streaks in her short bobbed hair. Angus hugs her and the gives her a kiss on the cheek. In the Globe we didn’t show affection to other people if they were not blood related. I know they aren’t family as Angus only has Oli for his uncle.

“You must be the famous Marcella Aries. I am Catherina, the woman in charge of all the security. Maybe it would be a lot safe if we talk inside the walls, it’s getting dark” She turns to walk towards the walls gates and gives a nod to one of the guards. The gates slowly open and Catherina turns to look at me. “Welcome to the Nest, I’ll show you around. John go to our apartment and see to your sisters. Lucy has finally come back”. Is this Lucy’s family? She has mentioned her family a couple times. I know that she has two siblings older than her and her Father isn’t around anymore, I guess I should have realised from her strong views of the Globe that it would have been because of her family’s involvement.

“Will Lucy be staying in the same quarters as me?” I ask, I feel happy that I will not be lonely when I get there.

Catherina laughs and shakes her head “I teach my children from birth how to defend themselves, I’m sorry she would have probably loved to stay with you”. My stomach drops and my happiness fades away, Catherina’s cold laugh echoes in my ears, maybe she doesn’t like that her daughter is friends with me or she actually means it.

The Nest is an underground city inside a labyrinth that goes under most of Peradora. The wall that encloses us in protects the broken down, white farming house, that is the only way into the Nest. Once you have got past the twenty guards that stay with in the house and down about a thousand stairs, you are greeted by an icy waterfall pushing the river down the stream. On both sides of the river in-between stalagmite and stalactite are buildings and more tunnels. There is people walking along paths built on the edges of the river, with one slip or push you could fall into the depths of the dark lagoon.

Catherina walks us towards a boat where an old toothless man sits laying with a dog. “Ah William, glad that you are well, could you take these children to sector 13N” she waved her hand to Angus and walks away without another word.

Angus put his arms around me holding me close as we get into the wooden boat, it dips as we get which made me get splashed by what felt like shards of glass. William started to row the boat with his dog resting its head on his lap. He was humming a tune that I had never heard before, Angus does though as he starts to sing along.

“Rolling, rolling down the river

Where will we meet next my darling

Will I see your crystal smile?

Will I kiss your lips again?

Or should I just… Keep…”

He pauses and looks at William then they both shout “Rolling, rolling down the river, until I meet my end”. William lets out a howl of a laugh and I clap my hands recovering from the piecing sound of them singing.

“Please don’t sing for me again, I might rather swim to our destination then go through that torture again” I joke, they laugh making the dog howl, it echoes throughout the cave.

William chuckles to himself and the looks at Angus. “You have a real crystal smile my son, don’t let her out of your sight. You never know who will steal her away” I look at Angus and he looks back, I don’t feel afraid of this place anymore, I have Angus and I am not the crystal smile but he is mine. He is the reason I want to get stronger, to save my family and my people.

I look around at the stone walls; they have algae painted upon the bricks, around the printed signs. Children sit on the edge of the paths, playing with cards shouting if they see a ripple in the river. Alliance soldiers run up and down, talking to each other, stopping when they make eye contact with me. Angus tenses up and looks into the dark misty water. He still holds my hand, I move it closer towards me and kiss the back of his hand.

“Here we are. The little cadets block. Your new home for the next 3 months” William says as he scratches his dogs belly

“I’ll walk you in, thank you William, I’ll see you at the meeting” Angus says as he gives me hand out of the boat. I decline it as I see a group of girls watching, I don’t want them to think I’m weak, I’m meant to be their leader. I stand up and the boat shakes, I cling onto the side of the wall and pull myself up lying on my belly. Angus laughs and so do I, it must have looked so strange and like a beached whale.

I dust myself off and tie my hair up into a ponytail, Angus begins to walk down one of the dark corridors, it has small bulb hanging from the ceiling that flicker. A smell of rotting eggs consumes the air and intoxicates me. We reach a large rusty metal door that has painted on it 13N, Angus pushes it open and walks in. There is so much light everywhere and a loud roar of voices in every direction.

A young girl, walks over, she has big brown hair and dark skin. Her hair is black and frizzy. It bobs up and down when she walks. She smiles at me and shakes my hand. “You must be Marcella, we were told to expect you, so hey and come into the lion’s den. I’m Hailey”

“Please call me Marcy, and nice to meet you Hailey”

“Well come and have a look around, don’t just stand there” She laughs and starts to pull me along. We walk past a group who were sat on the sofa next to the fire arm wrestling and cheering each other on. There are two girls sat next to a book case watching Hailey and I as we walked past. Hailey spits on the floor near them, I stop even though she carries on pulling me along, we must be close to the ground as there is shafts of light coming through the ceiling. “That was the form room, we all go there and chill out at night, on your right are the boy’s dorms and here are ours. It’s not big like you are used to, its home for us. Training will be at 7:00 AM every morning but you have Sundays off”

“Those girls in the form room, are you not friends with them?” I ask Hailey, she gives more a snort and makes her way into our dorm. It is full of twelve steel bunk beds, with only three of them looked like they have been slept in. Next to the beds are trunks and dressing tables, posters hang all over the room and family photos are stuck to a wall along with cards and dolls. She sits down on one of the bottom bunks and places her hands on either side of herself. I feel sorry for her, she seems lonely and scared, she just puts up a wall that keeps you out.

“I’ve lived here all my life and so have those girls. Milly and Sophie have never liked me; always thought I was spoilt because of who my Dad is. You know what it’s like, your parents are The State Leaders and you’re the heir to the Title! I guess I’m the rebel version of you. My Dad has devoted his life to the Alliance and Milly thinks that I get special treatment because of that”

“So she’s jealous? That’s pathetic” I laugh and sit next to her. “Trust me, don’t worry about it. I’ll watch out for you and be your friend”. Hailey smiles and gives me a nudge.

“You know you left your boyfriend waiting in the dorm. Knowing the guys that live here, he’s probably got into a fight” Hailey giggles, I don’t react, I only just realise Angus didn’t follow me when I went to look around. I give Hailey a nod and ask her to walk me back. She does so without question and we walk back down the hallway.

Milly and Sophie were no longer sat near the bookshelf, the group arm wrestling seemed to have grouped around in the middle of the room. Hailey and I go to see what is happening and to my surprise there was Angus standing in the middle of the crowd. He looked so alive and happy talking to the cadets, it looked like he had them in the palm of his hands, hanging on to every word. I hoped to be like him someday, he makes a terrific leader.

“So she picked up the knife and stabbed it right in between his fingers and stormed out as if nothing happened. That was the moment I realised that she was the most dangerous woman I have ever met and that I was in love with her”. There was a roar of laughter and even I had to laugh as well. I forgot all about that, I didn’t know that Angus would even remember, I catch his eyes and his eyes light up as he smiles. He walks over and kisses me on the forehead, I rap my arms around him and hold him tightly. “Like I said, she’s a dangerous woman but is like a fluffy cat. I think you are going to fit in well here, Marcy” I think he means it, he no longer seems annoyed or stress, he knows that I belong here now.

“Are you sure you are okay with me staying here?” I ask.

“I would have loved it for you to stay with me, yet I know that I have to let you be yourself and become the leader of these people” he holds me closer and slides his hands down to my waist and whispers “be careful, if you need me just follow the hall to the staircase and you will find me in N09. I will see you tomorrow though at 7 o’clock tomorrow, meet your new teacher”

I jump up in excitement, I am happy that I have Angus as my teacher, he is not just strong physically but mentally. “That is brilliant! I promise I won’t let you down”

“You better not, I’ve been bragging about you so much” he says as he runs his fingers through my hair and walks towards the door. I am nervous on being without him, I have not spent a night alone since my escape from the Globe. I must be strong though, I have to see this through. “Marcy you aren’t doing anything wrong if you don’t want to stay here. I can see how nervous you are and to be honest I don’t feel like you are safe staying here. These children have been taught to hate anyone from the Globe”. I feel as if he is right never the less, I need to show I am not afraid.

“Marcy go with him please. It’s better for your own good if you do” Hailey says, I forgot she was even there. “No one who is of Globe blood is safe left alone here. I could help you, it’s just I don’t trust myself, I am not as strong as everyone else. Just go with Angus” Hailey pushes me towards the door with Angus.

“Will I still be able to see you?” I ask, she seems so nice that I don’t want to lose her.

“Of course you can. You can see me tonight at the meeting, midnight outside the old oak tree. They say that the Commander is back”

Angus turns and looks her straight in the eyes. His hands are on her shoulders and he starts to shake nervously “Hailey are you sure that is true? Is it really information?”

Hailey pushes him off and straightens up her black jacket. “Of course I’m right, my Dad told me so”. I look at Angus, he’s biting his thumb and scratching his ear. He seems anxious at this news. I worry for him; I still haven’t forgotten about that radio-call he had or the mention of him being a lap dog. I know I shouldn’t be mad; I feel as if I am the only one that is being kept out of this web of lies. However, I know it is his duty and that sometimes it is better I don’t know.

“Um thanks… Marcy I need you to wait here. I need to go do something” he walks off and leaves me alone with Hailey.

“What the hell is wrong with him” Hailey says. I pause and watch him as he strides down the long dim hallway. A strange feeling of anger built up in my chest, I have given up waiting around. It is time I finally do something

“I don’t know but we are going to find out. You know this place right?” I begin to walk down the hallway at a fast pace, Hailey follows me and pulls me down an alleyway I wouldn’t notice if not being pulled into it.

“He went down this one. I think I know where he is going” Hailey runs down the twisted halls. Every now and then we would catch Angus’s shadow and we would slow down. The adrenaline going through my blood stream is addictive, it makes me feel unstoppable. I see a head a room with a young girl with light blonde, around the same age as Angus, sat at a small table. Angus enters and gives her a hug. My heart drops and a sick feeling starts to build up in. Who is this girl and why is Angus with her?

***