“Children, it is time to load the buses,
say your final goodbyes. Your future starts right now!” He shouts with too much
excitement in his voice. I give Aldabert a final hug before we begin to be
separated by the mobs of children eager to arrive at their new schools.
“Forever,” I scream across the mob of
people who are more beautiful than I am.
“Times forever,” Aldabert shouts from the
other side of the globe.
Walking
to the buses is like walking to my hanging. Everything seems grey outside,
despite the lush colors surrounding me. Infinite blondes walk around me, in
beautiful dresses made just for them. How could this have happened? I do not
belong here. Every few seconds I see perfect blue, green, golden eyes look back
at me, like they are searching, yet burning me at the same time. I stand at the
back of the crowd hoping to fade into the scenery surrounding us. Us, the clan
of beautiful. The only thing that keeps me from breaking at this point is
Bessie, trudging slowly at my side. I know that she feels the same way I
do.
The doorway to the bus is a few dozen feet
before me. I know what comes next but I am not ready to face it. My life from
this point on will change forever. Not necessarily for better or worse, but
just in general.
“Maybe this school could hold something
great in store,” I whisper to Bessie who is still silently stalking by my side.
Her tail is down, something very
uncharacteristic of her.
“What’s the matter girl?” I ask when I am
blocked from stepping any further toward the bus. “Ouch,” I say while I rub my
shoulder which I’m pretty sure just popped out of its socket.
I look up and am greeted by a huge man
dressed to impress. He wears a black
tuxedo and a white shirt underneath it, slightly unbuttoned.
“Excuse me miss, but it needs to go,” he
says, becoming more intimidating by the moment.
“What needs to go, exactly?” I ask him, a
hint of nastiness left in my voice. I hope he doesn’t notice.
“That mutt following you. Is it even yours
anyway?” He wears an expression full of disgust.
All I want to do is kick him straight in
the…
”She is not a mutt. And yes, she is mine.
And no, she is not going anywhere.”
I start to walk forward with a confident
pace when I hear a yelp. I look back to
see the man pick Bessie, seemingly asleep, up in his arms.
“Hey! Who do you think you are?” I yell at
him.
“I’m sorry but it can’t accompany you to
where your new life begins. Give me an
address where I should drop it off.”
I start to think. My guards probably moved
out as soon as the ceremony ended, so that’s no good.
“15694 Boxfleur.” I tell him just like
that. Aldabert’s parents should be in for quite a surprise. “Can I just say
goodbye to her? Alone?” I ask giving him the deadliest stare I could muster
up.
“Yeah, sure, whatever. Make it quick; I
have a life, too, you know.”
He kicks the ground and walks a mere ten
feet away. I wish he would walk into the forest and fall off of a cliff.
“Hey
girl,” I say as I lean down and pet Bessie’s head. “Okay this is the plan. I’m
sending you to Aldabert’s house, I’m sure his mom will be fine with you staying
there. I’ll sneak out and come visit you and we’ll play fetch and go in the
lake…” I feel the hot tears falling down my face onto her perfect fur. Why her
too? “I know you’re sad, but don’t worry. It’ll all go by super fast and we’ll
be together faster than you know. Wait lemme just…” I take out my camera and
snap a picture of her tired face. She looks like she has been drugged. “I love
you forever times forever, Bess.”
The man comes and scoops Bessie off of the
ground and walks away without another word. All I’m left with is a picture of
her. A picture of the girl I grew up with and the only living memory of my life
before all of this happened.
Suddenly, I hear my name being called. I
keep looking around the path for who it might be, but just give up. What’s the
point anyway? I feel someone’s hand on my shoulder and realize that it is
her. Aldabert’s mother. “I’m so sorry, Beata. I’m so sorry,” she begins. I feel her arms around me, not in the usual
loving way, but in a more frantic and worried way. Sort of like she was
shielding me from what would soon come. Sort of like she knew that this would
happen all along. All of those years of play dates and smiles and hugs were set
in place all for failure. I look into her eyes which are red and full of
tears. “You knew all along, didn’t you?”
I asked her.
She couldn’t even come up with the words
to express how sorry she was. I couldn’t even manage to be upset with her. She
was the closest thing I have had to a mother in all of my years of living.
“I need you to do something for me,” I
pleaded. Her eyes looked like oceans of worry.
She could not even speak. “They
took Bessie away from me. I asked them to bring her to your house. The guards
already moved on to another child so I can’t send her to my house and I’m not
sure where else I would send her.”
I break down and she grabs me so tightly,
I might explode.
“Anything for you, dear. Absolutely
anything.”
I needed her and I just realized that she
wasn’t prepared to lose me, either. I take out my camera and she smiles. She
has never looked so vulnerable, so weak, in all of the years I have spent with
her. The flash comes and she is gone without another word. Probably going to
the bathroom to touch her face up. Everything has been stripped away from me,
slowly but surely and I can surely feel it in the pit of my stomach. This hole
that grows bigger and bigger, black and empty, waiting to suck the life out of
me. Or has it already?
We continue our treacherous journey for
about another three minutes. Those three
minutes feel like a lifetime to me, walking alone without a hand to hold or a
smile to receive. Honestly, just kill me now, I think as the bus starts to swim
into view. This bus is nothing like I have ever seen. It is triple the size of
my house, definitely a double decker, maybe even a triple decker. It is
completely pink, of course. Nothing less would suffice for the most beautiful
girls of Pareo. Girls start to push and shove to find their way onto the bus.
All I can see right now is a mass mob of blonde. The gap between the girls and
me feels as though it is continuously getting larger. With every step forward
they take, it feels like I am taking two steps back. It is finally my turn to
step onto the bus. I look behind me and see that the forest is so near. I think about running. Just running away into
the heavily wooded area. Maybe Aldabert
would be waiting for me there. If I make a run for it right now, there would be
nothing the supervisors could do about me.
Who cares if the ugliest girl here disappears? More fun for them!
I enter the bus alone. I see that there is
a flight of stairs going up that are white with multicolor LED lights inside. I
look down and see that the floor of the bus is completely transparent. I am
sure that if I were here with Aldabert, we would find a trace of ironic humor
in this. But Aldabert isn’t here and I am alone. I look up to see that hundreds
of rows of green, blue and golden eyes are staring at me once again. “Seems as though all of the seats are taken
on this floor sweetie!” A voice says to me. Her voice is as smooth as silk, so
beautiful. Like it is something I have been missing my entire life.
“Just follow me upstairs and we will find
you a place. These girls can be a little scary.”
The voice matched the creature. She is
tall and skinny, but it suits her well. Her skin is absolutely perfect, not a
flaw in sight, with perfectly rosy cheeks. Her hair is like fire: red, orange,
gold, all at the exact same time. She is wearing a tight red sequined dress,
like most of the other escorts on the bus. Her lips are painted a bright red to
match her dress, but her eyes are not made up at all. They do not need it. Her
eyes are a greenish yellow and very mysterious, as if she is hiding something
under all of her flawless flesh.
“Um,
excuse me? Name please?” Her harmonic
voice rings in my ears.
“Beata, Beata Cavelry,” I barely squeak
out from my less-than-average mouth. How can someone mortal be this beautiful?
“Alright, Beata. Pleasure to be in service
of you today. Follow me upstairs and I will find your shadow.”
“Excuse me, but what is a shadow?” I ask.
I hope that this is not a stupid question.
“Haha, you are very unfamiliar with the Formosa system,
aren’t you?” She asks me while smiling.
Her teeth are whiter than Aldabert’s. I wonder how that is even
possible.
“Yes. I had no idea that I of all people
could ever end up in this school,” I answer.
“Well, the government of Pareo knows best
so I am sure that they put you here for a good reason!” She giggles
apprehensively. There is silence for a solid five seconds.
“Well… to answer your question, a shadow
is a fellow newcomer to the school that is randomly paired to another student.
It is a way to make friends before coming to the school. Sort of like a
meet-and-greet for the kids,” she says to me while looking down at the
transparent glass tablet in her hand.
“A
wonderful idea, I am sure!” I snap back with a little more sarcasm than
necessary.
“Aright, then, let us begin!”
She walks up the stairs one step ahead of
me. We arrive at the top of the steps and both look around in the same
direction.
“Just out of curiosity, where are all of
the boys?”
“Ah, you haven’t heard,” she says and
shakes her head from right to left just once.
“Boys and girls at Formosa are
kept separately until the presentation ceremony. It goes the same way for
Eriditus and Vulgaris. The presentation is usually when mates meet each other
for the first time. Like a fresh set for
eyes, they won’t see you before your transformation.”
“Fine with me,” I say. All I can think
about is Aldabert seeing me at this presentation, whatever it is.
It has transparent floors just like the
bottom bus, but that is the only thing that the two have in common. I look down
the aisle to see that the girls up here are even more beautiful than the girls
downstairs. These girls are not blonde,
they are gold. Each girl is different, but equally as beautiful as the other.
My escort turns to me and smiles the most painted-on smile I have ever seen.
She flips through a virtual list on her glass tablet before stopping suddenly.
“Lucifas Amare… Lucifas Amare may I see you for a moment?”
Amare. Where have I heard that name
before?
A girl with hair made of gold, a suntanned
complexion just like Aldabert’s and eyes like liquid mercury walks over. She
gives my escort a look like I have never seen given to an adult before. It is
one of pure annoyance, like she would rather be anywhere else.
“Yes?” She asks through a sarcastic
grimace. Oh no, please, any one but her.
“Meet Beata Cavelry. She is your mentor.”
“She is my shadow?!” Lucifas screeches.
“Please comply with my requests this time.
Beata is a very…special case,” the woman says while looking down at her
tablet.
“Fine,” she spits and then pops her
bubblegum. Cinnamon flavor, absolutely nauseating.
“I assure you two, the next four years of
your lives will be absolutely fantastic!” The woman says through that painted
smile once more.
To Be Continued…
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