Freedom

"You ask me if I had 'Freedom'" I put finger quotes around the word in question.

"Well... yes." The interviewer replied. Man she was so stupid. I had told her at least five times that we never said that there was such a thing as freedom. It was a made-up idea that made people feel better about being controlled without them even noticing. I looked at her, she had her long black hair pulled up into a bun, her brown eyes didn't hold the love or even pity (Not that I wanted pity) like she wanted them to, it was an act. she was just doing her job. she could care less about me and my "Fantastical story." her plump lips covered in bright red lipstick were stuck in a permanent, but small, smile that was put on to try to calm me, but it was anything but calming. I would have been calmer - on the inside, I was always calm on the inside- if she was scowling, and screaming at me, demanding that I answer her idiotic questions. I thought about everything I went through, and what I told her. I didn't tell any lies, I never do, I just skipped around a couple of parts to make it more "Believable." then I looked at the clock above her my time here was up, so I leaned over her desk, and asked her a question that I knew the real answer too, as well as the one she thought was the real answer.

"Do you have "Freedom?" with that I stood, gave her a mocking bow, placing one arm behind my back and the other over my stomach and bending over at the waist, straightened, and walked out of the room, leaving a confused interviewer, that I didn't even bother to learn the name of, I was going to have a new one by next week anyhow, behind me.

"Did this one believe you?" My best friend Simon asked me as I walked out the tall blue-gray building's double doors. All I did was glare at him. I have known him since I was two and he understood that I wasn't really glaring at him I was glaring at this whole situation. he just chuckled before wrapping an arm around my shoulders. anyone that saw us might think that we were a couple, but we both knew that it was just a friendly gesture. That I was tip-toeing on the edge, and needed something to hold onto.

"I swear that this one is going to throw me in the loony-bin." Then I backed up a step away from him, and punched him in the arm.

"Ow." He said rubbing his arm as if it hurt, faking the entire time. "What was that for?" He raised an eyebrow at me.

"That," I pointed at his arm. "Was for laughing. this is not funny. this is serious. we have to get someone to believe us, or else they won't let us be our real selves.

“I guess.” he shrugged. “Do they have to understand?” I thought about it, but was quickly interrupted as we reached his car.

The ride was only filled with the sound of silence. Like a fragile piece of glass, it could easily be shattered. Simon understood that I wasn’t ignoring him, quite the opposite in fact. He knew that I was taking the world in, as I thought. Maybe we didn’t need them to understand. They will never leave us alone, but we could refuse to talk, but I had already said so much. I was so stupid to tell them anything. They were going to mark me as a crazy.

We reached my new home far too quickly for my liking. The two story, red-bricked building was always loud, and even though I could see myself living in this place, but with my new foster siblings I couldn’t hear myself think.

“See you later Vic.” Simon said using my old childhood nickname.

“Bye Si.” I said before opining the car door, but Simon grabbed my arm stopping me.

“Try to relax.” he told me. “You can trust them.”

“Has anyone told you that you are to trusting?” I gave him a quizzical stare.

“Yes. You. a lot.” with that I hopped out of the car and walked up to the door.

“Hey!” Simon called to me, and I turned around to face him. “Try to get some sleep tonight.”

“Bye Si.” I called before entering my crazy new house.

Yelling was this first thing I heard when I walked through the doors. My new foster siblings were fighting again. Isabelle was a 17 year old girl that everyone loved, she had long black hair that reached the small of her back, was about 5,8’’ and had beautiful green eyes, she the queen bee so to speak, but trust me when I tell you that she is not one to mess with. Her brother Alec (Short for Alexander) looked very much like his sister. He had the same dark hair that was just long enough to get in his icy-blue eyes, and was only a couple of inches taller than Izzy. He was the shy one in the family, and just stood there in the middle of the living room as Izzy accused him of hiding her make-up as punishment for her doing who knows what.

I, being the wonderful person I am, decided to put poor Alec out of his misery.

“Hey Izzy.” I greeted her.

“Not now.” was all she said, waving me away. I turned towards Alec.

“What did you do this time?” I asked him.

“Nothing.” he stated, but I could tell from the gleam in his eye that he was lying.

“He hid my make-up box from me, just because I am about to go on a date and he doesn’t like the guy.” Izzy informed me. I sighed before I told Izzy.

“He hid it in the last place you would ever look.” Izzy thought about it for a moment.

“It’s under my bed isn’t it?” then she ran up the stairs two at a time while yelling. “Don’t think you’re off the hook Alec.”

“Thanks.” He sighed. “You saved my but…temporarily.”

“No problem.” we were quiet for a second. “Who’s she going out with?” I just had to ask.

“Gabe.” he said covering his face with his hand. “The biggest player ever to walk a hundred miles for this place.”

“Gosh. That’s bad.” I knew that Alec was overprotective of Izzy, and
she was notoriously bad because of that very reason, but him? That was really bad.

“Tell me about it.” he collapsed onto the couch.

“Talk to you later Alec.”

“Whatever.” Like I said. Crazy house. I walked upstairs, into my room, before collapsed on my bed and fell into a dreamless sleep.



. . .



The interviewer- Mrs. Browning, but Clare could never remember that- leaned back into her chair as she hit the rewind button on the sound recorder. There was something about that girl’s story. It was far to fantastical to be true, but at the same time it rang with nothing but the truth. Making Mrs. Browning’s job a whole lot harder. Of course she could just say that Victoria was crazy and have put into a home for the insane, but she only did that when it was obvious that the person was a danger to him/herself or to others.
Nobody in their right mind would come up with such a story of their lives. It just didn’t add up.

Once the recording of their earlier conversation had stopped rewinding she hit play, closing her eyes, imagining the world that she desperately wanted to believe was real; even if only for a moment.

“This is what happened,” Clare’s voice rang from the speakers like the sound of wind chimes singing to the wind, hypnotizing you to listen. “It’s hard to believe, but I promise you that this story is one hundred percent true.” and so the story begins.


Chapter 1


Imagine this: miles upon miles of countryside, grass the color of perfectly polished emeralds, air so clean that every breath feels like the first. To the East there is an orchard of apple trees, producing the sweetest, most crisp apples you have ever tasted. To the West there is a small town with the kindest of people hustling about, in a place where sickness is a foreign concept, and everyone has a power, such as, flying, mind reading, and shape-shifting. But where you live, where you work, whom you love, and when you die is not up to you, but up to the Guardians. They are the ones that make sure that everyone is following them like ducklings follow their mother, and nobody seems to care that they aren’t even living their own lives, but they are living whatever life they are told to live. Don’t you want to live there? I don’t, but I did.

I was sixteen at the time. It was the year that I would grow into my power, have my life decided for me, as well as my death. No matter what the Guardians said I had to die the day, time, and way they told me to. I often wondered whether we were murdered, or if it was suicide seeing that we had to follow orders.

Many people enjoyed this day. Overjoyed to be able to find out what their future had in store for them, but for me it represented the day that I lost all control over my life, and seeing how I was the “Trouble Child” as the whole town knew me, I was going to get one of the worst lives. I could feel it in my bones.

“Victoria!” my mom called me from the living room. “Vikki it’s time for you to get up! You have to get ready! Today is a big day!”

“Yep a big day.” I thought to myself. “The day I die.” for was I not going to die today? I was going to never live my own life again. Isn’t that the same as death?

“I’m up!” I called before sitting up.

My room was like all others in our fair town. A small room with a single bed (The master bedroom had a queen) with a simple white quilt, a tiny bedside table- my was covered in sticky notes from when I had ideas for different stories, and a lamp- and a closet facing opposite to the bed.

The only way you would be able to tell that this room was mine was the papers stuck on the wall. Newspapers, articles and notes. I collected as many things on both our powers, and the outside world. Well what precious little I could find.

I would be taken away if the Guardians found out about my little collection. I had to break at least five Laws just to obtain them. And with more and more people “disappearing” everyday. They blamed it on people dying of sickness or some other lie, but I knew better.

Everybody that “disappeared” were people that I knew, and they all were people that thought that the Guardians were wrong or suspected that we were more like prisoners than anything in our small town. They are all gone. I often wonder why nothing has happened to me, seeing how none of the others made it to the “Change” the day we got our powers, for me that is today.

I got up and made my way to my closet before picking out a black tee-shirt that said in large white letters: “Crazy is the new Normal, anybody who says differently is Insane” a pair of dark, skinny jeans, and my sneakers. I wrapped the laces of my right sneaker around my ankle once, before tying it in the front. It was an old habit, from when my best friend Simon told me that it would bring me luck. Then he disappeared along with the rest. After that I went to the bathroom, where I had a serious battle with my fiery, red hair-my hair was in better shape afterwards then I was- and pulling it into a tight ponytail. That’s when I made it downstairs to face what was probably the scariest day of my life.


. . .


Every time a child becomes sixteen years of age they are taken to Town Square where a lager “stage” is set up and the place the Orb on a small table in the center of the stage. The orb is what draws out our power, just one touch is all it takes, and nobody knows how it works, just a couple of theories here and there. Then according to what power you have the guardians will tell you what you shall be for the rest of your life. No questions asked. So as my mom and I walked down the street you could say I was a bit nervous.

Each step I took made a slight thump like the sound of the drums, leading me closer and closer to my doom, my heart began to pound, loudly, in my chest as the stage first came into my view. The entire town was there, all looking at me as I walked past them, and my mom took her place by them and gave my a thumbs up.

“This is really happening.” I thought as I swallowed. Hard. I forced myself to remain calm, on the outside, as I walked up the five stairs onto the stage.

“Victoria Rain, Daughter of Elizabeth Rain.” Guardian Jacob, the leader of the five Guardians walked up the stage, he was dressed in a robe of red, rustling with every move, his face was as pale as a ghost, but his eyes were black, no white at all, but empty black depths he was followed by, Guardians Lilith, Gideon, Nikko, and Hera. They formed themselves into a line, Guardian Jacob in the middle.

“Y-yes?” I hated how feeble my voice sounded.

“You have been brought here on the day of your sixteenth birthday, to perform the Change.” Tell me something I don’t know. “Are you ready to begin your life?”

“To end it you mean.” I thought but instead said

“As ready as I will ever be.” He nodded as if he expected me to say this before continuing.

“Then place your hands on the Orb and begin the change.”

I looked at the Orb then, the blue, and gray energy swirled around inside, it glowed from what I could only guess was all the energy inside. Timidly I made my way over to it. No longer looking at the Orb, but instead at the crowd. Who had gone silent as I took the oath. Looking at me, wondering what I would become, who I would be forced to live as. I took in a breath before looking back down at my hands, just hovering over the Orb, and with forcing all my courage to the surface, I place my hands on the smooth surface of the Orb.

The feeling was unlike anything I had ever felt before. I had been expecting a cool surface, and at first it was just that, but then fire began to shot up my veins, up to my heart, and brain. Then it felt like fire was licking up my skin, and ice grew beneath it. My head was pounding, as if my brain was trying to escape the pain. I sucked in a breath of air as what felt like needles went through my hands, up my arms, and pierced my heart.

As quickly as it began it ended. The pain subsided, leaving only a aching head behind. I cradled my hands against my chest, at that moment I wanted nothing more than to be by myself, but I still had to have my future decided.

I looked at guardian Jacob. He nodded at me, and held both of his hands out, black, swirling tattoos covered his hands leading up his arms, hidden by his sleeves. I had seen enough Changes to know that he wanted me to give him my hands.

I handed them to him, palms up. He studied them carefully, almost as if he was taking every detail to heart. His brow was creased in concentration, it seemed like he was confused by what he saw. After what seemed like a decade he looked up at me before giving me the largest smile I had ever seen. I knew that Guardians rarely ever smiled, and couldn’t help but think that it was forced. I saw something flash in his eyes, but it was gone before I could know what it was.

He dropped my left hand, gripping my right one far too tightly as he raised it above my head, turning both of us towards the awaiting crowd. He yelled in a booming voice.

“For the first time in a hundred years we have a Mind Blower!” the crowd erupted into a cheering frenzy. Mind Blowers were the rarest of all the different powers one could obtain in the Change. They were able to literally break into the mind of another and destroy it from the inside out. I have never heard of a Mind Blower that didn’t cause a whole lot of problems. Oh goody.

He then lead me to where the other Guardians stood Lilith, Gideon, Hera, and Nikko each were able to depict one aspect of your life. Home, Work, Love, and Death. I braced myself as Guardian Hera leaned down to whisper in my ear, her long black braid contrasting with her white robes.

“You will live at 1033 Lakeview ave. when you turn eighteen.” Home wasn’t the one I was worried about, it was the rest that scared me. I walked to Gideon who similar to the previous Guardian whispered.

“You will be a writer.” So far I have been made a very happy person. I loved to write, and I was surprisingly happy that I would be able to publish my stories as a job. Next was Lilith. Love. I have never really thought about it, and I didn’t care for it. I would be happy if she told me I would not marry.

“You will far in love with a Angel of Death.” this surprised me. Her was supposed to tell me who exactly, not just give me some crazy riddle to solve. I simply gave her a small nod before approaching the man who would tell me how I would die. I swallowed hard as he leaned his head down to my ear, his breath surprisingly cold against my skin.

“You will die in battle, on the day we are free.”

Chapter 2


The entire town was celebrating. Lights were hung in the streets, buffet tables were set up along the sidewalks. Everybody went home to change into their formal cloths, and by the time this was all done it was night out.

Mom dragged me home to get me changed. she went into her room, grabbed one of her dresses that would fit me, came back out, gave it to me, and ordered me to change. Not that I can say anything about the way she acted around me. I have always been the child that refuses to do anything she’s told, and did everything her own way. Here is an example.

When I was in the sixth grade I was always bullied, so one day when I was running from a couple of kids that really hated me-I might have insulted one, or all three of them- I looked for a place to hide. Seeing no other place to go, I used my super climbing skills to climb a drainage pipe on the side of the cafeteria building, and stayed on the roof. When I was found there, the others had gone, and I got suspended for climbing school property. Did my mom ask for my side of the story. Nope.

When I finished changing into my dress, I came down to find that my mom was already done getting ready. She had a golden dress that came down to her ankles, with the back out she hadn‘t worn that dress since my 14 birthday, her eye shadow was simple, and she had her mother’s diamond necklace on. Her hair was pulled up in a bun.

“Come here. Let me do your hair.” she patted the spot next to her on the couch. I wobbled over to her in my silver heels, not used to the feeling of walking with a needle for a heel. Somehow she managed to get my hair to look straight, which I have yet to master. Then she proceeded to pull my hair into a bun, not unlike hers, and slid in what looked like a silver chopstick to hold it in place. “There. Your perfect.” she said to let me know that she was done.
She pulled me, tripping on my heels, into her bedroom where she stood me in front of her full length mirror.

She had said that I looked perfect. That’s not the word that I would have used, but I had to admit that I did look pretty.

My mothers silver gown fell down to my ankles, shimmering in the dim light of the moon, coming through the window. I had decided not to wear much jewelry, dashing earrings to the side and putting on my favorite necklace, a silver chain, with a single, tear drop shaped, ruby, about the size of my pinky nail. I would never call myself beautiful, with my crazy red hair and dull green eyes, but tonight I was pretty.

“Thank you mom.” I said giving her my Mona Lisa smile.

“You’re welcome. Now let’s go! You can’t be late to your own party.” I rolled my eyes at that, but followed her out of the room anyway.

Now I stood on the sidelines, not really paying attention to what was going on around me. I was to confused by everything that has happened today. Meaning the Guardian’s odd predictions. I had expected for them to give me names, places and dates, but instead I just got confused. I mean what did Guardian Lilith mean when she said I would fall in love with an Angel of Death? Or more importantly, what did Guardian Ace mean when he said that I would die in battle when we were free? None of it made since.

I could have stayed there all night, if it hadn’t been for the screaming. The high pitched sound of a child screaming shook me from my thoughts, I stared in surprise at what I saw. The building on the other side of the street was lit in red and orange flames, sending sparks to the sky, as if they were trying to meet the stars. People were running all around. Running into each other, and scrambling to get out of the way of falling debris.

I would have run, seeing that if I didn’t I would get run over by a heard of raging pedestrians, but a hand clamped down on my mouth before I could do so. Another are went around my waist as, whoever the guy was, pulled me into an ally between two buildings-not on fire-behind us.

Recovering from shock I opened my mouth, and bit his hand so he would let go, and he did, only to grab me by the waist, and turn me around to face him.

He had a black mask on, so I couldn’t see who he was, his hood was pulled over his head, making him look like nothing more than a shadow. He kept one hand on me, but the other he used to lift a finger to his lips, telling me to be quiet. I know I am a idiot, I know that I should have screamed, but my scream got lost in my throat when I looked into his eyes. They were the most startling blue I had ever seen. I don’t know why but I trusted him for some odd reason. So I nodded once to show him I would be quiet, and I swear that I saw a smile in his eyes.

He let go of me, and I was slightly confused now. He held up one finger to signal he would just be a second, as he dug through his pocket, and fished out a black piece of cloth. I suddenly got scared again, and made a movement to run, but he quickly grabbed my wrist, and yanked me back to him so our bodies were flush together. He shook his head no at me before holding out the cloth with both hands. Then he put it over my eyes and tied it behind my head, so I was blind.

I heard the sound of fire trucks, and hoped that everyone was okay, but I couldn’t think anything else as he mysterious figure lifted me so he carried me like a sack of potatoes, and began to run.

I should have fought back, yelled for help… or done something, but I found myself unable to do so. So I kept myself busy by counting how many steps he took, me bouncing with every step. I lost count around 230, so I just stayed quiet, and wondered were he was taking me, and why I wasn’t scared.

After what seemed like forever he finally put me down. I quickly reached behind me to take off the blindfold, and was surprised to find that he let me. I found myself standing in what seemed to be a never ending meadow, long rolling hills, and patches of flowers everywhere. I imagined that this is how the Shire from Lord of the Rings would have looked before the Hobbits settled there.

The Man stood in the middle of my vision. He quickly pulled back the hood and took the mask off and said, “Did you really have to bite me?” He looked at his injured hand. “Looks infected.” he looked up at me and smiled, “Could be fatal.”

I just stared for a moment. His face was angular, as if he was a statue with perfectly chiseled features. His skin was pale, and almost seemed to glow in the moonlight, he had black hair that nearly, but not quite swept into his eyes. Oh his eyes. The blue eyes I had seen before were now the color of the ocean depths, deep, dark blue. He was muscular, but closer to the skinny side, lean, and agile He reminded me of the dark prince from story books that I would conjure up in my head, only standing right in front of me.

I blink a few times and took in what he said before saying. “Oh don’t be a baby, I didn’t even bite that hard.” his smile grew slightly bigger at that.

“Finally,” he said. “Someone with a sense of humor.”

“Who are you?” I asked not able hold it back any longer. He face palmed himself before saying, “Sorry. Forgot to introduce myself.” he held out a hand. “Name’s Nicholas, and no I do not like to be called ‘Nick.’”
I took he outstretched hand, noting that it was the one I bit. I felt an odd spark shoot up my are, sending butterflies down to my stomach, and making my heart beat rapidly in my chest. What was that? “Victoria, but most call me Vikki.” He chuckled.

“I know.” was all he said. “Come on we have to go, the other will be wondering where we are.” with that he turned around and started to walk away.

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” he turned to look at me and raised one eyebrow, “Then go back home.” then he turned back around and resumed walking. I looked around. I would have gone home if it wasn’t for three things,

1) I’m in heels.

2) it’s freezing.
And
3) We were so far away from home that I could no longer see it.”

So with a huff I took off my heels, and jogged over to catch up with him. As I slowed down to walk beside him I heard him chuckle.

“You know I think I liked you better when you were silent.” I said to him. He looked at me and smiled, before he put the mask back on and pulled up his hood. Then he took the blindfold from my hand- I didn’t realize that I was still holding it, and put it back over my eyes, before picking me up again, and running. I simply sighed and shook my head at this nonsense.



. . .


The next time he let me down, and took off my blindfold, my arms were crossed over my chest and I was glaring at him.

“Was the blindfold necessary?” I asked him. He took of his mask and laughed.

“You said you preferred it when I was silent. The mask and blindfold come with my silence."

“Of course it does.” was all I said, but he wasn’t paying attention to me anymore, he walked past me. I turned around to follow him again, but was surprised when I didn’t see a meadow, but instead I found that we were in some kind of cave system. Tunnels curving on either side of us, torches set into the wall at intervals.

“Where are we?” I asked his retreating form, yet again I had to jog over to him, this time though I didn’t have shoes in the first place, I guess I dropped them. Oh well.

“Home.” He said the word in a way that told me, even though I could only see the back of his head, that he was smiling. I cocked my head to the side, but said nothing, as I followed him further into the cave.

It was hard to follow him though, he was several feet in front of me and the torches were set so far apart that we were in darkness for ten seconds-I counted- at a time. Not to mention that without my shoes the rocks on the ground dug into my feet painfully.

“Ouch.” I muttered under my breath as I stubbed my toe on yet another rock. Nicholas seemed to have heard me because he turned towards me ands said, “Sorry. I forgot that it’s hard to walk the tunnel for the first time.” with that he took my hand, and lead me through the tunnel, occasionally telling me to duck my head, or watch my step, and I was easier with his help. Even though he was barely doing anything it felt like I was floating over the rocks, minus my aching feet.

Soon enough he stopped and turned to me, leaning in to whisper in my ear. “Close your eyes.” I could feel his lips on the shell of my ear as he spoke, and couldn’t stop the shiver that ran down my spine in response.

“Why not use the blindfold.” I said trying to hide my reaction to him. “You seem to be fond of it.” He smiled, and put his hand over my eyes instead. Walking my a couple more steps before removing his hand, and I opened my eyes. Here the cave opened up into a enormous, circular room, the ceiling was opened up to let in the moonlight. On most occasions this would have been breathtaking, but I wasn’t focused on the room, I was to busy staring at one person standing in the middle of the room.
“Simon?” I asked. Not really believing it. He had grown taller in the past year, less boy-ish. I knew that most girls would find him cute or even handsome with his muscular build, sandy hair and green eyes, but he was my best friend.
“Hey Vikki.”