Refinement: A War of Europe

Chapter Two: West: The Refinement Began

Eloise~ West (England)

A bullet whistled by my ear. “Arielle, get down!” I shouted to my left. Arielle dropped to her stomach, and rolled to the left. I kicked a tall hairy man, and with one swift movement of my right leg and my right arm, I grabbed his red hair and held a gun to his head. Arielle approached me and looked over my shoulder with pride. “Ask him, Eloise.” Tears welled up in my eyes, and I let out a harsh but hurt shout,

“Who on your filthy little continent killed my little sister?” Tears streamed from my eyes, cooling my hot face. He shouted his response in Russian. I turned to Arielle for a translation. Her beautiful face was grim.

“Kill him.” I turned to the Russian man, and clicked the bullet in to place. My finger wrapped around the cold metal trigger. My hands shook. I tried to press it, but all of my muscles were tense. I clenched my jaw. Even though some people can do terrible things that even ruin your life, I could never even think to take a life and ruin someone else’s. War is just an ongoing circle of grief. You kill somebody because they killed your loved one, but that somebody who killed your loved one is somebody else’s loved one, so they will kill YOU for revenge. War has nothing to do with wanting to find peace, but it has everything to do with wanting to find revenge.  I threw the gun to the side and walked toward the door, but before I could exit, I heard a bang. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground with a fierce pain in my side, and all I could hear was someone screaming my name. My vision turned black. I was dead.

~~~

“Eloise!” I sat up with a start, my whole body drenched in my own sweat and tears. “Get up! It is time to get ready for Refinement. Do you want me to do your hair and make-up? You look awful.” My older sister, Helen, stood over me. Her face was masked in an awful amount of make-up that kind of disgusted me. That wasn’t her face. That was a layer of creams, powders, and pastes covering every flaw of her face. Flaws are what make a person unique, are they not?

“No. I will do it.” I hissed. Helen was too old for Refinement. She was twenty-one and married, but with the War going on, she decided to come live with us. But, of course, that wasn’t the truth. She came to live with us because Thaliana died, and she thought she could help us through life. I jumped up, my white night gown flowing around my feet. I braid my black hair, and it falls over my right shoulder. The only make-up I put on is some black eyeliner. It makes me look less small and cute. I was fifteen, but I had the body of a thirteen-year-old, and my button nose just made me look like a child.

 I stared into the mirror, and a wave of relief washed over every ounce of my body. Refinement was here. I could finally look for and kill whoever dropped that bomb on my sister’s elementary school. That is, if I got through Inauguration. Refinement was set up with three stages, Inauguration, Agglutination, and Licentiation.

Inauguration is a series of tests of your ability to fight, to strategize, and to lead. If you get in the bottom six, then you would go home and live the rest of your life a failure to our continent. But, if you got into the top thirteen, you got to live your life fighting for your continent, and dying a dutiful death.

Agglutination was when you got through Inauguration. You lived with a soldier for two weeks, worked for him, fed him, and did his chores; teaching you how to not only be a soldier, but a humble one, how to serve the piers around you. And based on your productivity, your rank would be determined. Most Inaugurates never go on to be a soldier, they stay and forever serve the soldiers, but if you were lucky enough to get a high ranking, you moved onto Licentiation.

Licentiation is when you were officially the beginnings of a promising young soldier. You went to battles, but only with your leader (The same soldier whom you served) and did precisely what he said. If you were lucky enough to live that long, you became a soldier. Congratulations! Now go die for us.