Darkest Minds: A Burning Red

•part one•

Everything was red.

The house was up in flames as a small girl cried into her mother's arms, not understanding what had caused this. She was an emotional wreck after watching half her classmates drop dead for months on end, it had been days since her tenth birthday.

"Ma'am, what happened?" a firefighter came over and asked, Stephanie couldn't even face him.

Mother bit her tongue, her daughter was a monster but she couldn't rat her out. "I had some candles burning, I- I don't know." she made her voice shaky, she was a good actor as she always acted like she was okay.

"Those goddamn candles Carina." Father yelled at his wife, cursing her out as Stephanie clung to her mother's thigh. She knew it was her fault, but was praying that they didn't.

A few months had passed, after Stephanie showed no signs of special abilities, the lazy motherfuckers just put her in a camp. It wasn't like her parents were going to fight it, she was one more thing to worry about.

"So do you know what you are?" a doctor asked, completely irritated as Stephanie had zoned out.

"What?" Stephanie inquired, looking over as the room was dead silent.

The doctor rolled his eyes, handing her a chart. "I mean what colour are you?" he snapped at her.

"I don't know, they just put me here." Stephanie uttered out quietly, another little girl sat a few feet away waiting for her turn.

"We can scan you then, sit back this won't hurt at all Stephanie." the doctor promised, not knowing as he'd never experienced it. "As long as you're not Orange or Red, we have no problems. Don't worry it's very rare my dear."

The other girl, Ruby, watched quietly. After her brain was scanned, the screen filled with red.

"What is it?" Stephanie mumbled, looking up at the doctor then over to Ruby. The doctor looked terrified as he took out a needle.

As he brought it closer to the girls, Ruby lunged forward and took his wrist. "We are both greens." she told him firmly, holding his arm.

"Greens?" the doctor questioned, dropping the needle onto the ground. "You are both greens." he sighed before tapping into the system and placing them into green.

Ruby avoided looking at Stephanie, her hands were shaking violently as they left the room. The girls were placed into a cabin with other greens, all dresses in the same green clothes.

"Thank you." Stephanie mouthed as they found a bunk, Ruby on the bottom. They sat up top in silence as the other girls cried, missing their homes.

"I'm Ruby." she spoke after a moment, looking up for the first time. She had dark skin and eyes, her hair was in braids that went into a bun.

"Stephanie." she replied with low energy, hating this place already. Even home was better than this, where she was bruised up every other day.

They sat in complete silence for a few more minutes, not even knowing what to say to the other. Nobody knew what to say to kids who'd had almost every other kid around them die, then be carried away from their families.

"What is this place?" Ruby muttered out, realizing she never knew where they were confined.

"I heard an ugly guard call it Thurmond." Stephanie joked, seeing Ruby smile lightly. And there they were, stuck in Thurmond.