Under the Water (Book 1)

Five

Quinn Seventh

I'm running after a girl. The surrounding area is beautiful, the trees are shimmering light blue. The grass is as real as synthetics can look. The girl in front of me turns around, she's about 4 years old.

"Give it back!" I hear my own childlike voice cry as I race to catch up with her.

"But you threw it into my window" She smiles as she tosses a bright red ball up and catches it.

"It was an accident." I whine as I finally catch up and try to snatch the ball. I miss, and land on my butt.

The girls laughs, I turn away and try not to let my hurt expression shows. She sees it anyway, though her brow just furrows in confusion.

"Whats wrong?" She asks

"Nothing, just give me my ball back." I says huffing in a pout.

She wrinkles her nose. "Fine, as long as you tell me your name."

I nod and she throws the ball to me. I catch it, then say "Quinnson."

The little girl smiles and fluffs her red hair. "I'm Princess -

I wake up. In a damp prison cell. Shit.

Groaning I roll over, all my muscles screaming in complaint. The guard outside of the cell notices and smiles sadly.

"You okay lad?" The guard says in a gruff accent I cant place. But it matches his old weathered look.

"Nooo" I groan gritting my teeth to keep from spouting the obscenities in my head out loud.

"Heard you started ravaging APP's." The guard asks looking at me through the bars.

"No." I grunt. "The Overseer's were beating up a worker for no reason, and were idiots enough as usual to trash everything around them."

"Idiots to destroy yes. But smart enough to blame you. You know who the court'll believe." The guard says leaning back, and hint of pity in his voice.

I sigh trying to roll over into a more manageable position. I don't think the world is supposed to tilt at so many varying degrees.

"When is the trial?" I ask. Using anything for an excuse to ignore the spinning world.

"This morning." The guard answers "At 8:00. You have about 3 hours."

I just lay back and stare at the ceiling in response. 3 hours is good I guess. compared to the few weeks some may wait to have a fair trial. But the sooner it comes the sooner my fate will be decided. What will Hydee and dad do without me. They can't protect themselves. Dad's not who he used to be ever since mom died. Ever since we moved into the outer pier in the first place...

3 hours though.

That's almost enough time for a decent nap.