Shattered ✓ (BxB)

Eight: Obsidian

    I wake up bright and early so I can get to work on time.

And as I walk out of my room and down the stairs, Ana is nowhere to be seen.

"Ana?" I call for her. "Anastasia?" I begin to look all over the house for her. "This isn't funny, Ana!"

Finally I come to a halt in the kitchen.

"What's up dork?" Ana's voice rings out.

Where is it coming from?, I ask. My golden eyes scan the room.

"Yo, I'm up here dork."

I look up. "How the hell are you doing that?"

Ana is somehow siting on the ceiling. She's probably grabbing one of the beams to hold herself stop. "It looks fun doesn't it?" She grins.

I nod. "Yeah. It does. So, how'd you get up there?"

Ana smirks, "A magician never reveals her secrets." She jumps down from the ceiling with a roll. She stands up and leans in close. "Now Tsar Maximoff's niece, Irina, I wouldn't mind helping her innocence disappear. That is if she'll have me..."

"Ew Ana, gross!" I exclaim, playfully punching her in the arm.

Ana looks intensely. "Your point is what, Obsidian? What where you going to say?"

She won't let you reason with her, I think. I sigh. "Nevermind. I was going to say nothing."

Ana smiles, "Just as I thought. Now let's hurry up so we can get to work on time."

"Where do you work?" I ask her.

"McDonald's. But it's not great, I'd probably be caught trying to steal all of the food," Ana sighs.

For a split second, I almost feel bad for her. "Yeah. Okay. Let's go."

─┉─¡! • !¡─┉─

Ana had left me when we exited the house.

She hopped onto her bike and peddled down to sector five.

I now walk alone to the capital building.

"Hello, Obsidian!"

I know that voice anywhere, My mind says. "How are you, Sam?"

Sam smiles. "I'm great! And my boyfriend Leo is a guard just like you!"

Leo comes into view and raises his hand slightly as a greeting. "Hey," he says.

"Hi," I respond.

Sam breaks the awkward silence. "Don't the new guards have to report to Tsar Maximoff's office?"

I nod. "Yeah I think so."

Leo says, "Yeah we do."

And for the rest of the way to the capital building, Sam won't shut up.

─┉─¡! • !¡─┉─

Sam leaves us as she heads off to her new office.

Leo and I stop right in front of the Tsar's doors.

"Are you ready?" I ask.

Leo says, "Not really."

"Not really is good enough for me!" I say.

I push open the doors.

The Tsar is smiling at us. "I'm Tsar Joseph Maximoff, but of course you kids already knew that." He uses a sickly sweet smile. It's clearly forced. "And what are your names?"

"I'm Leopold Song."

The girl from last night's ceremony is there. She's hesitant to say her name. "Ivana Viktorovskaya."

Leo and Ivana look toward me, expectingly.

"I am Obsidian Yakivev."

"Good, good." Maximoff rubs his hands together for a moment. "Welcome Leopold, Ivana, and Obsidian." Maximoff gets up and paces. "The first order of business for you guards is to patrol the prison to make sure no one is trying to escape." He looks at us for a moment. "Why are you still standing there? Off you go!"

Leo shoots off almost instantly.

Ivana and I walk slower.

"Why where you so hesitant to say your name?" I ask her, curious.

"It's my deadname," she grumbles.

"I don't quite follow." I do follow... Quite a lot actually, but with all of the other people passing by us in the building, I'm too afraid to.

Ivana sighs. "Sure, I may have the body of a female. But that's not what I am inside."

I raise an eyebrow--it's forced. "And who are you inside?"

"A boy!" He tells me.

"So, do you not go by Ivana anymore?" The conversation is painful. I just wanna reach out to him, hug him if he'd like, and tell him my big secret as well. But, I don't. It's too dangerous to.

"I don't," he says.

"So, what do you go by then?" I ask him.

He answers with, "Mikah."

I smile. "Well hello, Mikah."

Mikah giggles and looks away red faced.

"Are you ready to head into the prison?" I ask.

Mikah nods. "Hell yeah. Maybe if we're lucky we will see a prison riot."

I laugh. "Maybe."

─┉─¡! • !¡─┉─

Mikah and I stroll down the long corridors in the federal prison.

We stop at it door. It reads 'LGBTQ'. Mikah and I exchange glances. Then we head in.

Inside it's horrible. It's easy to see the water damage on the walls.

Also, I believe I see mold.

In one cell, I see a boy with black hair in blue eyes. But the thing is, it don't think he can see me.

"Hello?" I call and wave.

No responce from him. So he can't see me, I make a mental note.

"They can't see us," I tell Mikah.

Mikah then reads out-loud the sign on the cell. "Craig Calex Romanov; 'pansexual', 20 years old age."

We continue on. Now we see a blond with amber eyes.

"Kyle Deaken Kozlov; 'gay', 19 years of age." Mikah reads, squinting his eyes at the small text size.

Now we continue on.

I close my eyes for a second.

Mikah's voice reads, "Arkadiya "Gabriel" Vladimirova; 'Transgender', 16 years of age."

I eyes open almost instantly.

And sure enough, I see the familiar shape of that purple-eyed, dark brown haired boy that I had met during the ceremony. "Shit," I mutter.

Mikah tells me, "You might want to take closer look at Gabe, Obsidian."

I squint my eyes.

Gabriel has a huge wound on his lower abdomen.

And with horror I ask, "What are they doing to you?"