Zero only has one goal, to be human. Escaping from the cell that once contained her, the outside world, which she longed to see for so long, is filled with more darkness than she expected.
She is faced with a world that is determined to label her a...
Nanna had wanted them to go shopping in their local shops but Diamond assured her that there was a shop in the Golden City that was willing to sell to them. They had planned an impromptu 'girls day out' so Zero could get some clothes. Nanna had felt bad that she had been wearing Diamond's old clothes for the entire week that she had been staying with them.
They were all packed into an old rickety train that was supposed to only be used to transport gold to the city but was also used to get people to the city. She sat next to Zero who looked around at the train with awe in her brown eyes.
The train blew its whistle loudly to indicate that it was about to begin its journey.
Zero's small smile dropped. She groaned and covered her ears in pain.
'Z, what's wrong?', Diamond asked in concern.
She slowly let go of her ears when the whistling stopped.
'It's nothing'.
Diamond dropped the topic since her body language indicated that she was uncomfortable.
The train began its journey to the city. In the trains, one could tell who was an experienced passenger and who wasn't. For anyone who was used to the movements of the train, their body wasn't easily swayed. The rest of them almost toppled over, earning annoyed grunts from the rest of the passengers.
Diamond saw the train almost daily because the club she worked at was in the city. They saw her so often there was even a reserved spot for her next to the window.
She had always dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer. But people from the Mines aren't allowed to dream big.
Becoming a stripper was the closest she could come to reaching her dreams. Everyday she went to job she would take the route that was on the same street as her dream Ballet academy. She would pretend that she was going there before reality would sink its cruel claws into her daydreams.
There was no way she would get the ten thousand dollars needed to enroll into the academy.
She ignored the dirty stares that people on the street gave them as they walked to the small shopping district.
The people from the city could always tell them apart. Maybe it was due to the lack of gold and silk covering their bodies.
She walked in front as the guide. Nanna held on to Zero as if she would disappear in the crowd of people.
They stopped and let Diamond go into the store. It was a small shop on the corner of the street. Nanna saw a paper underneath her foot and reached out to pick it up and throw it in the trash, muttering about littering.
She paused midway.
The paper was a Missing person's poster with a picture of Zero's face. Whoever was looking for her did not provide any other details but was offering a five hundred thousand dollar reward to whoever contacted the number.
She took off the red shawl around her shoulders and wrapped it around Zero's face.
'Why are you covering me?',
'Oh, you're just so pretty that people are starting to stare at us'.
Zero tilted her head in confusion.
'That's a bad thing?'
'Yes, we should be blending in with everyone. Standing out never ends well for people like us.'
Inside the store, Diamond found the owner packing up the clothes in piles of brown boxes.
'What's going on?'
She asked in shock.
'Haven't you heard? There's a girl that is missing and whoever finds her gets half a mill', the older woman handed her a wanted poster.
'I'm going to find her'.
Diamond's eyes widened at the amount of money that was printed in bold on the paper. But her smile faded when she recognized the face on it.
Having that kind of money would solve all of her problems.
'Take any box you like for free, for being my loyal customer'
She nodded and placed the clothes in a bag before saying her last goodbyes to the woman.
The paper was neatly folded and placed in her pockets. Getting that kind of money was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that she could not pass up.
She called the number when she went home. A woman had answered the phone, claiming to be Zero's mother who wanted her daughter to come home.
Diamond never revealed the location of the gang. She said that she had seen the girl in the paper walking around the market.
She had suspected that Zero came from a rich family in the Golden City and that phone call confirmed it. She wondered what could have led to her running away to the Mines of all places. She would have given anything to be in her shoes.
Her curiosity was short-lived. The prize money had been transferred to her account immediately. Her dreams were finally within her grasp.
The last thing she was going to do was the mission Namjoon had personally assigned to her. Before she left the Mines for good.
Zero had been lying on the bed at the opposite end of the room. Diamond had been wrong to assume that she had been asleep. Zero only needed a handful of hours of sleep to function, unlike a normal human. She usually spent the late hours of the night in bed to mimic the humans in the household.
Zero waited until she was softly snoring before she sat up. She had heard the entire conversation. She stared at Diamond in confusion about her reason for betraying her.
She had recognised the voice on the other end of the phone.
She sat all night in the darkness, pondering over what the meaning of the phone call was. The posters that had been plastered on the streets indicated that her location might have already been compromised.
To go back to that place would mean living as a monster again. If she stayed she would be endangering the safety of the people who had been kind to her.
Was her dream of being human worth the bloodshed that was no doubt heading towards them?
A/N
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