Gravity •○HS°●

chapter one

I force my aching legs forward as two guards push me through the brightly illuminated halls. My wrists burn as I wriggle them in the cuffs they're in.

"What's going on?" I pleade to the guard on my right. He fixates his gaze forward as if I wasn't speaking to him. "Why won't you speak to me? What is going on?" I force the words out of my sore, dry throat, almost coughing. "You barge in my cell and don't speak a word to me," I begin, only making my throat worse as I speak. "And then you force me to go God knows where, expecting me to go along with this?" The guard to my left yanks my limp arm and forces me to look him in the face.

"Listen here, you are just some dumb teenager that decided to do something stupid to end yourself up in this jail. You're lucky the chancellor made the rule for teenagers to not be punished by death." He stares at me for a moment, and I know for a fact it's to intimidate me - and of course it works. "Because if it was up to me this jail wouldn't even exist and your disobedient self would not be breathing right now. So why don't you shut up? Hmm? You're getting what's coming to you anyways."

He ends his long speech giving me a disgusted look that leaves me terrified. I didn't even cause that big of a problem. Honestly, I didn't even get why he had said all of those things. What did he mean by: 'I'm getting what's been coming to me anyways'?

But before I can dwell on the thoughts for too long, the guard is pushing me forward. He doesn't speak another word, leaving me with even more questions than I had before. What is going to happen to me? Did I do something so unspeakable I really would end up dead? I didn't even realize I was sweating until I felt the a few drops hit the cold cuffs restraining my wrists.

After what seems like an eternity, I see we made it to a cafeteria. There are guards standing on either side of the entry, both of which shove me through through the threshold. Though of course I seem to trip, stumbling forward slightly. It takes me a few steps to catch my balance, although I'm still mortified at the idea that I could have gone down head first. Shaking off the thought, a guard grabs my upper arm, stopping me in my tracks. I'm aware of the way they uncuff me, a groan escaping my lips as I rub my sore and bruised wrists. Was it really necessary to make them that tight?

I force myself to stand straight as I focus on what's around me. Almost all of the jail mates are standing round a small, raised stage. But my confusion seems to build when I see the ships' chancellor standing among guards.

Without a second thought, I shove my way through the crowd, looking for Rayn. Pushing among groups of teenagers talking in a hushed manner. They all seem to have the same thoughts, questioning their neighbor if they know what is going on and why they are all gathered here. But no one appears to be too bothered by me shoving them to pass.

I finally spot the familiar curly blonde hair not far from me.

"Rayn!" I pry the words out.

Almost immediately I find myself regretting that I had yelled as the familiar rough, scratching in my throat returns. Within a few moments, I'm waving my hands in the air as the girl looks up, Rayn trying to find the source of who called her name. Not long after do her light blue irises lock with mine, causing me to let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding in.

She makes her way to me, Niall following behind her. I had no clue that he was here to, but at the same time I should have figured. Niall was always one to cause trouble, though I was positive he must have done something far worse then I had to end up here. Shaking the thought from my mind, I find Rayn to be getting closer, very aware of the presence of both Niall and my friend once they're in whispering distance. Before I can even begin to speak, Rayn says, "What the hell is going on, Nova? Why are we here?"

She stands close to me with Niall beside her. There's an odd look in his eyes, and of course I have no idea what it is supposed to mean. He seems to be paying more attention to the surroundings anyways, but I try not to focus on that. If anything, I'm terrified of this place, even a little jealous that both Rayn and Niall seem to be perfectly fine here.

"I don't know," I start, unsure as to why she thinks I'll have a clue. "No one has told me anything. I was just pulled out of my cell five minutes ago."

"Same here." Niall comments rather absently. "In all honesty, I just want to find out what the hell is going on and go back to my cell."

Does he really think they would gather us here randomly for some small reason, and then just send us back to our cells? I had not even seen half of these people - probably more - in all the time that I was in my cell. For goodness sake, the past couple of day's, I only saw ten people. Not close to one hundred! But on the other hand, I kind of wished that Niall's thinking was correct. Maybe we were here because they wanted to give us a lecture all together. Although I had a feeling that wasn't the case.

"I don't think we are going back to our cells, Niall," I say lowly, watching the chancellors speak with a few guards before looking back to Niall. "There's something going on here, and I have a bad feeling about it."

He furrows his brow, looking entirely confused. But as I look around, there are signs. The doors out of here are shut - guards standing in front of all of them. Not to mention that of all people the chancellor or the containment for juveniles is standing in the center of all of us! Something is going on, and I have a bad feeling it is going to involve every single one of us.

"What?" he questioned. "What do you mean you don't know we're going back think our cells?"

I don't get a chance to answer him before I'm interrupted by the chancellor speaking.

"I apologize for gathering you here on short notice," he begins, my mind racing with all the things that he could possibly say. But my thoughts are cut short when he continues to speak. "Though, I have something very important to discuss with you."

He pauses. No one has begun to talk since he did, and my stomach is in knots. I find my hands to be clammy with what he is going to say. Although I'm terrified, bothy friends seem to be perfectly fine. But if they are scared, they hide it extremely well. Taking a deep breath, the chancellor looks at all of us - or at least he appears too - and says something that I could have never prepared for.

"You are being sent to Earth."