Death is Patient

The Reaping of the Fairwood Twins

The air in the factory is thick with textile dust. The little sunlight that's allowed in through the thin windows by the roof only emphasises this, the hundreds and thousands of particles in the air visible in the sunrays. A cough echoes through the otherwise silent hall. All that is heard are the weaving machines, moving day in and day out, the only slaves resting less than we are.

I cough too. Not quite as much as those older than me, but I do. Almost everyone in the factories does. I wasn't here then, but once the workers had attempted asking for masks. The request had been promptly shut down.

I prick myself with the needle, lost in thought. I grit my teeth and look down at my blood seeping into the fabric of what was meant to become a peacekeeper's uniform. I quickly get up, the fabric clenched in my hands as I hurry over to the station we have with a wide array of different chemicals. To dye, bleach, flatten, break, melt...

Behind a row of bottles I find what I'm looking for. It's a well-used but expensive bottle of clear liquid. A droplet of it on the stain I've left behind, and soon I can see it fading. I sigh in relief and cough again as the expansion of my lungs irritates them. I need to thank Martha for making this concoction. She's got magic fingers with the chemicals.

"Poked yourself again? Isn't once a day enough for you, Freya?" A mirthful voice asks from behind me. I give him the evil eye across my shoulder. How Fedya can be in such a good mood on reaping day will stay a mystery. He lives his life as if it won't happen to him. I take him in for a moment. His ginger hair is pulled into a bun at the nape of his neck and covered in a light dusting of cotton remnants. 

I'd asked him, time and time again, to cut it short. I kept imagining that it got stuck in one of the machines. It didn't happen often, but it did. I'd seen a woman be scalped by the machine she was operating in my first week in the factories. But Fedya had refused - naturally - and only compromised with the bun. Most of us wore it short, but he had an odd attachment to his. Sometimes I pretended like I didn't understand, but I did. Our mother had always loved his hair. She used to braid it before he went to sleep, play with it whenever it was loose. It was one of the few things he had left of her now.

Despite the fact that we weren't identical, we very much could be. The sharp nose in contrast with the round cheeks, the brown eyes and the faintly cleft chin said what needed to be said. We were twins, born of the same womb. We'd lived all our lives together, survived everything together.

I wrinkled my nose and turned back to the uniform I was holding, wiping off the last of the chemical. The blood stain was completely gone. "Don't you have someone else to bother?" I ask, but I'm almost smiling.

"It's one. We're going home for today. Got to get ready for the festivities", he replies. I turn to look at the huge clock on the wall. Despite the boring nature of work and the grimness of reaping day, I'd lost track of time. It's better like that, I suppose. Better than worrying yourself sick all day for the potential of a death sentence.

"Let's go, then. You need to shower", I tell him as he follows me. I put the uniform down for the next shift to continue on. You're always replaceable in the factories. Where you put something down, someone else picks it up.

"Like I'll ever get the dust out of any of my crevices", Fedya replies with a grimace.

*

District 8 is one of the most urban districts, I've heard. I wouldn't actually be able to tell. I've never been anywhere else. Knowing what urban means, though, I'm sure I can amicably agree. The district has very little nature. Most of it is all (cracked) asphalt and block-shaped, concrete buildings. Gray. The little nature we have is really only small plantations of plants that can be used to make textiles, and food for the silk worms. I've certainly never been in a forest. Mother used to grow flowers by the windows in our apartment once, but they died with her. Not me nor Fedya could figure out how to keep them alive.