𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞

𝑫𝑨𝒀 𝑰

𝐀𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄

THE SILENCE WOKE ME UP. It's not normal. The power running through me, I mean. Ever since I pulled the chip I found in my wrist, that is. I push myself up and softly pad over to the window. Taking a deep breath, I open the window and plant my hands on the outside ledge and flip outwards onto the roof. I lay on the rough calloused surface and breath in the polluted night air.

It's not the same anymore. I feel like I'm drowning and the people around me aren't helping, instead they're making it worse. I close my eyes for a moment while I try to slow my breathing down. I sense someone's footsteps heading towards me. "What do you want, Ashe?"

He grumbles something I didn't catch, and I feel him lay beside me. I turn my head sideways to get a profile view of his face. The moon illuminates his handsome features. Not that I think of him that way.

I'm not someone who can love anyway.

He turns to look at me and gives me a crooked smile. "What's wrong?" He says, his eyes boring into my rotting soul. I shake my head and try to smile back, but it turns out to be more of a grimace than anything. He notices.

I turn back to look at the stars that aren't even there anymore. It's like everything has given up on me -on us- and left so I can fend for myself in this world of destruction. And I need to wake up. I need to face reality. Because in truth: I'm going insane.

I'm losing it. My mind. My heart. My soul. They're burning, everything is. The world is corrupted and it's taking us down with it. Even Mars can't hold us humans anymore. Scientists have been on the lookout for some other place to find us shelter. But people also need to know that staying here is the smarter choice. My yard is probably the cleanest place that's full of vegetation in this city. And people know it too. And they still have the audacity to take it away. Just like they took everything else.

Just the other day, I had to plant a new strawberry bush I was saving because someone snatched the one that was already blooming. But then again, people don't know that this 17-year-old girl is actually the street-fighter named The Wraith. I'm Destruction, and Destruction is me. We stick together and stay in the gray, because he and I both know that the world isn't just black and white.

Ashe and I both lay in comfortable silence for the rest of dusk and until the sun rises. We wave goodbye and he sets off into the orange light.

I stayed out for a while longer. No one wakes up at this time, I notice. I know this because of the sleepless nights I've spent up here. It doesn't matter anyway. Most homes and cities have been built underground now anyways. After New York City and the other major cities have been abandoned, skyscrapers have been left to the course of nature- or at least to what's left of it. Who knew all it took was a nuclear leak that could make millions of people leave homes, cities- Earth.

That's why I don't have a home. It's just a house. No attachments because the world loves leaving my heart in pieces. Not that I have any anymore. I want to change things. I want to bring back life to this depressing world. I sigh and hop back through my window to get ready for the day.

I pull out random clothes and compare a gray jacket to my falling apart jeans. I pull out a black top to match the look and throw on the clothes. I walk down to the kitchen and open the fridge to see what I have left. I haven't gone out to buy groceries or anything in general for the past 2 weeks. I pull out my cracked phone and type out what I need from the store. I calculate the price of everything, and due to inflation from crops, I'm better off moving to a secluded island and hoping for the best. I grab my keys, knife and a pistol. I hide the knife in my high-tops and the pistol in my waistband along with my keys that I latched onto my belt hole. My phone goes into my pocket and money is hidden in my undergarments. I give myself a onceover, and then I walk through the front door.