Metanoia

Prologue

Drip. Inhale. Drip. Exhale. Drip.

Staring at the scene before me with wide shell shocked eyes like a sick and twisted painting on a canvas, done by my own hand. A clattering sound echoed down the now silent halls of our apartment, ears ringing I briefly tore my eyes away from my terrifyingly beautiful construction to see the knife I was once holding in defence sourly turned weapon had clattered to the floor as it unconsciously slipped from my grasp. My gaze slipped over the simple kitchen knife I had now tainted as a weapon for the rest of its eternity, as my eyes drifted over the still wet blood coating it almost proudly as I watched blood droplets drip onto the floor tainting the floors of my sin as well.

No matter what I told myself In my head or attempted to distract myself my eyes always landed back onto the scene I had created before myself. I stopped trying to fight it as I allowed myself to take it In, fully accepting what I had done. The worst part of this whole ordeal, I didn't feel guilty not one bit. I knew I didn't have long to stand here staring at the jarring body lying lifeless on the kitchen floor, the neighbours would have heard. The arguing, the plates being smashed on the floor, the wall or on me then the dead silence after a heavy thud. They definitely would have rung the guard service after that, they usually did after a dispute as they could quite literally hear what was being said through the paper thin walls.

I knew I had to go, I wouldn't stand a chance if I didn't leave soon, but I couldn't seem to tear my eyes off her body replaying the way she looked at me. The betrayal, anger and every motion of hate was clear in her eyes and it was directed at me, and for good reason. The way she fell once her life slowly ebbed out of her body, the dull thud of her body hitting the ground beneath her feet, this poor excuse of a kitchen forever to be the final place she stood alive. Down to the dripping of her blood hitting the tiles from the knife I held, to the clang it made as it hit the floor. The only sound left was my low breathing.

Inhale, exhale.

Finally managing to steer myself to the entranceway of the kitchen as I pulled my feet from the trance I had become stuck in, taking one last fleeting look back already seeing the grief I had caused, but why should I care what she did to me was much more brutal and she got what was coming to her.

Walking down the short hallway to the front door my footsteps echoed down the hall back to the room I had just ruined for eternity, as I stopped at the door leaning my head against it as I watched my hand latch around the door handle. I watched the wet blood coating my hands smear across its white wooden texture death trailing after me, unlikely to be forgotten about any time soon. I closed my eyes, flashes of the last hour zipped through my head as reality started to set in. I opened my eyes, staring down at my blood soaked hands as I contemplated whether trying to fight for my freedom was worth it. I mean the ark didn't have an endless supply of hiding spaces, there was nowhere you could go that wasn't monitored even if this was factory station.

I sighed heavily before clutching the door handle before slowly opening the door up wide, only for my eyes to widen with it. I was too late, how long was I standing in that kitchen for ? My blood stained hands instantly shot up in the air trying to calm the situation down as I slowly shook my head, only to have a lousy guard grab both of my hands and instantly kick me behind my knees making me crumble to the floor. Before another guard grabbed ahold of my hair and roughly shoved me to the ground fully, the skin of my cheek hitting the cold hallway floor harshly made me grit my teeth and let out a hiss of pain.

The guard gripping my hands slipped a pair of cuffs around my wrists tightening beyond what was required or necessary. As the guards both collectively kept me pinned to the ground even if I was showing no resistance I knew it was because we were in factory station, which was the arks version of the bottom feeders. My gaze slipped around the hall even if it was partially covered by me being squished into the floor, as I witnessed neighbours nosily poking their heads out of their doors to catch a glimpse of the scene before them. Others simply stood outside their doors shamelessly wanting to catch a glimpse of the result of all the noise that had been made through the years inside the tiny apartment.

I was then swiftly pulled up off the floor and half walked and was half dragged down the hallway with the two guards on either side of me one each gripping onto my arms as they hauled me down the hallways, and down a different path of the ark. The only place they would be taking me would be my new home until I turned eighteen, the skybox. There was little time to struggle under the guards bruising grasps to the cuffs tightened to the point of cutting off circulation. As I watched the surroundings change from the loud dirty halls of factory station to the grim looking cell filled hall of the skybox. Only the guards travelled far down the hall and took a turn to what I could only guess would be the small hall of solitary confinement cells, as they dumped me into one of the cells my chin hitting the cement floor as I landed producing a fresh cut my own blood slipping down my skin this time as the final thing I heard before the cell door slammed shut isolating me was...

"Metanoia winters you are accused of first degree murder of Marie Winters."