A Prince For The Abused

Chapter 3

The country passes by, blurring together. Trees and bushes are smudges of green as the train whizzes pass. Every so often the train would stop at a station to pick up others sent to die. Each one is accompanied by a Gold officer. Day fades into night and we are still picking up people. I've learned that officers flaunt their family on their uniforms. A small pin with their family's color. My Chyver officer has a light blue pin. I see Rivide with sky blue pins and Vult with a honey yellow. 

By the time all twenty-five of us condemned to death are all aboard, it's midnight. The first day was over. two days left.

There are twenty-five Coal's and twenty-five Gold officers. To pass time I identify every Gold officer.

Two Chyver.

One Rivide.

Three Vult.

Two Brase.

Four Herrc.

Three Aela.

Two Gaia.

One Forte.

Three Flux.

Four Willow.

Twenty-five for twenty-five. The last person aboard is an old and frail looking woman, who waddles up to the seat next to me with her Vult officer. 

"Is this seat taken?" she inquires. 

"No," I mummer.

She plops down next to me and her officer sits next to mine. My Chyver officer looks up from a small, flat object that and makes sounds or changes when you touch it, almost like it's alive. Her Vult officer pulls out the same thing. It's almost like a mini TV.

"I'm Ophelia," she says. 

"Neo."

Ophelia is a short, plump woman with wrinkles on her wrinkles. Her gray hair goes to the back of her head. She has smile creases on her eyes. 

"Lovely to meet you," Ophelia says brightly. 

Our Gold officers don't care what we do as long as it isn't bothersome to them. I turn to face Ophelia.

"Where are you from?" I ask,  making idle chatter.

"A small town called Pipline, not known for much but we have excellent cooks" she tells.

"Moudul, best known for our superb entertainment," I say.

We sit in silence for a little bit while the train leads us to the capital. Taking us through a beautiful meadow with poppies taking up almost every inch. 

"Poppies, my favorite flower," Ophelia comments.

"Mine too."

She pats my back, comforting me. She abruptly draws her hand back.

"I'm sorry, you just are so much like my grandchild," she mentions.

"No, no don't be, it was nice," I reply.

We talked for the rest of the trip, yapping about everything. Her grandchild, dance, food, fashion, gossip and every subject in between. She briefly asked if there was a girl I liked back home. I told her no, but I never really found one that I found cute or nice. I didn't tell her how I was sometimes thinking about boys at school, but I'm not gay. 

I think.

She notes my discomfort on the subject and quickly changes the topic. 

"Tell me more about all your dance and everything else you do?" she asks.

"I am in five dance routines and an all boys choir and show choir. For dance I do hip-hop and tap, and tap is by far my favorite. I have a duet with my sister Delia and a solo in tap. I am in a  large group for tap and two for hip-hop. Show choir is also fun. It's an all boys group and we all work so hard and have a blast. I'm going to try out for our next theater production too. At least, I was," I tell Ophelia.

"Wow, that's a lot, how did you manage it?" Ophelia asks.

"Easy, I did it for my family. I was going to work hard and become one of  the few Coal's that actually obtained something in life. Money and fame would roll in, Gold's would seek to watch me and I could provide for my family," I share, "I could give back everything they gave me tenfold."

"I believe you could've done it," she verbalizes.

"Thank you."

The train gets closer to our capital city Paieon's station and our Gold officers put their mini TV's away. Ophelia's Vult officer drops his on the floor.

"Pick it up," he threatens.

Ophelia starts to bend down to get it but I get it for her, being younger with a better back. The second my hand wraps around the mini TV, my whole arm feels tingly like static. Then somehow I knew what it was, a phone. I have never heard, seen, or used one before but somehow I just knew. 

I hand the phone back to the Vult officer. He doesn't say thank you or anything of the sort. He slips it into his pocket.

The train slows down and stops outside of the station, and through the window I see Paieon for the first time. Millions of buildings made of steel reaching up to heaven. In the distance you can see the palace that the royal family lives in, more opulent than the rest of the city, looking both modern and historic. Beyond the palace is Snuff stadium. Its massive bowl-like structure is easy to distinguish from the rest of the majestic city. It glows with the light of enormous TVs that are attached to buildings. The TVs constantly change, advertising things for Gold's to use or do. I see them show off phones, clothes, musicals, and some weird things that are like phones and TVs. I can make out the words Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, and so many more companies flaunting their phone TV hybrids.

Video games.

It was the same thing that happened with the phone. The sudden thought snaps me back into reality. The only people you can see are Gold's. All of them are wearing big and flashy clothes. These people are so mean and cruel to Coal's and I'm here, going to die in a few days, marveling at their city. The city now makes me sick.

My officer grabs my arm, as do the other officers with their own person. They led us out of the train two by two. Ophelia and I get to go together and our officers take us to the last transport. I've never ridden in one before, but I heard that it's really nice. 

I help Ophelia up into transport and our officers follow in after us. The engine comes to life, growling like a wild beast. The transport weaves through the city, taking us to where ever we are going to stay for the next two days.