Chosen (HOLD)

Chosen

Chapter 1

The car’s door opens to a really long staircase whose rungs lead into the Definite Hall.  All around us, kid’s whose ages range from 12 to 18, go hand in hand with both their parents, each of them with nervous looks carved in their faces. I’m not nervous I tell myself, unable to believe it. I hold onto my dad’s hand for support and start my way up the steps that will determine if I stay another year with my parents, better said my dad, or not. My mother died when I was really young, she was really young too. As told by my father, she died on an airplane crash, but I know for fact that she didn’t lose her life like that. Actually, I saw the family who killed her in old pictures she sent to my dad with little notes like “I miss you,” or “I’ll try my best to come back!” but she never did, because the family who chose her, was the same that murdered her. It’s been 5 years and I haven’t, gratefully, been chosen, but this year it might all be different.

“Dad,” I look at him, fear is conspicuous in his eyes, and it’s easy to understand when he’s lost my mother, and now he could lose me.

“Yes, Larissa?” his voice trembles.

“If I do get chosen this year,” I’m about to burst into crying, but I choke the feeling back, “please take good care of Ean.”

He looks at me, and nods, lacing his fingers into my hair. As we get close to the door where the decision is made, I see Morgan with her parents in the cafeteria.

“Lara!” she screams, letting go of her parent’s hands and rushing to give me a hug. “Good luck this year!”

I look at her for a few seconds and then add “good luck too!”

Morgan’s sister was chosen last year, and it has been really hard for her and her family; Good thing is, the family who chose her is not as strict as much of the Choosing families, so she can easily send and receive letters to keep communication with her family.

“Morgan Rosso” a lady calls, “Please pass into the choosing room; Alexander Hugh, get next in line” and with that the voice fades. Morgan looks at me and hugs me one more time before she parts in into the room that we all fear.

Sometimes I wish that all this choosing didn’t happen, it would be better off for everyone to just live together, the Choosing Side and the Chosen, but rules are really uptight, and any sign of rebellion means instant death. I skim through the list of those that had been already tested, only a kid has been chosen, so it means there is a lot much more probability that I get chosen. Only the thought sends goose bumps through my skins and I shiver unintentionally.

“Is it really that bad as they say?” I look at dad, who is paler than the white wall behind me, “being chosen by a family I mean.”

He looks at me as if wanting to say something that he has wanted to say for a long time, but he just stares at me, moves a strand of hair that was close to my eye and carefully states, “It doesn’t matter, I know you won’t be chosen.”

“Alexander Hugh” the lady’s voice appears again, “Please pass into the choosing room; Larissa Meffers, get next in line” and as the voice fades Morgan comes out of the room.

“Lara,” she comes at me as I get close to the door, “I…” and she stops.

I look at her in disbelief. Was she chosen? It couldn’t be, it would be way to cruel out of the Choosing Side to strip the only two daughters that a family has, but then it hits me, like a big wave hitting those huge rocks on a bay ; they don’t care.  Desperation fills my body as I start towards a guard covering the door, keeping in my mind that all guards are from the Choosing Side, so I’ll try to be really careful when I complain to them. Rage fills my body; I don’t care if I’m not careful. As I’m about to explode and kick him with all my might, a hand pulls me back, its Morgan. She is smiling and she shows no hint of fear.