The Forbidden Side

Erin

The Patrollers threw the kids on a couch in the Main Building.  It was in the center of Home and was the biggest building around by far.  There were bars on the windows on the upper floors, where they kept the occasional criminal.  Erin and Adam were led into the lobby.  It was well furnished and comfortable, but even as she sat back in the softest chair she had ever been in, Erin knew they shouldn't be relaxing.  They were in trouble.  Big trouble.

        President walked into the room.  "Hello," she said calmly to the kids.  She turned to the Patrollers.  "What do we have here?"

        One of the two Patrollers stepped up.  "We found them trying to escape to the Forbidden Side."

        President nodded.  "And why," she asked Erin and Adam, "were you trying to escape?"

        "We weren't," Erin explained.  "It's just that we're Junior Hunters, aren't we supposed to go to the Forbidden Side to look for the crown?"

        "Not alone," President answered.  Her voice was unsettlingly calm.

        "We weren't," Adam spoke up.  "Chloe was there."

        "My Patrollers searched the whole area, and didn't find her."

        Where did she go?

        I don't know.

        "I'll be right back," President said.  "Patrollers, make sure they don't go anywhere."  She walked up a staircase, and soon they heard President booming over the speaker.  "Do to recent events, no citizen under eighteen years old is allowed out of the house unsupervised."  Erin smiled briefly.  At least that was the worst she could do.  "And," President continued, "I am taking away the Choosing.  When citizens turn twelve, they will be assigned a Position instead of choosing one.  And finally, the Position of Junior Hunter or Hunter is banned.  No citizen of Home should set foot across the border to the Forbidden Side."

        Erin's eyes widened.  She can't do that!  Adam transmitted.  Erin looked over at him.  She saw tears and fear in his eyes. 

        If all the Hunters are banned, Erin thought, then what's going to happen to Adam and me?

        Erin woke up the next day, smelling something gross.  She looked up and saw Adam's foot right in front of her.  She made a face and pushed it out of the way.  Erin also realized that she had not been sleeping in her bed, but on the couch in the Main Building's lobby.  How am I going to get to my real family now?  I'll probably be trapped in here a little longer, and then be grounded at home. 

        I don't know, Adam said back.  He got up and walked over to a desk in the corner of the room.  He opened one of the drawers and started digging around in it.

        "What are you looking for?"  Erin asked.

        "Something that says why we're here in the first place," Adam answered.

        "What'd you mean?"

        "Something that tells the reason why we were taken out of our old homes and stuck here in Home."  He closed the drawer and attempted to open the one below it.  It was locked.  "Can I borrow your bobby pin?"  The girls of Home were allowed one accessory, a bobby pin that they wore everywhere.  Erin unclipped it and felt her curly bangs itching her cheek and falling in front of her blue eyes.  They were so annoying, long enough to reach her eyes, but too short to tuck behind her ears. 

        Adam stretched out the pin so it became a straight piece of metal.  He stuck it in the keyhole of the locked drawer and twisted.  "This isn't going anywhere," he complained while still twisting the pin.  But then they heard a click and Adam pulled open the drawer.  Inside, there was a file for every citizen of Home.  "Um, Erin," Adam said.  "We've got a problem."

        Erin walked over.  "Oh," she replied, "I get what mean."  The files in the drawers were alphabetized by last name.  No citizen in Home knew their real last name, just their stage one.  The documents were filed according to real last name, though.  "Alright," Erin said.  "We're triplets, so we should probably be together."

        They looked under 'A' first.  She saw her good friend, Riley, there, whose last name was apparently A.  Wait, no.  The real last names weren't on the paper, just the first letter.

        Adam looked towards the back of the alphabet.  "Hey," he said when the met in the middle.  "There's no Z."

        "Then our last name has to start with a 'Z,'" Erin said.

        "You mean like King Z?"  Adam stammered.  They shuddered.  They were surprised and doubtful, but they were right.