Mortal

Chapter One.

"A royal decree from his Majesty, King Lorenz of Arzadia. All please stand and remain quiet for this announcement". The man, in his bright, red uniform, stood in the middle of the white eating quarters on a miniscule, polished black stool. His weight seemed to make the four corners stand taller than the middle of which he was standing. The curve of the plastic was visible from where I now stood. His loud, reverberating tone echoed throughout the room as each person was facing him, none of us breathing a word, myself included. Disobedience to the king's orders was treason and was paid with your life. After he ensured we were all at attention, he continued, " The honorable King Lorenz states that he will be visiting in five days time. He wants each of you to prepare yourselves for himself and his royal court, including Queen Katarina and Prince Zorance. They will be searching for new candidates for their lifestyles back home, and ask for you each to be ready to present to them your talents, abilities, hobbies, and interests. Please be ready to leave the moment they ask you to, and do not forget the manner in which to treat and speak to members of the Court. Any disagreements with the King and Court will be treated as acts of treason. If you choose not to show, you will be forced to make an appearance by way of force by the Royal Guard, refusal is not accepted. That is all, please resume your meal". He got down off the stool, folded up the parchment and tucked it into the folds of his arm. As he slowly made his way out of the Hall, noise began, like a wave, to surround me. Excitement, fear, anger all mixed together in the wave hitting me from all sides. I did not know how to react towards this announcement. The Immortals were coming to see us, the lowly Mortals to pick one among us to join their ranks. This information made me wonder who among them had died to want another.

The Immortals only kept 10,000 of their kind at any given time. Never more, never less. When they lost one, they always came and looked for a new one within the Mortals who had millions to choose from. They went around to each sector, choosing one from each. The people who could be elected had to be from the age group of eighteen to twentyfive. If you were any older, you were considered no good, and would have no chance of ever being an Immortal. I turned twenty last year, so I still have four full years left of being able to be chosen. Last month, an immortal had died and so they came looking. A male had died, so a new male would be chosen. They picked a guy named Orion, who happened to be my age. He was never seen again. My younger sister has always talked about being chosen, which is why she tries so hard at being good at everything. Immortals chose us Mortals out of usefulness, not personality.

"Who do you think will be chosen from our sector Lief?" I redirected my thoughts towards Hanna's question. I looked at her, debating on what to say to the red head. Hanna had always wanted to be an Immortal, the exact opposite of her twin sister Lane, whose glare was now on me.

"Um.. I don't know Hanna. There is over a million people in our sector alone, and who knows how many eligible people there are. Thousands, possibly. Only a small section of our sector's population goes to this school, and we have more than a hundred that are of age". She rolled her eyes at me, giving me an I-Know-Stupid smile. I rolled my eyes at her, while picking up my spoon to eat my now-cold lunch that resembled overly cooked oats.

"Well," she says continuing on, "do you want to be chosen?" Silence then surrounded me. I had never voiced my opinion on the matter up to this point. All my friends have asked me repeatedly my opinion, but I felt like if I told them I would disappoint half, while the other half just love me more than before. My parents were large supporters of the Immortals and raising us to possibly become one is there life-long goal. I was the disappointment who was not good at anything. People decide, based on your decision, what kind of person you are, and I didn't want that. Hanna looked at me pointedly, waiting for my response.

"Umm.. I don't know Hanna. I honestly don't. I mean how a-" Lane cut me off.

"You either are for the Immortals, or against Lief. There is no inbetween. Saying I don't know makes you a supporter of what they do. So you have to decide what you are, and soon." Her tone is cold, and disapprovement rolled off her in waves. She hated indecision and didn't like most supporters, except her sister.