The Divided (revised edition)

Chapter 1

The frigid water laps up over my toes, which have turned a pale blue. I feel myself sinking deeper and deeper into the synthetic sand. The one-piece suit I'm wearing is riding up my butt, there are just too many people around to pick it out. Class trips are as rare as weather above 32 degrees around here, but this is our end of the year celebration. After completing ten years of schooling in Ciembre schools, students are awarded with a trip to the Aestate simulation beach. The sunset painted on the wall makes me wonder what the real beaches of Aestate are like, a fact I will never know. I let myself dream, and suddenly a rain of shivering water comes over me. Laughter rings in my ears, the timbre belonging to none other than Ricy.

I turned abruptly, trying to hide my laughter with a facade of rage. "You suck!" I clump together some sand and hurl it is his direction, nailing him in the face. We began to run along the shore towards the wall, throwing sand and splashing water. I make a sharp turn away from the waves and a shot of pain goes up my leg. I cry out and fall to the ground. The sand that covers my legs and most of my body is grainy and cold, burrowing under my skin.

"Oh my goodness! Are you okay?" She ran to my side and crouched down, hand on my thigh, sand covering her arms and legs. Bronte's eyes, glowing an unhuman-like blue, were made even more vibrant from the blue of the water. Not many people have those eyes. They were captivating, enough to make me forget the pain for a second. I press my hand to the bottom of my foot to remind myself that I needed to feel something, see if I was okay. I could feel the cut...deep.

"Yeah, I think I'm fine." Lying. I have never made a habit of lying. I pulled my hand off my foot to find it covered in warm blood and the cold sand made it a deep brown. A simultaneous gasp escaped both of our lips. Her grip tightened on my leg as she watched me pull the shell out of my skin that had lodged itself into my foot. It was normal to bleed excessively, the cold made our skin dry and brittle; paper could be as deadly as a knife if you cut the right spot. But this was worse than normal. Ricy stood the standard distance of one foot away away because he wouldn't -no couldn't - come near me. No boy can until he is paired. We spend our lives from age 6 to 17 void of contact from the opposite sex because it is illegal. They think young girls will get pregnant and over populate the sector - that's my theory at least. What they told us in school was that we would die, get a disease, and so on and so forth. Death was a true consequence, but not exactly by natural causes.

"I'll get help." He murmured. His face had lost color and his eyes were searching for any other place to look than my foot. He had always had a problem with blood and was going to be sick. I nodded up at him and he ran. The artificial sun that hangs from the ceiling offers no warmth, a sensation a wouldn't understand anyway. By now most of the class had surrounded me. I couldn't look; I knew it was bad, but my eyes flinched down and caught a glimpse. The sand surrounding my foot was red, red-red. I could feel the breath from the girls in my class on my neck, almost like they were trying to smell my hair.

"Sophi?" Bronte's face began to blur in front of me. "Hey Soph, stay awake." I am trying. Can't she tell? Her face then began to double...triple. The

'sun' began to hurt my head, the cold nipped at my skin. Black.

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The pale light cascades in from my window that takes up a very small portion of my wall. The snow falls lightly and sticks to the foggy glass. I scan the room to assure myself where I am, everything in my room seems just that much brighter. Same light wooden door, same faded blue walls, same dark grey carpet, and same pile of crap in the corner. My mother is sleeping in the rocking chair by the book shelf, her chest rising and falling with hitched breaths. There is a bottle of Valacine painkillers next to my bed and a glass of water with frost on the edges. I shift my weight to sit up and pain went up my body faster than my thoughts could process. Once I manage to raise up my leg and prop myself into a sitting position I swipe one of the pillows from behind my neck blindly and place it under my foot. The light in my room flickers every few seconds. According to the device on my wall it is getting colder day by day. It isn't supposed to bother me. I am not supposed to feel it. My dad tells me one day I won't feel numb or get shivers, it will simply feel normal...whatever normal is.