A Droplet of Blood

Chapter 1 Blood Spilled

The alarms were shouting. Red flashed throughout the hallway, alerting everyone - everything - that the regulations had been broken. Someone had broken the laws, and now someone else would die for it. All for a little extra food. A small amount of blood that could now be a life altering disturbance.

People ran all around me as I stood still against the panic, waiting for my mind to come into focus. My head hurt from the noise, the alarms, the fear-laced whispers as families clutched each other. I started walking again, back into the seemingly endless flow of beings, human and otherwise, pushing me to the exit of the goddess forsaken bunker.

After blinking away the the blindness that the stars' glow gave me, I turned to the line of ticket agents right outside of the opening. To see a the mixture of thirteen men and women typing out information on typewriters after so many years of hiding filled me with dread. I tried twisting out of the powerful stream of people I'd been pushed into, but to no avail. I was trapped. Doomed.

Sucking up a cry, I allowed myself to be pushed up to a ticketing stand. The pudgy man didn't look up from his typewriter right away, and I tried not to express my distaste at his extra fluff, annoyed because he had what I didn't. A safe place to relax. A home. The luxury of food.

He man looked up and recoiled at the sight of me. I don't know what he saw, as I haven't seen my own appearance in many passings. Last I saw myself I had auburn hair, though it hadn't been cut well, tangled in my out-dated tags and tattered collar. My body was nearly transparent from the lack of star light, and my bones showed through my skin. My legs were strong, used for running in and out of the shadows.

I looked down from the ticket agent's gaze in fear, and rested my eyes on my legs. The veins were popping up again, my blood count increasing drastically from all of the stress of being outside and the fear of being found out.

The ticket agent leered at me and gestured for my hand. My jaw clinched and I lifted it up for him to grab. His tight grab hurt my tender veins and I flinched. I could hear the blood rushing through my head as I obsessed over what I knew was going to happen. He would take my blood, and the machine wouldn't pull up my file, since I didn't have one. Not anymore. Then this man would call for the guards, and I would be taken away from my home, back to that place. I felt more anxiety pool in my stomach as the typewriter opened, and a mechanical arm ending with a needle reached out. I closed my eyes in anticipation.

The needle's pain was brief. He looked up from my blood sample on the analyzer, confused.

"Name?" He stated in a monotone, replaying the same script as always.

"Haven." My voice was blank, not expressing all of the emotions raging through me. He looked up from typing with a glare. I smirked internally, knowing that I was wasting his time to stall the inevitable fate that was set so long ago.

"Your full name," his voice tightened, his eyes looked murderous, "please."

"Haven Lilith Jackson, human." My voice was lacking it's usual flare, the overwhelming emotions causing it to sound bored. He went back to typing, the screen above the typewriter flashed from the harsh white light to a faded blue glow. The ticket agent frowned, displeased.

"You seem to be missing from the system. Please hand me your tags and alert your sponsor to your prolonged absence."

I felt faint with terror. I didn't have a sponsor, and my tags were painfully out-dated. The swarm of people around me, all impatiently waiting for their tickets, made it impossible to run. And even if I could, I had no where to run to. My make-shift home was being sanitized, being cleaned of wasted blood and a dead body.

Before I could lie my way out of the man's sight, possibly steal a ticket and sneak to some place safe in the bunker to hide, all my possibilities vanished. A 'royal' guard slithered out of the shadows, putting a hand on the ticket agent's shoulder. He glanced at me, then glared at the screen, then looked at me again.

"Is there a problem here?" He asked, glancing at the ticket agent.

Like most aristocrats, he was well dressed with a snappy uniform and well groomed hair. His face was twisted in annoyance, my lack of a profile preventing the flow of residents out of the bunker.

"N-no, no sir. No issues at all." I stuttered, hoping I could talk him away.

He finally gave me his full attention, his expression one of outrage.

"I was not asking you, slave. Be thankful I don't drink you for your insolence."

I whimpered.

Though the threat of something drinking my bounty of overflowing blood was constant, I'd never heard someone really say it to my face. A burst of anger seemed to spark underneath the fear, just the thought of being owned, being kept! This, this, thing thought me so low! Never again, I promised myself. Never again.

The agent and the guard began to speak to each other in hushed tones, probably discussing my fate. I stood as still as possible, trying to hear what they where saying, now fully aware of the people behind me.

"What's taking so long?" A woman snapped, "My sponsor will be looking for me!"

I felt a shuffling behind me. I turned around to see a thin man being thrown at me, courtesy of a large, angry woman.

"Move!" Someone shouted.

The orderly line was now a chaotic, angry, swirling mass of people, all shouting things, most being directed at me. I was pushed into the typewriter, knocking the air out of my lungs and nearly knocking over the guard. He snarled at me. Then, with his body still facing me with a predatory angle, continued talking to the agent in a tone I could now hear.

"Yes, yes. Would you please notify them? Let them know that they should prepare to have a new," he turned back to me with a glare and a evil smile, "girl."

He lunged at me, trying to grab on to my arm. I screamed. I had to get away!

I tore myself from him, sprinting away, only to stumble froward and collapse face-first into the dirt. My head spun, and my heart started beating to fast. I could feel my blood levels rise as the guard lifted my immobile body into his arms. As he walked, the noises slurred together, my vision fading in and out.

Soon all I could feel was a pulsating darkness.

~~~~~
First chapter!
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Love, Crescent🌙