A sunny day. Nothing un-usual. Weather patterns here were unusual. But that was the usual. From blaring heat to pouring rain was pretty standard. However, despite the weather and any attempt to make small talk about it, the only small talk wasn’t small, though it was hushed. A new lighter was to be picked today, two in fact. As usual no one would know who. Only the two lighters.
A brush runs through Lillie’s hair, and in comparison, Toshiro’s. twins, Lillie and Toshiro Haruno were the poorest of their small section in the gale. Nothing in the Appersian Gale was particularly nice, bar the people, The only housing was made of rusted and corrugated iron, rotting pieces of wood were the only support for the pathetic attempts of shacks, that were available in this particular gale. Not to downplay Lillie’s intelligence, but Toshiro was smarter, by a considerable amount, at the age of ten, he figured out the system that was used to pick lighters. The rate at which each gale was picked to have one of their residents, potentially slaughtered, he had also figured out the Most occurring ages, and what the likelihood of two lighters being picked from the same gale was, it was naturally low, with a population of about 4-7 million people per region, and 100-250 thousand per gale. The Chances of two lighters being related, was one of the very lowest statistics possible. And anyone who had family involved in the creation of the lighter’s games. Was decreased in chance by roughly 400%. This was of course all under the table. So why. Why was this happening?
The bell had rung early this morning. 1:38am to be precise. I can’t help but feel sad. The footage of the death of the lighter was broadcast. Exhausted, weak, hungry, sleepless, Jane mercury, 15, Riato Gale. Had fallen victim to her opponent, who had decided to stay anonymous. Despite what the king said about the protection of a victor, He was still in danger. The only information anyone had on the killer, was that he was in her late years, some say around 40. A 40 year old man killing a 15 year old girl, whom he had chased down for damn near a month, making sure that there was no way she could ever win. Everyone felt this, and I know it. Jane did well. She wasn’t the fittest. But she still survived a bloody long time. The king’s fat face appeared on the screen, no body flushed with warmth for him, no one liked the chubby bastard that ruled them. His face paint today was particularly ugly, pink spirals on his cheeks and yellow squares around his eyes, his idiot, almost fake, smile spread widely on his face, “Why so glum chum?” this was his opening line every time, when I was younger, I thought he could see us, age has brought me the realisation that we were forgotten gale, if king had bothered to put cameras in any gales, Appersian would definitely be the last. “JOY JOY JOY!” his face light up with joy, a disgusting pig was our king. “Poor Janie has died” he paused, it looked like remorse. “Ahaha, she tried” of course not. King was never one for remorse. His speech went on as it had every time someone new had fallen victim to his stupid ‘game’ explaining that the winner had secured his spot in the arena, only 14 positions left. Every one realised that could take over 50 years to fill the positions. King blabbed about how the new lighter would feel a small thing in the back of their neck. By ‘small thing’ he meant piercing pain. Everyone looked around nervously, I sighed, every time it was the same, whoever the lighter was would pretend they didn’t feel the pain, and the game would begin. After a few moments, the king’s fat, made up face disappeared from the screen, not that our screen was well maintained, but it was still a relief. I headed over to Toshiro, I needed to make sure he was ok, he never did well when the king was choosing. He always freaked out, he looked fine, I decided not to bother him, and everyone festered about how once again we had avoided having to sacrifice one of us. I headed back to my shelter. I always knew that Appersian was slow, but I never thought it would be so delayed. I fell to the floor, all I could do was clutch my neck as a tear rolled down my dirty cheek. I had been chosen.
Some half way across the world, a single soul stood, he had been the only one to not watch out for the new lighter. He never really bothered. Every year he petitioned, or as well as a lower class teenager could, to stop, to revolt, to stand away, and let king’s stupid pre-recorded message be ignored. Every year he told those willing to ignore, to meet at the edge of their gale, every year he was the only one standing there. Jokian sighed, once again two people in this horrid world, had been grabbed by the king’s greedy hands. Though he was too modest to admit it, Jokian was an attractive young man. He was broad shouldered and strong, though he himself was quiet and rarely spoke, unless of course he was yelling about the stupid-ness of it all. No one seemed to like Jokian, he pretended he understood why. “E-excuse me..” a soft voice rang out, the voice was new, it was tender and clearly not that of a poor Kallin resident such as himself, Jokian looked around, his hair doing the flip it had always done when he made sudden movements, standing opposite him, was a girl, her hair was to her shoulders, and it was white as snow, the sun lit her slender figure and to Jokian, she looked like a goddess, a terrifying and beautiful goddess, “I have seen you here this time of year every year since I was 5, is this your favourite spot?” once again her voice sang out and wrapped gently around the ears of the scruffy teen opposite her “uh.. I um. No. well I like the spot, it’s just….” He paused not sure what to do. “I come here for a rally. Against the idea of the lighters”
“A rally? But it’s only you”
“I noticed”
The thin white haired girl let out a chuckle, the most beautiful noise that had ever been made, or at least in Jokian’s mind. “I’m sierra” she smiled, and just like that, he was under her spell.
Why can’t I pretend? Why can’t I be okay? Why was I picked? I hold my neck, the ground is hard but at this point I don’t care. I can’t. I just need to move, before any one sees that I was picked..
After a few minutes, I got up, there was still a buzzing in my neck, as I stood up, a message played, in my head “congratulations Lillie. You have been chosen. Tell no one, trust no one, and good luck” the buzzing stopped, there was no video, just sound, and it didn’t sound pre-recorded, it also didn’t sound like king. For now, I’ll just have to go back home, and take a bath.
The paper door of the shack Lillie and Toshiro lived in opened slowly, Toshiro was sitting on the floor, beside the tea table, as usual, all Lillie could do, was act like everything was okay, and hope he didn’t ask any tough questions. Toshiro was a quiet boy, everyone knew that, especially his twin sister, at times it felt as though he was purposely cold, just to her, of course she would always shake off the feeling and remember all that he had done for her, Lillie had quite the good memory. Toshiro said nothing as Lillie walked by him, she went to the bathroom, locked the door, and fell to the floor once more in tears. There was a knock on the door, on the ground, naked and broken, Lillie was in no state to answer, instead Toshiro got up with a sigh and slid the door open once more. “Good evening Mr Haruno” Lamth, the black smith of a small company, stood outside the shack. “What are you doing here?” Toshiro was cold as always, not that such a thing would take Lamth’s smile away. The bulky German man replied “That’s no way to greet a family friend”
“I wouldn’t call you a ‘friend’”
“toe-may-toe toe-mah-toe, look, it doesn’t matter, I just need you to come to the shop. Don’t bullshit me. I know that you know why” with that, Lamth turned and left, just as merrily as he had come, he hummed something that sounded somewhat like ‘what a wonderful world’. Although he had never been the nicest to Toshiro, his humour always cracked a smile on the solemn boy’s face. Oh the irony.
