The Reckless

I sat in the back of the cell they had placed me in and shivered, this place was supposed to solve all of my problems , it was supposed to be paradise, but all Nirvana was, was a lie, a death trap for anyone reckless enough to follow the elite. We were nothing but cattle to them, a body for them to use, as they painted the pretty picture to all of the children in Tartarus that if they were, good and smart, and pretty then one day they would come for you, only when they came for you, you died.

The elite found out a couple of generations ago that, breeding wasn't helping us fix the mutation that killed us at twenty five, so they created something else to help them live longer. They call the process possession, where they take their own consciousness and place it into a host, and Tartarus has an endless supply of hosts.

Every couple of years they open their gates and steal into the city, and once there they watched the exceptional ones looking for a body that they would like to be in control of. I was once one of those girls, I was once exceptional and now I am cattle waiting for my day on butchering block, only it was my soul that would die, my body would continue to live five more years. I wanted to cry and mourn for myself, but I had no more tears left, because today was my day.

I could hear the footsteps echoing down the corridor, and the scrap of the key against the lock. The guards then pulled me to my feet and up the stone steps where a bath awaited me. They couldn't take over a dirty body that would be beneath them. I slipped into the warm water and let out a moan, it had been so long. The Ladies then came and scrubbed me until my skin was pink and my hair shinned gold. I was then dressed in blue silk, and paraded down yet another corridor on the way to my death.

The next room was cold and sterile, much like the legend about hospitals. I wrapped my arms around myself as I tried to keep from shivering, as they led me to a glass booth with wires and cables attached. They waited for me to step in on my own, but my feet where frozen to the floor, I didn't want to die. The door at the other end then opened and a woman with long black hair and caramel skin came towards me, she was elite. It was in her walk and her eyes, she was beautiful and she knew it. I also knew that she was going to be me. She smiled at me, and took my hand in hers before she kissed my cheek and then stepped over to her own pod. I took a deep breath and stepped forward, towards death and maybe fate.