Just One Word

Chapter One

I wake up in a room. It is damp and so dark I can barely see the walls. I try to stand up but fail. Restraints wrap around my arms and legs holding me in position. I hear a faint scream, a child's. Yet again, I wriggle in my bonds until I hear a slamming door and a voice. Footsteps are echoing through the room like ocean waves on a vicious, stormy night. I can only just make out a silhouette of the approaching person. I fall silent and squeeze my eyes shut, hoping that it is all a dream. Then I feel a pinch in my arm and hear the door slam once again. For a moment, I sit in silence slowly feeling drowsier and drowsier. Sleep tugs at my eyelids and I nudge it away but momentarily, it returns. This time I give in but just before, a scream escapes my lips and I fall into the deep, dark abyss of sleep.

I'm running through the woods with a boy, Caleb, my brother. We run past trees and small shrubs. I jump over a fallen tree and whip my head around. Caleb falls. I reach down and grab him by the wrists. "Go," he says "Leave without me, go."

I shake my head, tears well up in my eyes. "No, get up Caleb, they will be here soon! Once they catch us escape will be impossible, come on!" I say. A tear falls down my face. I hear the buzzing of a Capital hovercraft engine and the shadow covers my face.

"Go Aria. Be safe." Caleb whispers. "I love you."

A large mechanical claw lowered from the aircraft and I with tears streaming down my cheeks I obeyed my brothers order. I ran at top speed away from the sound but it was always just behind me. I ran through dense forest dodging trees as I went. Then I tripped. Pain shot up my right leg. I looked forward and then I saw her. Crouched under a rock ledge with a boy by her side. They were staring at me. I put out a hand and screamed for help. A large metal claw grabbed me around the waist and thrust me up into the air. The girl just sat there staring at me, making no attempt to save me. Then darkness surrounded me.

I woke up dressed in a fancy red suit. A large frilly headdress stuck into my neck. Oh no. I know what type of people wear this outfit. I quickly reach for my mouth and I am pleased to find no restraints holding me down. But that pleasant feeling is soon over powered by dread. In my mouth, I find no tongue but instead wet sticky blood replacing it. My blood, the only thing in my mouth, my blood. I am Capitol servant, an Avox.