Girl number 1743

Chapter 1

"After the war that destroyed most of the human population, a city glowed from the embers, a city that our ancestors used to call the city of angels. The war was catastrophic, many people lost wives, husbands, sons, and daughters. Thankfully humanity was restored more glorious than before. We built over the old society and made a stronger one. One that will last. This is our history but we must use it to shape our future."

~founding fathers of the city of lost angels

My arm itched, I was now fifteen years of age, the required age to be marked. The Founding Fathers saw no other need for women in this society beyond reproducers, so at fifteen we were marked with a number.

My reddish arm permanently marked with black lines and a set of numbers read:

1743

That is my number, how I will be identified for the rest of my life, my "name" of sorts. I will be auctioned off and married in three days time to someone of my social class. some young, rich man who I will not know of until meeting day. Meeting day is in five days and I will be locked up in some room with my new "husband" and we are supposed to mate.

I walk briskly to my home, girls are not allowed to be outside the house without a male unless on government business. Before I step into the doorway, I see a figure watching me closely, probably a suitor seeing if I was a fit mate.

I laid down on the floor of the girls room in the house. There were three of us girls and two boys in my family, George and Marcus were my brothers and my since my sisters were not of age they did not have marks. I was the oldest of the girls, my brothers being fraternal twins were only a year older than me and would be attending the Auction day tomorrow morning as well. I lay on my hole-y blanket and pretended to sleep until dawn broke again like I do most nights. Two days time until my auction. Two days time before I will be married.

There was a flurry of activity as I was being prepared for my auction. The wives of my designated street scurried around the room trying to find everything and get everything done so I would be presentable. Two other girls that lived on this street sat beside me on the floor, their arms still red and sore like mine; 1744, 1745, I read as I watched them rub their new tattoos in nervousness. Today would be hard for most girls, most girls still believed in the ancient tradition of marrying for love, they believed that their "loves" would stand up at their auction and fight for them, but that was rare, only once every auction would that happen. I knew that there was no such thing as love, I knew that no one would stand up and fight to be able to marry me, I would be sold off like a piece of meat as any other girl.

I had on my nicest dress, white as a sign of purity and cleanliness, my hair was done up in a braided bun on the top of my head. The other two girls looked almost identical to my besides the color of their hair, mine was a light color of yellow while the other girls had a darker and lighter shade of brown. A loud bell echoed through the house signaling it was time for us to leave. We made our way toward the sea of girls dressed in white dresses and braided buns. Bare feet shuffled forward as girls tried to strain their necks trying to find friends or see the potential suitors as they made their way towards the square from the opposite side of the city. I walked by myself looking just at the ground as I made my way towards my new life.

Once we made it to the square quite a distance away all the girls were put into order by their marks and placed in a line awaiting the auction.

"Welcome to the Auction ceremony, this year we have an exceptional amount of young eligible girls to choose from. First up, 1700."

A young girl walks towards the woman on center stage, several men stand up from the back of the crowd, lower class, their black pants already dirty from having to sit on the ground. There is a bit of shouting, someone mentions a considerable amount of money, all he makes in a year and the girl is his.

The girl is escorted to the side of the stage and the man escorted out of the area, even though the government may be selling girls off to men they do not know but they have a least one moral rule, you can only marry one girl. I am becoming tired and almost sit down but the fear of being beaten before my auction keeps me standing.

"1743." I hear from the center stage and I stumble out towards the center. I see my brothers in the front row, they smile up at me apologetically, they have not picked a mate yet. One at a time boys stand up from the upper class, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, I had the most potential suitors so far and I smile slightly when I hear a commotion coming from the middle of the crowd. Someone is trying to stand up, someone from the middle class is trying to buy me as a mate.

"Sit down, this is not your class." The guard grumbled loudly pushing the boy down onto the ground.

"I'll pay, i'll pay twice what the auction rate is." He shouts from the dirt and all around him are gasps.

"Lucas just sit down and shut up." Another boy spoke up from the middle class. Lucas, I figured the boys name was stood back up and looked dead at the guard.

"Twice the rate." He speaks clearly.

I am taken from the stage and brought to the sold girls area, was I really just sold to a middle class boy? Wasn't that against the rules? I had so many men from my class willing to buy me surely they would not send me off worse than my class. I sigh thinking about what will come in two days. Surely I will not be married to Lucas.
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So it has kind of a slow start but I promise it'll get better. This was a dream I had and I finally got around to posting it. Hope you enjoy and don't forget to vote & comment.