Haven

Chapter 1

“742.”

I take a step forward and turn to face the examiner. The envelope that is placed in my hand feels like it carries the weight of the world within it. However hard I try, I cannot force my eyes away from it as my mind spins at the possibilities of what it may contain. This could be my path to comfort or to servitude.

When finally I pull my eyes away from the brown paper gripped in my hand, I see 712 staring back at me. She gives me a reassuring smile that I try to return as I walk over to her. She has been my best (and only) friend of 10 years.

“Hey Red,” I say as I approach her, my voice weak and wavering, “You looked yet?”

She shakes her head in reply, her lips pressed tightly together. I imagine she feels much the same way as I do. The worry and terror threatens to overwhelm me; all my life I have been wondering about this moment, contemplating all the different directions it could take me.

“Together, yeah?” I hear her small voice, full of sympathy and understanding, telling me that she is there for me, as she always has been. I nod.

As I slide my thumb under the flap of the envelope, a sick feeling settles in my stomach, for inside the paper package awaits the results of my test. Not just an ordinary test, no, I mean the Moirai test. The Moirai is the test that everyone takes in the Havens when they are 16; it is four hours long and determines your status, your role in life. It is named as it is because Moirai means destiny and this test decides everybody’s. No matter how long you study or how hard you try to learn the answers, nothing can prepare you for a test with questions on every aspect of life, from basic maths to how to cook and clean to how to build an engine. I took my test with the rest of my class last month and now we are gathered in the Hall to receive the results.

A sharp pain blossoms on the side of my finger as I slide it under and across the opening of the envelope, breaking the seal to my future. I wince as a crimson line trails its way down my index finger, falling from the paper cut. Pulling a tissue from my pocket and wrapping it around my small injury, I turn my attention back to my Moirai results. As I tip the envelope upside down, a singular piece of paper falls into my hand with a few neat, printed letters on the surface.

Child 742

It reads.

Test score – 794/1000

Area of expertise – leadership and strategy

Decided position – business advisor and second in command

For a few moments, I can hardly breathe. This is better than I ever could have imagined! ‘Advisor and second in command to business’ basically means that I will be a very important figure in the business world and will tell the owner of a company what they should do and how they should run their business. I had expected to be a servant for someone like this, cleaning up after them and doing their dirty work. But now I will have someone cleaning up after me while I live a life of comfort. There are a few lines beneath that telling me to return to the Hall tomorrow to meet my employer to be and learn how I will spend the rest of my life.

I look up from my optimistic future to share my newfound joy with Red but when I do, she is gone. I had been so caught up in my exciting results that I hadn’t even noticed as she’d slipped away. Reaching up on my toes I call after her, scanning the crowd for any sign of her but I can’t see above everyone’s heads. Changing strategies, I start pushing my way through the throng of teenagers until I see a flash of red hair, slipping between people, heading towards the doors. I run after her even faster now that I have a destination but by the time I reach the doors she has disappeared from view. That doesn’t matter though; I know where she will have gone.