IVORY

PROLOGUE

the stars stare at me with brilliant radiance.

i smile at the pure artistry of them all. billions of scintillating lights painted on an obsidian canvas. what did the human race do to deserve such costless beauty? a slow smile makes its way onto my face as i close my eyes and bathe in the silver starlight. maybe in another life, the sun would replace the stars and grass would replace the rickety bed i uncomfortably occupy. 

when my eyes peel themselves open again, i no longer gaze at my empyrean dream, but at the lethargic grey ceiling of my confinement cell. i huff, disappointed that my plan to magically teleport myself out of this shitbox didn't work. shifting to a more agreeable position, i re-read the words i inscribed into the wall for the hundredth time today.

  we know what we are, but not what we may be. my mother's favorite hamlet quote echos in my head. she said it to me once. i never forgot it.

somehow, during my everlasting daydream, the door of my cell opens for the first time in almost two years and a guard steps in, speaks, but i don't fully register his presence until he impatiently repeats my cell number.

"what?" i stare at him stupidly.

"prisoner 247, face the wall." the guard remains stoic, fingers inching toward his electroshock weapon in case i put up a fight like every other prisoner they've encountered. i don't, however. instead i wordlessly obey his order – if it's my time to go then it's my time to go. resisting it will only delay the inevitable. the guard firmly grabs my arm and i grunt as he snaps a thick metal wristband into place, before shoving me to another guard standing outside, waiting to take me to my death. i bite my lip as i remember my father; a dick, but my only remaining family nonetheless.

i gape in confusion as the guards walk straight past what i like to call the death door, and instead take me to stand in line with a bunch of other teenagers. "i think you missed our stop." i raise a skeptical eyebrow at my guards, then proceed to choke on air when i'm told that 100 teenagers are being sent to the ground, myself included.

"well isn't this an interesting turn of events." i grin to myself, but it quickly dissolves when i feel a prick at the side of my neck and my vision grows hazy. i manage to voice a slurred "son of a bitch" before i black out completely.

    "dad, what's going on?" a sixteen year old me inquires over the hushed murmurs of the crowd before us, "where's mom?" dad lets out an anxious sigh. i can see his eyes glisten with unshed tears. he doesn't speak for a few moments, and i give him time to think of a lie to tell me.

"your mother was –" he pauses, wondering if the fabrication will be enough to fool me. "she's been very sick for a while and..." he trails off, tips his head back and looks blankly at the ceiling. he used to tell me to look up and count the stars whenever i felt like i was going to cry, i wonder if he's doing the same thing with the reflections of people in the dull metal above us. however, i can already guess what he was going to tell me as two guards stride past us, carrying my lifeless mother on a bloodstained stretcher.

suddenly the room feels too small and my lungs can't get enough air, my mother is slipping away from me and all i can do is watch. i try to follow, but stumble and fall to my knees, stare at the now empty corridor as my eyes burn with tears that don't fall.

left alone; a weeping girl who does not weep, and a father who walks away from his daughter.

when i wake, i find myself strapped into some kind of spacecraft with what i assume are 99 other convicted teenagers. chancellor jaha's voice resonates throughout the dropship as he gives some kind of speech and the fog in my head clears up just when he says "we have no idea what's waiting for you down there. if the odds of survival were better, we would have sent others. frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you... expendable."

"your dad's a dick wells!" someone shouts and i snort. you can say that again.

the lights flicker and jaha drones on and on about some military base called mount weather. my thoughts sail to my father, i ponder whether or not he knows i'm being sent to my feasible death. a frown makes its way onto my face as some guy floats past me, and a girl i recognize as clarke griffin barks something about staying in our seats unless we want to die.

"if earth isn't survivable we'll die anyway, clarke. let them have their fun –" my sentence is cut off as the ship jolts roughly, and those who got out of their seats are thrown at the opposite wall with a loud clash. smoke and sparks burst from every corner of the spacecraft, and i cry a loud "son of a bitch!" as a broken pipe takes a dive for my leg.

suddenly, the dropship falls still and noiseless, and a single voice breaks the silence, says, "listen – no machine hum." followed by a collective sigh of relief as the seatbelts unbuckle themselves. all 100 delinquents push to the front of the ship, where a boy wearing a guards uniform stands with his hand on a lever, ready to pull and see if we'll all be killed or not.

however, before he can do anything, a girl shoves past me and i hiss in pain as i put my weight on the leg the pipe fell on. looks like i'll be limping for my first few days on earth. "bellamy?" the girl says, and my question of "who is that?" is answered by someone shouting "that's octavia blake! the girl they found hidden in the floor!"

  yikes.

octavia wastes no time in lunging for the announcer, but is withheld by her brother, who tells her he'd give her something else for people to remember her by.

"yeah? like what?" she spits defensively.

"like you being the first person on the ground in a hundred years." bellamy grins as he sees octavia's face light up like a christmas tree, then turns around and pulls the lever.

the dropship door falls open, and sunlight immediately peaks through the entryway, like a child playing hide and seek. taking a deep breath of fresh, unrecycled air, octavia jumps off the metal door, then with a grin that could split her face in half, throws her arms up to the deep blue sky.

"we're back bitches!"

WORD COUNT; 1155