seeing grey || bellamy blake

[ elizabeth ]

CHAPTER ONE:

ELIZABETH 

❛but her eyes gave her away, she was a drowning girl behind that smile.❜

* * * 

ELIZABETH LONGED to be a child again, to bound around in a frilly pink dress (the only one she had), to sit on her father's lap and attempt to read '1984'. She had always loved to read. Just the same she wanted her mother to brush her hair, to sing her to sleep. Elizabeth had burnt all the poems and songs into her mind in fear that if she forgot them, she would forget her too.

She was nine when her mother first began to loose her appetite, sure their rations would get boring but it kept them alive. But that's what Jane didn't want- to be alive, and at ten years-old Elizabeth was unable to comprehend that. 

Stupid. That's what I was. if only I wasn't such a good obedient little girl.

Sometimes she feel like she could go insane. In fact she does feel insane, these four walls and metal bars were suffocating. Skybox doesn't really give you the opportunity to socialise with anyone else, unless they chose to visit you, but who besides her dad would? While she convinced herself that it was because she didn't matter, the truth was that her best friends had been locked up too. There was another 'friend' however, he was the guard stationed to me every second day, Axel.

And he was the only guard she could stand. The other would skim off her rations and every time she would yell obscenities at him, it was just another red flag against her name and another empty threat, 'shut up, or i'll float you'. But the law is the law and he couldn't float her, not until she was 18 and granted a fair trial, which she would undoubtedly be denied of. It didn't matter how petty your crime was, if you stole a little bit of moonshine, extra meds for your sick child, punched someone or made illicit substances, they're all the same and they're all punishable by death. Which always made Elizabeth wonder how they were different to the 'criminals' they floated. It was execution- it was legalized murder.

It was five days until my birthday.

The door slid open and Elizabeth looked up from the worn pages of 'the great expectations' to see an unfamiliar guard walk in. 'Prisoner three-two-four, stand up and face the wall.' she didn't budge from her seat and instead just raises her eyebrows.

'Why? it's not my time yet i still have a few days.' she replies, panicking but not letting it show, 'Just stand up and face the wall.' he repeated and she reluctantly drops her book to the cool metal floor.

'Care to explain what's going on?" her question is once again unanswered and met with more demands, increasing her agitation. 

'Shut up, hold out your right arm." she does  so as she is told and a device is latched around her wrist, she stare at it in confusion.

'What's this? it's not my time yet!' he grips tightly to her wrist as she try to escape, but uses the other to punch his jaw and disorientate him for a moment. When she is out of the room a juvenile shoves her out of his way as a guard chases after him and she immediately bumps into Axel. In a swift motion Axel pulls her into an empty room and his arms wrap around her in an embrace.

A few seconds pass as he holds onto her tightly, I'm sorry, I'm sorry his thoughts repeat, but he stays silent. 'Axel what's going on?' Elizabeth asks feeling dizzy and this time she lets the panic reflect in her voice, hearing the utter chaos outside. 'Are we all getting floated?'

He shook his head quickly gripping onto her shoulders, 'No, no. You're being sent to the ground.' she knits her eyebrows, feeling even more confused and anxious.