Condemned

1

BLAKE

There's something terrifying about change.

Living sixteen years of the same routine surrounded by the same people, I never had to change. It was a simpler time. I didn't have to worry about growing up, or politics, or making the biggest change of my life. But above all, it did not occur to me that my Zodiac would become the most important factor to this unwanted change.

To the Government, I wasn't me for what I believed in, or my interests. I was me for the month I was born. I was categorized as one of the twelve signs. They were generous enough to allow us to be raised by our parents and live a normal childhood, but once we turned the age of sixteen, we were sent off to the faction of the ones of our Zodiac. And there, we would spend the rest of our lives amongst each other. One day, we could have children, raise them to the age of sixteen, send them off and repeat the cycle.

It almost made sense. The Government adopted the ideology of astrology, as an excuse to divide us into communities and conform us. It was believed that each sign shared similar traits, and grouping them together would create a balanced system.

Born on March 17th, I was a Pisces. Infamous for their sensitivity, compassion and creative minds, I was being sent off to spend the rest of my life with people similar to me.

Growing up, we were taught in school that astrology was the future. It determined everything about us, before we even knew it ourselves.

"Blake."

A voice pulled me back from my thoughts, and I looked up, startled. I was sitting on a bench at the station, awaiting the Pisces train. My luggage was on one side of me, my parents sitting on the other. My mom was leaned into my dad, a tissue crumpled in her hands. She used it once again to capture another tear. She was heartbroken to say goodbye to me, after raising me all these years. She made me the young woman I was.

My dad, on the other hand, was far less emotional about me leaving. He and I were close, and I knew he was going to miss me. But the Government let us have monthly visitations with other Zodiacs, so it wasn't a forever goodbye.

My dad had full faith in the system we were living in. My mom, not so much.

"You alright?" My dad asked me, almost as if he could feel my distress. But I knew he could not. He was a simple man, often not reading into emotions the way I did.

I simply nodded.

"I didn't think it would be this hard," Mom whispered, her eyes glossing up with more tears. My dad rubbed her back in support.

While my mom was crying and my dad comforted her, I was sitting on that bench in absolute silence. I hardly spoke a word that entire morning, but nobody questioned it. Pisces were more kept to themselves and reserved—that's what the Government taught us to believe, anyway.