REBEL CLOTHES ✓

HISTORY LESSON

A furious knocking jolted him away from the boy and back to the waking world, and he somehow made it to his feet just as his mother opened the door. She held a basket of clothes at her hip and smiled warmly at him.

"Morning, sleepyhead," she cooed, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. "I suppose you slept well?"

"A-as always, mother," he replied, his body still vibrating from the cold in his dream.

She smiled and left, and Tyler sunk back into his bed. He stared at the ceiling, seeing cracks in the black paint. All of his walls were black, with the occasional scrape of white. All of his furniture was black, and his sheets were red and white.

There wasn't a speck of a color in the room other than black, red, grey, and white. Nothing in Dema was any other color, yet Tyler's mind was able to create colors he'd never, quite literally, dreamed of.

Or maybe the boy from his dream was telling the truth, and all of that existed somewhere else.

He would be lying if he said he wasn't cautious. The same faceless boy from his first dream shows up in his second one to be his so-called guide through the Trench. Everyone knew the land outside of Dema was rotted and ugly. The glimpses through the windows in the wall were nothing more than a trick of the light. Nothing good lived outside of those walls. Those dreams were real.

Tyler ran his hand under the sink to remove the small, red marks still on his fingertips.

Breakfast with his family was good, as it always was. Nothing was ever bad in Dema. Tyler's little brother Jay woke up crying again, but his mother dismissed it as the inklings of his passing cold. His two older siblings, Madison and Zach, visited to congratulate Tyler on his upcoming graduation. Their father left for work a bit earlier than usual as one of the Towers had been attacked overnight by rebel forces outside of the walls.

He thought nothing of it, he felt sick at the mention of the attack on the Towers. There was no doubt in his mind about who was responsible.

"Hey, mom, is it alright if I go to Mark's house after?" Tyler asked as he helped in the kitchen.

Mom raised an eyebrow. "You know you don't have to ask, dear. Spend all the time you can together before graduation. Just be sure to be at the Bishop's Towers before the first Sermon."

"I will."

He didn't know why he lied. It wouldn't be the first time, but that doesn't mean it felt any better.

Tyler pulled his bike out of the backyard and pedaled past Mark's house to the library near the center of Dema, avoiding eye contact the statues that stood at every corner. He left his bike under a tree and made his way into the library and towards the third floor, where the history books were.

He picked out three books, titled SLEEPER SYNDROME, HISTORY OF DEMA, and THE WORLD AFTER THE WAR.

Like most Sleepers of his generation, according to the books, Tyler was born in Hometown, a city near the outskirts of Dema. It was dead center between the North and East Tower.

After the Trench and Tower Wars brought a surge of death and decay into the world, the Nine Bishops built a circular wall surrounding a fraction of was once the United States and planted four towers at the North, East, South, and West 'corners' of the barrier, forming the shape of a compass.

It was meant to protect them from the deadly forces that destroyed most of civilization, and it did so with the downside that no one could leave the safety of the walls. Nobody wanted to. Anyone who left never came back, and were presumed dead because of the horrible weather conditions.

The Nine Bishops kept order in Dema. Each section had a specific Bishop that was in charge. Keons looked over Hometown and everyone who lived there. Nobody knew what he looked like. Actually, nobody knew what any of the Bishops looked like. Their identities were hidden with translucent veils and dark red cloaks.

They didn't know who they were following, but they didn't need to know. The Bishops provided them with food and life without suffering. There was nothing else they needed to be content. Yet his dreams showed him something new to him. Something he craved to understand.

His dreams showed him a boy.

Nobody knew about his ability besides this boy from his dream, and now that he knew what they meant, nobody else could ever find out about it. Being a Sleeper in Dema was dangerous. Every other Sleeper that was ever publicized either went missing or was taken by the Bishops for treason.

Tyler wasn't blasphemous. He followed every rule in the book, he obeyed the Bishops and trusted their intentions. Why was he chosen to have stupid ability that pretty much sealed his fate?

He must've fallen asleep, because Tyler found himself standing near the interior of the wall surrounding Dema. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't the interior, but the exterior.

Moss grew between the cracks in the bricks. Vines reached up towards the sky and curled around the openings where the windows were. Hundreds of names had been carved into the base of the wall, covered at least three feet across.

Tyler pressed his hand against the pair that looked the oldest.

The name CLANCY was written over a dozen times on the same brick. This person- they left Dema and were probably dragged back time and time again, yet they kept trying. Tyler didn't think he had the stomach to do that.

ROSE MARIAM RICHARDS was on the brick beside the Clancy brick. Her name was only written twice.

He didn't recognize any of these names, but he could tell which ones were the most recent, AMY MCDANIELS and RACHEL MCDANIELS.

Sisters.

"What's so special about the outside?" Tyler mumbled to himself.

Then he looked down. A trio of flowers bloomed at his feet, the bright petals almost mocking him. The flower he woke up, which was tucked into his back pocket, seemed to burn through the fabric. The boy's words were etched into the back of his mind.

Is life without meaning living, or is it just existing?

Tyler hesitated for a moment before he crouched down and picked up a sharp rock. He hesitated, the point of the rock hovering over the space between the two girls's names.

Before he could even think about scratching his name into the brick, the rock in his hand disappeared, and he woke up drooling with his face pressed against the book cover. Tyler jolted, blinking furiously to take in his surroundings.

He glanced at the clock on the wall and swore. The first Sermon had already started.

"Ah, crap."

As he put the books where they belonged, Tyler made sure nobody was around before pulling the flower out of his pocket. The stem was broken in two places and the petals had begun to fall off, but the vibrant color didn't dull one bit.

He shoved the flower in between the pages of SLEEPER SYNDROME and pressed the book closed until he couldn't see the bump it made. Hopefully whoever came searching for answers, someone just like him, would find what they were looking for.