District Nine

GLOW

Only looking forward as we run
Shining through the darkness

~

Never before in his entire life had it been so easy for Felix to stay awake. Usually, he was out like a light just moments after swallowing his sleeping pill. Because, after all, that was exactly what sleeping pills were for. So far Felix had peacefully slept through every night of his life. Always getting exactly eight hours of sleep. Falling asleep every evening around the same time and then getting up around the same time every day the next morning. But this night he was hiding under his white blanket, eyes wide open. He was wide awake.

Through his open door, the dim light from the hallway crept into his room. Even at night District Nine was never completely dark. They maybe dimmed the lights down in most areas and even completely turned off the lamps in some places that weren't used at night either way but there was still light. Even with the lamp at the ceiling of Felix's room being turned out the room was still dimly lit with the light coming in from the hallway. Felix couldn't even fight it off with his blanket covering his eyes. There was no darkness in District Nine. And right now Felix wasn't sure how he had ever actually managed to sleep at night.

Roughly an hour ago a guard had passed by his room and quickly glanced inside. Felix had done his best to stay completely still, maybe almost giving himself away by being too stiff for a person that was supposed to be just sleeping. He had barely dared to breathe or move a muscle at all. He had maybe kept still like that for about a minute, even after he had heard the steps of the guard walk further down the hallway and away from his door. After that, he had stayed in hiding under his blanket just to be safe. The blanket draped over him like a shroud, his body stiff like that of a corpse and yet his blood was pulsing through it at twice the usual speed.

Under his blanket, Felix had lost all sense of time, so when a figure appeared in his doorframe for the second time he would not have been able to tell whether it had been a few minutes or several hours since the guard had passed his room. But in contrast to the guard, earlier this person didn't just stop in front of his door to take a short glance inside. They actually entered. As if they had actually been on their way to this room and not just passing by. Felix remained under his blanket until the intruder whispered a single word into the silence of the night.

"Felix?"

The name was thrown back by the walls as if coming from several different directions at the same time but it was spoken in one voice that Felix recognised. After all, only a few hours could have passed since he last talked to the boy. Quickly he kicked off his blanket and sat up straight. Minho was standing in the doorframe and smiled at him. In his left hand, he was holding a bundle of fabric, probably another uniform for Felix to wear. The one he had worn throughout the day had already been collected and was probably being washed right about now. As soon as Felix had sat up in his bed Minho had thrown the bundle at him, snickering at Felix's failed attempt at catching him. He watched in amusement as the fabric hit Felix in the face and then fell into his lap where he quickly gathered it up again, face burning bright red.

"Put that on. Around this time there are only other distributors and some guards out and we don't want to get into any trouble", he explained. Felix had unfolded and organized the clothes by now and climbed off his bed to put them on. Minho at least had the courtesy to turn around while Felix quickly pulled the shirt over his head. The symbol of the distributors was printed onto his chest, alongside a unit number. When Minho turned around again he noticed that their numbers were almost identical now. Same level and same unit, a different room number of course, but even those were close together.

"Let's go", he muttered. Felix only nodded, but Minho had already turned around, not looking at him anymore. Without thinking much Felix got up to follow him into the dimly lit corridor.