Wicked

O N E

He who does not punish evil commands it to be done

The word Evil is defined as profoundly immoral and wicked, but it is more abstract than that. In another world, morals can be warped and twisted depending on the circumstances, but not for us. The blood in every person’s body tells the world what they have committed, even if it was for a good cause. our blood gets darker for every “evil” act we commit throughout our lifetime. This is the world we live in, the world we are held back by, and the world that hides no secrets.

Emily is nineteen, a prime age in a human life. She has avoided all horrible temptations, lived carefully, and kept her blood purely white. In this world, she doesn’t need a career or intelligence, her world rewards kindness and the color of her blood, rather than the amount of achievement in her life. Once Emily gets into the city, she’ll take a blood test at the famous HemaCorp. Testing center, and then enjoy life at the top. 

    The sun is shining through my window when I wake up. I can feel the excitement to come when I get out of bed and my parents are already waiting for me when behind my bedroom door. Today I’ll be starting my trip to Arteria, the main city where they’ll draw my blood and classify me. My parents hug me tightly and I hug them back.

“I can’t believe today my baby is going to be travelling to do her blood test. It doesn’t feel that  long ago that we had our tests done, right honey?” My dad is big and loving. He has dark hair and light brown eyes, his face holds tired eyes, pinkened cheeks, and a nose big enough to hold all of his wisdom. My mom stands next to him, a slightly concerned look on her face. 

“Please be careful Emily. This roadtrip can go wrong in so many ways, you don’t want to run out of gas or get into an accident. Plus you never know whe-” 

“Yes mom I know, I’ll be careful. I'm hungry, have you made breakfast?”

“Yes of course honey.” my mom's shoulders tense up, but it’s just her worrying as always. I love her, but she coddles me like I’m a child, and I’m not. I’ll head downstairs for breakfast and then be on my way. Food is sprawled out across the table with waffles, eggs, and fruit. I eat my heart out and take my vitamins, and then I decide it’s time to say my final goodbyes and be on my way. I’m walking to my truck as my footsteps start to feel tacky against the concrete driveway. I bring my foot up and inspect it only to find I stepped in gum. Ugh, god. The truck is already open so I hop in and use an old napkin to scrape the gum off. This is a not so good start to my adventure, but it gets better as I crank up the radio, the euphony playing in my ears and the freedom to cruise down the road, my old life behind me. Im worryless.

    Emily drives toward Arteria feeling free as ever, with pure blood comes a life of riches, and hers is waiting for her about a hundred miles away. She drives, drives, drives a long time before she notices that she has to pee. She decides to stop at the nearest gas station which just so happens to be an “Eddie’s gas n go”, and they are famous for allowing criminals to complete community service at their truck stops. As Emily makes her way around the store, she looks for someone to help her find a bathroom.

“Need some help?” a nasaly voice speaks up behind her, and she jumps. 

“Huh uh- what? Oh, yeah  I could use some help.” as she turned around she noticed that this stranger was white, but with unnatural blue undertones. Their blood must be really tainted she thinks as she analyzes him. He is tall and skinny, with glasses and an innocent face. He couldn’t possibly be any older than Emily, but something about him just seemed off. How can a boy like this have blood that is already so dark? 

“Actually could you help me find a bathroom?” She seems hesitant, but kindly he guides her to the nearest bathroom at the back of the store, and she does her business. On her way out she decides that she should grab a road snack for later, but she doesn’t know what she should get.

With the help of the same mysterious stranger, she finally chooses what she wants and follows him to the register. 

“Ma’am that’ll be $13.50, would you like to donate $2 to charity, and are you going to need a bag?”

“ I’ll take a bag, and here’s $5 bucks for the charity.” She hands him the five dollars, but he pockets it instead of putting it in the correct bucket.

“Hey, shouldn’t it have gone into there?” she points to the subject in question, a bucket that obviously says “donations.”

“No, I’ll hold onto it, and then at the end of the day I’ll count it and put it into the bucket.” Just then he began to look sick, not sick, blue. Did his blood just get darker? This can’t be real! He just darkened in front of me, and besides that, he’s trying to steal from a charity! Emily realizes that this dude could be dangerous, and decides not to further her argument with him.