In the city of Vir girls are property, bred and raised to be the perfect wives. To serve and obey and honor the men that rule their city.
Elaia has always been content with her place in society. She is a perfect daughter, and with any luck she'll b...
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------- ELAIA -------
I'm going back to the facility tomorrow. In the weeks that have followed since I accidentally broke the rules, I haven't been allowed to leave the estate, or volunteer at the camp. I haven't been allowed to do anything.
Kreston has tried everything to get my father to change his mind about sending me in for re-education. Nothing has worked.
Father says that I've forgotten my place and that I need to be reminded of where I belong, but it's not true. I haven't forgotten my place!
Have I?
I think back to the morning that I interrupted my father and brothers at the table. I think back to Kres and I's conversation the night he asked me to be his.
Girls aren't supposed to say things like that. We're not supposed to question the city council and their decisions. We're not supposed to interrupt our fathers and brothers while they're having a discussion. And we're most certainly not supposed to mention Amoraia Emberlin.
Have I become a rebel?
Maybe Father is right. Perhaps I have forgotten my place in society. Maybe going back to the facility is for my good. I should try to make the best of this.
But no matter what I do I can't shake the feeling that I was I right to correct them. And why, if they teach us about Amoraia Emberlin and her inferno at the facility, aren't we allowed to talk about her?
There's a knock at my door and I go to answer it. Mother greets me and I open the door wider to let her in.
"Trinia is here to see you, dear," she says, stepping into my room. "Should I send her up?"
"No, I'll come down," I reply. This shocks Mother. I've hardly left my room since the day Father told me he was sending me back to the facility.
Tears glisten in Mother's eyes. "I wish you weren't going back," she says, almost as if I made this decision myself.
"If I had any say in the matter, I wouldn't be going back," I tell her, keeping my words low. If Father heard me he'd have a fit.
Mother chokes back a sob and I take her hand in mine. "Everything is going to be alright," I try to tell her even though I know that things aren't going to just be alright.
Graduating from the facility once was difficult enough. I'm not sure I'll be able to graduate a second time, but if I don't, I know that I'll end up in a terrible place.
A place so horrible and vile that very few people even know of it's existence, and less know of what actually goes on there. I don't know what they call this place. I don't know where it is, or what it is.
I only know that it does exist because sometimes girls go missing. Nobody talks about the missing girls. Nobody mentions their names. Missing girls are never seen again. But I know, somewhere deep down inside, that they're not dead.
