we are shunned.

LUCIAN

Lucian paid no attention to the heavy, thundering footsteps of the burly guards garbed in heavy attire. Instead, he kept his face towards the wobbly cobblestone street and headed forward, trying to reach his destination before they did. It was like a game of tag all over again; run and get to the ‘base’, or become ‘it’. In this case, being it meant being thrown into jail, if he was lucky.

The sun beat down on the back of his modest clothing; the rough cotton shirt was damp with the heavy perspiration that trickled down his forehead, trying to cool his overheated body. Lucian attempted to ignore it, but enduring the endless taunting of the blazing hot sun was like trying to ignore his little sister screaming in his face; it just wasn’t possible.

He had meant to just grab an apple to eat, but somehow the vendor had recognized his face from the hundreds of ‘wanted’ posters that circulated around the district; it had been almost a year since he had left, and it had been just about a year since the posters with a hefty reward had been posted. Quite frankly, Lucian was bewildered that anybody had remembered the posters, let alone recognized his face. Then again, his father had started a rebellion against the capitol, and he was the son.

A small, bitter smile appeared on his face as he remembered the apple man’s face peering at him inquisitively as if he was trying to remember something. I’m a fool, he thought, to think that I could just come back here without any consequences. The apple man had suddenly started screaming, doing a weird combination between hopping on one foot, jumping up and down, and dancing. Naturally, everybody had turned to see what the commotion was about, and… well, that’s when the guards started lumbering down in his direction, and when Lucian had bolted (but not before pocketing the shiny silver apple that he had been eying hungrily minutes before).

This, of course, would add onto the long list of crimes that he would be charged with if he was ever caught. Then again, Lucian had been in trouble in the law since birth, and he had managed to evade Solair’s pitiful task force for eighteen years and counting. He wasn’t about to give up now.

Heart pounding against his chest, Lucian slipped into an alley, desperate to find the right building… what was it again? Block M, number three. Out of the twenty four districts, the Omega district, named after the last letter of the Greek alphabet, was the worst to navigate. It’s dilapidated walls held hundreds, if not thousands, of cluttered buildings organized in a strange fashion. Even some of the locals weren’t able to navigate through the entire network of shady alleys- there were simply too many.

Of course, Lucian was special. On his fifth birthday, his father had disappeared, leaving him to wander the streets in hopeless confusion until he returned. In that time, he had acquainted himself with the entire area, which was admittedly small compared to some of the other districts. Still, the living conditions here were the worst, and if you were trying to find the smallest, cheapest, most unhygienic room possible, the Omega district was the place to look.

Block C, Block F, Block G…it took him an excruciatingly long amount of time to get from one block to another; each ‘block’ took a minimum of ten minutes to get across. Each block held about one hundred people, which was a total of around two thousand four hundred people, not including the underground apartments, dorms, and facilities.

Advancing onwards, Lucian jogged past each cement artifice, which had graffiti spray-painted on the side, displaying obscene and hateful words, all lit up with the bright colors of the spray paint that had been used to vandalize the buildings. Some of them could actually have been considered ‘art’, if it weren’t for the offensive words that outlined nearly all the buildings down the alley. Of course, all the children delinquents hadn’t been punished, seeing as the enforcers could barely do their jobs as it was.

He suddenly had an urge to scream with frustration as he lightly fingered the bumpy walls that enclosed him in the narrow, straight, path that would either lead him to Block M, or a dead end. He could hear two or three guards slowly pant-walking his way, but they were so tired that Lucian doubted they’d ever catch up to him.

Nevertheless, it was better to be safe than sorry, so he made another random turn, hoping that his distant memory had been faithful. By now, the guards had probably lost track of him, but he still needed to reach Block M before the sun went down, which was in about an hour- a seemingly impossible task, seeing as the interconnected maze of alleys stretched on for miles around him; a labyrinth trapping him in his own misery. Lucian could almost imagine his father, shaking his head, reminding him that he had a duty to his people to save them from the government and its ridiculous definition of social aristocracy.

Empowered and determined (but still panting), Lucian leapt forward, eager to reach his destination, where he could finally sleep in peace. Block L… almost there! Pacing himself, he slowed down to a speed-walk, cautiously looking around to find Block M.

After a moment of looking around, he finally caught sight of the oh-so-allusive block M- a boring, gray cube that seemed to go into the sky, reminding him of the skyscrapers that existed in the Beta district, where many of the rich people lived… but there were so many differences between the two. The Beta district didn’t reek of rotting food and trash, and all the people over there had red hair. Here, it was other lowlifes like him that had lost the genetic lottery, and been cursed with black hair until death.

Circling around to the front of the run-down building, he managed to find the door, which was protected by a semi-ornate rusty black gate that creakily swung open without any resistance. Pulling it away gently, something clattered to the floor, and Lucian’s heart palpitated. He glanced down to see the lock on the gate on the floor, in two pieces. He could feel the goose bumps run down his spine as he saw dents in the lock, and crimson splotches on the gate, which could be easily recognized as blood. However, it was dried, and flaking off, which meant that it must have splattered over a week ago.

Not so eager anymore, Lucian stepped inside block M, trying to ignore what he had just discovered. Inside was a dimly lit hall, flickering with the light of eerie candles that just made more chills appear on Lucian’s skin. Shivering, he walked down the hallway, wincing at every clack that his leather shoes made against the floor. Finally, he reached the door that had the number three carved into it.

Attempting to see into the door, he tried squishing his eye into the tiny peephole that served as the only clue into the mysterious living quarters of his old friend. It had been over a year since he had last been here, and it was clear that things had changed. He wondered if she even still lived here, or even if she was still alive.

Hesitantly, after a pause to debate whether he should knock, Lucian let his fist knock against the wooden door twice, noticing the bad quality of the wood, and how it barely fit into the frame of the door.

There was another silence, and then the clatter of a person heading towards the door. He held his breath, waiting in suspense to see if it was, in fact, his old friend, or a complete stranger; another poor soul banned to the shady living structures of the Omega district.

The door creaked open, and he could feel his heart speed up in anticipation, eager and terrified at the same time.  From her features, the girl that stood in the doorway was clearly Asian- her slanted down eyes, and the jet-black oriental hair that went down to her back, dull and untreated. Her chocolate brown eyes, which (at a time) had been warm and playful, were now full of defeat and sadness. She looked like she desperately needed sleep- there were deep purple circles beneath her eyes, and they fluttered shut as if she was trying to sleep while standing up. Either way, it was still Miku- he could tell because she still had the same defined cheekbones, and tiny frame that she’d had as a child.

It took a moment for the girl to process what she was seeing. In fact, it took her a minute for her to recognize who was standing in her doorway at the moment. Her eyes widened, and Lucian smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. Before he could speak, she silenced him with her index finger, raising it suddenly, as if she needed another minute to recover from the shock. Her eyebrows knitted into each other, and he could see that her mind was hard at work.

“Lucian?”