If I Had Never Loved You

Chapter One - Annalise

Life sucks. 

Surviving in this harsh world covered in debris from the wars that ravaged this planet, the famine that took over half the human population, and the natural disasters that wreaked havoc in what was left of us was not worth it. 

Oh and you know how I said "human" population? Well that's because there are beings that are not so human. And they are not to be spoken of. Why? No one knows why, but there's this unspoken agreement between all of us that we do not speak of them for they might appear. 

Where was I again? 

Oh right, talking about how life sucked. 

I would have just killed myself, I mean who wants to deal with an earthquake/tsunami/volcanic eruption/flood/wildfires/tornadoes/hurricanes every other day? 

Not me.  

There was a law however, that strictly forbade people on taking their own lives. Suicide was considered the highest crime in any human town.

Due to the population, or lack of,  nobody was allowed to die by their own hands or in any other human's hands. Especially females. 

Females were nothing more than "walking wombs." The council had declared that women HAD to at least have 5 children before they had menopause.

So now, not only do we not have freedom of speech, we don't have freedom on our bodies or the freedom to kill ourselves. There have been people who told the pigs that posed as council members to fuck themselves and tried to suicide, all they ended up with was torture. 

It was impossible to kill yourself. 

I didn't know how those hogs had accomplished it, but they did. There were rumors that they contacted witches and called in favors to do this. 

If it's true, it's stupid. 

I mean, out of all the things they could've asked the witches to do, like stopping the disasters or asking for more food, they had to ask them to make it impossible for us to kill ourselves. 

Fucking jerks. 

If I get my hand on them, I swear I will- 

"Annalise, why are you still in bed?! It's six a.m, if you want to have food at all, get your ass up!"  Matilda yelled. She was the favorite of the 5th council member, William, my least favorite council  member. Considering I hated all of them, him being my least favorite came with good cause. He was an absolutely horrendous man who did not know anything about boundaries or consent. Not that that existed anyway. 

I felt a pair of hands grab me and yank me up before I could even curse. Matilda's glaring face entered into my view and boy, did she look like a surgically altered cow.  

"Food's scarce enough as is, I will not be feeding a girl who does not work!" She sneered into my face, her spit flying everywhere, I narrowly miss it by turning my head to the other side. 

Maybe you should stop eating so much, you could definitely lose a few pounds. 

Keep your mouth shut Anna. 

It was too late. The words flew out of my mouth before I could stop them. 

"You're right, Miss. Food truly is scarce. How about you reduce the intake of your food from five meals to one like everybody else? You would certainly gain to lose some weight. You might even get that body-"  

"Say one more word, young lady and I will get you matched up with the elder council." That shut me up real quick. 

There was no way in hell did ever want to get matched in the first place, much less with three men who are old enough to be my great-grandpa and who hold the most backward views on woman. They believe that a woman's value was from the amount of children she had. They also believe that women should take care of the children and all the house chores while the men help out outside. They're also biased against woman to no end. 

Seeing that I wasn't saying anything, Matilda nodded her head and said, "Good, now help Lia-" 

She was interrupted by a loud horn that blared all across town. The horn blaring meant only one thing. 

We were under attack.