The Pariah

Inspection Day

Chapter 1

I rolled over in my bed and tried to shake the sleep from my body. The blanket that covered me dripped onto the floor. A breeze from outside the open window stroked my cheeks. Its smell was of a new summer day and the dry dirt roads. The dawn of the morning brought the sun to the horizons of the flat topped houses that made up tract 5. I licked my cracked, chapped lips and tasted the morning in my mouth. My first though was water.
Then as if in a dream my body started to move drowsily and sluggish. My gangly legs swung themselves off the side of the bed and next to the melted blanket. Then I eased the rest of my body off the lower bunk and out of the room.
I crouched my knees low to ground and pressed my nubby shoulder blades tight against the wall. When my eyes peered around the sharp corner I could see my oldest bother, Lucas, was still asleep on our dusty green couch.
I had always despised that awful couch, but mom adored it. She said it was and full of character. Now it's full of mold and dust. Every time someone sits on its cushions the couch coughs up years of filthy memories. However, I now enjoyed the smell of it because it smelled of mom. The dust had the stench of peppermints and vanilla, just like her.
I let my eyes lerk towards the door, it was only a few feet away. It seemed to be shouting my name.
I knelt down on my elbows and started to slither my way like a snake towards door. I felt small against the tall furniture that I moved towards. A tumor of nerves grew in my stomach as I left the safety of the wall that once hid me.
The slight breaths from Lucas's sleeping body was the only noise that filled the small quaint cabin. I inched against the brittle fabric of the couch. Lucas's broad chest rose and fell to the rhythm of my crawling.
The door grew closer, I could almost taste the air and feel the warm soft sunrise on my cold cheeks.
I reached my elbow out and hit the table leg that I was passing. My teeth bit my lip in pain. I took a moment to compose myself and settle the disturbed nerves along my elbow. Then I was on the prowl again.
When I finally reached for the door knob I let my guard down, a crucial mistake in my plan. My legs straightened below me and my back eased its way up the wall beside the door. I turned the knob slowly trying not to let it squeak. It did, it was the loudest noise in the room. To me it sounded like bomb exploding in the room. Then I heard a voice behind me.

"Piper, what do you think your doing?"
It was Lucas. I spun around, letting go of the door knob. His stance was firm and he folded his arms across his chest, but his voice sounded tiered. He didn't have the cowlick morning hair that Aidan would have. Lucas had shaved his dark blond hair into a short buzz cut.
"I think I was... um...water," I tried to come up with good excuse.
"You know what would happen if you left before curfew," he said glancing at the small triangular scar on my right shoulder.
I covered the scar with my hand.
"Yeah well I wasn't planning on getting caught," I mumbled under my breath.
"But thats beside the point."
He left me there feeling guilty and walked into the room where Aidan was sleeping. Taking a deep breath and rolling my eyes, I followed him.
When we walked in Aidan was still asleep until Lucas slapped him on his cheek, a brotherly thing to do.
"What was that for," Aidan sighed and touched his now red cheek, but he still did not open his eyes.
"Get up," Lucas demanded and Aidan moaned, "government inspection today." Lucas pulled his clothes out of the trunk and left me and Aidan to get dressed.

He laid on the bed another minute with his eyes closed. Then Aidan rolled himself off the top bunk and onto the floor, some how landing on his feet. He was like a disturbed cat after finally getting to sleep. That was how he always was.
He pulled off the gray t-shirt he had been sleeping in to reveal strong stiff muscles along his stomach and arms. He had always been skinny even when we were kids, but when Mom and Dad died he grew. He crawled inside himself and became protective, both my brothers did. Only Aidan never came out he is still buried somewhere inside himself. Mom always said that there were two types of pain, one that hurts you and the other that changes you. This pain was only suppose to hurt and heal, but for him it was the changing kind and I wish it hadn't been.

When Aidan turned around to pick up the blanket he had kicked off the bed his back stuck out like a sore thumb. It made me cringe, it always did, even though I saw it every day. It was thin and mangled with triangular scars that covered it. Some of them extended around to his stomach and over his shoulders, but most overlapped themselves on his boney back. It wasn't the scars though that sent a cold tingling chill up my spine, it was the fact that I knew what they were from, me.
Well, most of them, some actually were his fault, but the majority were from taking my blows. My punishment. Thanks to him I only had a few scars some on my shoulder blades and on the back of my legs.

Every time we broke a law or disobeyed the government, Moral, they would brand us with our tracts symbol. All the tracts had different symbols, Tract 5's was a triangle. All the brandings were different, but the laws were the same and so were the punishments.
"Are you done staring?" he said snapping his fingers in front of my face.
"Yeah," I said dazed, "sorry."
We got dressed in silence, every once in a while asking stupid questions or trying to make small talk with one another.
The uniforms they required us to wear made our scars bulge. It gave the officials a sense of accomplishment because they had scared us for life. The good part about the uniforms was that we were only required to wear them whenever something important was going on it the tract. It consisted of a short sleeve bright blue shirt that sucked at my small figure and a matching blue skirt. On both shoulders of the shirt there was an embroidered white triangle, our tract symbol.

"Are you nervous, you know about the inspection?" Aidan asked and it surprised me that he would even care.
"Why do you ask?" I had decided to answer his question with a question.
"Just making small talk and you are avoiding my question, so I am guessing that is a yes I am hearing," he smiled.
"No," I said quickly while reaching over and punching his stiff shoulder.
"Quick to denial, another sign of lying," he smirked
I thought about this for a second not sure how to answer because the truth was that the inspection scared me.
"I..." I started, but Lucas interrupted me from the other side of the house.
"Five minutes," he yelled and it echoed off the wooden walls of the house.
I pulled up my long dark red hair into a high ponytail an trotted out of the room.

When I emerged in the living room I saw Lucas dressed in his uniform and leaning against the door. The tight short sleeves showed his thick arm muscles and a few scars that ran down his arms. Just like mine it had the blue triangle on the sleeve. He stood there nonchalantly and chewed on his almost finished apple core.
"Finally," he said after finishing a bite, "it took you long enough. Where is Aidan?"
I walked over to stand by him at the door, on my way I grabbed a apple from the kitchen table.
"He's coming."
"Go on, I will be there later," Aidan yelled from the bedroom.
Lucas rolled his eyes, "Don't be late."