The Dark Side

Chapter 1

I wake up with a start. Heart pounding, I sit up in my bed, looking for the cause of whatever might have jostled me from my slumber. A loud clap of thunder sounds off.

That must have been what woke me up. I think to myself.

Laying my head back down on the soft, cotton pillow, I turn towards the small window in my room. The raindrops race down the window-pane. It is still very dark outside, somewhere around 3am. It is hard to tell when the moon is being blocked by dark clouds and I don't have a timepiece.

The rain is beating down with exceptional force, a wonderful pitter-patter lullaby that causes my eyes to droop, feeling slightly like lead. The sound of rain has always been so peaceful to me. The white noise eases me into a peaceful state. My breathing begins to even itself out as my body sinks back into unconsciousness.

I am almost asleep when I hear something else outside.

Footsteps.

My eyelids flutter open. It is past curfew. Anyone caught out this late would be taken to Confinement. I remember once when I was in first year of Academy some of the older, fourth year students decided to sneak out one night to an unsanctioned party. The Officials raided the party, and everyone they caught had been permanently tagged as an insubordinate and they were kept in Confinement for months.

I move to the window in hopes to catch a glimpse of whomever may be making the noise. At first, I don't see anything. Only the dark, wet alley and empty compost bins. Then I see a shadow begin to move across the brick wall of the building across from me.

I keep low in hopes to keep most of my body hidden from sight.

The shadow grows larger as the footsteps grow louder. The form of a man begins to take shape against the wet bricks. Looking down into the alley, I see his silhouette approach a bin about ten feet from my window before he stops for a moment and his body stiffens as though someone had just breathed down his neck.

Then he turns around.

My heart leaps to my throat when he looks directly at me. I have a sense of guilt building in the pit of my stomach as though I was the one caught in the streets so late in the evening. I want to look away. I want to pretend that I hadn't been spying on him, but it's no use. I feel almost as though I am being invasive, but my curiosity has control. I am frozen in place. His piercing eyes are lit by the light of the moon. A beautiful, hypnotic shade of a dark teal. He has a mess of dark chocolate hair and a strong, sharp jawline. He is very muscular, which is rather unusual for anyone from the Community. Everyone here is of an average build. We believe in the picture of health. Everyone is fed the perfect amount according to height, weight, and amount of physical labor one goes through in a day.

The only time I remember seeing anyone as well built was when I had taken a trip to our military units on a field trip late in my 3rd year. I remember staring wide eyed at the astonishingly large men around me. There were soldiers from about 20, a few years older than I at the time, up to men that looked to be in there 50's. They were battered and scarred people that looked like they were capable of anything. I had been completely in awe by all of them. One young man had lost an eye and a leg, yet he still laughed and joked with his comrades as though there was nothing wrong. And I suppose there wasn't.

His expression softens for a moment, before he goes stoic again and turns away from me. And for a moment, I'm almost convinced he didn't see me. It was then I was able to bring myself to look away, back into the empty room I stand in. I attempt to collect my thoughts.

Should I report him to the Officials?

No.

I look back into the street. He is gone and there is no evidence he was ever there. I begin to wonder if I had imagined it all. My head begins to spin as I make my way to lavatory. I run some water into a cup and take a good, long gulp. Feeling better, I splash some water onto my face before patting it with a soft towel. Padding across the cold, hardwood floor, I return to my bed.

My blankets are welcoming as I cocoon myself in the soft fabrics. I take a deep breath of the smell of freshly cleaned cotton as I try to find sleep again.

***

I get up from my spot on the floor where I have been scraping imperfections all morning. The room is getting colder by the minute as the January air creeps through every available opening. I reposition the towels in front of the doorway and windows. The pile of wood has grown smaller since this morning with me restocking the furnace every half hour.

My assigned occupation for this week is carpentry, which of all the occupations I have gone through in the past year since I began working, this is my favorite. The way the system is set up, everyone is given their work card at the beginning of 4th year. Then each week we are assigned to different occupations based on our test scores that we made at Academy. Then we are given four occupations to alternate between for a year, at the end of that year, we are given our permanent career. What we will do for the rest of our productive lives. I keep my fingers crossed that my permanent career is carpentry. I am really good at it, and I love getting to spend a majority of my time alone.

The fire grows as it consumes the firewood. I go back and pick the floor scraper off the floor. I sweep away the remaining dust from the bare floor, leaving it smooth and level. I get lost in my thoughts as I begin to lay out the hardwood floor.

Memories from that night seep into my brain.

Darkness. Rain. Him.

His face flashes into my mind again. It has been several weeks since I saw him in the alley. I had spent several sleepless nights waiting up to see if he came back. But after so many day, I was almost convinced it was a dream. Almost.

But I have never been one to dream, and when I do, it's all blurry and faint. I barely remember anything. This, however, is clear as day. It is branded into my memory and nothing can distract me from it.  

That night I am lying in my bed, wide awake. It is raining again. The need to see the stranger in the alley burns a hole in my chest.

I step into my slippers and pull on a flannel overshirt before crouching at the window. I sit and wait, eyes alert and body tense. What could have been minutes or hours pass when I hear the very faint brushing of feet on the broken pavement. I scramble to get a look at who it could be, but my heart sinks a little to see a shock of golden hair. This man is slightly smaller in stature, his face is more boyish. Still the curiosity remains, increases if anything. I watch him quietly, only taking a breath once I realize I had been holding it.

This boy is not nearly as aware of his surrounding as the other one was. He does a quick glance up and down the alley, not even giving my window a moment's glance. He moves quietly behind the compost bin where I can no longer see him.

I gently slide my window open, careful to not make any noise. I step out onto the damp ground. A few tiny pieces of broken pavement shift under my feet, grinding softly. I hold my breath and look in the direction of the compost bin, no longer seeing a shadow moving where the boy once was. My feet move towards the opposite wall before I even have time to notice. I press my back up against the cold metal of the bin, silently sliding to the other side, and with a last puff of courage, I glance around the corner.

There he is. Facing the wall. Waiting, it seems. I watch for a moment, holding my breath, too afraid of being heard. After a bit, he runs his knuckles over the stones in the side of the building, towards the base. He stops over one and begins to tap softly. Two slow raps, two quick, then one slow again.

It sounds familiar, but I cannot place where I heard it before.

After waiting a few seconds, nothing happens. The blonde boy curses under his breath and I flinch. It is very rare to hear someone curse out loud. He taps again on the stone, same as before. Two, two, one.

Suddenly the stones begin to separate and it slides open like any other door. I stare in disbelief and the boy disappears through the opening. The doors is sliding shut again, and before I can comprehend what I'm doing, I am slipping through the doorway into the darkness.