Beautiful Crime | John Murphy

Chapter One

It feels like the steel walls are closing in on me. My breath hitching in my throat, and my heart beating so fast it feels like it is trying to escape my chest.

I have been in the skybox for seven years. It is where all the criminals get locked up, for even the smallest of crimes. However, some have done a lot worse than just a small crime. You are here until you turn eighteen, and then they float you, throw you into space. If you are already over the age of eighteen you get floated right away.

My crime was killing my parents. Ever since I can remember I have heard voices. They would scream at me every time I did something. They would say that I was useless, that I didn't deserve to be here, and maybe I didn't. At the age of eleven they started telling me to get rid of my parents, and one day I did. The guards heard screams and came into the room only to see me standing over their bodies with blood on my hands. I don't remember much, I was blacked out during most of it, almost as if the voices controlled my every movement. They dragged me away and locked me in the skybox. Every day they would take me to a room, and tie me up. They said I was insane, and needed to be cured, so they electrocuted my brain. Some say that after a while you get used to the pain, but not in this case.

I have never liked small spaces so being locked up in a metal box doesn't help me much, but I get distracted once the door to my cell is being opened. "Prisoner 316, face the wall," one of the two guards says. The other is carrying a suitcase. He walks over to the only table in the room and puts in down.

"What is that?" I asked gesturing towards the suitcase while I walk towards the wall. 'Run,' The voice in my head says. 'Kill them, and run,' It repeats. I shake my head desperately trying to get rid of the thoughts. I have tried so hard to show them I am not the monster they think I am, but I guess after I killed my parents all hope of that is long gone.

He glares at me for speaking back. "Just be quiet, and do as I say." I have never liked being told what to do, but I don't have much choice in the situation. I turn towards the wall and shut my mouth. "Hold out your right arm." He opens the suitcase making me turn my head in its direction. Inside are five or six wristbands. He picks one up and opens it. I can see the needles poking out inside it making me tense.

"Are you going to float me? I haven't turned eighteen yet, you can't do that." My voice is filled with stress, and fright. I know I will get floated, and I am kind of prepared for it, but not in this exact moment.

"Just stretch out your arm." He ignores my words and comes over to me. He takes a hold of my arm with much force making me clench my teeth. He moves the wristband to my wrist, and panic suddenly rushes over me. Is this a new treatment? Have they decided to end my life a different way? 'They are going to kill you,' It says. 'Run or you'll die,' It says again, and this time I listen.

I yank my wrist back making him look at me shocked. I elbow him in the nose making him step back with his hands covering his face. The other guard tries to get a hold of me, but I pick up the suitcase and slam it into his stomach making him bend over in pain. I take the suitcase and slam it on top of his head, and he falls to the floor face first. I let out a breath before throwing the suitcase to the floor and run out of the cell.

My whole body freeze once I make it outside. Every prisoner is being taken from their cells. Some are fighting against the guards like me, but others are unconscious. What is happening?

Seconds later a sentence can be heard from down the hall. "You're being sent to the ground, all one hundred of you." I recognize the voice. I have heard it outside the room I got shocked in multiple times. She was against what they were doing but never did anything. Nevertheless, her words sent an unfamiliar feeling through my body. 'Let them send us to the ground,' I shake my head. 'Don't fight it,' It says, so when the guards throw me to the ground and put a needle in my neck I don't fight back.