Aberrant

Chapter 1

The winter had surely lasted longer then it was supposed to. Punishment? she had wondered, it would only make sense, the council didn't stand for anything not going their way and so the rest of the people suffered through longer winters then they could bear. Samsa's mother had been storing more then usual for the winter, it seemed her mother always knew when hard times where coming, and her mother was afraid. That frightened Samsa more then the begging and starved on the streets that rendered her sleepless at night. 

The streets where blanketed in a cover of snow through which Samsa carried all that she could without catching the attention of the spotters. The spotters where the wicked and heartless who had nothing left in the world for them but the promise of money and satisfied greed that kept them doing everything the council told them to do. The spotters where once an army of justice but the council took their power and corrupted their will to save their people. 

Samsa walked quickly past the spotters, her head bowed and her footsteps quite. There were fewer and fewer students that she used to be friends with here. Here, in the once beautiful district of Tempurest, children were born, taken by the council from their parents and raised in the schools. The children only got to see the willing parents on weekends, when the council were feeling generous. At the age of 18 the children were taken from their towns, friends, parents and anything they had left to be tested on their abilities. These 'abilites' where discovered no too long ago and the council did everything they could to harness it. The children where tested and then catogorised based on which group suited their ability. Their ability placed them into towns depending on what they could be used for- war efforts was the most abused category. There were theories on how the abilities where decided- blood line, town born- but in the end no one could understand how the children inherited these abilities, let a lone where they came from. But by now, everyone knew the day was coming for them.

It was Samsa's 18th birthday soon, that is why her mother feared for her. She didn't know what to assume was lucky, life in the capital? Or a continued life in Tempurest? Nothing seemed to come wihout a price. 

"I'll kill you, get back here you little prick!" 

Samsa paused.  A mistake, of course. Samsa was always taught- head down, face covered, walk fast, do not make a sound, fear not for if you do not show yourself you do not matter. Her mother had used parts of the curtains to create winding fabrics to cover her hair so Samsa would not gain attention. These winded loose from her tangled wild hair and flew away in the wind. "No," she whispered, watching her mothers hard work fly away from her. It would have costed her mother a week of food for that. She decided to cover her head with her hands and run again back to her house, the items she had bought for her mother clutched to her breast. 

"Mother?" She called at the window of a simple house, like those of the rest of the street, unchanged to remind them that only the council have a say in what is different to what. 

Her mother came to the window, cradling Samsa's younger brother. 

"Samsa, I swear to gods that I don't even believe in, get in this damned house right now or I'll drag you in here by your hair." 

Samsa climbed through the window, keeping watching for wandering eyes and shut the window behind her. The house was warm, one of the only redeeming qualities of Tempurest these days. Her mother said Tempurest was once a happy place to be. Samsa could only dream.

"I hate this place," her mother said right on cue.

"I know, Elsa. We all do." She said to her mother.

"Well," Elsa spoke wincing "it's your birthday tomorrow darling."

"It sure is, an 18th birthday only queen's could dream of, hey mother?" Her words cause a bubble of laughter within Elsa, but she had too little happiness having her daughter ripped away from her for her to laugh. 

Elsa looked carefully at every feature of her daugher and walking closer to her, grabbed a piece of Samsa's long thick hair in between her fingers. "You listen to me, you leave here and you don't look back. I raised you to be strong but you exceeded my expectations. You are fighter, you hear me child?" She shook her daughter hard and watched Samsa try to hold her balance in her confusion "I may not have taught you everything but you go out their and you learn, and most of all? You teach that stupid council a lesson. There can be know more years that go by where we let them control us, you go out there and you take that council and burn it to the ground. So, don't you look back child, don't you ever look back."