After Earth's Fall | ✔ UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION

Chapter 7

Nila bites her nails unrelentingly as she waits for her mother, shrouded in darkness. She hasn't bothered to turn on any of the lights since she arrived partly because she hasn't fully recovered from being forced out of the simulation and partly because she has got bigger problems to worry about. Way bigger problems. Nila sniffles a bit, straining against her blocked, red nose and wipes the moisture from under her eyes. Nila can almost hear the pitter patter of her heart in her chest. She glances at the clock on the schedule on the wall, '5:45'. Her mother would have finished work by now. Her father isn't due home until another three hours. If only it were the other way around. Now Nila will have to bear her mother's wrath without any protection and in her eyes, her daughter is practically a juvenile.

"What am I kidding? I am a juvenile," Nila whines to herself, thought it wasn't supposed to be out loud.

"Indeed you are."

Nila's stomach does a backflip at her mother's unexpected appearance in the doorway.

"Mum, let me explain," she pleads, pushing the chair out behind her as she flies to her feet. "Before you say anything just hear me out."

"I found the white sludge you've been leaving behind in the bin every morning. It turns out our bin's emptying function malfunctioned yesterday so I called the cleaners this morning. They had no idea what it was but then one found a tiny piece of solid pill in there. I feel like such a fool. You have been lying to me for months, Nila. What do you have to say for yourself?" Her mother says in a scarily expressionless tone.

Nila winces at Janice's voice as it gets quieter and quieter as if it were doing the opposite and rising in volume. The heavy tone of disappointment in her mother's voice is what makes her shrink into her chair.

Nila gulps. "Well, mother, I didn't realise you were so observant."

Janice's mouth drops open in disbelief. "Excuse you? Do you realise just how much trouble you're in? You have been arrested by the government. You're under watch. No is no time to give me sass." The woman gestures to their open front door, where the two guards from earlier stand watch on either side.

Nila keeps her head down and fidgets with her fingers, inspecting every nail as it it were the most interesting thing to do in the universe. Tears brim her eyes though she keeps her head pointed downwards as to not show her mother weakness. Like it has happened so many arguments before, one tear that trickles down her cheek signals as a slit in Nila's confidence; a tear that her mother will exploit in an effort to make her daughter feel as horrible as possible.

"I'm sorry," she whimpers.

"I had such high hopes for you," her mother sighs with a shake of her head. "I put all of my eggs in one basket for sixteen years, even sometimes putting my own marriage on the line, trying to push you to be the best you possibly could. All for nothing. Am I really such a horrible mother?"

"You wouldn't understand," Nila mutters under her breath.

"What was that? No you don't get to talk. I've been informed that you're not permitted to leave this dorm for the next twenty-four hours until they decide what to do with you. Which also means you're forbidden from going to the celebration party tonight."

"What?" Nila's eyes shoot up to meet her mother's. "But I succeeded in the final test. I was apart of that group too. I deserve to go!"

Slap.

Nila hisses at the hot burning sensation in her cheek. She opens her eyes to see her bedroom to her left as the force of the slap sent her head to the side.

"Do not raise your voice at me, girl! You're not on solid enough ground to dare to speak to me like that right now."

Nila swallows down the lump in her throat and sits deeper in her chair at the round dining table.