The World Without Hope

New Life

I had been crying for a good two hours until the sunrise. I was in a corner between two buildings. I had been sitting down with me knees up to my chest and my arms wrapped around hugging them tightly. I missed home. I wanted to go back but I knew that I couldn’t. It was too altered. There was too much change. Too much madness. I sat there on the corner between two buildings. I sat there until people began to come out. Until workers hurried off to their jobs. Until the homeless awoke. I stayed in that corner until I had to move. Until I didn’t feel safe anymore.

I walked with the crowd. They moved like an ocean down the street. There were many people of different stature, shape and color. The most of them were dirty and smelled of fish and feet. They seemed to have bathed weeks ago at the least. It made me quiver at the thought. I was around such filth I wanted to throw up. One thing that seemed to be on every face was a big frown. I couldn’t blame them. We were living in hell itself.

As the crowd moved, I saw exactly where we were headed. Right into the town square. I saw big white screens on each side that had something projected on it. As I got closer, I saw Malofic’s president, Mr.Leachet. He was standing tall and patriotically on a stage far into the square. The Malofic flag was waving behind him as he stood.

As the crowd began to stop, my attention was now focused back on what was projected on the screens. There were four screens. Every screen had a different word on it. All together it read One in a Million. I didn’t understand.

After a couple of minutes, one of the president’s advisors came up to the microphone that had been placed in the center and began to speak.

“Please settle down, President Leachet has a couple announcements.” The scrawny man moved away from the microphone and presented it to the President. Mr Leachet took only a couple of steps until his mouth was parallel to the microphone.

“Good Morning to all of you. Today is a fine day. Today fourteen lucky children from each of the continents of Malofic will travel with me to the other three dimensions; Mesofic, Artisofic and lastly Benofic.” President Leachet paused for a brief second to let that sink in our minds, “Now these children shall be selected randomly. The children are between the ages of six through eighteen.”

As he kept talking, I smiled. I have a shot. I can leave this hell hole! I actually believed I could make it out. I believed that it was possible. That out of the tens of thousands of children in Malofic that I  would be chosen to be one out of the fourteen. I went to my knees and patted Kount.

“You think we got a shot, Kount?” He licked my hand. I took that as a yes. I stood back up and watched as Mr.Leachet went to the ball cage at the far right of the stage. The advisor from before began to turn the lever of the cage. Once he stopped, two small white balls came out of the cage. The president picked the first one. I crossed my fingers and closed my eyes. Please. I could hear the president breathing in the microphone. I could picture his smile as he read the name to himself.

“Jori Macintosh.” He said into the microphone, “Is Jori out there?”

I opened my eyes to see a tall boy, probably about seventeen, go up onto the stage to greet the president. My mouth curved into a frown. There is still another ball. There is still another chance. I didn’t understand why I had given myself so much false hope. There was no way in hell my name was going to be called. Out of all the others? Me?

The president, again, went back to the ball cage and grabbed the other little white ball. This time instead of reading it, he gave it to Jori. Jori went up to the microphone and breathed in. Please, please be me! Call my name!

“Henna Smith.” He smiled as he said the name. My tears were blocking my sight. All I could see was her silhouette as she climbed the staira to greet the two men. I knew this was going to happen but I was filled with such shock that I couldn’t even look up at the stage. I turned and left the square. I found my spot back between the two building in my little corner.

After the crowd dispersed and the screens had been put away, I walked back around the Town Square. The only people were those who were either cleaning up or the homeless. My face was still wet from the tears. I walked into the center and stared up at the sky. The smog was dark and formed big clouds. Why me? Why am I stuck in this awful place? Why couldn’t I have been called? Why did they not say my name. Emeli Bovara. Say it like that next time! If there is a next time... I threw my hands in the air and fell to my knees. I had lost hope in everything.

This was truly the world without hope. The world that turned anything good into a big pile of shit. The world that turned brother against brother and mother against daughter. The world that made my family fall apart by snipping one small thread of the fabric that held us together. That was just reality darling. If you can’t take that than you’re better off dying where you stand. Rotting in your grave. This was life. I shouldn’t have been so foolish. So naive.

My tears came back in armies. They made my face heat up and my lungs gasp. I put my hand to the ground for support but I was too weak. I fell on my face...kissing the ground. I turned up to face the sky one more time. My hair was sticking to my face making it impossible to see but I knew that it was still just clouds of smog up there. Even though it was dreadful smog, I threw my hand up to touch it. I wanted to be anywhere but Malofic. My tears were now choking me. I could feel myself gasping for at least the smallest amount of air.

I felt a hand touch mine. I felt it pull me up. I felt it haul me somewhere. I was too weak to get away. Too weak to yell. Too weak to fight.