Fallen Angel [Bellamy Blake]

Chapter 1: Second Chances

I could scream forever we are the poisoned youth. -Centuries, Fall Out Boy

AN AUTOMATIC GROAN ESCAPES MY LIPS following the chime of the large metal door unlocking, a conditioned response at this point.

I roll over in exasperation, already anticipating a headache from the coming interaction just at the mere sound of heavy boots entering my cell. When you've been locked up for most of your adolescence, the Prison Station guards start to lose much of their 'intimidating' factor and really just become a pain in my ass. I'm sure I was one in theirs too. I smile teasingly at the two guards who scowl in return.

All business, no play like always.

"Hi, fellas." I look between them trying to figure out what possible reason they had for interrupting my precious loafing. "Another surprise room search?"

They remain uncharacteristically silent. Usually they'd entertain me with a half-assed, snarky response before handcuffing me. But now their cold facades were frozen on their faces as they stare stoically ahead. I have never seen them this tense before, and that's saying something about an Ark guard.

My mind jumps to the worst possible conclusion: my 18th birthday.

"What's going on?" I demand, raking my brain to recall what day it was today.

"Prisoner 10-4-4, rise. You have a visitor."

Before I could ask the obvious follow-up question, my father, Councilman Marcus Kane, strolls into my cell. He wears his usual grim expression, the one I had grown accustom to seeing while growing up. The scowl on his face had become a signature trademark for the middle-aged man.

My grandmother still tries to convince me to this day that he does have a heart underneath that tough exterior and that he does care about me very much. I usually tell her that I'm not denying that he has a heart, my bet is that it's most likely made of inorganic matter.

What strikes me as odd about this surprise visit from my father is not the fact he's here before visitation hours, but that he has bothered to visit me at all. The last time he visited me was four months ago. And that interaction was brief, he didn't even bother entering my cell at the time. He simply instructed me that I would be taking up private classes with Pike. That news came approximately six months from the day he told me the Ark was dying.

Needless to say, he isn't a person I expect to see often and baring good news at that.

Was he here to tell me that they're finally going to reduce the population like the Council had planned? And that I was at the top of the list for the Culling?

I wouldn't doubt that I was the first person written on their "disposable" list after everything I've done. Still, would my father really deliver this news to me himself?