SWEET LITTLE LIES // BELLAMY BLAKE // THE 1OO

ONE

✿ ONE ✿

"Il y a longtemps que je t'aime 

Jamais je ne t'oublierai"

___

Lazily, her eyes scrolled down the old text. The words were difficult and the structure complex, but she had expected nothing less from a book that had been covered in such a layer of dust that it caused her a coughing fit that lasted for almost ten minutes before she actually opened it. Still, she received the leatherbound book thankfully, for it gave her mind something to think about instead of going insane. 

Looking up from the old words, she wondered how other delinquents in the Skybox handled their life. At least they had some regular human contact and conversations, whereas she was completely delivered to the mercy of the guards and her own mind. Not that she deserved mercy in any shape or form. 

Carefully she closed the old book, reading the title written in cursive on the front. The Nicomachean Ethics from Aristotle. The book must have been at least a few thousand years old, but perhaps that made it all the more impressive. She found Aristotle's thoughts on how to find happiness fascinating, but somewhere she had also heard that Aristotle was one hundred per cent wrong one hundred per cent of the time, so she was cautious with taking his word for granted. 

She guessed happiness existed in that era, thousands of years ago when they fought petty battles over small pieces of land. In this era, where every crime was considered a capital crime and therefore punishable by death, there was no place for happiness. And definitely not for her.

Softly biting on her lip, Katherine pushed the almost completely decayed book underneath her mattress and pillow. From that same place, she grabbed a small notebook and a stump of charcoal. The notebook was about the size of her hand and a couple of centimetres thick, the yellow pages folding and crumbling in odd ways.

She had the notebook, or diary to be more accurate, for almost three years now and yet she had barely written something in it. She knew she had to save up space for the next two years because then the time would arrive for her case to be reviewed and for her to get floated. Those blank pages would become a necessity in order to create some order in that cramped space up high, also known to be her mind. 

As she bit down on the end of the charcoal, tasting the bitter, yet familiar flavour of the pencil, she heard some commotion from outside. Without hesitating for a moment, she shoved the charcoal and notebook in her back pocket and jumped up from the weak excuse of a bed. 

Just as she was about to walk to her door to look through the bars what the commotion with her neighbour was about, her own cell door opened, revealing two guards. Katherine recognised one guard, Sergeant Miller, for he was the only one making sure she didn't go nuts. Every Monday and Thursday morning he would drop off a book or a stump of charcoal and when he didn't have a tight schedule he would even ask about her day. So, when he entered the room with the lowest oxygen content, he didn't even blink twice.

The other guard, however, not so much. As soon as he set foot in the isolated cell, he started panting, causing Katherine to grimace. Cautiously she took a step backwards, away from the guards. Usually, she liked it when Sergeant Miller decided to drop by, but the fact that he had brought another guard along with him made Katherine nervous. 

Slowly, she started to see the connections. Even though she used up the least resources, she always got leftovers for food and sometimes she had to go a couple of days without water, in the end they were wasted on her, for it was certain that they would never pardon her for her crimes. Heck, four years ago, when she was only twelve and had just committed the one thing that would change her forever, the officers doubted whether they shouldn't just float her on the spot.