Author's Note: A big thank you to everyone reading my work. Please comment because I'd love to know your thoughts. This is one of my favourite stories i have written and I want to know how to make it better. Any help is appriciated!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the time Shai got home it was almost Curfew. She couldn’t stay in the lobby of that apartment building long before she became suspicious, and she didn’t know if Riley would stay out on the corner. It seemed unlikely, but she didn’t want to take any risks.
She pushed her way into the elevator when it was full of people. She waited for everyone else to get off and then went up onto the next floor. She crept down the hallway, trying not to let the floor creak under her feet. At the end of the hallway she opened the door to the stairwell.
Prying the window open with her fingers, she slipped out onto the metal staircase that was on the back of every building. She climbed down the ladder quickly and dropped to the ground with the last step. She was hidden by the narrow space between the two buildings.
She peered around the corner to check and see if she could see Riley. The coast was clear and she walked behind another group of girls about her age. She followed them before taking a sharp turn down another alley. She was far enough away from Riley’s booth that being caught by him was no longer a fear. The Officer standing in front of the alley was the only thing that stopped her from walking straight across the Market street.
Walking with the crowd of people she noticed that Officers were blocking off more and more alleys. A slight fear rose in Shai as she wondered if every alley was being blocked off.
Finally, she discovered one that’s not and slipped down it. She feared that an Officer would chase he down and question her, but she knew she was sly enough for no one to catch her.
Hearing voices made her take a longer route home then she would like. But the people on the street in the Slums would kill her, especially with that bracelet on her wrist.
She climbed up the stairs at the back of her apartment and opened the window and pushed the cardboard out, expecting Todd to still be with whatever girl he was meeting. But she was wrong and he was lying down on the couch flipping the blade in and out of his pocketknife.
“How’d it go?” he asked her.
She closed the window and put the cardboard back in place. He sat up on the couch and put his knife down on the table.
“Well, I got this,” she said displaying her wrist in front of Todd. His eyes light up and he grabbed her hand and pulled it right in front of his eyes.
“You got this on a first date?” he asked astonished.
“Yeah, Brighties are so odd. He even asked me to marry him today,” she said.
“Make sure it’s a big diamond.”
“I’m not marrying him, Todd!”
Todd laughed and shook his hair out of his eyes. Shai went into her room and threw her bag down on her bed. She took off her dress and remembered Riley’s comment about the sand as the grainy substance was stuck to her skin. She wiped it off quickly and put one of Todd’s old shirts with the hem all torn and a pair of black sweatpants. She pulled her hair out of the elastic and she fiddled with the clasp on the bracelet.
It took only a few failed attempts before she left her room. As she walked out of her room she heard the faint sound of the bell ringing for Curfew.
“I can’t take it off,” she said holding her wrist out to Todd.
“The princess can’t take off her jewellery?” he asked wryly.
“I went out with a Brighty not a Archy. Just teach me how to take it off.”
He turned the bracelet around and she watched as he pulled back on the metal clasp and took it out of the small metal ring.
“Now was that so hard?” he asked.
Shai didn’t respond and turned around to her bedroom. She slid the bracelet under her pillow among her most valuable items. They were the most secure there.
“He invited me to the derby,” she told Todd.
“The derby? Wow, you’re going to get some Brighty privileges, Shai.”
“I’ve already gotten privileges. He took me to the beach.”
Shai laughed at the shocked expression on Todd’s face. He rolled his eyes at her and put his feet up on the table.
“You’re not serious?” he asked.
“I sure as hell am. A Rat got onto the beach and lived to tell the tale,” she informed him proudly.
“Well, bravo for you. But I think you need to thank me.”
“Why?”
Todd crossed his arms under his chest.
“Because it was my idea for you to go out with that Brighty,” he said.
“Then congrats for the idea. I should be thanked for executin’ your idea.”
“I could have put on a dress and impressed that Brighty just as well as you.”
Shai opened up her mouth to protest but was cut off by a loud bang coming from the street below. Shai and Todd ran into Shai’s room. She pulled back the sheet on her window enough so that her and Todd could see out but whatever Officer was on the street couldn’t see in. They knew it was Officers because they were the only ones allowed to carry guns. The Slums were full of knives and blades but the government didn’t care, but be caught with a gun and you were shot dead at sight.
The street was barley visible as the sun had set almost an hour ago. An Officer stood across from a crumpled body lying on the street. Shai couldn’t make out any details on the person to decipher their age, let alone gender. They were just one more victim of the Curfew.
It was just another way for the government to keep the streets “safe”. Most crime happens after night, so if no one were out in the dark then no one would get hurt. In Bright if someone were found after Curfew they’d be escorted home with a warning. But in the Slums they don’t care. That Officer who had just shot the rat will have a story prepared about how the Rat ran towards him with a knife trying to rob him.
The Officer yelled out for another one. The Officer who came up running to his side was much younger. The older Officer gave his orders to the younger one. The younger one shook his head and ran over to the body. He picked up the Rat under his arms and began dragging him down the street.
