In a nightmare world ravaged by misery, the Imperium offers utopia to a select few. When Arya and Everett are recruited into this elite society, they choose to leave their homes against their families' wishes.
Naive and young, Arya and Everett are...
After the shower, I change into my new suit and wait for the panels along the left to open and reveal the narrow bed, but I'm taken aback when a much wider mattress folds out smoothly.
Big enough for us both. The thought pops up out of nowhere, accompanied by a startling memory of my limbs tangled with Everett's, his blue-eyed gaze following his fingertips as they trailed down my bare stomach.
Gasping softly, I snatch the water canteen from the bedside table, taking a deep swig to clear my mind.
Suddenly, a soft knock pierces the silence, causing me to jump to my feet. I greet Everett at the door, ushering him inside before sliding the bracelet back into place. A fragment of white light spills into the room through the gap in the doorway.
"Do you think we'll get these bigger beds every day now?" Everett asks conversationally as I lower myself on to the edge of the mattress, patting the spot next to me. As he sits, I take quick glimpses of this more beautiful yet strikingly familiar boy — dark waves of neatly combed hair, healthy skin, strong hands.
"Arya?" he says quietly, his quizzical blue eyes tugging me back into the moment.
"Sorry, I was—oh!" I jump when the yellow overhead lights die suddenly. My vision struggles to adjust until I manage to identify his silhouette through the slim beam of light filtering in from the hallway.
"At least the hallway lights are on . . ." Everett groans and mutters, "This place is so weird."
"It is," I agree with a small laugh.
His voice is barely above a whisper when he says, "If we had known — before recruitment — what this place was really like, maybe we wouldn't have wanted to come here so badly."
"Maybe," I concede, my smile quickly fading. "But nothing in the Imperium can be worse than working at the mill back home."
In the near pitch blackness, all I can see of Everett's face is the slope of his jawline, but his voice carries an unmistakable note of sorrow as he replies, "Sometimes, I get these sudden . . . flashes of memories of my mother. Do you . . . ?"
"Yeah, I get them too," I admit with a pained wince. Desperate to divert my mind, I ask, "What else do you remember from before? What about the day of recruitment?"
As Everett recalls that day to every last detail in a steady voice, I find myself being carried through the troubling memories with a small sense of comfort.
"I knewour fathers would be angry, but I didn't think they'd hate us so much f—" He pauses mid-sentence when the corridor lights begin to flicker. We climb off the bed and walk to the door as the white lights continue to flash.
"What's happening?" I wonder out loud, pulling the bracelet before cracking the door open. Craning my neck, I search up and down the hallway as it alternates between bright and dark.
"Do you see anything?" Everett asks, his arm pressing close to mine as he tries to catch a glimpse of the corridor.
Before I can answer, the flickering of lights stops just as abruptly as it had started.
"Must be a glitch or something," I shrug, slotting the bracelet carefully in place before following Everett into the room. Returning to the spot on my bed next to him, I ask, "Do you remember anything else? About the day we were recruited, I mean."
Everett goes on to describe the auditorium used for announcing recruits so vividly that I can see it in perfect clarity when I close my eyes. As he talks, he lays back onto the soft mattress, and I sink in next to him. I'm not aware of how much time passes before his speech slows, his words colored with sleep. Eventually, his voice trails off into silence.
"Everett?" I whisper, turning on my side to face him. I raise my hand tentatively, my fingers barely caressing his temples. He sighs softly in his sleep, and I let my hand graze the top of his head until I feel my eyelids growing heavy in the silent darkness.
Pulling my hand back to my side, I press my cheek into the mattress and listen to Everett's steady breathing as sleep finally takes over.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Hey guys, Happy New Year! And also thank you to my lovely readers for helping Lighthouse Lullaby hit the 100K mark! ♡
