*COMPLETED*
One event in history has the power to change everything. One choice...can leave an entire society shifted. For the new society, it is a constant battle between two powers, separated from one another by a defining characteristic.
...
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I gaze into the mirror, my eyes bloodshot and red. Veins spreading like roots over my cornea, the once white surface now crimson. I lift my shirt over my shoulder, revealing my smooth ivory skin, no cuts or bruises visible on my stomach, but that's a different story on my back.
I pivot my torso to the side, shifting my posture to make my protruding spine and back visible to the reflecting cracked glass. A small sigh of frustration escapes my lips as I study the gaping lacerations, split like valleys in my skin. Blood drips from the wounds as the skin around the area grows red and irritated, as if someone had rubbed poison ivy all over the wound.
My left hand holds bunches of my shirt, as I find the other hand cautiously lifting to touch the irritated skin. On impact, I wince in pain, a hiss escaping my lips like a snake scaring prey as my hold tightens on the shirt, my knuckles turning white. The area burns ablaze of fire, my skin igniting in a blazing inferno. I drop my shirt, defeated in misery.
I scour the wooden armoire, opening the buckling and rotting drawers with high hopes of finding bandages or medicated ointment, but assessing the living standards, a find such as that would be golden. I find nothing except ripped garments and old shirts. A ripped pair of shoes rests at the bottom of the last cabinet door I opened, the once white stripe and front toe areas completely brown with years and years of grime. The brand of the shoe completely worn off the back, besides a single star that remains, a shoelace missing from the right shoe.
Another sigh escapes me, giving up indefinitely until tomorrow when the fluorescent light once again makes its way through the fractured walls.
Slowly, I stride towards the bed, the frame missing chunks of wood as moss replaces the vacant space, like enzymes on a protein. I throw myself on the mattress, dismayed to the level of comfort that submerges my body, and I find myself swallowed in dreariness in a matter of seconds, the world around me slowing to a complete stop.
***
I awake to the sound of musical chirps of blue jays and robins outside the walls of my room. Beams of sunlight shine through like perfect rolls of silk, smooth and soft. I take in a deep breath, the refreshing morning air hugging my lungs tightly.
I stretch my limbs as a small satisfied grin paints my lips, this is real, I thought. The satisfaction of waking in a brave new world, beginning a new life is an experience out of fiction, one that cannot be explained, but rather shall be felt. And must I say...the feeling is utterly euphoric.
My legs swing over the edge, my bare soles coming in contact with the broken stone below, the occasional grass spikes intertwining between my toes. I take a quick glance outside, and see fifty people, possibly more, walking through the pathway towards the dining hall, just as they had last night, and inferring the night before. Swiftly, I race to the folded clothes and don them quickly, not paying attention to the unmatching pants and shirt I grasped. Within seconds, I'm rushing out the door.
