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I look around my cell. Some would call it home, some would call it a safe place. But no, a cell is what I call it. It is furnished with a white chair, a white bed, and a white table. There are no bars that separate me from my freedom, but there is no freedom for me to escape to. Only diamond glass. Three holes drilled into the translucent wall. Not big enough to fit my hand through but big enough to get air. There is no door handle, nothing to open or shut the door-wall. All the Keepers have to do is flash a card in front of the glass wall and it opens. 

I wonder about so many things. Why does the Empire leave me in this cell to rot, like don't I have any meaning to them? All my days consist of are having my genes tested, eating, sleeping, and reading books that are in different languages. I don't even know what they say but I play around with how I think they are said. Im most likely far from right. But if I did know how to pronounce the words and if I knew what each of them meant, there would be no fun to it. It is the only fun I am granted. The Empyrean people watch me from behind the diamond glass that keeps us apart.

There is only one difference between me and them. They were their freedom like it is a burden, they complain about everything and I would wear my freedom like it is a medal that I will never win. I only complain that I live in a cell and they get the freedom of feeling the sun on their pale faces while I sit on a bed that is stained in white feeling my feet and legs go stiff because they don't get used as they should. I complain that they are able to make friends and grow with their families, I sit here and watch as the Empyrean people pass by not even glancing at me. I am fully alone and fully alone is all I will ever be. 

I was brought to the Empire when I was just a baby, well that's what my Empyrean Keeper told me. I have no clue what I look like. All I can ever see is that I have long brown hair. It always hangs down my back. I never do anything with it, as I have no knowledge of what to do. My Empyrean Keeper always puts it up into what she calls a 'hair hold'. All it really is is my hair being held up by a band.

I have no name, all they did was give me a number. #107. It was branded into my collarbone years ago. It doesn't hurt anymore, but I can still feel the sting of the memory. I watch the world move at a slow pace, each Empyrean growing older by the years. Nothing too big to really notice, but some have silvery strands etched into their perfected hair. Some have dark bags under their eyes but always covered enough to look like nothing is wrong with them. I see through their perfections. I get to see their imperfections. My Keeper has no name either, or if he does then he hasn't told me. I am always to call him Keeper and nothing else. I am not his friend. I am not his equal.

Each Empyrean that I have met has a different symbol. I noticed there five different ones that I have ever seen. One Empyrean had a dagger on their wrist, one had a rose, another a leaf, then another with a baren tree, and there are quite a lot that have a crown. I don't know what each of them means but when I do get the chance I always see if I can find out what symbol each Empyrean has.

Every year a new Prisoner is brought to the Compound, that's what I'm calling it, and then disappears and I never see them again. They don't look at me but I look at them, trying to study their facial features, anything really. Just so if I ever do get out of here, I might see one of them. I wear a white shirt, white pants, and no shoes. The white marbled ground bites at my feet with coldness. I never have an explanation when Keeper takes me out of my cell. Though it is usually for testing. Keeper told me I have a special Gene that they need to find out why I have it and no one else does. There is no special feeling about any of it. Keeper takes me out of my cell now. We take a different path than what we usually do. We usually come up to, two different hallways and we always take the right. Keeper took the left this time. I only hesitate for a second before Keeper turns around and I look at his wrist. He has three dots in a straight line. I have never really noticed it before.

"Are you coming," Keeper says, he makes everything he says not sound like a question when it is supposed to be. He makes it sound more like a command.

I nod and follow him into the brightly lit hallway. Nothing ever changes. Changes aren't good. You don't know what to expect with changes. Why do things have to change now? I try to call my stress with the thought of 'they may have moved the lab over to this hallway.' It didn't help as much as I thought it would. My hands began to sweat and become clammy. Keeper said nothing, we walked in total silence except for the clipped sounds of his boots and the sticky noises coming from my bare feet.

The silence didn't last for long. I began to hear cries and screams from the doors that lined the halls. Then it sunk in. They were going to kill me. They finally decided they had no use for me and I wasn't giving them the results they wanted from my Genes. My breathing hitched but I tried to push it down so it didn't seem like I was as scared as I was. Keeper kept looking back and forth between each side of the hallway. It kind of seemed like the walls were closing in on me. The screaming and crying stopped abruptly. It was complete silence. Keeper stopped moving. I stopped moving when I was standing next to him. There were doors that were bigger than the rest of the doors that were in this hall. The two doors had more details, they had carvings of different things. I didn't get a good look at it before Keeper flashed a card in front of a pad and the doors opened.

It was so different from the right hallway. Everything in the right hallway and where my cell is is decorated in diamond glass and white, but the left hallway was completely varnished in wood and dark browns. People were milling around. Keeper pushed me forward and then stepped right beside me and then he kept walking. Every Empyrean that we passed stopped and stared, not at Keeper or both of us, but at me, only at me. I guess it might have been that I was dressed nothing like them. All of them were in black. The Keeper and I were both in white. What is it with the Empire and its dull colors? Their stares developed into hushed whispers. Keeper sent glares to everyone in our paths. I couldn't tell if he was protecting me or if he just absolutely hated everyone in the room.

We entered through another set of wooden doors. This room was dome-shaped. Still full of dark wood with huge windows covering the top. Sun-filled the room making spot like shapes on the floor. Keeper kept moving and I kept following him. We entered through a few more doors, took a few turns, and then we came up to two of the largest doors that I have ever seen. They were bigger than the other ones that we had gone through at first. Keeper remained quiet, as he flashed his card in front of this door pad and it opened. He glanced at me and then back at the doors as the two doors opened. They scrapped the floor, apparently not having been opened for a long time. Or the doors were really old. Either way, Keeper trudged in and turned to the left. Empyreans stopped altogether and stared at me. I didn't know why. I mean I have never seen my reflection in a mirror. I could be extremely ugly, but I guess I would never know.

I kept my gaze on the floor not wanting to be overcome by all the stares, pointing, and whispers. Not that it really mattered though. Maybe if they did decide to kill me then I could ask to see my reflection. They cant decline something so simple as that. I have lived my whole life in a cell while they host parties and have the freedom to do as they please. They may not kill me. It's a possibility. But I don't think they would change my normal routine to congratulate me on giving them the results they wanted. Keeper and I entered another room and then he stopped moving altogether. Like he was a robot or something. We stood there like that for a few minutes. Then a voice said:

"Keeper? Have you come with the Genetic Superreour?"

"Yes, she is with me." Keeper said, respectively.

"Good. Keeper Identification?" The voice asked boredly like he had done this a million times.

"Keeper Leon Castlex," Keeper responded.

"Entrance granted,"

Keeper Leon Castlex, huh. I didn't think I would ever hear his name. Something beeps and the set of doors open. Keeper Leon walks through and then turns around, looking at me he sighs and beckons me through the doors. I silently obey and my legs do the hard work for me. He smiles like he is proud and scared for me. It's the most emotional thing that has ever crossed Keeper Leon's face. He usually is as cold and solid as stone, never wavering. Keeper Leon sets his hand on my back, a cold touch that I have no clue to what it means.

"Just go along with it," Keeper Leon whispers in one of my ears.

"And what am I to go along with?" I whisper back to him.

"These people don't mess around. Just do as I do and say," He responds.

I bite my lip and nod. I have no idea what he has in store for me. "Good, now follow me," He says quietly.

He guides me with his hand pressed to the base of my back. We do not talk. I glace at him but he stares straight ahead. I swallow the spit that threatens to come out. It tastes like bile.

"Why do I feel like Im about to throw up?" I ask Keeper Leon without looking at him.

"Because I injected a serum into your food this morning. The side effects should start up soon. I thought I would have a little longer to get you out of here," He responds.

I nod, "Keeper, it isn't going to stay down for long," I said, continually swallowing.

"Please don't call me Keeper. I hated it all the way through those sixteen years that I was your Keeper. I don't work for the Empire. Im, not Empyrean," He says.

"Then-" I wasn't able to finish when I threw up all over him. I realized no one was even in the room.

He didn't react as I thought he would. He didn't act repulsed or disgusted. He looked sympathetic. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and then wipe the back of my hand on my now not white clothing.

"Im sorry, I," I tried to find the right words.

"It's fine, we are almost out of here, just call me Leon. We will give you a name when we get you home, I don't want to have to call you #107 anymore," He said, quietly.

Nodding, I began to feel weak and I leaned my weight onto Leon. He didn't object. Leon then picked me up and positioned me like I was a baby that he was holding. Then I saw what looked like a vault door. Air locked and everything. Leon set me down and leaned me up against the wall as he spun the wheel. He grunted a few times and then the wheel gave out opening the door.

The sunshine blinded my face as Leon picked me back up and stepped outside. Leon turned around and closed the door. Once my eyes adjusted I see what the Empire really looked like. It was a diamond glass dome, and outside of that dome was a wasteland. I sighed. There was nowhere we could go.

"Leon," I whispered,

"What?" 

I didn't respond, he started running. We were to the edge of the Empire within minutes and I could see armed cars just outside the domed wall. Leon didn't stop running and when I thought he was going to run through the wall and hurt himself the dome opened and we slid through. It closed with a quiet boom.

"Leon? Is it her?" a man ran over asking.

"Yeah, we need to get her home, Sgt. Barlett," Leon told the man.

"Alright," Sgt, Barlett said facing us, "Everyone round-up, were moving out!" he yelled.

Everyone started running around, picking things up, yelling different orders. Leon was still holding me, I leaned my head into his chest. I could feel his labored breathing.

"Merida! Can you take the girl, please? I want everything all set and ready to leave in five," Sgt. Barlett called.

A woman with fiery red hair approached Leon and me.

"Oh dear, how much of the drug did you use? I told you only one teaspoon sugar," I'm guessing Merida asked with a sweet old lady voice.

"A teaspoon? You said a tablespoon, Merida!" Leon complained.

"Oh darlin' follow me, we need to get her into one of the transports before Barlett decides to take off without us," Merida coos.

Leon followed Merida and set me into one of the transports. Then he got in, followed by Merida. Leon reached over and slammed the doors shut.

"Is she going to be ok Merida?" Leon asked.

"I think so. But she has to Leon. For her father's sake, she has to," Merida said, quietly.

My eyelids became heavy and eventually shut. Darkness took me over. Drugged sleep took me over.

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Chapter Question: What do you think of Leon and do you think he can be trusted?

Opinionated Question: How was the chapter? Is it going too fast or too slow?

Another Opinionated Question: From this chapter, what do you think the title should be and what would the cover look like?

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Word count: 2,432

Started: Feb. 4th, 2021

Finished: Feb. 6th, 2021

Edited: ###########

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