"Miss Baird, are you alright?" she asked, her eyebrows peaked with either sadness or suspicion. "Your name was just called." Over her shoulder I could see the perfect lines of other Souls, staring at me with a mix of amusement and confusion.

"I'm alright, Guardswoman. I just got lost in thought. I like to draw," I replied hastily, "and the sky looked so beautiful as it peeked over the wall. I wanted to draw it later so I was memorizing it." I stood trembling before her, hoping she would believe my lie. She seemed to want to believe the best of everyone.

"It must be wonderful to have such a gift. But that isn't all you were thinking about," she said as she started to guide me to the lines. "Just remember, this is the start of your true life. Try to enjoy it."

How had she read me? I'm no glass girl! I was iron, twisted in cables that shielded my true self from other's eyes. Although, maybe my strength was wearing thin.

We passed the first line for students with a last name starting with A. Around forty people stood waiting impatiently in the line for B, and I was the first student alphabetically. I froze just before the line. All down the wall, doors opened in closed to admit hopefuls who returned humbled or exuberant or dejected students. Not everyone's truth was good.

A bird-girl on unsteady legs, I stumbled to my place in front of the intimidatingly tall Counselor.

Sharply pitched and piercing, someone cried, "Took you long enough, Fraidy-Soul." Behind me, Janie Bonneville crossed her arms, a smug grin on her face. Her Soul was literally a spider. Obviously she'd be venomous.

"Melanie Baird?" Whipping my head around, I stuck on a weak liar's face. The Counselor shot me a look of disapproval from beneath his bushy eyebrows. I had never tried to lie to a Counselor. Of course it wouldn't be easy.

"Yes, Counselor," I said, unsure of how to act. Guardswoman Jenson stepped up next to me and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"Counselor Parthens, I would just like to let you know that Melanie is an aspiring Artist and it was her artistic vision which lead her to stand at the window for so long," she said, looking down on me kindly. She did want to see the best in me. Even when she saw the terrible, emotional wreck that disgraced the Gathering, she still helped.

"Artistic vision?" he said, assessing me with an interested gaze. "I understand, thank you, Guardswoman Jenson."

I smiled quickly at the guard before ducking into the small Counseling office. She had loudly broadcast her words and people were whispering about me loudly. I couldn't handle the attention any longer.

The outside world was silenced as Counselor Parthens entered the white room and closed the door behind him with a click.

I stood, anxiously twisting my thumb behind my back as the boulder-like man strode behind the oak desk and settled himself in his chair. It squeaked as he sat, yelling "Fight them, Mel. Don't give in!"

I blinked hard, forcing her voice out of my head. She was gone, now it was my turn.

"Sit," he said, pointing at the chair in front of me.

My heart leapt into my throat as I pulled the chair out with a harsh squeal and quickly dropped into it. I hugged my backpack close to my body, feeling the spine of my sketchbook press into my wrist. Maybe I had missed a Soul, or my Soulmate was outside of Clearlake. After all, I had recorded the Souls of everyone within bonding age of me.

The Counselor typed with well-practiced movements on the Interface set into his desk, paying me no attention. Finally, he tapped the screen and looked up at me expectantly.

"Let's begin. Please state your name and Gathering Number for the Record." In the Interface, a green recording bar was slowly filling my Record with a transcript of my words.

"Melanie Baird, 129185." I shifted a little in my seat, when I was young I had pictured this moment going differently.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen years old sir." He nodded, bored by my words. To him, I was just another hopeful. Not for long.

My dread grew; we were nearing the world-ending part of this. The part where I lost everything. And so did my mother, unaware of her fate as she worked away in the Factory.

"I will now begin the initial examination of you Soul. Can you certify that you have not received prior Counseling nor attempted to alter your Soul in any way?"

Those who had were Soul Traitors; to try and skew your truth was a direct violation of the Gathering Doctrines. Would they think I had done something?

"I have not received previous Counseling nor have I attempted to alter my Soul." The question seemed irrelevant, but your reaction to your Soul was a defining factor in your unity with your Soul. No reaction means you are in perfect harmony and thus are suited for a high Level position. Reaction can place you as a Creator.

Even now, the Lessons meant to calm me suffocated my thoughts. They brought me no peace. I would have no reaction because there would be no truth told today.

"Present your wrist," Counselor Parthens said, uttering the words that would begin my nightmare.

Slowly, I extended my left arm, palm-side down. Time dripped as slow as a leaky faucet, making his fleshy hand take forever to reach my hand.

"No need for games, Miss Baird. Your Soul can't be any worse than--" he froze as he turned my arm over to reveal it.

My immobile raven taunted me with its solitary blue tear. I could never escape its glare, but at least it had been hidden for so long.

Parthens dropped my wrist as if it were on fire, sputtering and gasping as he tried to understand what kind of Soul I had for it to be so still. Souls were supposed to be dynamic, changing and growing as you get old. Mine hadn't changed in eight years.

I flung myself out of my chair, pressing myself against the cream wall. My bag slid out of my grasp, hitting the floor with a thump. I had known my Soul was wrong, but I hadn't imagined it would cause so much fuss.

That wasn't true. I had just hoped it wouldn't.

Parthens' face burned bright red, but he soon regained his composure and smacked the blue emergency button on his desk. The Guards would be here in minutes.
"What kind of monster are you?" he snarled, stepping around his desk. "You aren't Severed. No, you're something worse." He came closer, studying me like an experiment.

"You're frozen, you're broken! What an awful fate for your Soulmate." He stepped back around his desk, eager to put distance between him and his discovery. I remained frozen, twisting my thumb anxiously as I waited for the doors to explode inwards and the Guards to lance me with their shock-batons. Maybe I would end up with Mara, but Parthens had said I was worse!

Suddenly, the door creaked, opening a crack to reveal Guardswoman Jenson. Startled, Parthens jumped back from his desk. Now was my chance! I sprang into action, snatching a pen off the desk before returning to the wall.

Mara had told me to fight. Now that all was lost, I would.

"Counselor Parthens, is everything alright?" Guardswoman Jenson asked, entering the room a bit more.

"Yes," he spluttered. "Grab that girl, she's some kind of broken Soul!" The other, burlier guard who had taken Mara away shoved his way into the room as Guardswoman Jenson turned to look at me.

Her face shifted from indifference to confusion as she met my eyes. The other guard made no sign of recognition and moved in to grab me. My heart pounding, I backed into a corner, brandishing my pen at him. The guard barked a laugh as he swiped the pen out of my hand and grabbed my wrists.

"Not so strong now that you don't have your pen, eh?" he said yanking me over to Guardswoman Jenson. Still confused, she clipped cuffs onto my wrists and turned to Counselor Parthens.

"What exactly is wrong with her?" Jenson's eyes flitted between me and Parthens.

Parthens laughed, a strong chuckle as he wiped his forehead. "Look at her Soul, it's still! I don't know what's wrong with her, but she isn't a True Soul."

The guardsman yanked my arms up, revealing the still raven to Guardswoman Jenson. She gasped, her eyes wide with disbelief and disappointment.

"She can't be left here with everyone else," Parthens said, raising the hairs on my arm with the disgust in his voice. "Take her to the Facility, let Doctor Thornbury have her."

The Facility? It sounded like I would disappear regardless of how many witnesses there were. Shivers wracked my spine and my chest tightened. I would disappear, here one moment and forgotten the next.

After all, no one would admit to remembering Mara or any other Severed. And I was worse, so much worse.

Redfield tugged me to the slightly ajar door. I held my chained wrists tight to my chest, wincing in pain as the cuffs dug deep. Everyone outside would see that I had been hiding a horrible secret for so long and was now caught.

Ian had won.

Ignoring my panic, Redfield pushed me out the door and into the crowded Atrium. For the third time today, I was the center of attention for everyone to laugh and point and jeer. To put me down and raise themselves up.

They were right to; I was low, a terrible, filthy disgrace to the Gathering. Repentance would save me. I was not above groveling for my salvation.

Peals of laughter and jeers struck me as everyone from kind Jen Harth with her little red house Soul to Jackson Blain with his snow pile Soul ridiculed me.

"Melanie?" I whipped my head to the right, looking to see who would admit to knowing me.

Lily! Hurrying towards me with a frightened look on her face was the girl who had lost her two best friends in the span of a few hours, only she didn't know that yet.

"Miss, please keep back," Guardswoman Jenson said, barring Lily from reaching me. "There's an issue with her Soul so we have to take her." Redfield kept pulling me on towards the doors I had thought about running through not long ago.

Everyone was behind me, all my peers who were secretly happy I was as wrong as they thought. And the one girl who had trusted me sympathized with me as much as Soulfully possible.

Oh, Lily. I hope you don't ever realize how much I lied to you. You don't deserve that kind of pain. This was supposed to be your happiest day.

Then the cries started. No longer a mass of noise, individual voices screamed above the rest.

"Soul traitor!"

"Rebel!"

"I always knew you were no good," yelled a familiar sounding boy's voice. Whipping my head around, I saw Mitchell MacArthur standing tall, fists clenched. A wicked smile spread widely,

The beautifully lit room which had been home to Lily's concerts, Mara's spelling bees and my art shows turned dark against me. Icy glares lashed me as the mob began following us out the door and out onto the steps. The crowd stopped just short of the lawn, watching me stumble along. A dark blue transport was parked, doors open, ready to engulf me in solitude.

Redfield tugged me to a halt before of the transport and forced me to face the angry masses for what might be the last time. Lily shoved her way through the crowds and collapsed to her knees. She sobbed and sobbed, her delicate beauty magnified by pain.

She didn't deserve this pain. "Lily, I'll be fine! It has to be a misunderstanding. I'll be back before you know it!"

Suddenly, Redfields' massive hands roughly threw me into the back of the transport. Winded, I pulled myself up the chain-link fencing keeping me from freedom as Redfield shut and locked the gate.

Straining, I looked through the woven metal fencing for Lily and saw only the back of her ponytail bobbing with sobs as Ian held her. His hard stare burned into my memory. His triumphant hard stare. The guard slammed the back doors violently, leaving me alone with my fear and shame in the dimly lit cage of the transport.

I had told Lily a blatant lie. There had been no mistake. I was something worse than a Severed, worse than a Soul Traitor and now I would never see Clearlake again.

I was filthy and low and I didn't deserve a Soulmate. My Soulmate deserved someone True who would keep him from being cast out.

The transport shook furiously, tossing me against the metal wall. I collapsed there, breathing heavily as my mind whirled. The roar of the transport and the tinny squeal of its chassis pounded my ears, keeping me from forgetting what had happened.

This was all my father's fault.

I was once a True Soul, born with a childish mix of colors on my wrist to show how moldable I was. As I grew into my own, my Soul was shaped into a tiny raven chick that loved to look at the world with bright and curious eyes.

My raven grew with me, becoming more inquisitive and excitable as did I. My father took that away from me.

Eight years ago, I dreamt of a golden Soulmate and a home in the Concerto and everything was perfect. The day my dreams ended was the same as any other and that's what hurt the most. I didn't see it coming.

If he were still here then I wouldn't be in this mess. The transport bounced again, slamming my head against the hard metal wall.

Enraged, I exploded, pounding on the walls until my arms hung as heavy as lead. I curled in a ball, bemoaning the loss of the life I could have had if he hadn't left us. I would be a True Soul right now, smiling with Lily as we became neighbors in the Concerto. I wouldn't be hated by anyone, and I would have my Soulmate by my side!

Now, my world was gone. What would lie ahead of me when the transport doors opened? Would Mara and my mother be there?

I half hoped they would be, half hoped my mom somehow escaped the Guards. She would think I had deserted her but she had been the one to desert me.

I had told myself I had to go, but did I? If I had stayed behind, at least I could have been with her as the Guards broke into our home and pulled us away. I could have tried to run with her!

But all I had wanted was an escape from her madness. An escape that I risked everything for stupidly! My head pounding, I laid still, terrified and angry at myself and my father. The transport rattled as it drove, and I struggled to get comfortable before I drifted off to sleep.

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The back doors were flung open suddenly, jolting me out of the blank space of sleep.

"Get up, girl," the huge guard from the Atrium growled. Rolling over, my sore arms were barely able to pull myself up the chain link fencing. In the harsh light, I could see a blue hallway, an endless expanse of azure that was to be my home.

It was the same sky color as my own room, only neon bright and stabbing my eyes.

Muttering in a gruff voice, the guard unlocked the fencing and swung it open. I stood precariously, the ground seeming farther than it was. He reached up and grabbed my still bound hands, then pulled me to the ground with a swift yank.

I shrieked in surprise, pain spiking across my face as I fell flat on the ground. My head hit the ground with a loud thwack and I laid still.

"Get up!" His yell was muffled and distorted through my ringing ears. I tried to lift myself off the smooth ground but my arms gave out, leaving me sprawled on the ground.

He reached down and yanked me up by the cuffs, leaving me to sway dizzily.

My confused ears heard a door slam, and I fought to raise my head. Guardswoman Jenson came striding around the side of the truck.

She began to yell, and my hearing came and went, "...Redfield! She...useful! You...idiot! Give her...me."

Guardswoman Jenson stalked over and scooped me up. Her boots clomped down the quiet hallway, bouncing my head. Raven-hair flopped across my face as she continued on, blinding me to the lonely blue hall. Through chunks of black curls, I made out that each was empty, bare cells with sparse furnishings.

I had to be the most terrible person in the Gathering to be here all alone. There seemed to be no one as lowly as I was.

Finally, she stopped and laid me on the ground in front of my own cell. As my mind began to clear, I could now see that she was the closest thing I had to a friend in this place. I didn't deserve her kindness.

"Miss Baird, can you stand?" My hearing returned, letting the whirs of the I shook my head, wincing at the burst of pain.

She sighed and turned to the blue glass wall beside me. Set in the glass above my head was a metal panel which she quickly typed a code into. The glass beside me slid open with a whoosh of air. For a moment, I could imagine that I was back in the City with a breeze flying over me. The whir-click of it locking into place broke the spell.

Guardswoman Jenson lifted me again and set me in the center of the blue-tinged room, her heavy boots squeaking against the grey, seamless tile as she turned to leave

"Wait," I whispered. She looked back over her shoulder at my pitiful form, and I lifted my cuffed hands helplessly.

She frowned, but still turned back and unlocked my shackles. My hands freed, I looked up at her to take in all the little details I had been blind to before.

Her honeyed brown hair was pulled tightly into a bun and her matching hazel eyes smiled sadly in a warm cocoa face. This beauty didn't match her strong physique, and the more I noticed about her, the less I despised her for her role in my downfall. After all, she wasn't my father.

Before I could observe her more, he rose and left my new room, the glass door closing behind her with a final thud.

What was this place?