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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Teens
- Theme: Science Fiction
- Subject: Survival / Healing / Renewal
- Published: 04/26/2014
A prologue to 'Citizens of Hebrington'
Born 2000, F, from Dubai, United Arab EmiratesIt was midnight on Sunday. The clock ticked away the long hours and then the hour hand had fairly over-lapped the minute hand, pointing to the number 12.
Dad had returned home, drunk from yet another game of poker with his cranky gang. Mum was out working as part of her usual routine. It was nearly midnight, and mum wasn’t home by then. It had been a long weekend with mum working double shifts. And well, in easy words, talking to Ravin was as exciting as watching paint dry, and I had simply nothing else to do. That, to be very precise, was when there was a “merry twist” to the day. Things started to get noisy between my brother and father. My seventeen-year-old sister, Ravin, was getting restless. But Chris, our nineteen-year-old brother, had warned us to stay in our room, because dad was very fond of thrashing around the house in anger. Talk about being drunk.
And then, we heard a bang. A woman started screaming something, maybe some insults, but we couldn’t figure out. A bubble of hope, as inflated as a rubber balloon, welled up inside me and I let out a small, wispy breath. Mum. But to add to my horror, we heard more bangs and then there were the usual loud arguments between mum and dad. And something went wrong.
Ravin and I ran for the door and went shuffling into our parent’s room, just as soon as we heard the pistol blow. My eyes could’ve deceived me, but I knew dad could get wild. Yet, never in the fourteen years of my life, had I ever imagined him to get this wild. He was standing there: his greasy, jet black hair fashioned in a disgusting way, his grey eyes were wilder than ever, and his hands were clutching a black pistol. Chris was sprawled unconscious on the floor, bleeding from his head. His arms were bent at disgusting angles, making me want to throw up. Dad didn’t notice us, standing at the door with all the blood drained form our veins; he was eyeing the lady standing a few feet away from him. He’d shot him, he’d shot our brother; his son, his blood. And then the venomous end of the black revolver regarded mum viciously. What was going on? What passed on so bad between my brother and father, that they ended up this way?
My drunk father sprang on to mum and pinned her to the wall; I started to yell, but Ravin slammed her hand at my mouth and wrestled me away from the door. I tried to fight back, but it back fired on me; my karate champion sister did a little trick and had me in an arm lock. With her free hand, she raised my head, pointing in to the shadows.
We weren’t alone; standing with us were two blonde boys and a girl with very red hair. The three new comers dashed down the stairs, and something made me follow their lead. There are times when I’d regret making hasty decisions or acting frantically, yet I felt drawn to the strangers and as I stomped away through the house, I pulled Ravin along. The noise I had created definitely caught dad’s attention. He was there: catching up after us at full speed. I tried my best to run as fast as possible, but my legs were like lead. The new kids crashed out the open living room window and the last thing I heard before jumping out, was my dad screaming with rage and mom yelling ‘go’ with all her might.
One last thought registered into my numb brain; mum was okay and was willing me to escape. I had to get away. All the blood that had drained from my brother’s head was proof enough; he was dead.
I didn’t turn around or anything, I simply ran for my life.
The kids were pretty fast and keeping up with them was hard. But a renewed energy took the toll and I kept running. Thinking of how desperately I wanted to escape my dad – if that’s what I still call him. The wind played with my short black hair and the midnight moon shone on us as if we were the main attractions of the show. Which we were, of a sort. As if on cue, I found cold tears flowing down my cheeks. Every now and then, I would stop to catch my breath because all that running had made it quite difficult to breathe straight.
We ran wildly on the empty road, heading for the city. My home was situated in the middle of nowhere because dad had set up an awesome reputation: the entire city was aware of the ‘mad man down the lane’. I had been pretty pissed off at that. Our house had broken all communication with my friends and people who could act as company. I had debated with mum all along to move us back to the city. After tonight, I was making sure I moved over to Africa, or better yet, Antarctica, just so I could be well away from dad. He used to be so mad, I kept getting bone-shattering after thoughts that all implied one thing: He’d find a way to get back on us.
BUT WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HIM??? And as the clouds rolled across the sky, enveloping the moonlight, I realized I might never know what actually happened; I was about to run away for good.
***
We didn’t stop until we caught site of the first houses, but the block was surrounded with wired fences at least two meters tall. We came to a skidding stop outside the fenced society. In the city, the night seemed deadly clear; clear enough for an insane man to look for his daughters. Yet another pang of panic struck me, and I looked back for the first time. It was all so quite except the noise of five teenagers panting loudly. The night felt extraordinarily cold and I started shivering. I sunk into the overgrown grass and tried to calm myself; I wiped off the tears from my face and tried to steady my breathing. There seemed to be a deep hole in my heart, and pretty soon my chest started to ache.
My brain raced, and I began to realize how stupid I was to follow some random kids. A nauseous state took over my mind, and I felt like I could just about pass out. Mum wanted this, didn’t she? She acknowledged it all.
I wasn’t sure of what Ravin would have been feeling; for one thing, she always had a different view of situations. I looked up and saw my sister; she was still trying to catch her breath, and was all red from exhaustion. I tried to focus on my surroundings, but it just hurt my temples and made my vision blurry.
One thought stayed in the back of my mind; why can’t I just pass out? But it was no use, so I simply shut my eyes; once again trying to calm down.
I guess a minute or something had passed by when I finally opened my eyes. The three new kids were sitting a few feet away from me; they had engaged Ravin in their conversation. I clumsily stood up and walked over to them.
‘Hi,’ said the younger blonde guy who looked about fourteen.
I simply nodded; my heart still felt hollow, and my brain seemed clogged up in some sort of fungus.
I flopped down next to my elder sister and put my head on her shoulder.
‘Don’t you dare drool on that,’ she snapped and shoved my head of her shoulder.
Forget what I had said about her being my elder sister; she barely acted like one.
‘So what’s your name?’ the red-haired girl asked me.
‘Angie,’ I replied in a hoarse voice.
‘I’m Vika, and these are my friends,’ the girl replied in a rather cheerful voice.
I glanced up at Vika, examining her closely. The girl had bright green eyes, her pointed eyebrows were pierced and so were her ears, she wore pink lip gloss and had a lolly-pop sticking into her mouth, and when she smiled, she had cute dimples on both cheeks. She was pretty weird; her bright red hair was randomly cut from places, so it looked as if she didn’t care what happened to them. I was pretty terrified at that thought, because I loved my hair though they never seemed to grow further than 10 inches. Vika wore something between rags and a dress; I think it was a tunic or something.
‘What?’ she asked.
I shook my head; I think I had been staring at her all too long.
‘And this is Icarus,’ she said, pointing at the tall boy next to her.
‘Like, from the myths?’ I asked with a laugh.
‘Yes, I am,’ Icarus replied in a foreign accent.
My smile dropped and I cocked a brow. Icarus looked like a blonde superman. He had great looks and a pretty sturdy build. His eyes were deep blue and his voice was fairly deep. As for what he said; him being from the myths and all, he wore a regular shirt and pants.
‘And I’m Felix,’ the younger guy said, ‘Always the last one introduced.’
‘Right,’ I said, ‘Well, at least you guys seem to be friends.’
That comment was more like a way to convince myself; but it did mean that it was okay for me to hang out with these kids. Vika and Icarus started to work on the fence; I warned them it was impossible, but they had their own way. I stared at Vika who was busy fiddling with the wires on the fence. How was she going to deal with that thing? Icarus was nodding approvingly, giving some suggestions every now and then.
‘What made you follow them?’ Ravin suddenly asked.
‘I felt like I should. Are you going to ask them where they’re taking us?’ I responded.
‘Maybe,’ she answered.
‘So you’re just gonna follow some strangers?’ Felix suddenly spoke, ‘I mean you hardly know us.’
‘I just follow the crowd,’ my sister said.
‘Ever heard of what they say; don’t follow the crowd?’ I asked.
‘Shut up.’
‘Why? You got a problem with that?’ Felix asked.
I paused; did he mean that for Ravin, or me?
‘Where are you guys taking us?’ I asked.
‘Doomsdale,’ he replied.
‘Oh great, but you know what? I’ve just had a very tiring day,’ Ravin replied with a yawn.
‘Don’t mind her,’ I said in a low voice, ‘What’s Doomsdale?’
‘Another dimension.’
I didn’t believe that guy; I had run from the most tragic scene in my life, and he found it exceptional to throw jokes so very randomly. Frankly speaking, I didn’t think I could take a hint of a joke just then.
‘And you must be fairies,’ Ravin snapped.
‘What?’ he replied in a fairly equivalent sarcastic tone to Ravin’s.
‘Ignore her,’ I replied, ‘But seriously dude, what’s Doomsdale?’
I had to get to the main point there. It was probably because I was starting to get these bone-shattering after thoughts that didn’t help but make my dour condition worse.
‘I told you, genius, it’s another dimension,’ Felix replied in an agitated tone, ‘Is that so hard to comprehend?’
‘Yeah,’ Ravin said in a matter-of-fact-tone.
‘Woah, rewind, please? What did you say?’ I asked Felix.
‘You are the most idiotic people in existence.’
A prologue to 'Citizens of Hebrington'(Samia Ejaz Shahid)
It was midnight on Sunday. The clock ticked away the long hours and then the hour hand had fairly over-lapped the minute hand, pointing to the number 12.
Dad had returned home, drunk from yet another game of poker with his cranky gang. Mum was out working as part of her usual routine. It was nearly midnight, and mum wasn’t home by then. It had been a long weekend with mum working double shifts. And well, in easy words, talking to Ravin was as exciting as watching paint dry, and I had simply nothing else to do. That, to be very precise, was when there was a “merry twist” to the day. Things started to get noisy between my brother and father. My seventeen-year-old sister, Ravin, was getting restless. But Chris, our nineteen-year-old brother, had warned us to stay in our room, because dad was very fond of thrashing around the house in anger. Talk about being drunk.
And then, we heard a bang. A woman started screaming something, maybe some insults, but we couldn’t figure out. A bubble of hope, as inflated as a rubber balloon, welled up inside me and I let out a small, wispy breath. Mum. But to add to my horror, we heard more bangs and then there were the usual loud arguments between mum and dad. And something went wrong.
Ravin and I ran for the door and went shuffling into our parent’s room, just as soon as we heard the pistol blow. My eyes could’ve deceived me, but I knew dad could get wild. Yet, never in the fourteen years of my life, had I ever imagined him to get this wild. He was standing there: his greasy, jet black hair fashioned in a disgusting way, his grey eyes were wilder than ever, and his hands were clutching a black pistol. Chris was sprawled unconscious on the floor, bleeding from his head. His arms were bent at disgusting angles, making me want to throw up. Dad didn’t notice us, standing at the door with all the blood drained form our veins; he was eyeing the lady standing a few feet away from him. He’d shot him, he’d shot our brother; his son, his blood. And then the venomous end of the black revolver regarded mum viciously. What was going on? What passed on so bad between my brother and father, that they ended up this way?
My drunk father sprang on to mum and pinned her to the wall; I started to yell, but Ravin slammed her hand at my mouth and wrestled me away from the door. I tried to fight back, but it back fired on me; my karate champion sister did a little trick and had me in an arm lock. With her free hand, she raised my head, pointing in to the shadows.
We weren’t alone; standing with us were two blonde boys and a girl with very red hair. The three new comers dashed down the stairs, and something made me follow their lead. There are times when I’d regret making hasty decisions or acting frantically, yet I felt drawn to the strangers and as I stomped away through the house, I pulled Ravin along. The noise I had created definitely caught dad’s attention. He was there: catching up after us at full speed. I tried my best to run as fast as possible, but my legs were like lead. The new kids crashed out the open living room window and the last thing I heard before jumping out, was my dad screaming with rage and mom yelling ‘go’ with all her might.
One last thought registered into my numb brain; mum was okay and was willing me to escape. I had to get away. All the blood that had drained from my brother’s head was proof enough; he was dead.
I didn’t turn around or anything, I simply ran for my life.
The kids were pretty fast and keeping up with them was hard. But a renewed energy took the toll and I kept running. Thinking of how desperately I wanted to escape my dad – if that’s what I still call him. The wind played with my short black hair and the midnight moon shone on us as if we were the main attractions of the show. Which we were, of a sort. As if on cue, I found cold tears flowing down my cheeks. Every now and then, I would stop to catch my breath because all that running had made it quite difficult to breathe straight.
We ran wildly on the empty road, heading for the city. My home was situated in the middle of nowhere because dad had set up an awesome reputation: the entire city was aware of the ‘mad man down the lane’. I had been pretty pissed off at that. Our house had broken all communication with my friends and people who could act as company. I had debated with mum all along to move us back to the city. After tonight, I was making sure I moved over to Africa, or better yet, Antarctica, just so I could be well away from dad. He used to be so mad, I kept getting bone-shattering after thoughts that all implied one thing: He’d find a way to get back on us.
BUT WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HIM??? And as the clouds rolled across the sky, enveloping the moonlight, I realized I might never know what actually happened; I was about to run away for good.
***
We didn’t stop until we caught site of the first houses, but the block was surrounded with wired fences at least two meters tall. We came to a skidding stop outside the fenced society. In the city, the night seemed deadly clear; clear enough for an insane man to look for his daughters. Yet another pang of panic struck me, and I looked back for the first time. It was all so quite except the noise of five teenagers panting loudly. The night felt extraordinarily cold and I started shivering. I sunk into the overgrown grass and tried to calm myself; I wiped off the tears from my face and tried to steady my breathing. There seemed to be a deep hole in my heart, and pretty soon my chest started to ache.
My brain raced, and I began to realize how stupid I was to follow some random kids. A nauseous state took over my mind, and I felt like I could just about pass out. Mum wanted this, didn’t she? She acknowledged it all.
I wasn’t sure of what Ravin would have been feeling; for one thing, she always had a different view of situations. I looked up and saw my sister; she was still trying to catch her breath, and was all red from exhaustion. I tried to focus on my surroundings, but it just hurt my temples and made my vision blurry.
One thought stayed in the back of my mind; why can’t I just pass out? But it was no use, so I simply shut my eyes; once again trying to calm down.
I guess a minute or something had passed by when I finally opened my eyes. The three new kids were sitting a few feet away from me; they had engaged Ravin in their conversation. I clumsily stood up and walked over to them.
‘Hi,’ said the younger blonde guy who looked about fourteen.
I simply nodded; my heart still felt hollow, and my brain seemed clogged up in some sort of fungus.
I flopped down next to my elder sister and put my head on her shoulder.
‘Don’t you dare drool on that,’ she snapped and shoved my head of her shoulder.
Forget what I had said about her being my elder sister; she barely acted like one.
‘So what’s your name?’ the red-haired girl asked me.
‘Angie,’ I replied in a hoarse voice.
‘I’m Vika, and these are my friends,’ the girl replied in a rather cheerful voice.
I glanced up at Vika, examining her closely. The girl had bright green eyes, her pointed eyebrows were pierced and so were her ears, she wore pink lip gloss and had a lolly-pop sticking into her mouth, and when she smiled, she had cute dimples on both cheeks. She was pretty weird; her bright red hair was randomly cut from places, so it looked as if she didn’t care what happened to them. I was pretty terrified at that thought, because I loved my hair though they never seemed to grow further than 10 inches. Vika wore something between rags and a dress; I think it was a tunic or something.
‘What?’ she asked.
I shook my head; I think I had been staring at her all too long.
‘And this is Icarus,’ she said, pointing at the tall boy next to her.
‘Like, from the myths?’ I asked with a laugh.
‘Yes, I am,’ Icarus replied in a foreign accent.
My smile dropped and I cocked a brow. Icarus looked like a blonde superman. He had great looks and a pretty sturdy build. His eyes were deep blue and his voice was fairly deep. As for what he said; him being from the myths and all, he wore a regular shirt and pants.
‘And I’m Felix,’ the younger guy said, ‘Always the last one introduced.’
‘Right,’ I said, ‘Well, at least you guys seem to be friends.’
That comment was more like a way to convince myself; but it did mean that it was okay for me to hang out with these kids. Vika and Icarus started to work on the fence; I warned them it was impossible, but they had their own way. I stared at Vika who was busy fiddling with the wires on the fence. How was she going to deal with that thing? Icarus was nodding approvingly, giving some suggestions every now and then.
‘What made you follow them?’ Ravin suddenly asked.
‘I felt like I should. Are you going to ask them where they’re taking us?’ I responded.
‘Maybe,’ she answered.
‘So you’re just gonna follow some strangers?’ Felix suddenly spoke, ‘I mean you hardly know us.’
‘I just follow the crowd,’ my sister said.
‘Ever heard of what they say; don’t follow the crowd?’ I asked.
‘Shut up.’
‘Why? You got a problem with that?’ Felix asked.
I paused; did he mean that for Ravin, or me?
‘Where are you guys taking us?’ I asked.
‘Doomsdale,’ he replied.
‘Oh great, but you know what? I’ve just had a very tiring day,’ Ravin replied with a yawn.
‘Don’t mind her,’ I said in a low voice, ‘What’s Doomsdale?’
‘Another dimension.’
I didn’t believe that guy; I had run from the most tragic scene in my life, and he found it exceptional to throw jokes so very randomly. Frankly speaking, I didn’t think I could take a hint of a joke just then.
‘And you must be fairies,’ Ravin snapped.
‘What?’ he replied in a fairly equivalent sarcastic tone to Ravin’s.
‘Ignore her,’ I replied, ‘But seriously dude, what’s Doomsdale?’
I had to get to the main point there. It was probably because I was starting to get these bone-shattering after thoughts that didn’t help but make my dour condition worse.
‘I told you, genius, it’s another dimension,’ Felix replied in an agitated tone, ‘Is that so hard to comprehend?’
‘Yeah,’ Ravin said in a matter-of-fact-tone.
‘Woah, rewind, please? What did you say?’ I asked Felix.
‘You are the most idiotic people in existence.’
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