𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑏𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑠

━━━ MOM IS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND BY THE TIME I ARRIVE HOME FROM THE ARENA. Usually she would be back from work-she's a nurse at the sorry excuse for a hospital down the road-but today must be busy. Security tends to cause more injuries to reds on First Fridays, no one knows why. The "hospital" is actually a tent with a bunch of beds and very limited medical equipment.

Years ago, reds learned that the silvers weren't going to provide them with anything essential, and they began inventing their own things to mimic professional equipment. All of the heart monitors are made from scrap material they found in the junkyards. It's not much, but it works sometimes. Sadly, sometimes isn't enough and reds pass away on life support. It's a terrible world to live in.

Our house isn't the smallest in the Stilts, but it might as well be. All the houses here are small. We're right on the river, though, which is nice because there's a flower field next to it and the trees that hang over the house have cherry blossoms on them. Mom hates those trees. She says that they clog up the chimney-it's not like we ever have firewood to light in there anyway. I love the trees, and the meadow is one of my favorite places to think.

The flowers are a royal blue color that sticks out against the bright green grass. Sometimes I make crowns out of them by stringing them together, but Mare and Kilorn always laugh at me for it. It's supposed to be for fun, but they like to joke that it's me pretending to be one of the elite silvers; the ones in Summerton.

I ignore the humming of our electric box and head into the kitchen. The "kitchen" is actually a stove and a tiny table with three chairs around it. The third chair used to be for Papa, but now it stays empty unless Kilorn comes over to eat with us, which he does on most nights. The chairs stop me in the middle of my step, as they do every time I walk into this room.

Mom says he left because he was scared that he would be conscripted, but I think she's been lying to me about it for the past eleven years. I had just turned six when he went "missing". That's what we said on the report papers anyways. No one went looking for him, Security couldn't care less what happens to reds that go missing. If we had said he fled because of conscription, he'd certainly be dead.

I don't know where he went, or why he left, but I know it wasn't out of fear of dying in the war. Papa is the bravest man I know; he always said he wanted to make change, start a revolution, help the reds. I really used to think he could do it-now I don't know what to think.

I spend a lot of time looking out the window before I hear the door open, the sun is now setting over the river. Mom is always home by now, so it's definitely her at the door. I move from my seat at the table and walk towards the front door. As I round the corner, Mom comes into view, her uniform dirty. Dust must have been blowing through the wind on her walk home, her hair is matted to her head with sweat, but so is mine.

"Hey, baby, how was it today?" She asks, wrapping her arms around me. Mom's voice is my favorite thing about her. It's always calm, always at the same pitch unless she's really excited or extremely furious about something. She's never yelled at me, she's only raised her voice once or twice, when I was really little and almost exposed that I was silver to my classes and stuff.

"It was okay, there was a whisper there." I answer, taking her bag from her and hanging it on the rack on the wall next to the door. I follow after her back into the kitchen, the floor creaking beneath the two of us.

"That's new." Mom cracks her signature grin at me, "did he win?"

I nod, "poor strongarm didn't stand a chance. Got in a few good hits, though."

She starts rummaging through the cabinets, pulling out whatever random ingredients she can find for dinner. Usually we have stew, tonight won't be different. I can see how tired she is based on how slumped her shoulders are, her muscles are visibly shaking with the effort of digging through the pantry. I sigh quietly to myself, walking over to her and grabbing her arm.

"I got dinner tonight, Mom. You just relax, okay? Maybe take a shower, while the water is still warm for the night?"

The warm water usually cuts out at a certain time each night; mostly right when it goes pitch black outside. Mom chuckles, kissing me on the forehead and pulling the rotted crown off of my head.

"Are you trying to say I smell bad?" She jokes.

I laugh loudly at her retreating form, "yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying."

"At least I don't have rotted flowers on my head. They make you look homeless, honey."

"Whose fault is that?" I say, and she replies with a lighthearted, "touché." The laughter dies out after a moment, and Mom is in the bedroom now, most likely getting ready to take a shower like I said and then crash for a nap.

By the time she gets back-maybe an hour later-I'm setting the table and pulling the stew off of the stove. I place the pot on the table, careful not to accidentally brush my hand along the side of it. I've made that mistake way too many times. Mom takes her seat at the table, asking me if Kilorn will be joining us for dinner that night. I made extra just in case he wanted some, but I haven't seen him since earlier this afternoon and I think he's working late today.

"Maybe, we'll see if he turns up."

"Lord knows with that boy." Mom says, grabbing a bowl from the empty table. She dishes out some stew, setting the bowl in front of me afterwards. "So. . . you remember Erik's wife? The pregnant one?"

I sit up straighter in my seat, grinning. "Yeah?"

"She delivered today." I can hear the smile in her voice as I take a bite of my food. It's terrible, bland, flavorless, but it's better than what most of the other families in the Stilts eat, so I refuse complain about it. I haven't since I was really young, before I knew how society worked.

"Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Is it a boy or a girl? Did she pick a name?"

"It's twins, boy and girl. The girl is named Laurel and the boy is Kody. Kody. Isn't that cute?"

Just as I'm about to respond, a knock at the door echoes through the house. I hope up from my seat before Mom can, rushing to the door. The first thing I notice when I open it is Kilorn standing there, the second thing I notice is that he has tears on his cheeks and he looks like tired, the third thing I notice is the blood on his knuckles and Mare standing right behind him. I open the door wider.

"Hey. . . guys, what's going on?" They step inside, Mare has a confused look on her face, mirroring me. Kilorn is quiet, and he's never quiet-and he doesn't cry. Ever. "Kilorn, what's wrong? You're scaring me."

"He came to my place, he didn't say what was wrong, just that we needed to come here first." Mare fills me in. I nod my head, turning around and gesturing for them to follow me. I grab a spare chair from the corner and pull it up to the table. Mom has a worried expression on her face as Kilorn sits in dad's chair and Mare takes the extra.

"Kilorn? What's wrong, kiddo?"

Mom's words fall on deaf ears, Kilorn stares straight ahead, making my concern grow as my eyebrows furrow. Nobody speaks, but I grab the extra bowl and fill it with food for Kilorn, placing it in front of him. My eyes turn to Mare but she shakes her head.

"Already ate." Her voice is monotone and I can tell she's exhausted. "Shade sent a letter. He says he misses the two of you. Bree and Tramy are good too."

Kilorn finally speaks. "He fell." His voice breaks, tears are rolling down his cheeks. "The old man, he died." The old man is the fisherman he works for—his master. If he's dead, that means Kilorn lost his job. "I'm not apprenticed anymore. I lost my job. . . there's no work left and I'm eighteen already."

The world feels like it stops. My heart lurches in my chest and I frown deeply, inhaling slowly. His next words feel like a knife cutting my throat and I think I stop breathing for a moment. I know what it means to be eighteen without work, I know exactly what he's insinuating, but I don't want to believe it. His next words are confirmation enough.

"They're going to send me to the war."

And I want to break down crying.

𝑔𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑑𝑠 𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐞𝐧

let me know what you guys are thinking so far. sorry this chapter is so much shorter than the last one, i'm trying to match the length of these chapters to the ones in the book. thank you so much for reading chapter two!

- gray