I am seriously about to throw myself into the floor. Gemma is still mad at us, the Top Twenty, even though we successfully practically ruined the Citizens' city and stole a ton of their things.

"You almost failed the mission. There were so many things that went wrong. For punishment, you have to clean up the bathrooms."

That bitch. Kira and I carried most of that goddamn mission on our shoulders at the young ages of seventeen and.. well, almost eighteen, and it still wasn't enough for Little Miss Brat- I mean, Gemma.

"Can you fucking believe it," says Kira, basically yelling into my ear after we left the meeting building, "They seriously act like we're parts of a machine."

"Yeah. They do. But remember, our parents worked here. We've got to make them proud," I say, hesitantly.

"I keep on forgetting you're right. Alsoooo- guess what tomorrow is~"

"Yes, your birthday, I'm aware," I giggle, "I'm not telling you what your gift is."

"Please!? For me? I really really wanna know what it is-"

"Go to bed, Kira," I say, finally going to the office building, the bombed out one, that Kire and I slept in. We were the lowest of the low here, because we were so young and our parents were "traitors". Whatever that meant to them.

Even if our ranks were high—and they were—nobody under 18 had ever been higher than eighteenth; but I was seventeenth right now and I'd only just turned 17; and Kira was 18th, so right behind me. It didn't matter to them. We'd be identified by our parents forever, it seemed. Until we turned 18.

For me, it was December 3rd of the next year when I'd finally be able to get my own identity. For Kira, though, it was tomorrow, the 23rd of December. Tomorrow she'd finally be treated as more than me, and I was scared she was going to leave me because of it.

"Promise you'll never just leave me," I asked to Kira's shadow in the corner of the small room we shared.

"I swear on my life," says Kira, already looking so much sicker without her makeup, the dim light of the lamp in the middle of the room now illuminating her face, "I'm surprised I even made it this far. When we first found out about my disease, they said I'd live till two. I'm almost nine times that age."

"Half of it's cause of me," I joke.

"I mean, if we hadn't dated for like five years, then yeah. You literally were the reason I wasn't one of those bodies in the basement."

The suicides. God, every time I remember that there's bodies in the basement of the torture room, I literally want to throw up. Especially because those people hadn't done anything wrong. They just didn't want to live this life anymore.

"I wouldn't have let that happen. I'd rather be next to you in this small room than remembering you as another body in the basement," I say.

"Come here, I love you man- let me hug you-"

"So you can boast about how you're a foot taller than I am and make me question how we're barely eleven months apart and you're 6 feet tall, wait never mind you told me personally you were 6'3, and I'm 4'8..."

"Yes. Now come here and let me smother you with my love."

"No-"

"I'll play that one damn song that's from like 1987 again-"

"PLEASE no- What was it even?"

"Good question," says Kira, "You're lucky I can't remember right now."

Kira flipped down onto our bed and I climbed in. Normally I took the floor even with insane protests, but I was really tired and the floor sounded hellish.

"You're gonna actually sleep with me? God, this like never happens," Kira says, now literally smashing my body with a hug, "G'night, Vee-Vee-"

"Die."

"I will. Eventually."

"Don't remind me."

Eventually, we both fell asleep. It took me a lot longer than Kira because I had to wait until after she fell asleep to scoot away and try to escape her suffocating arms, which I succeeded, and sleep.

At 11am the next day, I was rudely awakened by a very bored 18 year old girl next to me. Yep. Kira.

"Happy birthday," I muttered, finally taking the pillow off my face.

"Aw come on- I know you escaped my hug. I sleep like a rock. And so do you. Seriously??? I don't even get to hug you on my fucking birthday? What's the pooiintttt-" she whined.

"Drama queen," I say, "I think I'm gonna go on a mission today."

"Vea. You know how Gemma feels about all these missions. Just because the group missions don't go perfectly, doesn't mean you have to risk your life going in yourself."

"Oh come on. We have barely any food. I can't want to have something to eat in this lifetime?"

"I guess that's true.."

"Here's your gift," I say, "I now am penniless."

"Vea. There's no way! You got me one of those music players! How much did this cost you?!-"

"... Three hundred units," I admit.

"No! That was all your savings. Now you 180% cannot go on a mission. You will starve to death with no money."

"Too bad. I care about you more."

"You're such an asshole to yourself, Vee."

"I'm sorry I knew you liked listening to music the way people did when we were born and I'm a thoughtful person sometimes."

"But now I can never repay you."

"Point of a gift, genius."

"Oh shut up you know how I am."

I watched as Kira started to figure out how to work the thing. I'd gotten her the newest model; but even those stopped being used or made when we were two. It was old.

"I don't care about what other useless lame gifts I'll get from the head staff—this is the best thing I've ever gotten!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!"

I smiled and laughed at her. Couldn't she see that was the point? I was always in her debt. She saved me over and over, I would spend way more money than just my lousy savings on her.

"I figured out the song."

Well damn, the wholesome moment ruined itself. Kira had remembered what the song was called and played it to me.

"Never gonna give you up-" 🎶

"Shut that off, dammit," I yell jokingly.

"NEVER-"

This was the worst thing Kira loved to do. She loved to play this song randomly. I slapped her with a pillow and quickly got dressed in a corner. If Kira was watching she'd die—she knew I didn't like that. Luckily, she'd switched the song off and was busy trying to figure out what else to play and what other things to do with it.

"Oh hey look! I can call with this thing like I call you."

"I knew it was worth my savings," I say, smiling. Obviously it wasn't worth anything to anyone else—but I know back in those times this would've sold for at least a thousand units. Come to think of it, I got a major discount.

Kira finally ditched the thing in a corner and together we walked to our job. We'd both been assigned the cafeteria—it wasn't a nice job, especially cause who was in charge of the trash, yep, me—but definitely better than it could've been.

I would always pray every year on Assignment Day they'd never, ever give me the torture room. I went in there too much. Not to work.. to get tortured. Kira's still mad because half my finger got chopped from it, but that's seriously the biggest issue with it. I just have a lot of scars. Everywhere.

"Wait. Hold on. I need to put in my color contacts," I say, putting in brown color contacts to immediately hide my original eye color—red—and then catch up to Kira who was already outside.

"Why do you always do that?"

"Because I'll be tortured if I don't? Duh."

"Tortured?! Vea, you never tell me anything! That's horrible!"

"What, are you going to kiss me to make it all better? I'll be fine. I'm used to it," I say.

We spent the rest of the walk in silence. The only bad thing about working in the cafeteria other than the actual working conditions was that it paid next to nothing. We had to walk everywhere, and Kira was really tired from her sickness most days.

300 units was the most I'd ever saved. The only reason we didn't stay in the main buildings but a bombed out shell of what used to be one is because we couldn't afford it. They made you pay 200 units a month. A month. We only made 350 a month... combined. Groceries were expensive, and we literally would be in debt. We have to spend money every day. Life was okay-ish this way.

Finally, we got there, and Kira and I went our separate ways. She got to work in the actual kitchen, and I got to work being a waiter. Fun. I hate people. Kira was always the more social one but these people love to torture me.

Luckily, today was incredibly dull customer-wise, seems everyone would've rather eaten at the West Cafeteria, not ours. So I got to sit down and actually plan my mission.

I look enough like a child to pretend I was one, even if I went in a cloak, it was somewhat se sucks for me to pretend I was just cold. These cloaks were really thick and warm, and snow was starting to fall on the Citizen ground.

Before long, work ended, and I practically ran home. I race Kira, and even though I'm smaller, I finally win today! She's mad at me for not letting her win on her birthday.

"Seriously? The one day you have to win, my 18th birthday," Kira joked.

"Hey, a W is a W," I nod, laughing.

"Asshole!"

We went inside quickly, though, basically right after work was curfew, and Gemma was getting really strict about curfew lately. Wait. Shit. Curfew. I forgot about that! How am I going to escape?!

While Kira opened her required, but effortless, not really 'caring' gifts from everyone at work and the head crew, I went straight into the bathroom to plan some more. I needed to escape at 12am. The cameras didn't run temporarily from 12-1, so I had to be speedy, and also be careful not to wake Kira. Luckily though, I wasn't planning on sleeping in the bed today.

Finally, I walked out, finishing the last details. Kira's bright smile as I walked out almost made me feel so guilty, I wanted to sob in her arms for even thinking this but I had to do it. I wouldn't let Kire suffer additional training for minor mistakes on my part.

"Look- Gemma actually got me something thoughtful," said Kira, laughing at a pair of friendship necklaces she'd got, "Here ya go. Obviously I'm giving the other half to you."

"Not a jewelry person-"

"Oh I'll just take it-"

"No, I'm wearing it forever, fuck off-"

"Love you, Vee. I'm gonna go to bed early.. I'm not feeling the best."

"Kire?"

"You know how it is..."

Kira was having another bad night. Now I felt even guiltier. I definitely couldn't leave right this instant. I had to make sure Kira would be okay, because she was going to flip if I'd escaped and left her sick.

"Anything I can do?"

"Medicine, heating pad, and just some water..."

I nodded, and got ready to get all of those things. The water was easy, the heating pad was less easy as we had limited working outlets in the house but I manage to figure something out and find the actual heating pad (it had been missing for three months) and her medicine was same as where it always had been.

"Here you go, Kira," I said, gently, handing her the items she needed.

"Good luck on your mission," Kira croaked.

What?! How'd she know?

"How.."

"I know everything about you, Vee," Kira says, "I know when you're planning. Don't hurt yourself.. people still need you."

Tears filled my eyes. I felt so guilty for leaving Kire, especially because I knew it meant my pay would probably get docked if the mission failed and we'd have even less money to work with.

"Pack some food. I'm not letting you go hungry.."

"Kira.. remember? We don't have any here anymore.. that's why I'm doing this..."

"Right. Please stay safe.. I love you more than life, Vea."

"I love you, too."

The clock struck 12am, and I knew it was time to go. I blinked back some tears, and opened the back door. I jumped the fence, but the fence was taller than me, so I tore a pant leg. Shit. This is already going south.

But I still ran into the forest as fast as I can. Goodbye, Newcomers. It was time to get started.

The farther I went in, the closer I knew I was to Citizen territory. I was trembling. I didn't know how strong the citizens were, but maybe I should've left this to the Top Ten.. no. I couldn't give up now.

I had to do this. For me, and for Kira.

It was all up to me.