It was evening at the Casey house and the last rays of sunshine streamed through the windows. This night was like any other, where the family would repeat the same routine. Over and over. Every single day.

Anna Casey called from the dining room, "Homework?"

"Almost done, mum.", Rae, now 15, called from her bedroom upstairs where her computer was located.

"Dinner be ready!"

Rae sighed and shut down her computer. Her bedroom was just as bland as the rest of the house. Plain white walls, old wooden furniture that had probably been in the family for centuries, and an empty closet. She joined the rest of the family, who was already seated around the dining table. She took the seat next to Ethan, and the chair leaned dangerously under her weight.

Her mother opened a plastic jar and pulled out another serving of differently coloured pills. A foul taste came to Rae's mouth just from the thought of it.

"Ethan be first."

She carefully split one of the pills in half and handed it over to Ethan. When he refused to take it she clicked her tongue against the back of her mouth.

"What be?"

"They be disgusting, they be."

"That be true, but you be needing to eat!"

He braced himself and threw it in his mouth.

"That be good boy. Just be letting it dissolve, that's it."

"And soon," Rae felt the need to contribute, "You be needing whole pill, like me. Just be one more year."

"Thanks," he scowled, still with the pill in his mouth. Mrs. Casey started handing out the pills to the rest of the family. Rae had never much liked food either, but she didn't mind it as much as her 12 year old brother. It was more like something they just had to do, mom had told her several times. They needed the energy that the pills provided. Just enough. Just enough to live, but not any more to waste them.

"I just not be understanding," Ethan finally swallowed it down, "Why they be not tasting good? Like food in the past, it be having flavour."

"Where you learn that?", Rae asked, not entirely convinced it could be true.

"Class.", he shrugged. In that way, Rae and her brother couldn't be any different. Her brother was the studious type, paying attention in class, getting perfect grades. And Rae on the other hand, despised it. It wasn't like she hated learning, just that at school, it was so extremely boring.

Her brother and her were different look-wise too. Ethan resembled his mother just as much as Rae looked like her father. He had blond hair and even though he was still young, lines of concern appeared frequently on his forehead. Rae had soft black curls, freckles dotting her nose and eyes as blue as the lips of death.

"Well," their father spoke for the first time since they had sat down, "I have be hearing of flavoured pills in market."

Their father worked as a supervisor at a pill-making company, one of the most needed jobs at the time. The paycheck wasn't great, but at least they got discounted on any pills they bought.

"No, Ted.", Mrs. Casey ended the conversation abruptly, "There be no money."

"Of course.", he replied. For a second, they all just stared at each other.

Mostly to interrupt the awkward silence, their mother spoke again, "How was work today? You be seeming quiet."

He sighed and took a gulp of the water Mrs. Casey had rationed out for them. "Not bad, but worker be malfunctioning. Self-destructed."

Rae's breath caught halfway, "Oh no! Factory—?"

"Half-destroyed. But I be having to take the blame. Might be having to pay for it."

Their mother covered one of his hands with her own, "That be so unfair."

He smiled. Their father was good at that. Acting like everything was okay, when it clearly wasn't. "It be okay. How be your day, kids?"

Rae shrugged, but Ethan piped up first, "I heard there be new neighbour!"

"I hearing that too! We should visit her.", Mrs. Casey joined in.

The conversation continued, and like always, Rae was left out of it. She didn't mind though, her thoughts were allowed to travel elsewhere at dinner. Today, however, she was jolted back to reality her mom spilled her rations of water onto the table.

"Sorry!", she started to clean up, and as she did, started talking, "I just be remembering that Rae's birthday be next week! How could we be forgetting?"

Rae, in fact, had not forgotten, but she was secretly hoping her family would. She never wanted to make a big deal of her birthday, and her family was already under a lot of strain. Plus, the one object she truly wanted was simply out of reach.

"Well, what you be wanting, honey?" Her mother eyed her outfit, "Perhaps a new uniform? How old that be?"

"Two years, I thinking." she said quietly. It definitely looked its age. Rae's family could not afford more than one outfit at a time, so her school uniform had been stained, washed and ripped so many times, it seemed like they had dragged it from the dumpster.

"Two years! We definitely be needing one then!"

"What about book?" Rae said half to herself.

"What honey? You be speaking up!"

"A book.", at the panicked look of her parents, she continued, "Not real one. Maybe be an ebook? I don't even be wanting it. I just wanting to read one, that it."

"But that be impossible.", her father said flabbergasted. "Even ebooks be gone. Government law. Would cost fortune to buy."

"Yeah, I be knowing. Just forget."

"No, no.", her mother tried to sound cheery, "Maybe we be saving up for the museum. They be having books, right?"

"Yeah," she tried to sound grateful, "Great."

"Well, then," her mother sounded pleased, like it was decided, "It almost be 9 o'clock. Everyone upstairs!"

Rae brushed her teeth and tried to clean her shirt with minimal amount of water possible. She nearly made it to bed before all the lights and electricity went out. She always wondered what that would look like from above, a whole city flashing off.

The pitch darkness was almost comforting as her thoughts rocked herself to sleep.
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A.N: I hope you liked it!

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