𝐅𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊, november 20th, 2146

      𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝟐𝟒𝐓𝐇, 𝟐𝟏𝟒𝟔.

      To any normal person, that day seems insignificant. The people on the Ark went about their days, living a normal life. They went to their jobs, got their rations when it was time to, and would go back to their rooms because the day was normal for them. Nothing new happened, nothing completely life changing, nothing that would alter their brain chemistry for the rest of their lives happened.

      But that wasn't the case for the Donnelly family.

      August 24th, 2146 is when Evelyn Donnelly got arrested for stealing medication for her sick husband. August 24th, 2146 is when Evelyn Donnelly got locked behind the glass doors of an airlock, with her screaming daughter begging the council to free her. August 24th, 2146 is when Evelyn Donnelly was sent out into the abyss that is space.

      August 24th, 2146 was a normal day for everyone but the Donnelly family.

      That was eighty-eight days ago. Now it's November 20th, 2146 — and things have really changed for the Donnelly family. There's a new figure in Makayla's life — her father's girlfriend — who, as it turns out, is a guard who normally spends her time on Alpha Station. After the death of Makayla's mom, maybe three weeks after, her father decided to turn their life around, making the major decision to start becoming a guard so maybe, just maybe, they could pack up their things and move to Alpha Station. And somewhere along the line, he met his girlfriend, and they got together.

      Makayla doesn't understand how her father was so quick to move on from her mother's death. She doesn't understand why she's still hung up on it and he's not. She doesn't understand why she's trapped in the same memory of her mother's passing all the time, while he isn't. 

      She doesn't like how things are changing in her life. She doesn't like that her father's girlfriend and her friends spend time in their main room, their laughter echoing off the walls and finding themselves in Makayla's small bedroom. She doesn't like that she doesn't hear her mother's laughter, and instead hears the laughter of a few women from Alpha Station.

      And not to mention, most of the women don't even like her. She hears what they say about her, that she's the depressed mechanic's daughter that used to be obsessed with the ground. Now? The ground's a second thought to her, something that doesn't matter as much as it used to. She's lost the innocence that's made her who she was — and everyone has noticed.

      She's stopped giving everyone cheerful smiles when they walked by her on the Ark. Her classes don't seem to matter as much to her, she either skips them or sleeps through them. Everyone can tell that she's going through something — but nobody cares enough to ask. Or, if they do ask, their questions and inquiries get shut down quickly, by none other than Makayla herself.

      She's sitting alone in her small bedroom, examining the panel next to her bed that's falling apart. Her father said that he would fix it, but between his training to be a guard and his shifts as a mechanic, he hasn't had the time to. He gets back during late hours of the night, and leaves early in the morning, barely speaking two words to his daughter. She doesn't like the feeling of emptiness that she experiences whenever he leaves, how she feels like she's all alone in her little section of the Ark.

      Her intentions aren't to fix it, but instead, to see if she can create fire. As much as her passion and love for Earth has faded over the past three months, she still adores fire. She loves seeing the mass of colors, the reds, oranges, and yellows that are supposed to dance around each other when it burns. She's never seen fire before — there isn't exactly a reason for it on the Ark — but the books she's read have described it in a way where she can't help but be obsessed with it, even if all her other dreams have fizzled out.

      She knows that fire is dangerous, but maybe that's why she's trying to start one. Maybe she wants to see the chaos it can cause, maybe she wants to see the inferno of colors. 

      Maybe she wants fire to be the last thing she sees.

      All she's ever wanted to see is Earth, and seeing fire is the closest thing she'll get to seeing a part of the planet she adored so much. She doesn't see a reason for her to be on the Ark anymore, either. Her father's moved on, he's got someone new. Her best friend? He's got all his mechanic friends, and he's in the one place where he thrives. But Makayla? She's still plastered to the glass door, the one that separated her from her mother.

      And a lot of the time, she thinks about joining her.

      She hears the laughter of her father's girlfriend's friends outside her bedroom. Her door isn't closed all the way, it being opened enough for the other women in the small residence to see her with no problem. Makayla keeps seeing one of the women glance over at her before redirecting her attention to the old cards that they're playing with. She doesn't know what they're playing — she believes it's Go Fish, but she's not totally sure. Not that she cares.

      She turns her back to the women once more and starts playing with the wires. She doesn't really know what she's doing, but she presses them together and watches sparks form, flickering the lights in her room slightly before they turn back on. She can almost feel one of the women glare daggers into her back, so much so that she decides to slam her door closed so they can't watch her anymore.

      She plays around with the wires once more, watching the sparks fly everywhere, almost catching her bedspread on fire. The dirty white sheets lay messily placed on the mattress, barely covering the stained material that she's supposed to sleep on every night. Her family isn't exactly considered rich, but they're one of the more wealthy families in Mecha Station. But not even a few doors down, her best friend lives with two shitheads of parents, who barely give two flying fucks about the boy.

      She doesn't like thinking about how bad some people on the Ark have it.

      That makes her even more upset about her father's girlfriend. Sure, she's nice, but nice isn't exactly a compliment about anyone. Nice is something you say when you have nothing better to say about someone. Nice is something you say to essentially insult a person because they don't have enough traits to make them deserve another describing word. 

      The people on Alpha Station have it better than a lot of others. They're all council members, or members of the guard, or they're doctors. She can't imagine living amongst them. 

      After the wires stop making sparks, she recklessly puts them back as she hears people leaving her residence. They're all giving her father's girlfriend 'sweet' farewells, even though they'll end up seeing each other tomorrow or the next day, depending on whenever their schedules work again. 

      There's a beat, a second of silence before her father's girlfriend announces that she'll be leaving for a few moments too. Makayla calls back to her with a weak response, not caring enough to put in full effort because she's slightly upset that she wasn't able to make a fire. All she got were a few measly sparks — nothing special, nothing interesting. Mechanics and engineers see sparks like those all the time.

      She flops on her bed, feeling defeated and bored. The dull, gray, metal walls of her room are boring, her bedspread almost matching in interest. There's a lack of color in her room, the only pop of color being the exposed wires in the loose panel and, if she were to take out her few outfits, there would be a few more colors added to the room.

      She plays with her fingers, picking the skin by her nails — a habit she continues to do. Her fingers are littered with small, open wounds because of how often she peels her skin back. She's still upset that the one thing she has had interest in, the one thing that kept her motivated to wake up that morning, didn't work.

      Or so she thought.

      An interesting smell seeps into her nostrils, something she hasn't had the chance to smell before. She thinks it's something burning, which means there must be a fire, somewhere. She sits up, her head darting around her room as she searches franticly for the thing she's been so fascinated by.

      And there it is. A mere few feet away from her body, a flame has produced from the exposed wires in the loose panel. She's immediately fascinated by it, the flickers of red, orange, and yellow hypnotizing her quickly, making her not notice that the flames have spread to her bed.

      One of the longer wires that she hadn't put back into the panel is on fire, the flames barely grazing her sheets, but close enough where the inferno spreads to the dirty, barely white sheets. Her eyes are still stuck on the fire dancing along the wires in the panel, not noticing how the fire is spreading towards her in a snake-like motion. The flames flicker, dancing around as if it's a puppet. It comes towards her at a rapid pace, and hits her fingers.

      She winces, not having expected that since she was so focused on the fire in the panel. She jumps backwards, finding her body on the other end of her bed as the fire spreads further and further onto her sheets. Her plain white bedspread is now adorned with dancing flames, dancing around angrily as it finds more threads to attach itself to.

      She moves off her bed as quickly as possible, avoiding the path of the flames narrowly. She hasn't heard the main door of her residence open yet, meaning she's alone. Meaning what she had planned to do earlier, will work.

      The flames find every corner of her bed, dancing around effortlessly as she watches, fully hypnotized by the colors. She never knew that she would be so fascinated by it, watching the colors reflect in her eyes as if she is a mirror. A grin is plastered onto her face now — one that she hasn't had for months — as the flames continue to dance.

      She doesn't know how much time passes, but she hears a ringing in the distance. The Ark's cheap smoke alarm system has finally gone off, and somebody is going to come and put it out. 

      What she doesn't know is that the council has been on its way towards her, having the knowledge of her mental state and her reckless actions in mind. 

      She watches the flames finally spread to the floors, dancing around not as quickly as before — but still at a decently rapid pace. She continues to smile as it starts moving towards the door, and she watches the flames grow bigger and bigger. 

      A door is thrown open, members of the council racing in and swinging open her bedroom door. Her father and his girlfriend push their way to the front, only to see her standing in the flames, a smile on her face as it catches the end of her pants, racing quickly up them.

      Her father throws himself into the room, moving through the flames to pull his daughter out of there. His girlfriend stands with open arms on the other side of the door, taking her into her grasp the moment she's close enough. She sprayed with a substance — the substance in a fire extinguisher — and before she knows it, her moment of glory is gone. 

      A figure from earlier flanks Marcus Kane's side, directing her long and pointy finger at the fifteen year old girl. "That's her. She was playing with wires, causing sparks earlier! She did this on purpose!" The woman exclaims, and Makayla stares back at her. This is why she hasn't enjoyed the company of her father's girlfriend's friends, because they're in the council's good graces and can spread lame lies to them, and they'll listen.

      Of course, she's not necessarily lying, but how did she figure out Makayla's plan just from her recklessly playing with wires?

      "Makayla Donnelly, you are under arrest for purposely damaging the Ark's property, otherwise known as arson" Kane's voice echoes through the residence as the guard angles their fire extinguishers at the large fire. Two of the remaining guards pull her away from her father and his girlfriend as the two adults try to argue against Kane's ruling, but there's no point. And before she knows it, she's telling the guards that they might as well just float her now, because she wanted to be in those flames.

      𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 —

i really hope this made sense, it's gone through so many rewrites already and i don't feel like rewriting it again. hopefully it made sense!!

anyways, that was the first flashback of the book!! i'm excited to write more of these later on, especially when we get to certain moments in the book

𝟐𝟐𝟒𝟖 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒