Welcome!! This is my contest entry!! It took abt 2hrs to write! I didn’t plan or anything so it’s not great, but yeah. Please enjoy! {Story is in credits section} {Credits:} Cover image: Pinterest, Canva. Story: @MoonLitTree/@Lara_Ivy8 (me) Also it was really really rushed, so :p Feel free to add this to any studio, but please ask first.
I race along the rooftops of my kingdom. Nobody knows what lies beyond the cliff edge, but I've always dreamed of beautiful isles filled with large magenta butterflies, but that's silly. Everyone, every friend I have ever told says so. It’s 22:06 according to the large clock in the town square that can be viewed by any point in the kingdom. Past curfew. I pause: there’s a commotion. A woman and her child screaming in the road below as a seventeen-year-old-looking girl screams at them to get back inside instantly. It’s a horrid reminder that when I turn sixteen I’ll be stolen away to a military school where all the other sixteen year olds will go, then they will become soldiers ‘til we die. I love the cliff edge- my cliff edge. That’s the place I feel free… though it’s the most forbidden place in the kingdom. Finally I reach the cliff edge. I’m surprised, there’s a boy with blonde hair sitting at the cliff edge. I’m about to turn away, when he turns and looks me in the eyes. His are a bright toxic green. I’m confused… I haven’t made a sound…how did he- “Hello. What brings you to the Forbidden Cliff Edge?” “I-I I ju- I-“”No, it’s fine. I understand.” He looks somewhere around eighteen. “My name’s Copper.” The boy says calmly “Mine’s Grey.” Most people are named for their hair colour, I certainly am. I have knee-length grey hair and a fringe. But Copper’s hair is just a snow-like white. Copper smiles , “Why don’t I show you something?” He rises and extends his hand towards me. Why do I trust him so much? I literally have known him for less than a minute. It couldn’t hurt to go with him…Before I know it Copper and I are running hand in hand through the city. He leads me to the base of the big clock. He slides a key out of his pocket and slips it into the door at the base of the clock. “Are you sure we won’t get caught?” I ask softly. He turns to face me . “Of course not.” Before I have the chance to say anything he whisks me into the big clock and locks the door behind us. Suddenly I begin to wonder why he has a key to the clock. Before I can give it any more thought he pulls me all the way to the top and helps me onto the roof. I’m speechless. “Woah…this is amazing” “I know. But this isn’t the best thing.” He looks at me in the eyes and grins. I grin back. *** He pulls me into a small alley and says into a wristwatch he wears that I didn’t notice earlier “The butterfly is in the net.” Before I can ask we’re surrounded by guards holding up their guns at my head. “You…” is all I can manage to say to a smiling Copper “Yes. Me.” He ties a cloth around my mouth and nose and suddenly I become aware of an awful stench coming from the cloth…and then I slip into darkness. ☠︎☠︎☠︎ When I wake I'm chained to a wall. Through thick silver bars Copper smiles down at me. "We suspected you of being out after curfew. We just had to prove it. And I did. Your sentence is death. Your execution is at 21:00 pm.” He smiles “You’re welcome .”I scream at him, I say the worst curse words my mind can summon He cackles and struts off and I hang my head low. It’s less than an hour till I die. ☠︎☠︎☠︎ The other kids getting executed are my age, a boy with black hair with random white streaks and neon green eyeliner, who looks surprisingly calm... all of them are. Beside him is a girl with white hair and black streaks with red eyeliner and almond shaped eyes, and lastly is a girl with dark skin and a silver birthmark covering half of her face. "The first executionee is... Grey 127. " We have numbers instead of surnames to keep track of the population. After a few seconds I'm staring into the barrel of a gun. Two seconds later the girl with red eyeliner pulls me and the girl and the boy out of the town square She drops sonething down my shirt and suddenly there's an awful pain in my back. "Ow!" "It's worth it, trust me.” She pulls us to the cliff edge and we wait in silence as the guards approach. “When the guards arrive we jump!” Says the girl with the birthmark. “All right, Silver.” says the boy. “WHAT!?” “Just do it!” Says Silver. The guards find us and I find myself staring into the barrel of a gun again. “JUMP!” I jump and a few meters down and a parachute appears from my back. When we find land again we’re on a rickety bridge, staring at isles filled with large magenta butterflies, everything is a shade of purple, just like my dreams… “So they weren’t just silly dreams…” “You dream about this place, too?” “Yeah.” “We do too, that’s how we knew to come here.” We walk across the bridge and into our new home.
