Chapter Text
“Now, why are you laying down?”
Alex grunted, refusing to move from his spot on the lower bunk of the twins bed. Aaron, said twin, was standing by the ladder, staring at him with some unspoken concern that was entirely masked by how hard he was frowning. Alex attempted a shrug.
Aaron sighed, pushing himself away to sit on the floor beside it. “Your only making it harder for yourself.”
“So?” Alex said, switching gears, “Are you excited?”
Immediately, Aaron shoved the bedpost.
“Ow!” Alex exclaimed, mostly for show. He pulled himself up, glaring at the back of Aaron’s head of hair, messy from the days work, “What was that for?”
“I don’t know, Alex, what was it for?”
“I’m not-” Alex looked away and at the gnarled wood of the too small room that could barely fit two teenage boys, “I’m talking about you going to the Wanteds University, because, you…”
“Oh.” Aaron nodded, “Well, its what I’m supposed to do. Theres no need to be excited.”
“But are you?”
It was normal, for Alex and Aaron to sit around in their bedroom and discuss the very things they were never supposed to say. A wanted rested his head against the wooden board of the bunk, thinking. An Unwanted sat impatiently, biting his fingernails.
However, Alex wasn’t known for being patient, and he repeated himself. Louder this time.
Aaron finally spoke up; he sounded careful, and quiet, like he was walking on a bed of nails, “Do you think mom and dad hear us, when we talk?”
“Of course, not!” Alex reasoned, “Because if they did, we’d both be goners.”
“Why?”
Alex frowned, looking at Aaron like he’d grown another head, “Thats just how it goes, I mean, dads a burier, he could easily-”
“No!” Aaron’s hands shook as he swept it through his hair, “If us talking only puts us in danger-”
“Puts you in danger. I’m already…y’know.”
“I know. Why do we talk, then? Why do we keep on talking? You know what, you might as well already be dead, so I have no idea why I continue-why I continue…”
A silence settled as Alex shoved off the blanket he’d been holding as if it burned, and he tried to think of something to say to that. Alex remembered the infraction that had cost him his life like it was yesterday and if prompted, Aaron could easily retell the story. It wasn’t even all that good, the house, with the trees and the bushes and the fence that Alex could barely picture without tears coming out.
“I can’t help but exist.” Alex whispered. “In this wooden house with the windows that don’t really shut unless you hit them or the bugs crawling underneath the pipes-”
“-Or with the smell of dirt wafting off of our parents because they never get a chance to bathe before coming home.” Aaron added, just as quietly, eyes looking around in fear of someone hearing them.
Alex wasn’t scared, but he kept the words soft and airy, contained in the room, “In this sector of doll faced people playing pretend.”
“In this sector of necessaries unsure of how to fix their roofs, so they go to their neighbors, but they don’t know, because nobody knows-”
“So the rain comes in,” Alex breathed, “And you sleep in a pond.”
“Of mud.”
“And water. And again, you can’t bath. So you stink.”
“Four days later, the builders come in but they call the roof perfect.” Aaron had gotten up now to sit on the bed. Alex didn’t look at him.
“Pristine.” Alex spat out.
“Nothings wrong, we promise.” Aaron smiled, actually smiled, “And then another bout of rain comes and everything you own is wet.”
“And when you try to complain, just a little bit, your mom tries to report you.” Alexes words came out sour, like an off beat in a conversation.
“And your dad lies.” Aaron kept his eyes on his hands, shaking.
“Says the rain is needed.”
“Be grateful.”
“Be as perfect, or pristine , as the roofs and the plumbing.” Alex scoffed, “And you want to say that the world is broken, and this is the world.”
Aaron closed his hands into fists, deciding to be honest, “I’m excited for university.”
Alex laid back down, “Me too.”
---
And on the day of the purge, Alex and Aaron stood side by side, prickly nerves and sweat making their faces plum red in the amphitheater. Their dads fingers poked into their backs and Alex willed himself to breathe, stay calm, do anything other than cry, not with everyone around.
High Priest Justine stood at the stump and began without ado, or greeting, and as she spoke, Aaron intensely stared foreword. Like every other year, she announced the names of the wanteds first.
Amanda Fin.
Jake cross.
Steven Johnson.
Not a single one was Aaron. If before, his red face was from the heat, now it turned ghastly as the unthinkable hit him in a matter of moments. Delayed, the realization hit Alex, too.
Mr. Stowe stepped back, and the relief of the jab was unnoticed as Justine continued with the necessaries. Aaron and Alex were not named and were not going to be.
“I-” Aaron looked mortified, but his dad lightly knocked his fist against his shoulders. Unwanteds weren’t supposed to speak.
They locked eyes and Alex, desperate to prove himself, tried to convey with just his facial expression that it was not him that had reported him. Alex hadn’t reported anyone. But his face, while bitter, held no recognition, and Alex tried to listen back into the words.
“Three years ago, Mr and Mrs. Stowe told me a lie.”
Confused, Alex blinked and turned to look at his parents. His mom was already staring at the ground in anguish, only seen by her shaking shoulders.
“They told be that Alexander Stowe had drawn a house in the dirt. Obviously, they were mistaken.”
Eyes peered over at the family of mistakes, and Alex didn’t move, in utter fear of whatever she’d say next.
“And with that in mind, I will now say our Unwanteds this year.”
Alex could not contain his wince at hearing his name called, and Aaron, who was realizing that he was about to die, was shaking from head to toe. High Priest Justine finished the list, staring out at her people with a thin line for lips and her white hair covering her eyebrows.
“21 unwanteds. Let Quill prevail and the strong survive.”
The crowd repeated it, and Alex stumbled over his words as thick chains were bound around his hands. Aaron didn’t speak, spellbound, as the governors clasped his own set around his hands. He looked back at Mr. and Mrs. Stowe, his parents, and bared his teeth like a wild animal. Like an unwanted.
His moms eyes continued to stare at the dirt. His dads face was stone.
And while Alex had been mentally preparing for this day since he was 10 years old, the shock of it all still pierced through his heart and sank whatever hope he had. The governors pulled on the chain and Alex followed. He felt eyes burning into his back but he willed himself not to look at his brother.
---
The bus ride went slower than he wanted it to.
It was like a backburner torture, and even though Alex had been listening to the names, he hadn’t really put names to faces. He peered over the seats, recognizing Megan Ranger, his best friend, in the seat across the aisle. Her face was paler than a full moon and her usually soft hair was frayed looking. Alex sort of wished she’d look over, if only to say goodbye.
Aaron was silent in the seat behind him. The anger from before had melted away from his features, replaced with a haunted look of horror.
A few seats over was Samheed Burkesh, who was twiddling his thumbs and glaring at the seat in front of him. Like Aaron, he’d been expecting a high position in his future by becoming active in the quillitary.
It was sweltering. Alex coughed a bit, hacking coughs that knocked you over and shook your body. In front of him, blue eyes looked over, wet from crying. He heard someone say bless you.
“Thank you? I’m not sn-” The coughs returned, and they were louder this time.
One of the younger governors walked over and Alex looked up, staring at his cold, impassive gaze, “Your last words should be spoken before the purge. Do you want me to eliminate you right now?”
Before what he said could come into focus, Alex shrugged, muttering, “Not really-”
Alex stumbled over as the governors fist connected with his stomach. He groaned.
“Shut up!”
The blue eyes widened as he got beaten up but Alex didn’t exactly mind it. Who cared! In like, half an hour, he’d be dead. Honestly, he was doing him a favor, because now Alex was already in pain, so the shock of the oil wouldn’t be so bad.
Thats right. The great lake of boiling oil. Not only would he finally get to see it, he’d be…well, y’know.
By the time the governor was satisfied, Alex could barely lift his head. He was 90% a few of his ribs were broken and his arm felt wrong, and when he shifted it, a burning sensation ran through his entire body.
The chains pulled him out of his seat, and he rose, staring straight ahead as his vision blurred.
Aaron caught him from falling as the Unwanteds scurried out of the building, heads hanging low.
The atmosphere was tense now, and Alex wasn't surprised. He just walked where he was ordered to walk.
The gates slammed shut and Alex breathed in very slowly, letting a peaceful sense of melancholy take hold of him, from head to toe.
It was hard to do that with the fragrance of burning oil in the air. Aaron and Megan took a few steps closer to Alex as he took deep breaths to try and fix his ribs. All it did was make him hurt more.
Side by side, the twins stared upward, at the gray sky, the uninterrupted sky, and waited.
It was quiet. It was unbearable .
So of course that's when, in the horizon, Alex spotted large wings batting around very, very slowly, coming to a stop in front of them.
A winged tortoise. Correction, a giant winged tortoise.
Alex saw the vibrant colors. The feathers. The smile.
He passed out, crumpling like a paper doll with matches.