The Child of Harmony

The wetness of the mud I was sitting in had seeped into my worn shorts. I looked up at the wooden grate covering the hole I was trapped in, trying to grasp any warmth the shards of sunlight provided. They were going to kill me soon, I was sure. I had been trapped in this hole for three days. But why? Why were they so afraid of me? I looked down at my blue veins in the sunlight. My tainted blood, of course. That is why I had to die so I wouldn't taint anyone else.

I had a perfect childhood. Well, as perfect as you could have in this world, I suppose. For most of my life, I had no clue that I was any different from my cousins, Thomas and Ethan. We helped Uncle tend to the fields and chased the chickens around the hen house together. In the summertime, we would sneak out to the lake on the property to catch frogs and cool ourselves in the water.

The only hint that I had that something was wrong with me was when Uncle would go into the village to trade, he wouldn't let me go. He would say it was too dangerous. I assumed that it was because I was a girl since Auntie never went either. I used to pout and throw tantrums, but Auntie started making it our "girl time". She would fix us tea over the fire pit and play her radio. I would sit between her legs on a blanket as she brushed out my wild golden curls and braid them into pigtails. She would tell me how marvelous I looked, and I had to believe it coming from someone who looked like her. Her face was beautiful, white like a doll, with lips pink as rose petals.

It was during one of those times she had given me my locket. The radio had switched off from music, and a voice began to come out. I whipped my head toward the radio. Uncle always immediately turned the radio off when the voice came on. Thomas asked him why he did that, and he would say the radio would turn our brains to mush, and we wouldn't be able to think for ourselves. The voice from the radio started speaking, and I hurried myself to cut it off.

It was too late the words were already entering my brain. The voice said, "Our great Pureblood militia has finally made some headway. The end to the Blood Wars is upon us. The Darkbloods have been pushed back and a wall will be erected to protect our lands from their intrusions forever. We are finally safe from the Dark Plague and separated from the masterminds of the Final Bomb." My Auntie came running out of the house and shut off the radio.

Of course, I knew about the Final Bomb. Uncle said that is why we had to keep barbed wire around our crops to keep other people out. We had been lucky, and our land hadn't been tainted by chemicals like much of the country. Our land could still grow plants. He said people may try to sneak and steal our crops at night. But who were Darkbloods? I was frightened and started shaking instantly. What if the Darkbloods found us here and ruined our land too?

Auntie had gained her composure and was looking me straight in the eye. "I think it's time I give you something, but only if you promise you can keep a secret. Deal?" I nodded my head in agreement. The fear had begun to drain from me at the delight of a surprise awaiting me. Inside the house, she pulled out a gold necklace with a heart locket. I jumped up and down. I had only seen pictures of jewelry in some of the books my Uncle read to us. I thought it all had been confiscated by the Pure Regimen like cars, televisions, telephones, computers, and everything else. They only existed now in the pages of the books Uncle kept hidden. Auntie fastened it around my neck and turned me around to face her.

"This isn't just a necklace, Harmony. There is a secret hidden inside. If you open it, the secret will get out, and it will change things for you." She stopped for a moment and widened her eyes like Auntie always did when she told me something I should pay attention to. "Promise me, you will not open it until you are ready," she finished. I nodded my head as I held the gold heart between my fingers. "Where did it come from?" I asked, still fiddling with the locket. "Your mother," she said flatly.

We never spoke about my parents. I had asked questions over the years but had stopped when I saw the pained look on my Uncle's face. I never knew them. I was born the year of the Final Bomb, so I had always assumed it had taken them too. I wanted to rip the locket open right then, but the fear of bringing the same sadness to myself that I had seen on the face of Uncle stopped me.

So, I wore it for years around my neck and guarded the secret within. I slowly forgot what the voice had said on the radio that day, and my life went back to normal. Until three days ago, the Pure Regimen was on the way to inspect our farm and take their share, so he sent me off to the lake to keep out of the way.

I must have fallen asleep after my swim, and I was woken by a nudge to my side. Startled, I sat bolt right up. I opened my eyes to see a six-foot-tall red-haired and tanned skin teenager standing over me. I screamed and ran, but he grabbed me.

"Calm down. I am not going to hurt you." He spun me around to face him. I looked up at his face. He had a breathtakingly handsome face and a strong jaw. He put his hand up in the air and took a few steps back. "See, I will stand back here, and you can stand right there, and we can just talk." I didn't respond and instead took two giant steps back, crouched down to pick up a rock, and gripped it tightly. I never took my eyes off him and didn't even blink. I had never met a stranger before, but I did know that no one could be trusted.

We stood staring for a long time before I finally said, "What are you doing here?" He looked at me for a moment, then down at the ground, "I imagine the same thing as you, hiding from the Pure Regimen." He raised an eyebrow at me. When I didn't respond, he added, "Now that I am sixteen, my mom is scared, I will be drafted to serve. So they told me to take a walk, and I just followed the stream up here to see where it would take me." He rolled a pebble under his shoe before meeting my eyes again. "You ever going to put that down?" He asked while gesturing to the rock in my hand. "My name is Jack, by the way," he added. "Harmony", I replied sharply.

I was just about to leave when curiosity got the best of me, "Why do you think I would be hiding from the Pure Regimen?" He shrugged, "Well, you aren't exactly pure, are you?" The words from the radio that day came rushing back to me. It had talked about Pureblood and Darkblood. I had to be a Pureblood; I was on this side of the great wall. I needed to run. I had to find Uncle. Then it dawned on me. I had a better chance of getting the truth out of this strange boy then I would my family. I grabbed a sizable stick from the ground and slowly walked back. Jack just sat there staring at me; I pointed the wood right at his chest and said, "Tell me everything about the Blood Wars." He looked at me confused, "How old are you again?" I breathed in and out, looked him in his eye and said, "Thirteen and I have never left my property. You are the first person I have ever seen besides my family. I know nothing."

We sat there for what had to be an hour. He told me all about how the Darkbloods and Purebloods had been at odds with each other for generations. He said he never knew how it all started that no one really knew. Apparently, the radio said that the Darkbloods just have darkness in their souls and that they just like death and destruction. They took out the government by using nuclear bombs. Half of the country was killed instantly. Then the radioactivity spread through the ground, killing thousands more. That is when the Pure Regimen was formed, and they created a virus that could only be caught by the Darkbloods. The Darkbloods died by the millions in a quick wave across the globe. Other countries began to drop bombs to try to rid themselves of the Dark Plague. The remainder that was left in each group continue to fight to this day.

"Why do you think I am a Darkblood?" I asked after he was finished. "I don't think you are a Darkblood. You have some dark in you, though. Tainted, they call it. It's your hair that really gives you away, your face in a way as well." He probably said something else, but I just ran. I needed to know if it was true. I had to see if it was true. I ran all the way home with nothing but the sound of blood pounding in my ears. My hair was different from the rest of the family. My cousins would tease me, and Auntie would tell me my hair grew towards God because I was one of his special children. She lied. My hair grows up because I was a monster.

By the time I reached the farmhouse, I had forgotten about the Pure Regimen. Four of them surrounded me in no time, pushing me on the ground and tying me up with a rope. Uncle tried fighting them, but he was outnumbered. They knocked him unconscious with the end of their gun. My cousins came running from around the house yelling, and all I heard was a shot. Then the whole world went black.

I woke up in the hole and have been here ever since. I looked down at the locket around my neck. I guess the secret is out now I am a monster. I opened the locket and inside, smiling back at me, was what could be nothing else but my parents in an embrace. The love between them was almost tangible. A love like that could never create a monster. Suddenly, I hear the roar of gunfire overhead. I buried my head in my knees and began to cry. Then there was silence. The wood grate overhead started moving. I looked up to see the ebony-colored face of my father beaming with joy at me. “Hey there, my child of Harmony. Come on, there is much to learn.”