Trade

Darkness. No memory of anything besides it. My eyes are shut together, and it takes every muscle in my body to make one slightly open. I’m lying on a cold metal floor, with more bodies lying around me. Is this what death is? But no, I could feel myself. I could feel some forms of life. A blonde boy beside me, an elderly woman above me. And dark menacing voices all around, with my heart beating in every part of my body.

“Welcome to The Company.” They said.

I could feel their feet around us, whoever “us” includes. My body was too weak to identify any more of what they said, all I could feel were large hands putting something metal around my neck. I force half an eye open, and see the silhouette of a man putting a heart on the metal before running away, and having other men chase him. Beside me are more bodies, more chains around them, with circle-shaped lockets on them.

Why couldn’t I recognize anyone? Why couldn’t I recognize myself?

“Make sure they all have nine minutes. No more no less.” The voices said again. I muster enough strength to slightly turn my head towards the voices, only making out a head of red hair before my body gives up and I fall back into darkness. Before I do, blood-curdling screams fill up the silence around me, and I can only assume mine would soon join them.

~~~~~~~~~

My nine minutes are coming so quickly I can’t figure out who I’m visiting and the locket around my neck has not given me a clue, besides the fact it’s shaped in a heart rather than a circle like everyone else.

“Shoot,” I swear under my breath when I drop my journal in the lake where I was wishing I didn’t have to go to the Chamber.

“What did you lose this time?” A voice asks behind me.

“Journal got soaked, got to find a new one again,” I grunt out, looking up and seeing Aaron’s drenched blonde hair, “Kind of looks like you.”

He chuckles, before seeing me toy around with the locket, “Anya, you have got to stop playing with that thing. It’s not going to give you a clue, it hasn’t for anyone.”

Anya. I’m not even sure if that is my name. It’s just what The Foundation told me my name is.

“Doesn’t matter,” I say flatly, “it’s going to give me a clue.”

Rolling his eyes he looks back down at my journal and the textbook was given to us by The Foundation, then looks up at my dark green eyes.

“What’s with this obsession with The Foundation?” He huffs.

Aaron won’t get it, he never has. We all woke up one day, away from everything we knew. We were in a new society with no books or phones, no access to anything that The Foundation hadn’t directly given us. All we know is:

1. Once in your lifetime, you’ll get nine minutes to spend with someone in your life that died.
2. You can keep your nine minutes, or switch them with the person you’re meeting. You make your choice before entering the Chamber. If you choose to keep your minutes, answer three questions for the dead or join them.
3. Hail The Foundation. A phrase that’s been ingrained in our puny minds since being taken here.

And no one knows how. How we got here and why we are all being so submissive to this new authority. All I want to do is run, but I would just be running towards my end.

As Aaron returns to the lake, I return to my notebook. I wish I could remember something, anything from my past life. My father perhaps? A cousin? Anything would help me piece together the bridge we crossed to go from Life to this. This world where anxiety runs in your bloodstream, panicking on who you are meeting and what they want from you, and whether or not you should take their place.

Something everyone quickly noticed is the necklaces on our necks, with a locket on them. Theories fill the ears of our community, eager to figure out what the lockets mean. Many assume they give us clues to who we see in the Chamber or when we go.

Neither has been proven since the nine months we’ve been here. Or at least, nine months according to the Foundation.

I look back down at my journal, trying to piece together what little information I had sitting in front of me. No knowledge of The Foundation. No knowledge of anyone’s past life. Nothing.

~~~~~~~~~

Aaron hasn’t been seen for 54 days. Since the day at the lake. No word from his owners -- as parents don’t exist. He just disappeared. My guess? The Chamber. His time came, and his heart decided to switch places with the person. Yet, there were no new people in the village. He couldn’t have died, he’s too smart to join Death in a way like that.

“Places! Sergeant Z is coming!” My owner cries, trying to make the children presentable for a representative of The Foundation. I wonder why she wants us to look cheerful to live in a place like this. The Foundation knows we would all rather die. Or at least, I would.

I don’t bother cleaning up my face. I want them to see me crying over Aaron. Over Nyx, over Kassandra, over Orian, over every person they have taken from me.

All the other children, until we line up in front of the main sitting area of the house and face Sergeant Z.

“My,” He begins, bringing himself closer to me, “You seem like an intelligent being. Is there a name belonging to that beautiful mind?” He eyes me carefully as the words fall out of his mouth.

“Anya.” I spit.

“Anya, I believe you were a friend of Nyx? Or was it Aaron?” He smiles maliciously.

My blood boils, my heart speeding and running to my throat. Unable to speak without the anger spilling out of me, I nod.

He grunts, before taking a look at me and some of the other older children, before whispering to his men behind him, then turning to my owner, “Anya. Zeke. Alexei, and Dirk. They will be coming with us.”

My time for the Chamber had come. And I hadn’t figured out what my locket was trying to tell me. Nights after nights of it making deathly noises, different from Zeke, whose locket would shine, or Alexei’s locket which would turn colors from red to pink to green.

I squeeze the young children one more time before walking towards the door with my head held high.

As Sergeant Z is speaking to his men, Zeke, a friend of Aaron whom I never got along with, grabs my hand as well as Alexei’s and Dirk’s.

“If you don’t want to meet Death, follow me.” He smirks, a tone of adrenaline in his voice.

I look back and forth between the two boys and one girl, all of which are incredibly ready to risk it all.

I’m dying anyway.

And so my feet begin to fly. I run and run, unable to stop, chasing after my breath, seeing Alexei and Dirk in front of Zeke and me. We run and run, sick of the noise of gunshots and screams we are leaving behind. Past the field I spend my hours in, the lake I saw Aaron last, and every other minuscule and horrendous thing in this village.

I have never run this fast unless I did in my past life. I don’t even know where we’re running to, we just keep going. Letting grass and families slip by us. Until I realize Dirk is farther from me, and so is Alexei, and I feel the hands of Hell around my neck and Zeke’s screams ring in my ear.

~~~~~~~~~

I wake up and find myself in the metal room I was in all those months ago. With the same men and the same technology. I’m strapped down to a long brown chair, facing a cell filled with a single silhouette.

“My dear child,” the silhouette begins, “How are you?”

My response is silence.

“How amazing. You do understand you have eight minutes and thirty-four seconds left?”

I respond again with silence, but that is handled with a hard slap across the face by a Sergeant.

“Answer Master’s questions.” The Sergeant growls.

Master? There is no Master? There is just The Foundation, every book I smuggled said that.

“Treat my daughter with respect.”

Father.

“Who are you? What do you want from me?” I spit at the shadowy figure, knowing the answers.

“As I said, I ask the questions before you join me. But I suppose I owe you a few answers,” He begins, “I would be what Life calls a Father. Here, however, I am The Foundation.”

Impossible, The Foundation is a group of people, not one sole individual, let alone a dead one.

“I see the confusion in your face Angel,” He goes on,

“But I’m afraid we don’t have time.”

Angel. The memories come racing. The time Father picked me up from school, under the name Angel, not Anya.

I look back at him, disgust covering every part of my body “What do you want?” I repeat coldly. He took away the only friends I managed to make. He took away my life.

“I’m sure you can tell my situation,” He begins as he comes closer to the cell bars, “And it has become difficult ruling my Company from death. As you can assume, I put my trust in my Sergeants-”

I cut him off before he can continue, “How humorous you are! You want me to switch. Funny you should know that your Sergeants have said we decide to switch before entering the Chamber.” I conclude, quietly laughing.

He gives me a smile I’ve seen too often on myself,

“Stupid child. I’ve accepted Death. Nay, I am comfortable with Death. No Angel, you would be ascending to your rightful title of Master. You control the Company, or what you may view as your community. Have you not noticed the uniqueness of your locket? Why may it be so?”

The locket. The shape. It was a different shape from the rest, meaning I would have a different fate. But how can I accept such a horrifying offer? I would be embracing Death, welcoming people to their end.

I look back between my father and his sergeants. I see the greed and hunger in their eyes. Turning back to my father, I see the excitement. He plans to use me as a guinea pig.

“Let me help with your decision.” He says curtly, then ordering his men in another language. Moments later, Aaron, Zeke, Nyx, and Dirk, all appear, with knives to their throats and guns to their heads.

“Accept my offer and they live. They may even join you in a high-ranking role if you so please.”

“Where are the girls?” I demand.

“You really are my daughter, too greedy for your own good. Accept and they may be brought to you.” He smirks menacingly.

Panic runs through my veins, as the group calls out for me to deny the offer and we can join Death together.

My head is spinning, decisions running through my mind, as silence fills the room.

“I accept.” I force out. He smiles, and surprisingly, so do I. I feel a sense of power run through me, as I free myself from my chair. The Company would soon be returned to Life, as soon as I figured out how.

Father smiles at me before he disappears, just before our nine minutes are over. When he does, I order the Sergeants to leave the group along with me.

Immediately, they do so, and through the million questions they asked me, I manage to let out three words

“Run boys Run.”