Undesirable

Chapter 7

My head is whirling with thoughts of the riots. If the arena is truly being built, thousands of people going to put their lives on the line to stop it. Unless they die in the arena first as one girl suggested. It's all I've been able to think about since last night. It consumes my mind. No matter how hard I try to push the thoughts away, they always coming snapping back.

Riots have happened on the Middle Tier before, but they aren't common, and never in our village. The last ones confirmed were just after the wars of the Old World - the first opposers of the throne. A whole village was burnt to the ground because of them. There were no survivors. Rumours had travelled around that some erupted in the Northern Sector a few years back, but Queen Octavia quickly dismissed them as gossip.

It's the bystanders I'm worried about. How their lives will be cruelly taken because of a selfish few. That's what I'm scared of the most. If the rioters decide to go through with it, my friends and family will share the same fate as them, as if they'd been a part of it all along. Even if we don't fight as a village, we will all die as one.

I haven't spoken once since my family and I sat down to eat. My brain can't focus on any of the conversations they are having, and now they are too deep in for me to catch up. Luckily, Karissa is rambling on about something that has happened at school, and my family are too preoccupied to notice my silence. All she needs to do now is keep going until it is time for us to go to bed.

"Speaking of birthdays, do you know what you want for yours yet, Savanna?" My mother asks, breaking me from my thoughts. At first, I think it's a joke, but she continues to stare at me, patiently waiting for my response.

"Is that what we are going to do?" I scoff. "Pretend like everything is normal." My mother looks taken back by my harsh reply, her mouth wobbles up and down like she is trying to push words out, but nothing comes. She glances over to Ana, hoping for some sort of support, but my sister's gaze falls onto her empty plate.

"It is normal, Savanna," Mother insists.

"No, it's not," I argue, shocked that she can even suggest such a thing.

This birthday is going to be far from normal. It's my death sentence. The day that everyone on the Middle Tier dreads is just waiting around the corner, and I'm actually going to have to face it.

"You still have time," Mother tries to assure me. She's living in a dream world if she really thinks that is true. My only saviour is Marcus Alexander - a truly sad state to be in as it is - and marrying him hardly seems like a better option.

"That's not what my teacher said," Karissa pipes up, a cocky little smirk on her face. I can't wait to hear what pearls of wisdom she is going to spout out next. "She thinks that if a girl is not married by the age of eighteen, then she probably won't get married at all."

"Well, your teacher is stupid," Ana defends me, as well as herself. Ana was twenty when Jaxx proposed to her, two years after Karissa's teacher's deadline age.

"You can't speak, Ana." Karissa fires back. "You can't even have a baby."

"Karissa!" Our mother scolds her, pure anger in her eyes.

But it's too late, the damage is already done. Ana doesn't say a word. She just stands up from the table and storms upstairs to our room, slamming the door loudly behind her. Mother stands up, as if to go after her, but decides to give her some space.

I glare at Karissa in complete shock, my jaw wide open and my eyes twice their normal size. She looks back at me confused, unsure as to why I am staring at her in such a horrified manner.

"What is wrong with you?" I shout at her. I know she can be cruel, but I never thought she would stoop this low. She loves Ana, and while she may tease her from time to time, she would never purposely upset like this.