The Ocean Is Hostile

Chapter 3: Preparing for the Dark

Azura's POV

"Attention citizens of Darudum. It is officially 24 hours until the choosing. I hope you're all excited." Queen Ceres said into the Darudum intercom.

It was 12:00, striking the afternoon. I looked at my dad, who gave me a tight squeeze of the hand. My dad being 50 years young, it was his last year being able to be chosen for "The Challenge." My mother is 54 so she can't be chosen. A tear rolled down my father's cheek. I rarely see him cry. His hand touching my brown cheek as he said, "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you." It made my cry. My mom walked in on our intimate moment. She came in the door, nodding to me. My mom isn't a very intimate human so she shows her compassion in different ways.

Seeing the grim looks on my parents' faces only made me feel worse. I didn't know how we were going to keep living like this. I don't know how we can. It was my last day at school before the weekend. We have school 7 out of the 10 days a week. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday are the worst days but Moonday, Flareday, and Cosmicday are the best because we have no school. I kiss my parents goodbye and Blythe and I head to the tram to get to school. It's just simply to crowded in the mornings to walk or take the hover boards.

We hop on and the tram is more crowded than usual. There are people with suitcases in there hands. They're either going to visit family or trying to escape Darudum. They do know they'll get shot if they try to escape right?

We hop off with a bunch of other people going to school or work. I take Blythe's hand as we walk up the stairwell onto the pavement near our school. When we arrive, I look at Blythe and say. "Have a good day at school." I say this everyday but I could tell it meant more to her today then any other. "Bye, you too."

She said. "Say hello to Lassy for me." She said as she walked off. Blythe loved Lassy so much she technically wanted to be her. I couldn't blame her. Lassy is the prettiest girl in school and the only reason I'm remotely friends with her is because her mother and my mother were friends in college. Gemini hates her. Says she's too stuck up. She just had her days.

Right when I stepped in school something felt off. The people in my school are more tense than usual. I heard students everywhere talking about the choosing tomorrow. I can't blame them. I bet you at lunch today, Gemini, Higo, Asiani, and myself will be chatting about it. There's nothing else to talk about anymore. The kingdoms too scheduled. I went to my first class; Earth and Space Science. My class wouldn't pipe down about it. My teacher had to shut us up to start class. You'd expect him to start a lesson, right? Here's what he said.

"Hello students. As you know all know, everything has an origin. For the past few weeks we've been talking about the theories of space and all the contents within space. Today we will talk about the theories of the choosing. Myself being 48 years young, I can be chosen for the choosing. Anyone know a theory they would like to share with the class?"

On kid in my class raised his hand. "Okio." The teacher called. Okio stood up. "I heard the King and Queen are working for Satan and they are what's created by the pentagram. They set the challenge because they're doing Satan's dirty work." He said with a smile. The teacher looked in dismay. He had a confused yet authoritative expression on his face. "Um, okay. Anyone else?" A bunch kids in my class raised their hands. "Any that don't involve the King or Queen in a negative way?" A bunch of hands slowly died down.

"Pandora." He pointed to the girl in the front. Pandora stood up and talked in her teacher pet voice. "I heard if you win, they give you the 5 million dollars and the floating car, but you have to leave Darudum and discover what's outside the kingdom by yourself." She did a curtsy and then sat down. I rolled my eyes.