Kay L. Moody's Blog

What's an author to do when she finishes one book series? Write a new one, of course! I'm so excited to introduce my new series, The Elements of Kamdaria. Get ready for a sneak peek of epic proportions including a book description, character description, and excerpt!

Ice Crown (The Elements of Kamdaria Episode 1)
The Elements of Kamdaria will be a novella series, which means each book will be about 130-200 pages. The first book, Ice Crown, is 140 pages of awesome! It will be released August 12.

The competition could save her life... but only if she wins.

Talise can manipulate the elements with ease; water, air, earth, and fire all bend to her will. As a citizen of the Storm—a crime-laden land where death is the only constant—her only chance for a better life is to become Master Shaper.

A competition for the position takes place at the end of her training years. If she wins, she would live in the palace, work for the emperor, and escape her inevitable death in the Storm. But she’s not the only one with a chance to win.

Aaden is another talented student. As a citizen of the Crown, he was born with unlimited privilege and resources. When someone from the Crown wants to win, they do. End of story. And his shaping is unlike anything Talise has ever seen.

Complicating matters, Talise’s loved one in the Storm gives her reason to abandon the competition altogether, forcing her to make an impossible choice.

Torn between duty and freedom, she must learn that clinging to the past, might destroy her future.

For fans of Red Queen, the Grishaverse, and Avatar the Last Airbender, this desperate fantasy world has elemental magic and tension you could cut with a knife.

Character Description
Talise is the main character of this series. The story takes place on the fictional continent of Kamdaria. There are Asian influences throughout the book. In this world, everyone has the biological ability to "shape" (manipulate water, air, earth, and fire), but not everyone is good at it.

Talise is a driven student who studies at an academy for shaping. Her black hair is cut in a shoulder-length bob. Her eyes are brown and she is average height. She is 17 years old. She also comes from the poorest part of her continent where only the strong survive. It's somewhat of a miracle that she is even capable of shaping since many people from the Storm are so malnourished, they can't shape.

Excerpt from Ice Crown
“Stop!” Talise shouted.

That only seemed to add fire to the guard’s flame. He pulled the baton out while a hint of glee passed over his features. If she was going to do anything, clearly words would not be enough.

She took one glance around the room and did the only thing that seemed logical in the moment. Many people considered fire to be the most difficult element to master, so she lit a fire in her palm.

Thinking only of Marmie’s safety, Talise took a fistful of the guard’s tunic. “Look,” she said as she forced him to turn around.

As his feet moved to face her, the tunic in her left hand collided with the flame in her right. Her eyebrows flew up her forehead as the silk fabric caught on fire. The guard let out a gasp that could have fluttered the curtains as much as air shaping.

Talise shaped away the fire in her palm instantly, but the damage had been done. The guard seemed too surprised, or angry, to react to his still burning tunic.

Though less than a second had passed, it felt like five hundred. Talise scanned the room, letting her mind whirl as it tried to find a way to fix this.

I’ll never go to the academy now, she thought. I won’t even go back to the Storm. They’re going to kill me here and Marmie too.

You can get a copy of Ice Crown here: https://www.amazon.com/Ice-Crown-Elem...

If you would like to join my ARC team and get a review copy of Ice Crown, sign up here: https://forms.gle/6jYT6X3xiNVG47gd6

I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited about this short story. It was a blast to write and somehow, it turned out even cooler than I planned!

If you have a minute, I would be honored to have you read it. :) Read the whole story below or head over to my website to grab the PDF.

https://kaylmoody.com/gift-of-glass-s...

Gift of Glass

Lyra nearly tripped over her dress as a burning sensation gripped her forearm. The pain spread out like the stinging tentacles of a jellyfish, taking care to buzz through every pore as it traveled.

They said she’d get used to it, but they were wrong. The pain blinded her just as thoroughly as it had the first time she felt it. Five years ago.

She burst through the doors of the cold and empty laboratory. She wasn’t supposed to be here without a scientist, but they always took too long asking her questions and recording things. She needed pain relief and she needed it now.

She squeezed her fist as she barreled past a steel desktop. As she squeezed, she heard a pop and turned to the security camera with a grimace. Sure enough, the lens had cracked and shattered. Third lens that week.

She collapsed against a cabinet as she fished through the curls bundled on top of her head. Her breaths came out in shallow bursts as she willed the twisting tentacles to stop cutting through her arm.

At last, she found the tiny screwdriver hidden in her hair and used it to pick the lock on the cabinet. She begged the pain to release its grip for just one second, but of course it didn’t. Instead, she had to work through the pain.

When she finally managed to release the lock, she tucked the tiny screwdriver back in her hair and threw open the cabinet. Vials of all shapes and sizes stared back at her, mocking her pain.

Which one? Which one would do it this time? The short squat vial of fluorescent violet goo only helped when her toes locked up. The thin vial holding a milky white liquid swirled with hints of butterscotch yellow helped when the pain felt like knives.

Maybe the silver gaseous substance in the round vial with a cork in the top? She hadn’t tried that one yet. At the last second, she chose a familiar pear green liquid in a beaker that almost looked like a cup. Close enough that she could pretend, at least for one stupid second, she could pretend that something about her life was normal.

She swallowed two gulps and the stinging tentacles in her arm stopped twisting. But they didn’t stop reaching. The pear green liquid merely acted as a pain reliever, but it never stopped the pain completely.

A vial filled with robin’s egg blue gum drops caught her attention. Those were new.
She popped one into her mouth, hoping for some release. None came.

But the pear green liquid was doing its job. The stinging tentacles of pain had transformed to a light throbbing. It still hurt, but after years of knowing excruciating pain, this was nothing. For the first time since she entered the laboratory, she noticed a quiet sniffle.

Her head shot up as she turned and gripped the cabinet behind her. If one of the scientists found her in here, she’d be punished for weeks.

When she located the source of the sniffing, her arms relaxed and a whole new emotion swept through her. In the corner of the laboratory, a boy crouched over a heat lamp, sniffling and wiping his nose with his shirt sleeve. His soft, honey-colored hair clung to his forehead as drips of sweat trailed down his cheeks.

The boy was still in his gray compound uniform. Why wasn’t he at the party with everyone else? He looked so fragile crouching there with his knees up to his chest. He looked terrified. No doubt his parents were looking for him and they were probably worried sick.

Clearing her throat, she stepped toward him. When he looked up, her salutation lost its way somewhere between her throat and her lips.

This was no boy.

Well, a boy, but not a young boy who needed his parents to come rescue him. The way he crouched and sniffled made him look so tiny, but he wasn’t young. Just vulnerable. He was a peer and she had caught him in a moment he surely didn’t want to share.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Mm,” he said with a crooked nod. His eyes fell back to the heat lamp. It shined on the cement floor, but she noticed now that a small green body with a black and yellow tail slumped on the cement in the middle of the light’s shine.

“Is that a lizard?” she asked.

“Shhh!”

Her head reeled at the sound he made. She had been trained long ago to react to certain noises and the sh sounds were always the worst. She dug her nails into the folds of her crinoline party dress. Her teeth gritted together as a sharp crack burst from a nearby window. When she opened her eyes, she saw a spider web of cracks still stretching through the glass in front of her.

Right on cue, an icy spider web of pain sliced through her shin bone.

The red rimming the boy’s eyelids acted like a picture frame around his wide eyes. For one small moment, he seemed to have forgotten the heat lamp.

“You have the gift,” he said in a hush.

Her knees buckled, making them land squarely on the unforgiving cement floor. She swallowed the bile trying to force its way up her throat. Clutching her stomach, she said, “The only people who call it a gift are the ones who don’t have it.”

Through the top of her eyelashes, she saw him staring at her. The black badge over his chest had his name stitched in silver thread. Declan. For a moment, his eyes drooped, and it looked as though he were about to reach out to her.

But then, his head snapped back toward the lizard and his face hardened like a jagged knife. “Figures you’d be just like the rest of them.”

He wrapped an arm over his elbow, pulling it tight toward him as he started gently rocking his body back and forth. “Oh, woe is me,” he said in a mocking tone. “I can crack and shatter glass. I can even make sand turn into glass. The only thing I can’t do is make glass levitate. But it’s horrible because I feel a slight headache every time I use the gift.”

If it weren’t for the icy webs of pain cutting through her shin bones, she would have slapped him right in the face. Hard.

Heaving, she forced herself off the ground and stumbled back to the cabinet. At least this time, she knew what vial she needed. She searched for the rectangular vial filled with a salmon pink substance as thick as butter. She’d have to use her finger to scoop it out. Maisie would complain about proper sanitation, but she’d just have to get over it.

As Lyra searched for the vial, Declan continued to rant. “We’re all here because of you guys. Couldn’t they just take the kids with the gift? No, they had to take our whole families. They had to force us to live in this sterile compound with stupid laboratories and a miniscule garden. You were supposed to be able to levitate glass by now and we were supposed to be able to go home. But no, it’s been five years and none of us can leave. This is your fault, you know? Have you ever thought about that?”

She pressed the salmon substance through her lips and heaved a sigh as it trailed down her throat. Relief would come soon, but only for the pain in her legs. She still had to find the right vial for the pain her forearm. The pain that had sent her here in the first place.

Declan’s voice had changed somewhere during his rant. Now it sounded stretched and thin, as if working hard to hold back tears. The tears were winning. “I’m almost eighteen, but nobody cares about me because I don’t have the gift. Does it matter that I’m almost an adult? No. I still have to stay here, maybe forever. Nobody cares what I want.”

The vials clinked together as Lyra moved her hands through them, searching for the one that would help with the pain in her forearm. She tried to ignore Declan and his endless rant.

When he first started talking, her rush of anger had only been slightly less prominent than the web of pain. She’d never been so determined to inflict pain on someone.

But the longer he talked, the more obvious it became that he wasn’t complaining about her at all. In fact, he seemed to have forgotten she was there.

Uncorking the round vial, she sucked in a whiff of the silver gas. The pain in her forearm evaporated and she could breathe like normal again. She stuffed the cork back on the vial and closed the cabinet. With only a slight hesitation, she glanced back over at the boy.
He sat cross-legged, leaning over his feet as he rambled. His words had lost so much volume that now he merely muttered under his breath until he stopped completely midsentence. His lips parted as he gingerly poked the lizard under the heat lamp.

“Is it dead?” she asked.

His spine stiffened to a rod as he jerked his head toward her. A small tear slid down the side of his nose. He blinked at her as the muscles in his face tensed. All at once, his shoulders heaved as he shoved his palms over his eyes. “I don’t know.” A breath shuddered through him that sounded vaguely like a sob.

He gulped and turned his body away from her, as if that might recover some of his dignity. When a sob escaped through his mouth, he pressed a hand over his lips. And now his shoulders bunched up around his ears as if he was trying to hold his breath. None of that did anything to hide the tears dripping from the corner of his eyes.

He was crying, actually crying, over a lizard. This boy, almost eighteen by his own admission, had quiet tears dripping off his chin. Though he was obviously embarrassed about it, he couldn’t care enough to stop.

Her anger seemed to have evaporated along with her pain.

She sat down by him, pulling her knees up to her chin. “The families of employees are allowed to leave, but you aren’t. That means someone in your family must have the gift.”

He nodded as he slid a hand into his honey-colored hair. It looked shiny this close up. He played with a chunk of hair on the side of his head which perfectly obscured his eyes from hers. “My sister,” he whispered.

“Is she older or younger than you?”

“She’s…” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. He curled his hand to further cover his face and said, “She’s dead. She died in the last round of treatment.” He barred his teeth, biting over that last word. Everyone knew the treatments were a joke. It was just a nicer way of saying science experiment.

He rubbed his eyes, then dropped his hands into his lap. “I wasn’t this bitter before she died. I was proud of her. My little sister was going to be one of the first, real-life superheroes. The king’s scientists were supposed to give her a superpower. But now it’s been five years and they’ve done nothing but kill her and hurt the rest of you. I hate this compound and now my pet lizard is probably dead and the only thing I can do is nothing.”

“What’s his name?” Lyra asked, nodding toward the lizard.

“Her name is Lizzy. And yes, I know how stupid that sounds. Lizzy the lizard. In my defense, I named her when I was seven so I can’t really be held accountable.”

She wanted to laugh, but he spoke so genuinely, she couldn’t. Especially when his eyes started brimming with tears again. “What happened?” she asked.

He pulled a tissue from his pocket and blew into it twice before he spoke again. “My parents keep forgetting things. I know they’re just sad about my sister. They say grief changes you.” He rubbed his nose again until the skin around his nostrils had been rubbed raw. “My dad cleaned Lizzy’s cage for me because I had a school project. Except he forgot to turn her heat lamp back on when he finished. She went too long without it and…”

His voice cut off and he buried his head in his hands. It seemed strange that she could look at him without snickering. He was almost an adult, and he was crying over a lizard. But something in his posture chased the laughter away. He was just so sad.

“I’m really sorry.” She stared at the cement floor of the lab, trying to ignore the chill coming out from it.

He gave her a sideways glance and asked, “Why are you being so nice to me?” As soon as the words left his lips, his face fell with a grimace. “Oh no. I know why. It’s because I’m pathetic. Stupid loser crying over a lizard and you can’t help but pity me.”

She didn’t answer as he looked down. The skin around his eyes was red and puffy, obscuring what was probably a nice face on regular occasions. He turned his head to another angle, giving her a closer look at his irises. They were a dark cerulean, but with small splatters of gunmetal gray dotting through the blue. The whole effect looked like a pond at midnight with starlight reflecting off the surface.

He ran a hand through his honey hair until the shiny strands hung at messy angles all across his forehead. “Level with me,” he said. “How pathetic do I look right now?” He screwed his mouth up to a knot as if bracing himself for her words.

She tapped her chin while trying to smother the smirk that lay beneath her lips. “On a scale from one to ten?” She narrowed her eyes and leaned in as if inspecting his face. With a nod, she said, “I was going to say six, except your nose is all red from crying, so that puts you at a solid seven.”

“Seven?” he said as heat flushed into his cheeks. He ran a hand down the side of his face. “Well, jeez, at least you’re honest.”

She snickered. He didn’t join in, but it seemed like he thought about smiling. Just for a moment.

After that, they were both quiet for a long time. He poked Lizzy again, but his face fell as he did, light seeming to drain right out of him.

Lyra stared at her hands as she spoke again. Her voice was so quiet, it felt like a mouse trying to talk to a lion. “Sometimes we can’t change the things that happen to us. Sometimes all we can do is find something that makes us happy.”

“Oh please,” Declan said, already rolling his eyes. “Do not give me some inspirational speech right now or I swear I’ll tell Lizzy’s ghost to haunt you. I already know this speech by heart.”

He sat up straighter and put his hand over his heart as he spoke in a snooty tone, “At least we have our family. At least we have food to eat. At least we have…” He pretended to wipe a tear. “Hope.” He gagged and went back to slouching. “Is that what you have? Hope?”

“No, but I have some chocolate.”

He blinked at her exactly four times before he got his mouth open again. “What?” was all he managed to say.

“Chocolate always makes me feel better. Plus, I stole it from the worst scientist in this entire compound, so that makes it taste sweeter.”

He blinked at her again.

She ignored him and pulled two small chocolate bars from the tight curls bundled on top of her head. “Do you want some?” she asked, handing him one of the bars.

“Sure,” he said, letting the syllable drag out. He looked from her hair to her hand and said, “But only if I get to ask why you were keeping it in your hair.”

A grin twitched at the side of her mouth. She tried to give an aloof shrug as if it wasn’t the biggest accomplishment in her life. “When they pat us down before and after treatment sessions, they never think to check the hair.”

He let out a tiny chuckle as he tore the wrapping off the chocolate bar. Once he stuffed a piece in his mouth, he said, “So, you stole this from one of the scientists, huh?”

Her whole body tensed at the mention of Ashwood. Even though he hadn’t said her name, the thought of her always put a shiver through her spine. Lyra clenched a small fist and said, “Trust me, she deserved it. She has these stupid fake nails that are way too long, and I swear she likes it when we’re in pain.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Fake nails that are super long? It’s not Ashwood, is it?”

“Yes,” she said with an eager nod.

“Oh man! I hate her. She banned me from the rec room once for being too rowdy.” He rolled his eyes. “In the recreation room.”

She nodded so hard she could feel her curls bounce against her ears. “I know! All the parents love her and even my best friend, Maisie, says she’s the best, but she’s so mean to me. Every time I make progress with the gift, she always gets angry.”

Declan went off on a tirade about how Ashwood hated his sister and how she has it out for anyone who is good at the gift. She heard his words, but the specifics didn’t matter to her. All she could think was Finally, somebody understands.

His hair shook each time he made a particularly strong point. It got messier the more he talked, but the messier it was, the better it looked. And the honey color would have paired so well with his cerulean and gray eyes. If they weren’t puffy and red. He also had a strong jaw and impossibly straight teeth.

She didn’t realize she was staring until he looked down and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry about everything I said before,” he said. “I know the gift hurts worse than a headache. And it’s not your fault that we’re here.”

A weight went through her until her body felt heavier than a house. He was wrong about that. It wasn’t her fault that he was here, but it was her fault that she was. That thought always made her angry. Angry enough to use the gift.

Without the scientists around, maybe she could finally figure out how to snap a piece of glass clean in half. She was close, but the scientists always seemed to halt her progress with too many questions and research. Without them here to bother her, maybe she could finally do what she came here to do.

She sprang to her feet and tripped over her gown as she headed for the store cupboard on the other side of the room. She gathered a handful of the crinoline fabric to keep it out of her way as she marched.

“What are you doing?” Declan said from behind her.

She pulled a glass pane from the store cupboard and set it on the steel table.

“Practicing,” she said. She first took the stance she had been taught, but it was all wrong and she knew it. Instead, she finally stood the way she had always wanted.

Rather than stand like a soldier with feet shoulder width apart and her hands jammed into her sides, she relaxed. She stood with one foot in front of the other as if starting the first step in a dance. With one arm behind her like a ballerina, she held the other directly over the glass pane.

And now, instead of staring at the glass pane as if it was some terrible thing that had wronged her, she closed her eyes. She didn’t focus, didn’t concentrate, didn’t harden. She just let the gift flow through her, gently prodding it onward, politely asking it to do what she desired.

Every bit of resistance felt like it had been swept away. Her veins tingled as a pleasant warmth spread down her arm into the fingertips of the hand just over the pane of glass.

A loud crack sounded through the room and even with her eyes closed, she knew she had done it.

“That’s incredible,” Declan said. “I’ve never seen such a clean crack.”

Her eyes fluttered open just as the pain began, but she welcomed it now. This pain meant progress. That thought quickly vanished as the new pain shook and tore through her. She let out a breath as if she’d been punched in the gut. White light blinded her as the pain took hold of her senses.

She fell to the ground in a pile of fabric and bones. Her body shook with seizure-like jerks. She dreamed of the vials in the cabinet, but they might as well have been on the other side of the world for how much good they could do her. She couldn’t get to them in this state.
Her shoulders suddenly burned as drips of pain cut through her shoulder blades.

“Hey!” Declan said. She had forgotten he was there. He shook her shoulders again and she realized he was trying to get her attention. Something about his voice made her force her eyes toward him. Even then, she didn’t see him. The pain was too great.

He squeezed her shoulders in a surprisingly tender way and whispered, “This is what happened to my sister right before she died. Her body shook just like this, her veins were popped out and throbbing.”

He held her even tighter than before. “I don’t know what to do. They had some medicine that helped, but they gave it to her too late. I know she would have lived it she got it in time. But I don’t know where it is.”

She felt his body tense, each of his words growing hard in fear. Glass shards seemed to swim through her blood, cutting up every bit of flesh inside her. She summoned any strength she had left and used it to lift her hand. She pointed toward the cupboard in the corner, somehow knowing that was the one.

Declan’s footsteps sounded like an echo as he ran. The pain still gripped her too hard to be aware of anything else. She clenched her jaw, but it did no good. It hurt more than anything she had ever experienced. She felt her stomach contract as nausea swept through her.

She regretted it now. She never should have practiced without the scientists there to help. But it didn’t take away her suspicion that they were holding her back on purpose. But why?

A rough hand propped her head up as something cool pressed against her lips. She vaguely heard Declan telling her to drink, but it wasn’t until he tipped the liquid into her mouth that she realized what to do. Her brain still didn’t understand. It was too focused on the pain. But the muscle memory of her throat made her swallow the drink.

At first, the liquid only agitated her stomach, making her it churn and sputter. She started gagging, feeling the bile travel up her throat, but then it would go down again. Threads and tentacles and knives of pain cut through every part of her body, sparing neither organ nor muscle.

She took in a deep breath and finally, the pain began to dull. It still ached and pounded, but it didn’t scream. It didn’t murder. Her body felt weak as she forced herself to her feet.

“Did it work?” Declan asked as he leaned toward her.

She nodded and soon his arms were around her, pulling her tight in a hug. “I was so scared. You were shaking so hard and your veins were popping out. I thought you were going to die.”

Just as he pulled her tighter, he dropped his arms and took a step back. He swallowed and tugged at the gray collar of his compound uniform. “Sorry,” he said. “You don’t even know me, I shouldn’t have…”

She looked into his eyes, which seemed even puffier than before. Her eyes probably matched them now. Her chin quivered as she said, “It still hurts.”

Without another word, he understood. He pulled her back into his arms and squeezed tight. His sister must have been the same as her because he knew just how much pressure to use and also managed to avoid hurting her shoulders.

Little by little, the pain unraveled until it was nothing more than an aching throb, relentless, but manageable.

Declan pulled away and fresh tears puddled in eyes. Lyra had a feeling that these tears had nothing to do with his lizard and everything to do with his sister. “They had this medicine the whole time,” he said in raspy voice. “She could have lived, but they hid it away and killed her.”

Lyra turned to the steel table and saw a cylinder vial filled with a neon pink liquid, pulsing with a blue glow. “Sometimes we can’t change the things that happen to us. All we can do is find happiness while we wait.” She lifted the vial and shook it in a small circle until the liquid inside swirled around. “But I think that time is over now. We know about this medicine and we know it will help others who have the gift. I think now it’s time to act.”

He kept his eyes on the vial as the glowing liquid swirled around. His face pulsed as if he was both excited and terrified by her words.
Whether he wanted to help or not didn’t really matter. She came to this compound to make a difference in the world. She wouldn’t let her gift be squashed and trampled anymore. She waved a hand toward the pane of glass.

With almost no effort at all, the two panes rose into the air. They touched together across the straight crack she had made to separate them. And then, by only imagining it in her head, the two pieces melted at the edge and reformed into one smooth pane of glass. As if it had never been cracked.

As she carefully lowered it back to the steel table, Declan’s mouth fell open. “I thought no one could levitate the glass. How did you do that?”

With a gulp, she looked at the pink liquid still swirling in her other hand. “I don’t know,” she said.

Did you enjoy Gift of Glass?

If you liked this short story, be sure to head over to my website and vote on story elements for next month's short story!
https://kaylmoody.com/you-build-the-s...

It's time for another short story! This one is called Radioactive.

A PDF of this short story is available on my website.
https://kaylmoody.com/radioactive/

Radioactive
Tavia left the confines of her closet-like bunkroom to enter the hallway of the electricity plant where she worked. Most people loved the idea of sleeping in the same place they worked, but to her, it felt like a prison. Iron Plant Electric, IPE for short, wasn’t ideal, but it did have its bright spots.

She glanced down the narrow hallway and right on cue, Elson came into view. His broad shoulders bounced at the sight of her. A smile beamed off his lips when he made eye contact. At her side only a moment later, he ran his fingers over the thick braid trailing down her back.

“Here’s your portion,” he said, handing her a meal bar.

“Where’s yours?” she asked.

His eyes fell to the ground as he scratched his nose. “I already ate it.”

Of course he wouldn’t admit to anything else. At least not too loud. Meals were strictly controlled by IPE and giving portions away meant a dock in pay. She hooked her arm around his elbow and lowered her voice to a whisper. “You gave it away, didn’t you?”

“Of course not,” he said with a laugh. “We’re lucky to have our meals perfectly portioned by IPE. It’s all regulated and prepared ahead of time. We never have to worry about food again.”

He ended in a louder voice than he started, eager for someone else to hear. But the hall remained as empty as it started. Soon they entered a supply closet, which was not only empty, but also void of security cameras. Once inside, she asked, “Who’d you give it to?”

He checked that the door was shut before lowering his voice to a whisper. “Gage,” he said. “He was starving after getting his portion taken away last night. Just because he came in half an inch short on his quota,” Gage finished by shaking his head.

Without a second thought, Tavia broke her meal bar in half and shoved one half into Elson’s hand. He tried to protest, but she turned away and grabbed her protection suit. The thick fabric felt like stiffened gel, but still flexible enough to stretch. She pulled it over her shoes and up the rest of her body. Soon the suit covered every inch of her skin from her neck down to her toes. It still felt weird, but at least it offered protection from the radiation on Earth’s surface.

She ran her suited fingers over her braid, making sure every hair curved neatly in place. When finished, she took a bite from her meal bar. As always, its chalky texture lingered on the back of her tongue in an unpleasant clump.

Ever since the Fallout, food never tasted all that great. Now that Earth’s surface was radioactive, all food had to be grown underground in fake greenhouses with simulated suns. It would be four generations before humans could live on Earth’s surface again.

“Thanks, Tavia,” Elson said as he popped the rest of the meal bar into his mouth. He pulled her into an unexpected embrace and warmth spread through her.

This.

This was the reason she could make it through each day. Earth was radioactive, people lived underground, and their meals were controlled by a company that was more prison warden than employer. But at least Elson was here. At least she has someone to share this stupid life with.

He kept one arm around her as he opened the door. “We better hurry,” he said. “Gage wants to get out early today so he doesn’t fall short on quota again.”

She nodded and wrapped an arm around Elson’s waist. They headed for the hover pods that would fly them out from underground and up to Earth’s surface.

Harvesting radioactive moss from an overgrown forest wasn’t the safest job in the world, but it was the best an eighteen year old high school dropout like Tavia could hope for. So, she tried not to complain.

“I have big plans for us tonight,” Elson said.

She stared up at him through her eyelashes with a barely audible snicker. “Is it as big as the time you served me my regular meal bar but with candlelight?”

His cheeks turned pink. “You said you liked that.”

“I did,” she said, and it wasn’t a lie. It was one of their earliest dates and the chalky meal bar had never tasted so good.

“Are you two flirting again?” Nora, a fellow employee, said from behind them. She whipped her tight, black curls up with a scarf before snagging a gas mask from the nearby shelf.

“Of course they are,” Gage said as he pushed past them both. “But flirting is a distraction. If you get attacked by mercenaries because of it, you’ll put us all in danger.”

“Oh come on,” Elson said with a scoff. “We’re not that stupid. I’m allowed to flirt with my girlfriend, so quit whining about it.”

In an instant, Tavia’s shoulders stiffened as every muscle in her body tensed. Elson seemed oblivious, partly because she grabbed her holo pendant a moment later. The heavy black pendant hung from a chain around her neck. When she hit the power button, one new note popped up. From Zara.

If you’re going to the forest today, stay to the southeast. The mercenaries have been mostly in the northwest. As always, message me if you need backup.

Zara’s notes were always helpful. Tavia hit the power button before Elson could look over her shoulder and see the note. Grabbing her own gas mask, she ducked into the hover pod and sat back in her seat, trying to figure out how she could convince them to go southeast in the fewest number of words possible. And more importantly, without giving away that she had an outside source.

“Are we going south again today?” she asked as everyone else piled into the hover pod.

“Yep,” Gage said, typing the directions into the control panel. “Southwest.”

Tavia bit her lip, but didn’t protest. Maybe southwest would be okay.

“We went southwest yesterday,” Nora said with a groan. “Why don’t we go southeast?”

Tavia almost jumped in to agree, but that would require more talking, which wasn’t her favorite thing. Besides, agreeing with Nora was unnecessary. Nora would win the argument. She always did. This way, they would go southeast like she wanted, plus she could sit back and do what she did best. Keep quiet.

Nora and Gage’s voices got louder as the hover pod rose from the ground and up to the surface.

“Who was that message from?” Elson asked.

Tavia’s muscles tightened again. She whipped her knees away from him with arms folded over her chest. “You said girlfriend. We go on dates with each other, but let’s not label it.”

Elson rolled his eyes as he let out a sigh. “Really?” he asked. “We’re still doing this after three months?” His jaw flexed into an expression just short of a sneer. “Are you going on dates with other guys besides me?”

“No,” she said, grateful that Nora and Gage were still arguing loudly with each other.

He turned toward her with only the smallest hint of fear in his eyes. “Do you want to go out with other guys?”

“No.” she said. Of course she didn’t. They had talked about this repeatedly.

With a final flex of the jaw, he asked, “Do you want to keep dating me and only me?”

“Yes,” she said in a tiny voice.

He let out an exasperated sigh as he ran a hand through the short, stiff hairs on top of his head. “Then why can’t I call you my girlfriend?”

She swallowed as she stared back. She hated making him sad, but she wasn’t going to budge on this no matter how much pain danced behind his eyes. What was the use explaining when he’d never understand anyway?

“Sounds like your girlfriend is as radioactive as the forest we’re about to enter,” Nora said with a snicker.

When had they stopped arguing?

Gage snorted, trying to hold back the bubbles of laughter in his throat. That only made Tavia sink back farther into her seat. The last thing she wanted was to lose Elson. But how could she stand her ground when everyone seemed to agree with him?

Elson glared at Nora and Gage and started to turn away from all of them. Even her. At the last second, he shifted and scooped up Tavia’s hand into his own.

She knew he was still angry, and maybe he had a right to be. But at least he remembered to follow their rule. They could be mad, but they had to be mad together, not apart.

***

Tavia pulled the gas mask over her mouth, making sure the gel-like fabric surrounding it covered the skin on her face. Once everything in was in place, the only exposed part of her body was her thick brown braid hanging down to her waist. Every hair still neatly in place.

Once everyone had their gas masks in place, Gage opened the door to the hover pod. The radioactive forest always took Tavia’s breath away. The trees glowed blue with streams of sunlight escaping the branches. A blue shadow cast through the air making everything a lot prettier than it should have been considering it could kill anyone without a protective suit in seconds.

She pulled a knife from her backpack and marched to the nearest tree. The thick moss spread over every inch of the trunk, and best of all, glowed the brightest blue she had ever seen. That was her assignment this week. Collect three feet by three feet of the brightest glowing moss every day. Elson had the same assignment, but Gage needed the wispy moss and Nora needed the extra thick moss.

IPE used the glowing moss to convert radiation into energy. They sold off the wispy and thick moss to other companies who then used it for all kinds of purposes. The glowing moss wasn’t always easy to find, but this particular patch of the forest was like a gold mine. She stuck her knife under the moss until she could pull it away from the trunk. When she had a several inches peeled off, she rolled it up and stored it in her backpack.

Now, on to the next spot.

“Can we please talk about how awful that flute playing was last night?” Nora said as she cut a portion of moss away from a nearby tree.

“OH MAN!” Gage said as he doubled over in laughter. “It was so bad last night. I mean, it’s usually bad, but I swear it sounded like someone was wearing pots and pans and falling down the stairs. Loudly.”

Nora chortled, but Elson only frowned. “It’s not that bad,” he said. “You shouldn’t make fun of it when you don’t even know who it is.”

“Trust me,” Nora said, scraping the last bits of moss from the tree trunk. “Whoever it is knows he’s bad. The only person who could like it is the guy’s mother.”

“No,” Gage said, gripping his knee as peals of laughter escaped him. “I bet his mother hates it too. If his mother heard it, she’d probably sell him off to the sweat shops.”

Elson twirled around and seized Gage’s shoulder. “That’s not funny,” Elson said. “Some parents really do sell their kids to sweat shops and it’s disgusting. Don’t joke about it.”

Gage’s face fell as he pulled away. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled.

They worked in silence for a few minutes, but at last, Nora was brave enough to break it. “Can I take the hover pod down a few miles? This moss isn’t thick enough for my quota, but I saw some yesterday that will be perfect.”

“You’re not taking the hover pod when mercenaries are roaming the forest,” Gage said as he knitted his eyebrows together. “What if we get attacked? We’ll have no way to get back to the plant.”

Rolling her eyes, Nora said, “Come with me then. It will take less than an hour.”

Gage considered for a moment, then nodded. As he marched toward the hover pod, he asked, “You two coming?”

Tavia waved her hand through the air, shooing them away. She had just found another brightly glowing patch of moss and wasn’t ready to walk away from it.

“I’ll stay with Tavia,” Elson said. “Just be back in an hour.”

Elson found a tree next to hers while the others flew away. She shoved her knife across a tricky spot, careful to cut the backside of the moss, but not through it.

“How much do you think they get?” she asked quietly. “When a parent sells their kid to the sweat shops?”

“Ugh,” Elson said as a shiver ran from his shoulders down to his knees. “I don’t want to think about that. Can you even imagine? What kind of a parent could sell their child?”

Tavia curled her sheet of moss into a tight roll. “Your parents never would have. They love you, right?”

He pulled away from his tree to stare at her. “Yes,” he said, though his eyes narrowed as he said it. “And yours loved you before they died, right?” His desire for an answer was almost tangible.

The best response she could muster was a half shrug and a sort of smile. She turned her attention to the tree in front of her and started sawing off the moss with an increased intensity.

“Tell me about them,” Elson said. His attention was nowhere near the tree or the moss or any part of the forest. He looked into her eyes as if nothing else existed in the world.

She gulped and turned her head away. “Will you please stop calling me your girlfriend?”

His jaw clenched as he shoved the blade of his knife into the tree bark, giving up all pretense of work. “Why?”

Her eyes fell to the dirt covered ground sprinkled with glowing blades of grass. “I hate it,” she said.

“But why?” he asked. He shook his hands through the air with each syllable as if to make his point.

She turned away from him and hugged her arms in front of herself. “I thought I was enough for you,” she said. “Why do we need a label?”

Elson let out an exasperated sigh as he slammed a fist against the tree in front of him. He took several breaths, but finally relaxed. He walked over to her and all the stiffness in his muscles seemed to have melted away. “It’s not about the label,” he said. “I won’t call you my girlfriend if you don’t want, but that doesn’t make the issue go away. I want to be a part of your life.”

“You are a part of my life,” she said, grabbing his forearm, hoping to make peace. “We see each other every day.”

He let out a sigh while his lips fell into a frown. “And yet, I hardly know anything about you.”

She pursed her lips into a tight line and jerked her head away. “You know more about me than anyone else does. We spend lots of time together. Why do you need more than that?”

He came closer and she was instantly at odds with herself. One part wanted to slide into his arms and let him be everything he wanted to be. But the other part held her back. Even with him so close, she had to stay in control. She had to keep her distance.

He reached out to her, but by the time his hand found hers, her muscles had tightened and her blood felt cold as ice.

With a grimace, he said, “Every time I start to learn something personal about you, you put up a wall. You never let me in. Spending time with you is amazing. Dating you is amazing. I like you a lot, but I want to love you. How can I do that when you won’t let me in?”

Was it worse that he knew what she was doing or was it worse that she’d never stop? Maybe if she wanted Elson, she would have to open up.

Before she could contemplate any further, a whip cracked through the air. Elson threw his body in front of her as a blue-suited mercenary came into view, cracking his whip again.

***

The mercenary’s gas mask had a cruder design then theirs. It was built to circulate air, but not vocals, which meant they couldn’t hear him even if he tried to talk. Yet, even through the mask, his eyes communicated one thing: Give me your moss or die.

Giving moss to a mercenary in exchange for life seemed like a good trade on the outside. But if Tavia came back to IPE under quota, she’d lose food portions or could get fired if the manager was angry enough. She knew better than to take that chance.

“Back off!” Elson shouted. “You’re not getting our moss or knives or gas masks or anything. Just move along and we won’t have any trouble.”

The mercenary ran his eyes over both of them, as if sizing them up. He seemed to think Tavia would be an easier target. He lunged for her, but Elson threw himself in front of her to protect her from harm.

Elson’s willingness to protect her sent a ripple of guilt through her. If he’d risk his life for her, was there anything he wouldn’t do? He stepped in front of her again just as the mercenary slammed a fist into his gut. In this case, his protection was sweet, but totally unnecessary.

The mercenary reeled his arm back just as Tavia slipped out from behind Elson. His eyes grew wide, begging her to stop, but she ignored it.

The mercenary swung his fist at her, going straight for the gas mask. If it came off, she’d be dead in seconds. His fist came inches from her face, but she easily blocked the hit with the side of her wrist.

He barely had time to react before she shoved a knee into his groin and slammed her heel into the top of his foot. He gasped in surprise, but had his fists up and swinging in no time.

She blocked a hit and smacked his gut. Blocked a hit, smashed his shoulder. Blocked a hit and this time his eyes were growing wider, almost afraid to make his next move.

Taking advantage of his hesitation, she swung her leg for a roundhouse kick to his chest. As he teetered on the ground, she straightened her hand as flat as a board and slammed the side of her palm into his neck, making him black out before his body even hit the ground.

She checked that he was still breathing, then clapped the dust off her protection suit. Mercenaries usually worked alone, but not always. They needed to leave area to be safe. But holo pendant’s couldn’t send messages through the radiation unless the pendant had an upgrade.

Tavia’s pendant had one, but neither Nora’s nor Gage’s did. They needed a hover pod and there was only one person who could receive a message. On instinct, Tavia reached for her braid. It no longer resembled a neatly woven rope. Now the hair strands stuck out at every angle. Loose and open.

She swallowed and clicked her holo pendant before she could think too much. She messaged Zara, who quickly messaged her right back.

I’ll be right there, Tavia. Don’t move!

Finally, she turned around. Elson stood with his mouth gaping open underneath his gas mask. His eyes were wide, but the twinkle that normal glinted in them was missing. He blinked at her, but seemed unable to form words of any kind.

“I know how to fight,” Tavia said.

Elson let out a sarcastic laugh. “Uh, yeah. I saw that. Thanks for giving me a head’s up.”

“I’m trying to tell you about myself,” Tavia said, shifting her eyes to the ground. She grabbed her braid, running a finger over the loose strands. “I’m trying to be open and… let you in.”

“Oh,” Elson said as the tension in his shoulders relaxed. “I’m sorry,” he said. He stepped toward her until their eyes met. Even behind his gas mask, she could see he attempted a smile. “Tell me more.”

“I ran away from home when I was seventeen. I knew I’d never graduate from high school that way, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I had to get away from my parents.”

He narrowed his eyes in a look that wasn’t quite angry, but definitely confused. “You told me your parents died.”

“I lied,” she said averting her eyes. “They lost a lot of money in the Fallout. Once we moved underground, we were barely scraping by. They missed their old comforts, they hated the food. After awhile, they hated me.” She sunk her head to her chest and frowned. “They tried to sell me to the sweat shops.”

“Wait, what?” Elson said with horror painted on his face. “How did you get away?”

Tavia balled her hands into fists. “I heard them talking to each other about how the slave traders would pick me up in the morning. I stole my mom’s protection suit and used my best friend’s hover pod to get to the surface. I tried to sneak into an empty building on the surface, hoping my protection suit would get me through the night. It would not have, by the way. But luckily, I had stumbled into someone’s hideout. Zara. Zara had escaped the sweat shops a few months earlier. She taught me how to fight and she helped me get the job at IPE. Her parents sold her too.”

“Tavia,” Elson said as he put his hand into the small of her back. “I think I hate your parents, but also I’m so glad you’re okay. I had no idea.”

Again, the two parts inside her fought. One begging to lean into his comfort, the other forcibly pushing back. She swallowed and scratched her arm. “They tried to sell me because they didn’t want me. You say you want me, but how can I trust you when I couldn’t trust my own parents? Do you want me or do you just want a girlfriend?”

“I want you,” Elson said pulling her closer. But then he stepped back and shook his head. “No, words aren’t enough, are they?” He rubbed his temples while his face screwed up in concentration. Finally, he took her arm in a tender squeeze. “What can I do to show you how much I care about you? I want to earn your trust. I don’t just want to earn it, I want to deserve it. How can I show you you’re more than a label?”

She stared back not sure how to respond. For some reason, she had expected him to get mad again. She never thought he would understand. Once the initial shock wore off, she considered his question. What could he do?

“Tell me a secret about you,” she said suddenly. It seemed fair. If she shared one about herself, then he should have to share as well.

“Okay,” he said excitedly, but a moment later, his face fell. “I don’t have that many secrets. I’m trying to think of one, but… oh.” He looked down at the ground. “Okay, I do have one, but you have to promise not to laugh.” He shook his head. “No, you can laugh. It’s embarrassing and I deserve it.”

He sucked in a huge breath and just when she thought he would release it, he sucked in even more. Finally, he let the air out with a long sigh. “I’m the one who plays the flute at night.” He spit the words out as fast as possible, then turned around with his shoulders hunched over.

“I sound horrible, I know,” he said. “My mom used to play in a symphony before the Fallout. She taught me how to play and definitely passed on her love of music to me. Unfortunately, she didn’t pass on any of her talent. I love playing and I love the music even though I know I’m not any good.”

Now that her shock had worn off, she stepped toward him and placed her hand over his arm. “But you play with your soul. I can feel it in your music, even if the notes aren’t perfect.”

Elson snorted and shook his head. “Well apparently my soul is covered in pots and pans and falling down a staircase because that’s what I sound like.”

“It helps me fall asleep at night.”

“What?” he asked, turning his head down to look into her eyes.

She bit her lip and turned away. Two confessions in one day were more than she had managed in all her life. But for the first time, it didn’t seem like too much. She gulped and said, “I have a hard time falling asleep because I’m afraid my parents will find me. Listening to you play the flute distracts me enough that I can fall asleep. I like it.”

He laughed and tried to run his fingers through his hair before he remembered his hair was covered by his protective suit. With a frown, he said, “You like being distracted; you don’t like my playing.”

“I do like it. I’m not just saying that.”

Before he could protest, the whirring of a hover pod sounded behind them. He jumped in front of her, and then shook his head. “Sorry, I forgot you can fight. Maybe I should jump behind you when there’s danger.”

With a smile, she took her head. “Maybe I’ll just teach you how to fight. This isn’t dangerous though, this is Zara. She can fly us to Nora and Gage.”

When the hover pod opened, Zara’s violet eyes seemed to pierce right through Tavia. A scar spread out from Zara’s temple with several lines that each looked like a lightning strike. The lines spread over her cheek and forehead. She glared at Elson and shook her ash blonde hair over the scar until only a corner of her violet eyes peeked out. “Who’s this?” she asked when the hover pod door closed behind them.

“This is Elson,” Tavia said, wrapping an arm around his waist. When he put his arm over her shoulders, she looked up into his eyes and said, “He’s my boyfriend.”

Did You Like Radioactive?
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Here's the latest short story from my website. :) If you'd rather read a PDF, click the link below to get it from my website.

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Starlit Cruise
Twenty four hours ago, Earth was destroyed. With her home officially gone, Seren was more determined than ever to regain a piece of her past. She tiptoed around a corner and entered a long corridor lit with automatic lights. Her wavy brown hair flipped behind her since her nerves made her feet move in awkward jerks. At least no one else strolled through the corridor.

She stopped in front of a blue door with a metal placard that simply read, Supplies. After waving her plastic ID card over the scanner, a light blinked green. She grabbed the doorknob and took one last look through the corridor. Still empty. Excellent.

The lights activated the moment she stepped into the small closet. Only about eight feet by eight feet, the room had a large brown cabinet, two short bookshelves, a filing cabinet stuffed into a corner, and two cardboard boxes sitting in the middle of the room. The closet itself had been easy enough to find. The 3D printer, on the other hand, would be more difficult. After nearly two weeks of casually questioning just the right people, Seren still wasn’t sure where to start looking.

The brown cabinet on the left was useless. She already knew from her Starlit Cruise instructor that it only held the curriculum for New Earth studies. The two cardboard boxes were also a bust. One was filled to the brim with heavy books and the other had nothing more than extra uniforms and gas masks.

She checked the bookshelves and the filing cabinet, but still saw no sign of the printer. Not ready to give up, she removed every single book from the cardboard box, hoping the machine might have been hiding at the bottom.

But it wasn’t.

She stacked the boring, old books back into the cardboard box. As soon as she finished, she kicked the brown cabinet in a huff. After ten minutes of searching, her only reward was a stubbed toe.

She dropped herself onto the box full of books and pushed a wisp of brown hair out of her eyes. From this new angle, she noticed an unassuming wooden box set beside the first bookshelf. The wood of the box matched the wood of the bookshelf, making it difficult to spot without looking in just the right place.

She got to her knees and moved the box from the floor to the cardboard box where she had been sitting. She sucked in a breath and held it as she lifted off the lid.

A 3D printer sat inside staring back at her like a Christmas gift. With a grin, she lifted out the machine and set the wooden box aside. With the 3D printer arranged on the cardboard box, she unzipped the pocket on her left thigh and pulled out a nugget of melted silver.

Before she could attempt to activate the machine, the sound of footsteps froze her body in place. She tried to duck behind the cardboard box, but wasn’t fast enough. Halfway down, she gave up and started standing again.

That was how a very attractive guy caught her mid-squat in a darkly lit supply closet with nothing but a 3D printer between them. He smirked and turned to leave. His leather jacket moved with his body as if molded to it. He stopped with a jerk when he realized the door had already shut behind him. Wearing his smirk like a badge, he began to clear his throat.

“What are you doing?” Seren asked him before he could say anything. She had regained some of her dignity by standing upright now. The guy still smirked, but it looked like he was trying to hide it at least. Something about it made his eyes brighter. She hated that he was laughing at her internally, but he did look good doing it.

The guy shot a hand out and said, “I’m Vector. Pleasure to meet you.”

Seren stared at his hand for a good three seconds while deciding if she should shake it. In the end, she figured why not? His grip was stronger than she expected. And warmer. Before he released her, he asked, “And you are?”

“Seren,” she said, but then turned away from him. Could she trust him with her secret? Probably not, but he had already seen her with the 3D printer, so the damage was done regardless. At this point, the safest thing was probably to do her best to pretend she wasn’t breaking any rules.

Or maybe she could just explain…

No. No leather jacket was going to distract her today. She had a mission and wasn’t about to lose sight of it. “What are you doing here?” she asked him again, hoping it would make her look more confident.

He took a few steps until his toes bumped the cardboard box. He lifted one eyebrow at the 3D printer. “I’m playing hide and seek,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

She sucked in her cheeks as her stomach dropped. She wasn’t supposed to be using the 3D printer and he knew that. Everybody knew that. But at least he wasn’t turning her in yet. She deflected his question with one of her own. “Aren’t you a little old to play hide and seek?”

Vector snorted and slid a hand through the raven black hair on his head. “Normally I’d say yes, but I’m playing with my niece and nephew.” In an instant, his tone shifted. It sounded strange, as if he were forcing the words out. “They’re orphans. My parents took them in and it’s usually my job to keep them busy in the evenings.”

“Oh,” Seren said as a frown tugged at her lips. Their eyes met for a moment while the weight of his words hung between them.

“I don’t mind being in charge of them,” he said suddenly. “They’re good kids. They just miss their parents. To be honest, I do too. Their dad maybe have been my only brother, but he was still my favorite. His wife was amazing, too.” His tone shifted again as he leaned up against the brown cabinet behind him. “I also lost my grandparents,” he said. “And my best friend. Who have you lost?”

Her heart pulsed with heavy beats until it felt like lead in her chest. When had such a terrible question become commonplace? That was easy to answer. It started a year ago. When deadly asteroids started falling and everyone started dying.

“I lost my best friend, too,” she said, feeling a thread of connection with him through their similar loss. She frowned. “And I lost my grandparents, but almost everyone did in the noxious gas event. I lost a few cousins, but I didn’t know them very well. I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse.”

Vector frowned as he rubbed his palm against the side of his pants. “I know what you mean.” He gave a sidelong glance to the 3D printer. A twinkle of brightness appeared in his eyes as yet another smirk formed on his lips. “So, what are you doing? No one is supposed to use the 3D printers without special permission. Since you’re sneaking around in a closet, I’m guessing you don’t have that permission.”

So much for her act. She moved her mouth to one side and then the other. Even as a lie started forming in her head, she swatted it away. There was no point denying it now. “I have my own material,” she said, holding up the nugget of silver. “I’m not stealing any resources. And I have pictures and everything. I just want to make some earrings.”

Her attention turned back to the machine, which unfortunately, didn’t have some big red button to activate it. After diligent searching, she did find the ON button on one side next to a built in keyboard and digital screen. Once it was on, she tapped the digital screen and even tried typing a command into the keyboard, but the screen stayed blank. A heavy sigh fell from her mouth.

Vector pursed his lips as if thinking. A moment later, he reached around her and ran a finger along the top of the screen. Suddenly, it blinked with the words place photos on the tray below.

“Thanks,” she said as she gave him a playful nudge with her shoulder. She set her photos in the right spot and soon the screen blinked place material in start tray.

She set the silver nugget right on top of the photos and Vector let out a puff of air. He flattened the smile forming on his lips and said, “You’re supposed to put it on the top tray.”

Heat filled her cheeks as she shook her head. She moved the silver nugget to the upper tray and said, “I’m an idiot.”

He shrugged. “You’d be surprised how often people make that mistake.”

With the nugget in place, the printer started whirring and the heat began melting the silver. “How do you know so much about 3D printers?” she asked.

He shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket with eyes brighter than ever. For some reason, she gulped at the sight. It probably had something to do with the fluttering now cascading through her stomach.

“My brother made 3D printers for his job,” he said. “He gave us a bunch of different kinds throughout the years. I thought I knew a lot about them, but my niece and nephew know even more. They’re like little Mozart geniuses, but with 3D printers.”

She tried to smile, but it wouldn’t quite come. “How old are your niece and nephew?” she asked.

His grin grew wider as he puffed up his chest. “They’re both seven. Twins. Neya is curious and loves jewelry. Jax is extremely loud, but he’s sweet. They both are. Their parents died in one of the last asteroid waves less than a month ago. We thought we’d all make it on the Starlit Cruise, but… not quite.”

Everyone knew Earth would be destroyed someday, but someday seemed so far away. For years, people thought it would be pollution that finally did it. Or the sun exploding. In the end, it was an asteroid. Just like with the dinosaurs. At least smaller asteroids started coming a year in advance, giving just enough time to prepare.

Eleven days earlier, ten days before the apocalyptic asteroid arrived, humanity set off in high tech spaceships headed for New Earth. In a twist of cruel irony, they called the trip the Starlit Cruise.

Tears welled in Seren’s eyes as she thought of Vector’s brother and sister in law. She wasn’t exactly sure why. She had lost people too. Everyone did in the year leading up to destruction day. But maybe children losing their parents seemed worse than her own loss. She still had her immediate family. Or maybe it was a chance to mourn the terrible ordeal all of humanity had endured in the last year.

Either way, she didn’t particularly want to cry in front of a stranger. Especially not a cute one. He seemed to notice her discomfort and changed the subject. “Why are these earrings so important to you? You must have gone to a lot of trouble finding this printer.”

She slithered her hand through her brown hair and averted her eyes from his gaze. “It’s stupid,” she said. It wasn’t stupid. Not to her. But now that she had a chance to explain it out loud, it did sound stupid. Or, he would probably think so.

“Spill it,” he said. “I got the printer working for you; the least I deserve is to know why you’re using it.”

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I recently wrote a short story and wanted to share it with you! Hope you enjoy. :)

Cloned Chapter One

“Apparently clone is synonymous with slave,” Ecko said as she filled in the final boxes of her crossword puzzle.

With a huff, Treyu poked the little x in the top corner of her electronic Quad. He shot it a foul glare as the puzzle disappeared and returned to her home screen. “I told you to stop doing those. They’re filled with propaganda against low classers like us. I’ve known you for months and I know you’re more than a slave.”

His fingers curled back around the jade handle of his favorite knife. He dipped a gray rag into the metal tin of polishing cream before rubbing it against the blade. His tongue peeked out at the corner of his mouth as concentration overtook him. Each swipe against the blade came with strong, but gentle strokes. A promise that he would always care for this little knife in the best way he could.

Looking away, Ecko forced her back into the bookshelf behind her. She couldn’t be making analogies like that in her head. Yes, Treyu would always care for the things he loved. But he was leaving for the far away city of Kraybanic tomorrow, and she’d never see him again.

Not to mention, she’d never be on that list of things he loved. Not her. Not a clone. A grimace overtook her face as she turned her head away.

Her sister was named Aurora, after a fairytale princess. And she was named Ecko, after the lesser version of a sound. A reminder that she would always be lesser because she had copied DNA. She was only created to provide for her sister’s every need. Maybe she had dreams, but dreams were all they would ever be. How could any dream come true when she lived in a world where clone was synonymous with slave?

No, not even an incomplete like Treyu could care for a worthless clone.

A ragged breath shuddered out of Treyu. A breath that was as familiar as the knife in his hand. If he was allowed to nag her for doing crossword puzzles, she would nag him right back.

“Take off your boot, Treyu. No one is around.”

His look of relief was immediately masked by fear. He looked over his shoulder past the bookshelf. “What about in childrens? They sneak around in there and pop out all the time. If they see my foot, they’ll tell everyone they know.”

“It’s an hour until curfew, the children are gone already. Go on,” she said, letting the words glide out of her mouth to coax away his fears. “Lyndrea won’t say anything.”

The tension in his muscles eased at the mention of the librarian’s name. She may not have been great for conversation, but Lyndrea was perfect for discretion.

Treyu dropped his knife onto the polishing rag before easing the boot down his leg. The soft leather bounced as it fell to the floor. A gentle sigh escaped his lips as he wrapped his fingers around the stump at the end of his ankle. After running around on a wooden prosthetic all day, his ankle was always sore.

He leaned into the bookshelf and dug his knuckles into the stump. The freedom from his poorly made prosthetic always turned his lips into the sweetest grin.

“Let me massage it.”

“No,” Treyu said as he turned his shoulder at her.

Ecko rolled her eyes. “Why do you always do that? It’s just me. And I happen to be great at massages. Aurora makes me give her one at least once a day.”

“It doesn’t hurt,” Treyu said as he turned his back to her again. He dropped his ankle away as a huff escaped his mouth. “Why do people care about missing limbs anyway?”

She eyed his ankle, considering whether she should force the massage on him or not. At the last second, she decided not. With an exaggerated sigh, she said, “It’s about money. That’s what everything is about, isn’t it? Well, money and tradition. You’re only incomplete because you can’t afford the surgery to get a permanent prosthetic. If you can’t afford the surgery, then you’re obviously not contributing financially to society the way you should be. Therefore, you should be treated like a drain on the economy. A bloodsucker to all the hard workers who make more than enough in one week to pay for a simple thing like prosthetic surgery.”

“Bloodsuckers?” he asked with a playful grin. “I think you’ve been reading too much propaganda.”

“Maybe I have,” she said. She stretched her back until the little window over the bookshelves was in her sight. Now, she could watch the clouds. Such a simple pleasure and soon that would be taken away from her when Treyu left. She grimaced. “It’s the same with me, isn’t it? I was created to serve my sister. It’s selfish to want my own money and my own life. No one wants to free the clones because then who will take care of everyone? Maybe it’s not a great way to treat people, but this is the way things are. This is what clones were created for. If things are really so terrible, the clones can emancipate, can’t they?”

“Yes, Ecko, they can.”

He gripped his ankle while his jaw flexed. His eyes stared back at her with an intensity that wasn’t quite anger, but it was close. Now she’d done it. She’d gone and mentioned the one word that should have been omitted from every conversation between them in the last week. Yet, somehow, it seemed to be the only thing they talked about.

Emancipation.

His jaw flexed again as he dropped his ankle. He took up his polishing cream and knife and swiped the blade with short and heavy strokes. “You turned eighteen a week ago from today,” he said. “That means you have until midnight tonight to do the paperwork. Just emancipate and come with me to Kraybanic tomorrow. I already bought you a ticket.”

Bought her a ticket? Why would he waste his money when she already told him she wasn’t going to emancipate? It was hard enough that he was leaving, but to spend their final hours together fighting? It was even worse knowing that going with him was her deepest dream. But she couldn’t. And she couldn’t tell him the truth about why she couldn’t. Sometimes a lie was kinder than the truth.

“I’m staying with Aurora.” Her voice sounded like a wisp of cotton in a heavy breeze. No. It sounded like an echo. Just a quiet, insignificant sound with no purpose at all. “What could I do in Kraybanic? No one would hire a clone anyway.”

Treyu’s blade started humming with the force of his strokes hitting the blade. He wrinkled his nose and said, “The clone academy is there. You can work in exchange for education. And they’ll help you find a job.” His face suddenly softened and he dropped the knife a few inches as he looked into her eyes. “Kraybanic is different than here. They don’t despise low classers as much.”

“You’ve only been there once. How do you know it’s so different? I’m not willing to take that chance.”

She didn’t think it was possible, but somehow his nose wrinkled up even more. He shook his head, a touch of anger coming to the surface. “I don’t understand. Aurora beats you and controls your every move. Even if people look down on low classers, it can’t be worse than you have it now.”

Ecko stood up to release the anxiety tingling through her limbs. Her frown deepened as she said, “I can’t emancipate, Treyu. Stop asking me to.”

He banged his fist into the carpet with a huff. “Yes, you can. You have until midnight.” Hopping up to his foot, he moved toward her. As he inched closer, she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying something she’d regret. Namely, something that involved the hot blush filling her cheeks. A frown etched onto his face matched with a pair of disappointed eyes. “You…” he started. But then he quirked his head to the side. “Wait. You can’t? What do you mean you can’t? You’ve always said you won’t, but now suddenly you can’t?” His eyes grew dark as he started to guess at the truth she was keeping from him. “What did Aurora say to you?” he asked.

She turned away and waved her hand casually. “I didn’t mean it like that,” she lied. “I just meant I already made my decision. It’s too late. Look,” she said pointing to the window. “That cloud looks exactly like a dragon.”

Treyu’s eyebrows knitted together as he took a short hop toward her. “You’re trying to change the subject, but it won’t work. I’m not giving up until you decide to emancipate. You deserve freedom. You have to—” The words came to abrupt halt as he glanced toward the window. “Wow, that really does look like a dragon.”

Ecko propped her elbow onto the bookshelf in front of her and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. “I know,” she said. “You can even see the teeth in its mouth. And that tongue looks downright treacherous.”

His tongue peeked out the corner of his mouth while he sat deep in thought. He leaned into the bookshelf, and closer to Ecko, then finally said, “He doesn’t seem treacherous to me. I bet he has a castle somewhere that’s just for him. I bet he’s flicking his tongue because he’s in danger, but deep down, all he wants is freedom.”

He gave her a pointed stare, but she folded her arms in front of her chest and turned away from him. She wasn’t about to take his bait. He was angry, but there was nothing she could do about that. It would be even worse if she told him the truth, so a lie was all she could give. She needed him to think she wanted to stay with Aurora.

A puff of air escaped from his nostrils. “You deserve freedom, Ecko. Freedom and happiness.”

“I won’t emancipate,” she said as she tipped her chin up.

Treyu grabbed her shoulder, turning her to face him. He pushed the fabric of her shirt sleeve up to her elbow until the purple and green bruise covering her forearm was in full view. “Not even to avoid this?” he asked. The bruise was not a pleasant sight. He had been horrified to find out Aurora put it there simply because of some spilled water and a broken plate.

At least he hadn’t discovered the one on her back. That one was bigger and fresher. But Aurora knew how to keep the worst injuries hidden. He let out an exasperated sigh and turned away from her. In a quieter voice, he said, “You deserve better than this.”

A trickle of guilt crept up Ecko’s spine. Her lips dove into a deep frown as she pushed her shirt sleeve back down. After placing her hand on his upper arm, she said, “Please, Treyu. We have so little time left; I don’t want to spend it like this. I want to remember the cloud watching, not the fighting.”

The tension in him melted away in an instant. He turned to face her, but she stared hard at the ground. She knew he was trying to catch her eye, but it would be dangerous to look up now. Especially when he stood so close. “That cloud looks like a book,” he said, pointing toward the little window. “Normally that wouldn’t be very exciting. It’s just a rectangle, right? But that one looks like an open book, with some of its pages flipping. It’s actually pretty impressive.”

A smile inched onto her lips. She braved a glance at his face. His usual gentle demeanor had returned and he was clearly trying to make the most of the dwindling minutes they had until curfew. She brushed a hand along the side of the bookshelf and flinched when she almost touched the security button. When activated, it shot out knives at whoever had pressed it. Supposedly, it was meant to discourage people from activating security except in the greatest emergencies. In reality, it was a barbaric system which Lyndrea and several library guests complained about loudly.

Once her hand was safe from the button, Ecko propped her elbow back on the shelf and dropped her chin onto her palm. She pointed out the window and said, “That one looks like a sword. It’s just like the long one you have with the blue hilt.” She glanced back at the polishing rag resting on the carpet. Only four small knives lay next to it. “Where is that one anyway? You usually bring your whole collection of knives and swords, but you only brought your favorites today.”

Treyu’s shoulders stiffened, but then he stood up straight. “I sold the rest of my collection.”

It might have been comical how fast her mouth dropped, if it weren’t because of something so grim. “What?” she asked.

He gulped and looked to the side, suddenly interested in a tiny piece of lint on his cotton shirt. “I needed the money to buy the train tickets to Kraybanic.”

She covered her mouth as a lump simultaneously took up residence in her throat. It took every bit of willpower she had to force her mouth shut. How could he sell them? He loved those stupid things. Her heart thumped as she remembered what he had told her earlier. “But you bought me a ticket, too, and I’m not going. Can you get a refund for one of the tickets? Then at least you’ll have some money when you get to the city.”

“No.” He clenched his jaw as he shook his head with a jerk. “I’m not getting a refund.”

“Why not?” she begged. It hurt bad enough that he was leaving. Why did he have to overwhelm her with so much guilt in the process?

“I’m keeping the ticket,” he said with even more determination than before. He gave her a single glance, and then turned back to the window. “Just in case you change your mind.”

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