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Chapter 1: Stairwell
If you looked in the classroom and pointed out who was the most different, you wouldn’t of said Sasha Tahla. She blended in well with her classmates—just another ordinary 16-year old girl.
The classroom was a small amphitheatre, like the playhouse where many stories from The Books were depicted. Sasha was more towards the top, gazing down at the professor was lecturing in the center of the class, discussing The God. Sasha felt her mind begin to turn hazy, spinning her pencil between her fingers and gazing out the windows that wrapped around room. The school day was almost over, and Sasha wondered what she would do after the class got out. A sharp object jabbed her shoulder; she looked to her right at her friend, Essa. She mouthed, “Pay attention,” to Sasha and then looked back at the professor. Sasha shrugged and did as she was told, not wanting to be nagged further by her friend.
A chime rang throughout the room; however, it did not signal the end of class. Everyone stood up out of their chairs and looked intently at the professor. “It is time to pray,” he said. He closed his eyes and gripped his shoulders in a way so his arms made an x. Then he chanted, “Tle Hte Ogd’s perwo oemprew su lla, adn ekep su sfea adn paphy iuntl ew aer deyra ot ionj mih ni ahdte itwh hesto ew mssi somt.” Everyone bowed their heads and muttered a prayer. Sasha did this, however, she only moved her lips randomly, making it seem as if she was partaking in this group pray-session.
Only when every prayer was finished did the professor say, “You are dismissed.” The students eagerly jumped up and rushed to the door at the top of the amphitheatre classroom.
Sasha grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulders. “Finally,” she sang joyfully as she and Essa walked out of the classroom. “Spring holiday! 5 days off!” The hall of the academy was a glass skywalk between the classrooms.
“It’s not all fun,” Essa stated seriously, her black eyes drilling into Sasha’s bright coffee ones. “Don’t forget that this is the week The God created our city. We need to pray extra this week to thank him for his wonderful creation, and our lives.”
“I know,” replied Sasha teasingly, “I just am looking forward to a bit of extra time off.” If her friend knew of Sasha’s like of praying Essa may never talk with her again. Well, at least that was what Sasha feared. The professor often warned that disbelief in The God was punished severely. I have no reason to fear the divine power, Sasha thought, But the reactions of everyone would be terrible.
“Hey!” a voice cried out behind them. They spun around to see a boy around their age running towards them.
“Oh, hello Rahyal,” Essa said, both girls stopping. Rahyal was another one of their friends. He was a year their elder, and thus in the senior class.
“Sasha, Essa,” he greeted in return. “Are we going to do anything over the holiday?”
Sasha smiled widely. “That’d be great!” Any excuse to get away from praying would be great. “What could we do?”
“I’d like to study a few of The Books before the test,” Essa stated. Sasha and Rahyal laughed.
“Honestly, it isn’t that bad,” he grinned at Essa’s serious expression. The test was taken right before one turned 17, which was soon approaching for Essa. It was required to prove that you were truly dedicated to The God. “It’s not like they kill you if you don’t pass. That’s only those nut-case disbelievers they kill.” He chuckled at his own joke and Sasha forced a chortle. Was he kidding or did the government actually do that?
“They may take me for a disbeliever if I don’t pass,” Essa replied quietly and fearfully.
Great, another reason to hide it; I’d be Essa’s worst fear, Sasha thought bitterly.
Rahyal sniggered at Essa’s statement. “C’mon, no way that’d happen. And besides, wouldn’t you rather go to the big party than study?”
“What party?” Sasha asked, interested. She pushed a lock of wavy maroon hair behind her ear.
“A big bash thrown by the seniors of our academy and the one in the Ywenna Neighborhood.” Rahyal said, turning his attention to Sasha. “But everyone from both academies is invited. Didn’t you see the flyers?” Both Sasha and Essa shook their heads. “It’s gonna be awesome, and we can meet some new kids!”
“Okay, I’m in,” Sasha grinned. They turned their heads towards Essa.
She sighed. “You’ll force me even if I don’t agree. When is it anyways?”
“Tomorrow, at twenty hours. Hang on a second, I can give you guys a flyer...” He pulled his backpack off one shoulder, zipped it open, and dug through its contents. After a few moments he pulled out two crumbled pieces of lime green paper. He handed one to each of them.
Ywenna and Glatah Group Party!
Students from these academies are invited to spend a night of their spring holiday together to have a great night of fun. The party will be at the Lodret City Room starting at twenty hours. Food will be served, music will be played, and it’ll be a blast! There will also be a group pray-session at zero hours.
So join us for a night guaranteed to provide fun!
Please dress semi-formal.
“Wow, they got the Room?” Sasha was amazed. Only big events took place there. “Must have been expensive.”
“Yeah, there’s a small fee to get in,” explained Rahyal.
“Oh, so there’ll be a pray-session?” Essa said gleefully as she read the paper’s contents.
“Of course, we have to thank The God for all the fun!” Rahyal smiled. However different his spunky nature was from Essa’s uptight one, he was still a firm believer. Along with everyone else in the city of Lodret. Even though Lodret was a huge metropolis, the capitol of the country, it seemed that The God was the most important thing in everyone’s lives. Nonbelievers were unheard of. Anyone who showed traits that were against The God was punished. This caused Sasha to often feel nervous and uptight, afraid that her secret belief—or rather, disbelief—would be divulged.
“I have to be home by then,” she said quickly, hoping she could get out of the pray-session.
Rahyal shrugged, frowning some. “Okay, sure, that’s fine.” He looked at his wristwatch. “Seventeen hours?! Crap, I need to be home now. I’ll see you two tomorrow!” He waved and ran down the glass hall to the stairs. The two girls walked at a slower pace to the stairs, and down onto the busy street. The academy was located on one of the livelier parts of Lodret. It was well known for the many food markets—patisseries, bakeries, and delis were all within sight.
Essa turned to Sasha. “I should go too. My mum is expecting me. Bye!” Essa thrust her long brown hair onto her back and walked off.
“See ya!” Sasha called to her friend. Essa raised a hand and waved without turning around. Sasha walked in the opposite direction, heading for the Cylinder—the public train that ran underneath the city. Unlike Rahyal and Essa, Sasha didn’t live within walking distance from the academy, thus she always took the Cylinder. The closest station for the Cylinder was only about three blocks away, only a five to ten minute walk. Sasha walked past the many markets, some outdoors selling fruit and vegetables. There were a few newsstands set up as well, promoting the Lodret Chronicle. Mainly featured nowadays were stories about the war that was ongoing. Soon she reached the stairs that led down to the station; she carefully walked down them avoiding the traffic of citizens going up and down. Once at the bottom of the stairs she walked down a corridor into the station.
The Cylinder station was a buzzing, dimly lit area with tracks in the middle. There were bridges that went high above the tracks to take people over to the other side. Advertisements, maps with colored lines representing the routes, and religious posters were lined on the wall along with several benches. Sasha waited along with a large crowd of people for her train to come. After a few moments, a train pulled into the station. Its sides were lined by grey dots, representing the route this particular train took. However, Sasha did not take the grey route. Several dozen people came out of the train replaced by several dozen that came in. The doors closed and it zoomed off. Trains continued to pull in and out periodically. At last a train with ruby dots pulled in. Sasha smiled—this was her train. She pushed through the crowd to get onto the packed train. Everyone was squashed like sardines inside. Getting a seat was a hopeless dream for Sasha, only the elderly and disabled got those spots. Besides, it would be much harder to get up when it was time to get off.
“Doors closing,” a mechanical female voice warned. The gate slid shut and the train shot off into the dark tunnel. In the train it was easy to spot those who were the city natives and those who were just visiting. Sasha often did this as a game to pass the time, counting the tense, nervous faces who were gripping to metal bars for support and trying not to get squished. The inhabitants of Lodret were used to the train rocking back and forth and the sudden stops. They moved with the swaying, reading newspapers or a book (which was often times the Book). There was even a standing woman who was knitting a scarf. As she lived in the city all her life Sasha was also used to the train’s movements. She pulled out a novel she was half way through and started reading.
The train jerked to a stop regularly to let off people at different stations or let in others. The same female mechanical voice would inform every one of where they were currently at and where the next stop would be. After about thirty minutes the voice announced, “Glahoa Station.” Some people got off, including the woman knitting, and some came in. After a minute or two the voice spoke again, “Doors closing. Next station: Hendrad.” Sasha looked up; this was her stop. She put away her book and waited for the train to once again stop. Once it did she forced her way to the exit to come into another station. This one seemed a little less upscale then the one near the academy; it seemed darker, less clean, and there were fewer posters. While the other academy was packed, this one had only a few dozen people. Gripping her bag, she walked to the corridor, and up the stairs onto the street.
The Hendrad neighborhood was mainly residential; there were many apartment buildings. The only shops were a dinky deli, a connivance store, and a launderette. She walked towards the street and after looking both ways, walked across. She ran up the stairs to one of the apartment buildings. It was an old structure, but it still looked nice. The exterior appeared to be made of sandy marble that was cracked in a few places. The cracks, rather than making it ugly, gave the building charm. The doorstep of the building had columns with spirals at the end.
Sasha reached for the walnut door and opened into to enter a stairwell. The interior had a strange smell of different foods from the inhabitants of the apartments. She grabbed the railing and ran up the staircase. No one was in the hall at this time; for many people it was still too early to be home. Once she reached the top floor, she fumbled through her pocket. After awhile she pulled out a dull golden key and pushed it in the lock of the lone door on this floor.
“I’m home!” she called into the room.
“Oh, welcome home dear,” a woman’s voice responded. As Sasha walked in the woman appeared. “How was your day?”
“Pretty good,” replied Sasha. “A ton of homework because of the break, though”
“Well, glad your day was fine.” The woman beamed at her.
“Oh, Mum, there’s a bash the academy is throwing tomorrow. Can I go?”
Her mother frowned some. “Well, I suppose that’s fine as long as you stay out of trouble.”
Sasha flashed her adoptive mother a smile. “Of course I will.”
“That’s my girl. Now, you’ll have to tell Keven about it. Just for good measure.”
“I will, Mum.” Keven was her adoptive father. He and Mehgan, her adoptive mother, had accepted her right after she was born. Sasha’s real parents had decided that they didn’t want to be burdened by her apparently. She knew little about them and, truth be told, wasn’t that interested.
Mehgan added, “Oh, and can you do your homework tonight? I don’t want you to get distracted over your break and forget to do it.”
Sasha groaned some, but nodded her head. “Sure thing Mum.” She trudged over to her room and plopped down on the chair next to her desk. She set down her backpack and unzipped it. Her hand reached in and pulled out some books and notebooks. Opening one of her books, she started to answer some of the questions on her worksheet about the Book. Religion homework was the most tedious and boring for her, so she tried to get it done first. Pencil pressing against the paper, she attempted to think of some decent answers that made her seem like a believer. Once they came to her, she wrote them down. After an hour or so her hand was sore but the homework was done. So she conquered math next, then history, that proceeding literature...
Finally. Sasha yawned and stretched her arms, tilting the chair back. Finished.
“Sasha!” Mehgan’s voice called once again. “Dinner’s ready!”
Sasha looked at the clock—twenty hours. “Okay I’m coming!” She pulled herself out of her chair and tottered out of her room back into the dining room. At the table sat a stern, serious looking man. “Hi Dad.”
“Hello Sasha,” he replied. His voice was low, and as serious as his face. His strict eyes were behind small round glasses. “How was school?”
“Good, good,” she said again, sitting on the seat to his left. She felt her stomach growl as Mehgan brought out the plates full of sausage, broccoli, and potatoes. Her mother set the plate down in front of her, one for her husband, and finally one for herself. Once she sat down with Sasha and Keven they started to eat.
“What did you do at school?” Keven asked his daughter, cutting up some of the sausage.
“Well, we did a bit of Trigonometry in math. It’s a bit confusing, but Essa helped me understand so I think I’ve got it.” Sasha tried to make it seem like she cared more about school than she actually did.
“That’s always good, dear, to get help from a friend,” Mehgan chimed in, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
“How was religion?” inquired Keven. As a priest, he always was interested in how Sasha’s religion class was.
“Oh, well, it was fine,” Sasha said rather lamely. After all these years dining with Keven, she still hadn’t learnt to pay a bit more attention in religion to have something to tell Keven. She raked through her brain to try and remember what the professor’s sermon had been about. At last she remembered the topic. “We talked some about the God’s forbidden sins.”
“A good topic,” approved Keven. “You need to know about the sins so you can be sure not to perform any of them.”
“Right-o, Dad.” Victory! She didn’t have to make things up tonight.
“Refresh my memory for me, Sa’. What’re some of the things I should never do to make sure the God will still watch over me?”
Her heart sunk. Of course, her father would have to quiz her. She flipped through her memory, scrunching her face in concentration... She knew a few obvious ones (they would never escape her mind) but as for the others...
“Flight... thinking the God does not exist... deceiving others... believing you’re stronger than the God... befriending one of the hated animals...”
“Good, now name some of the hated animals,” her father demanded. She scrunched her face up even more.
“Snakes... crows... leopards...”
“That’s good enough. Nice job, Sa’.” Her father smiled approvingly at her. Sasha sighed in relief. She had gotten lucky tonight. She sighed of relief and gulped down her water.
“Do you want dessert?” Mehgan asked kindly. Sasha nodded fervently; her hunger always seemed to increase during holidays. Mehgan got up and retreated back into the kitchen. “Don’t forget to ask your father!” she sang.
“Ask me what?” Keven asked curiously.
“Oh, I was wondering if I could go to a bash that the academy is having. It’s tomorrow night, at twenty hours.”
“Well, just get back around midnight or so. Not at three or four like last time.” Her father winked at her. Though he could seem rather serious at times, he actually was quite kind to Sasha and his wife.
“Thanks Dad!”
Mehgan returned to the room with three plates of fresh fruit. “Enjoy!” She set them down in front of them. “To a good holiday!”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The next day Sasha had nothing to do until the party started. Her parents were gone and she didn’t fancy going out, so she sauntered about the apartment, reading her book. It appealed to her as it was about one like her—someone with no belief in the God. While the book warned about the “fool” who didn’t believe it made Sasha comforted in knowing she wasn’t the only one who didn’t believe. It wasn’t only her friends who didn’t know about her disbelief, it was her parents as well. In fact, she couldn’t think of a single person who knew about her secret. And she couldn’t think of a single person who she wanted to know.
As the party time approached, she went in her room to get ready. It was eighteen hours—only two hours away from the party. It would take her an hour alone to go to the Room, which was at the heart of Lodret. Both Keven and Mehgan were working late tonight, so they wouldn’t be home until she came home. She looked through her closet to find something to wear. Semi-formal wasn’t her favorite thing to do, or anything all that formal for that matter. That was Rahyal’s sort of thing, always trying to impress everyone. She pulled out a short brown dress, remembering that it was rather comfortable. After putting it on, pulling a brush through her hair a few times, and getting on some shoes she exited her apartment.
The Cylinder ride was slightly longer than the one to the academy. And the station that it dropped her off at was much, much busier. As this was downtown Lodret, the station was a lot larger and much classier. The City Room was not far away from the station; Sasha only had to walk a few blocks.
It was obvious when she reached the place of the party. There was loud music booming from inside the grand hall. A line had formed to enter the party. Sasha spotted some familiar faces from her school and some new ones. She stepped into the line and waited. After about ten minutes she was at the front.
“Fee please,” an unfamiliar senior told her. Sasha handed him a bill, and he let her pass. The room she walked into was not the main site of the party; it was simply a staircase that led to the main attraction. She climbed up it with care. Everyone around her was laughing, hanging out with their friends and making new ones. By just looking around she couldn’t see Essa or Rahyal anywhere. It was a difficult task in this sort of crowd.
“Sasha!” a familiar voice called out. She looked up and smiled; her two friends were at the top of the stairs, waving down at her. She ran the rest of the way up to join them.
“Hey guys!” she grinned. Even Essa looked rather joyous in her blue dress. Rahyal wore a light green shirt, brown pants, and a bright orange jacket—as Sasha suspected he had dressed to stand out.
“C’mon on in! The party’s awesome!” He grabbed both of their hands and dragged them into the Room.
And was it a room! Shiny ornate tiles were the floor. The ceiling was a dome lined with gold with beautiful painting depicting the Book’s tales in the center. A DJ was playing music in the back of the room while lights flashed and people danced in the center. There was food all around the carpeted walls, cuisine of every different kind. Near the food were tables, seated by different groups of people chatting.
“Let’s dance!” Sasha shouted eagerly over the music. Rahyal grinned in agreement, and they moved to the dance floor, dragging Essa. They laughed as they tried to get her to dance. Slowly, she began to get into it, and soon they lost track of the time, moving to the music.
“I’m thirsty,” Essa stated suddenly. It dawned upon Sasha that she was as well, not to mention starving. She had hardly had anything to eat today. They pushed through the crowd to one of the food tables. After Rahyal and Sasha filled their plates to the brim and Essa got her drink, they sat down at one of the few empty tables. They chatted happily, just small talk that seemed much more important to them.
“Look at that guy,” Rahyal said out of the blue. His finger pointed towards a tall figure sitting at a table. The figure’s hood was pulled over his face. He sipped his drink in solitude; no one else was with him at the table.
Sasha frowned. “Maybe his friends are dancing or getting food or something.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Rahyal shrugged. “Anyways...” they continued their chatting and the lone figure was soon driven out of Sasha’s mind.
Once they finished their food (or in Essa’s case, drink) they went back to the dance floor for more dancing. Time flew by as Sasha laughed with her friends and everyone else who had come to the party. This was what holidays were about, not about spending time doing something silly like praying. Speaking of praying...
Sasha looked at her watch and cursed. It was almost midnight, and soon the praying would start, not to mention she would have to be home. “I’ve gotta go,” she said hastily to her friends. Still grinning, they nodded and continued to dance. She ran into the stairwell, which was now completely deserted. Everyone was busy inside dancing, eating, and having fun. The voice of the DJ sounded as he told everyone of the upcoming pray-session. She ran towards the stairs, preparing to run down but she tripped...
She felt her body lift off the ground as she panicked. This couldn’t be happening, not here! She was gliding in mid-air, towards the exit to the Room. Her mind focused on getting down, but her body only half-obeyed.
She was flying. One of the forbidden sins.
If anyone saw her she would get in serious trouble; they may attack her, think she was the Evil. She concentrated harder, harder than she had when Keven had asked her questions about the God...
At last her body fully obeyed and she pummeled down the stairs. She cursed again, looking around to make sure no one had seen her. But the problem was that someone had.
