Children of the Testament | Reaping
Sleep was somethin sound. I didn’t remember fallin - I remember a lot of talkin. A lot of breaths and blinkin. Hesitatin and holdin back. I think I had dreams of all it, dreams of just.. bein, existin… Just to have it all one more time before I was gone. It was nice. Serene even. But the sunlight was touchin my eyelids, makin the darkness of sleep go pale orange. God was coaxin me to come along with him. I opened my eyes and looked at the sunlight floodin into my room from the window. It was just daybreak. The sun was touchin the ground in the east of the field, not a cloud in sight.
I sighed and turned onto my side. Cale was still sleepin beside me, wrapped up in his blanket, his chest risin up and down gently. I think I stirred him, because soon enough his own eyes opened.
“Mornin’, Cale” I said softly.
“Mornin’ Halo.” He answered, rubbed his face and sat up. I wondered if he liked sayin my name as much as I liked sayin his. I sat beside him wishing I could sit there forever. I had looked up to him for so long, watchin lead such a pure and wholesome life; I prepared myself to watch him leave us, leave me, and die for a greater purpose. But here he was lookin at me in the way I used to look at him. But he was preparin to watch me leave and die.
Why God found me more pure than Cale was beyond me. It was impossible to me, not even light itself could possess a more potent energy than the one in Cale. The one you could see in his hazel eyes. But Father Lyle has always said when it comes down to it, the Child of the Testment chosen can be chosen for other reasons other than purity. It could be God’s plan, somethin he was always workin towards. Or it could be somethin unique and powerful that God could only see in you and that’s the reason he sends for you
“I should go.” He said. But he didn’t move, he just kept there, breathin, that smile of respect on his face. I nodded my head slowly, my own half smile pullin at my left cheek in the silence.
I don’t know when I got the courage to get up and leave him but I did. I walked to my mirror and looked at the grey smock I was wearin.
“... How on earth am I goin to wear white?” I said, covering my mouth. Havin worn only black for as long as I can remember, the contrast was unsettlin. “I can let alone fathom the lightness of this..”
Cale laughed. “It is weird. Think I got used to mine though.” He looked at the fabric of his own grey smock. “Think about the rest of us - we get to wear color after this.”
“I think red will suit you. Bring out your skin.” I said as I pulled my dress from the wardrobe. “Will you wear red for me?” I turned around and looked at him.
“.. Sure” He smiled. He slipped himself off the bed and gathered his blankets.
“Go on and get ready. We’ll be downstairs.”
“Of course.”
He started for the door and as he pulled it closed I stopped him.
“Cale?” I asked, crossin my arms over my stomach. He peered his head in once more.
“Yes?”
“Thanks.”
He half smiled at me and closed the door. And I was alone.
When I was ready, I almost didn’t recognize myself. I was right. Wearin white is unsettlin. It made me glow, bring out the darkness in my hair and the green in my eyes. I didn’t know if it was okay seein myself in that kind of way. I let down my hair like Father Lyle suggested and went downstairs.
Bein so far from center of the District as we were, we had to leave early. The bus ride was more of the same it had been for the past two days. Somber, full of nostalgia. Except there was more eagerness directed towards me. Everyone from the Testament who passed me regarded me with a bow of the head and a smile. And my brothers and sisters stayed so close to me.
My brothers and sisters and I, along with the other two coteries of the Testament, long decided against for Benefaction, submerged ourselves into the line with the other children. Each of our names were still in the drawin and each of us would still have to stand with the others. It is the permission that we seek from God. It is what he granted me the moment yesterday became yesterday.
“... Again?” The man in the white suit asked me as my turn reached and he prepared a needle.
“..What?” I asked, more focused on the fear of this yearly pain than what he was asking.
“I remember something like this, maybe two or three decades ago. Group of people in black, a boy in white who’s just like em but not wearin black. That’s you, isn’t it? What’s up with you people?”
I opened my mouth to answer. “Save yourself kid, don’t do it. Didn’t end well for him.”
“Ow!” I said loudly, my eyes filling with tears. He pricked my finger with the needle not even a single warning. My nerves escalated and I was growing hot.
“Don’t listen to him,” Cale said, turning around and nodding me along. “He has no idea what you’ve worked for.”
I looked between the peacekeeper and Cale and went where my heart told me to go.
“We love you so much, Halo.” Audrey said. She, Raine and I stood together in our own group inside the eighteen year old section. Raine nodded and smiled. I wished I could hug them. I craved touch so desperately in that moment but I couldn’t have it. I remembered how I always thought of what Cale would be sacrificin in order to do this, it never dawned on me I’d be feelin all of it, that I’d be one doing the sacrificin. I guess I never thought me pure enough.
The woman from the Capitol does her yearly duties and shows us the video explainin Panem’s history. This is the sin I was payin for. The lives lost on both sides ages ago, the wrong done, along with the evil ingrained in our beings. I marveled at the woman for a moment midst watchin the clip. She was very different from us in Nine. Even more different than us from the Testament.
And then her hands reached into the female bowl. I felt my heart drop and my throat go dry. This was it.
“Halo..” Raine whispered behind me. I glanced at her and followed to where she was pointing.
“Oh, what’s this?..” The Capitol women asked over the microphone. She sounded desperately intrigued.
Behind the ropes set aside for the families, the entire community doned in their black smocks lined up in seven or so rows. Row by row they kneeled down and bowed their heads down together. They raised their arms above their heads with their palms turned up to the heavens. I covered my smile with my hand, watching the prayer take place. My vision went watery and I couldn’t pay attention to what I was suppose to be doing.
Audrey brought me back my senses. “.. I love you guys too.”
My heart was running a marathon in my chest, my eyes pouring a storm.
The capitol woman called out a name and all the faces turned this way and that searchin for the girl.
“I volunteer!” I said, Raine and Audrey breathing out loudly beside me. The Capitol woman dropped the paper and smiled eagerly.
“Come! Come darling!” The people in white suits came to me, usherin me out of the section and parading me to the stage.
“Hallelujah!” I heard a chorus of voices speak out. “Hallelujah, Hallelujah!”
“.. Goodness... What’s your name, sweetheart?” The woman asked me.
“Halo...” I mumbled, I looked over all of my people from the Testament, many still deep prayer in my eyes searching for my brothers and sisters.
“Lovely, name...”
I found the each of them smiling a mix of love and sadness except for Cale. I didn’t see him at all. And then a head rises, gettin up from his knees. Around him the kids looked equally confused and amused. I disregard it because his watery eyes meet mine and I smile at him. His fingers touched his lips and gestured towards me and my heart dropped for the thousandth time that day.
Surprisinly, the boy chosen from the bowl was replaced by a volunteer as well. When he came on stage my heart fell again - he looked kinda like Keaton. Same length of hair, same face structure but Keaton was ways a lot bigger than him and he looked more sickly. The woman shows us off to the district once more.
And we were taken inside.
