Forever Yours, Scarlett Ink.

On my second day alive two officers in red lead me down a hallway. They took me past the metal cells, twenty I counted from my own cell, to a steel door. I had an officer on each side, somewhat roughly, grasping my upper arms; pulling me forward. Imagine chocking on a lack of air, that’s what it felt like In those wretched dark hallways, the claustrophobic were always the first to go insane here. Surprisingly the hallways bared no evidence of the stench surely present within the cells; it had a plain chemical scent which vaguely reminded me of hospitals. From the hallway, there was no reason to believe anyone was behind the steel doors that lined them, no trace at all, no sound at all got through the doors. It was almost easy to forget where I was, and what was kept behind the doors waiting and rotting.

I hadn’t been kept there long, only a few hours, yet an hour felt like a lifetime. The small nothingness of the cell made even thinking seem hard, and panic surged through as if the cell was the brightly lit moon and I the tides. The worst part was the silence, unnaturally quiet, it made breathing seem to loud sending a pang through my head with each inhale and exhale. What does one do when there is nothing? One crys, one breaks. The hours leading up to when the guards came for me were spent crying, blubbering, and breaking myself down to the very smallest part of me. For a few hours, I was panic, every inch of my body, mind, and soul was an unprecedented panic bubbling and boiling and existing.

From the maroon rock like skin I recognized the officer on my right as a Wahbi; a brawny rock creature from the planet Kailen. Kailen was a neighboring planet to my home planet Earth 4 or E4 as its inhabitants called it. E4 was a tribute to the original Earth , created to harbor the surviving inhabitants of Earth 2 which had become inhabitable, currently Earth 3 and E4 are the only Tribute planets . The Wahbi had a strong build with a chest disproportionally larger than the rest of his body. His facial features seemed as if they had been stretched to fit onto his face giving his face a block-like feel. He wore the standard red officer uniform, like the officer on my left, and a crooked name tag that I couldn’t read correctly due to its position on the right side of the Wahbi´s chest. The officer on my left, whose name tag read Tim, overweight with thick-framed glasses, looked human enough but he could've been a hybrid for all I knew. Purebloods had been rare since before E4 was even inhabited, everyone was a hybrid, even if the percentages were low.

The Wahbi inserted a metallic card into the scanner beside the steel door I had been lead to; with a click the door slid into wall. I thought I was going to die, die at a ripe age of two days old, I almost wanted to. Maybe they’re just relocating me to another cell. The Wahbi took hold of my forearm. Or maybe they’re going to kill me. He pulled me forward into what I immediately recognized as a shuttle ship with only two passenger seats. It is astonishing that only but a few centuries ago shuttle ships were called cars, and they had to be driven manually, and they didn’t even fly! But the times change, things become different, and everything can disappear in a blink of an eye and in a matter of seconds, your whole life can change.

A pair of watchful eyes from one of the seats followed me as I was less then gently guided and placed opposite to him on an empty seat. My head was spinning, making details blurry; I flinched when I heard the door slide back into its place, and another appeared from the shuttles ceiling shutting me and the stranger into the shuttle. I hadn’t even noticed the Wahbi had already made his way to the door. There was a blue backpack in the corner by the door, Was that there before? Before me sat a male, with eyes that seemed to be stuck like glue to me. Why is he staring at me?

He was strangely familiar, with dark brown hair that fell at mid-ear length; tousled and occasionally covering a bit of his eye. Is he famous? There was a familiarity in his eyes; wide and deep brown. He wore a pair of dark denim gens, Gens? Really, no one says that anymore. Its Jeans, a dark brown leather jacket, and black combat boots. Though his clothes concealed most of his body he looked pretty fit, and I tried to imagine if he had any muscles or not. He´s probably really attractive with no clothes on. What?No, stop thinking like that. He had a very subtle five o´clock shadow, which to me signified that he wasn't a prisoner at Culver Prison since most prisoners weren’t as ‘hygienic’ as the boy before me. Nope, definitely not a prisoner. A guard? Yeah but with no uniform? Who is he then?

Shit. I thought to myself. What do I do now?

"Hello, I'm Scarlett." I rushed out, desperately hoped he had no idea who I was and what I had done, well what ‘me’ before the coma had done.

To be honest, I hardly knew myself but people weren’t sent to Culver prison for no reason. Whatever I did, it must have been bad, bad-bad; does repeating a word really give it more meaning? Does it really? I had been blessed with an amazing opportunity, a new life, and a new start when I lost all of my memories. I´d only been alive for two days, and yet I hadn’t lived yet, trapped within walls of the past.

"What?" The boy furrowed his thick eyebrows; his wide smile fading only slightly as he chuckled in what seemed like a confused amusement.

"What?" I said, puzzled by his response.

"What are you talking about?”

"What are you talking about?"

“What are you doing? Is this one of your games?”

“I’m not doing anything…what?”

The boy hesitated to respond, his eyes were wide, and he looked just as puzzled as I felt. He looked down at his lap and played with his fingers for a moment before responding. He looked up slowly and for a second he almost looked serious but he quickly gained a troubling smirk.

"Okay Scarlett." He stretched out my name as if it was a joke between us, “I’ll bite. I’m Danny." He winked, "Even though you already know that..." he muttered to himself crossing his arms and leaning back into his seat.

“What do you mean l already know that?" I crossed my arms, rather frustrated.

“What’s your deal Scar? It’s been four months and the second you see me you’re playing some ridiculous game. Come on I'm not in the mood right now."

“I have amnesia, I don’t remember, I’m sorry.”

“Amnesia? What? How much do you remember?" Leaning forward in his seat he shouted which sent a pang through my head.

"Nothing. Well bits and pieces of stuff, but nothing really."

Danny ran his fingers through his hair, looking down at his lap again. I took a look around the small shuttle, across from both our seats, was the control panel. A rectangular panel positioned over the window which was blackened, buttons, levers, and screens filled the panel some blinking rapidly with bright red lights. On the panel was a stack of clothes which I assumed was meant for me. The stack seemed to be a fabric mass of light salmon pink, above it a small tablet slice rested with ´Scarlett´ typed into it. Hmm guess I was right. I turned my back to Danny; managing to slip the light pink dress over my shorts and shirt, holding the dress up so that it covered my chest, I slipped my shirt off, slipping my shorts off as well. Nestled between the mass of salmon pink was pale pink pumps, which I easily slipped on. If I was going to die then, at least I was going to die beautiful.

I let my dark brown hair down, running my fingers through it as I sat down across Danny once again. The dark brown locks flowed more like hung from my head reaching the small of my back, do I like it long? Danny coughed and looked up at me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. I raised my eyebrows at him as if to tell him to go on; he let out a long, very exaggerated, sigh. How dramatic.

“I don't know why we’re here or where we’re going. You don't remember me but we committed a crime and that's why we’re here."

"We? As in together? What did we do?”

“It’s not safe to talk here. Anybody could be listening in.”

“Theres no one…here.” I pointed out, wondering if I was missing something.

“Listening device.” He stated, as if I was stupid not to think of that in the first place, pointing toward the control panel.

“Oh.”

A silence followed afterward, and I didn’t dare disturb it. I closed my eyes, my head raging fire within my skin. Danny’s fingers were tapping against his leg over and over again. I didn't quite sleep, but I wasn't quite awake, I was drifting. I drifted for a while, listening to Danny’s sporadic tapping.

The last thing I heard before falling asleep was Danny muttering sadistically to himself, "Well this sucks."