Ancient born

These were different times, so different from the stories I was told about our history. Mama Nancy used to tell tales of a people filled with hopes and dreams to conquer the odds and seemly achieve the impossible. Her description of what was sounded so beautiful. It left me wishing that I was born during those times. Truthfully, it sounded like a fairy tale, and we all know what they say about fairy tales; they never existed.

Apparently, there was once equality among us. I was told we once lived in a sect-less society where the family unit was sacred and valued. Kids were shown unconditional love; they weren’t exploited and valued based on their usefulness. They could dream and be filled with so much hope for their future, encouraged to love and be loved by friends and family. Sadly, things changed.

This is Urania, and things are completely different now. For one, kids are not allowed to grow up with their families anymore. They are groomed in the children's halls until they come of age for an outing ceremony.

Each time I think about my time in those halls, I don’t seem to recall any memory. The first-ever memory I recall was of the day I was outed. I was 10 years old at the time, which is the normal age for the outing ceremony. It was the first and worst day of my life.

It’s been 11years since that day and I still have nightmares about it. I have never stopped asking myself if there was something I could have done differently to change the result of my reading. I remember hoping it was a wrong reading altogether. I even tried to convince myself that a second reading would give a different result. I just needed to be tested again and everything would be fine.

As they dragged me out me of the hall, I hoped my screams would save me from the doom they had sentenced me to, but they paid me no mind. They just went on with the reading of the next child. I guess I wasn’t the first child they heard screaming like their life depended on it.

They called me a parasite, meaning I had no value. I existed at the mercy of others. Since I had no natural gifts, the least I could do was to serve the ones that had, so they said. People like me were called an abomination to Urania. I wasn’t even given a birth name. No one tagged a parasite was. We could keep the serial numbers given to us at the children’s hall, but that was the only means of identification granted us.

They assigned me to the fields, to labour on a Royal’s farm. It took seven years of extra labour for me to have enough money to buy a name for myself. I chose Evelyn Bolt. There is no hidden meaning to why I choose the name. It just sounded right at the time.

There are many others like me, “Parasites”. We are the most populated sect in Urania. It was said it bothered the royals that the number of abominations kept increasing yearly and the thought of this always gladdens my heart. I should at this point establish that any discomfort to the royals gladdens my heart.