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Without the Expulsion Tests, we wouldn’t be able to control those who cannot conform to the unity and order needed within our society. Sanctum keeps us safe and upholds this society's virtues.
The chips can turn the most rampant mind into one of the calmest in a matter of seconds. Imagine a lifetime of never wondering if your body is in peak condition.
"When an Untouchable or Unfortunate dies, we take them to be cremated. Why bag a Marked body?"
Part of the coding behind our chips ensures that trivial things like vanity and jealousy are almost non-existent.
Miles of daisies marked the Earth, creating the first sign of hope after all the destruction. There isn't a part of New Haven that doesn't have the tiny white flowers planted somewhere.
Not often do people show emotion in public. It's considered immodest in many ways.
I want to look away from it. I want to loathe the way his eyebrows raise when he grins and despise the downturn of his mouth as he holds his smile.
“Is that why your face is so red right now? Honesty has never looked so guilty,”
Nothing can live for more than a few days beyond the ward. Or maybe that's just what we say to convince ourselves we aren’t in confinement.
But I need more than perfect. I need flaws. I need something to feel real for once in my life.
“Who did this?” He questions, pointing to the house. “Was it one of those two idiots? Don't you dare lie. I can tell when you’re lying to me,” He takes a step closer. Unlike everyone else who has been this close, I don’t want him away from me. His scent engulfs my nose with notes of cinnamon and oak. I want to yank him down to me, exploring his face with my hands. I wonder if it’s as satisfying to touch as it is to look at.
“For the glory and grace of the fucking New World Order,”
“It shouldn't be in my head-” “It will kill you if you try to remove it. It’s attached to your prefrontal cortex. Remove it, and you go with it,”
“You don’t know anything about what I’d like to happen to you, Forest. What I want eats me
“Never question your mind, Forest. It will guide you in ways you never knew you needed,”
“After today, don't be surprised if I’m throwing rocks at your window in the middle of the night,” Xavier says, making me blush all over again.
“Some part of you must have been thinking of me whenever you were with him. The only way this works is if you are thinking of the other person, and they are thinking of you, too,”
“The scars remind me of one thing.” He says silently in my mind. "What?” I question, letting his voice guide my breathing back to normal. “That any of it was real, to begin with,”
“I won't let them hurt you again,” I whisper silently. He whispers back. It's quiet, but it's there. “That makes two of us.”
“But then he touched you,” Fallan continues, bringing his lips close to my neck, hovering over the same sensitive spot Xavier had explored earlier. “Like he knew you. Like he knew my Little Dove,” Fallan continues, not once letting his lips land on the skin. “The memory of him touching you drives me fucking insane,”
“Dove. I’ll call you Dove,” He says, smiling at me. “Why?” I question, feeling my legs fumble as he finally raises me all the way up, holding me off the ground as my arms wrap around him tighter. “Well, you see, Forest,” He says with a smile. “you’re the first real symbol of hope I’ve seen in this society in a long time,”
I can smell her scent on him. He’s leaning against my wall with a detached look on his face that only makes me want to rip his head off the longer I navigate his head space.
“You abandoned us all for a girl and a promise of a better life, turning your back on everything you knew, forcing your daughter to believe she was crazy when your fears about her started to become a reality,”
“My daughter is safe if she stays in the world we created for her,”
“I have your body mapped out completely, but I've never allowed myself to explore it. You're more intoxicating than a bottle of scotch. I can’t escape how you make me feel and I want to drown in you,”
“The sooner you are out of my life, the better,” I spit, wanting to feel his hands touch me once more.
“Does my heart still beat?” Fallan questions down the bond, his voice low and solemn. I nod, not needing to say anything else. “Then you will never be alone.”
“I want you to look at me the way I’ve seen you look at him,”
“Because I crave you,” He says, his lips grazing over my nose. “and I want to be the one who knows every part of you.” His hands continue moving along my curves. “I think about painting your body with my tongue. And I want to be the one to fulfill every single one of your desires and know your every want,”
“
“How often are you putting up a wall so I don’t hear your thoughts about me?” I question, his head slowly shaking. He leans down, his nose inches away from my own. “Maybe I'll stop censoring my thoughts, and you can go as mad as I have,”
“My eyes are up here, Little Dove,” He says, gently tugging my chin back up to look at him.
“If you look at me like that again while thinking of him, Forest, or show me images of him touching you,” He mutters, his anger now more discernible. He moves my chin, facing it toward a metal table filled with odds and ends. “I can promise you I won’t be able to stop myself from laying you across that table and fucking you until you forget his name.” My mouth snaps shut. "I will make sure he knows I've had you.”
“One kiss, and I can never walk away. One kiss, and I am yours until the day my heart stops.”
“I dream of your existence, Forest,” His voice is filled with longing. “You were my morning, noon, and night, and it all was ripped away in an instant. Now I just want to fucking tear your clothes off in front of him and show him that you will never be his.”
“Hate you?” He questions, his head shaking. “Forest, I’m in love with you,”
“Make them afraid, beautiful, and the world is yours to take,” Xavier whispers, his grin wide.
“Misery loves company Forest,” He begins, his eyes panning to Fallan. “And I’m the most miserable of them all.”
“Welcome to the resistance, Ms. Blackburn,”
Fragments of me are lost to the past in everything I was, Shadows surround all that I have now become.
