Prologue
I walk through the old city, unsure of why I even bother at this point. The night has clearly taken hold as the neon shines so brightly for the many late night lust feasts that are the norm here. The pavement wet with the rain that I swear is a curse just wanting to bite me with cold. People making their shady deals, I suppose drugs or nights of wonder. I can never tell these days. Guys make their cat call attempts, thinking I am just another girl for them to flirt with. I just ignore them and keep walking on, knowing something is calling me. Everyone who is up at this hour is searching for something that is dead set on dooming them. I, on the other hand, am searching for something quite different yet somehow the exact same. Not like I would let it show that I am searching. What I am searching for, though, is not something I hope to find. Yet I have to find them every single time anyways.
Everyone here has some sort of power. Some sort of thing that allows them to be useful to the world. Something that allows them to someone to somebody. At least, most of them are useful. Here, not so much. As I pass by a girl who can turn her body completely transparent, I get why people are here. Another person shakes as he grows his ability to just run, a man takes a needle to his arm as he says it stops him from reading minds. All the norm here.
Everyone here had a grander purpose that they rejected. Sort of how it goes here. After a certain age, usually between 12 and 14, the power grows. From there, the government assigns a role for the kids and trains them from the day they start controlling their powers. People rarely question it. Those who can fly join rescue missions, some survey things, and the film industry. Those who can control the elements are sent to factories, rarely getting to do more than mold metal. Those with brilliance goes into research. It is all pretty standard.
Until you get here.
There are people here, much like me, who rejected that. Not because they couldn’t be a help, but rather they didn’t see themselves as being a help. The guy I saw earlier trying to stop himself from reading minds? At some point, he was trained to be a spy. But disappeared from his command and ended up here. The girl who turned invisible was apart of the army, dishonourably discharged after a mental health crisis. Although I never met the guy who is able to run fast, I am sure he has a similar story. We all have that sort of story. Not to mention all the powers the government deemed useless and just stuck them with some middle man job. I know there is a woman here who always has perfect hair. Like that is her power, perfect hair no matter what she tries. Here, we gather away from all the useful and praised people, just for some peace.
Actually, you would think with the drugs and focus on lust, this place would be a lot worse than it actually is. But in reality, its not the worse. Among the clearly lustful side, there is also a lot more tame activities that can be done. Libraries that are opened 24/7, cafes that love their warm and flavorful teas and coffees, friendly restaurants with the best food you could imagine, and plenty of little support places. For a place of those forgotten and rejected by the factions, its pretty warm.
Although I guess I never did tell you about the factions, now did I? There are four main ones, with five smaller ones below them. The four big ones are Ravens, Frost, Scales, and Violet. Not sure why the names are so non sensical, but those four are the highest of the high in terms of factions you go into. Ravens being the richest, and being where my family comes from. All selfish assholes, the lot of them are. Movie stars and well paid rescue work live there. My dad being one of the bigger movie stars out there. The others are more or less the same, but with different focus. Frost house those who are able to do incredible research, create human like puppet beings for teaching and testing, or those who are especially able to control elements and endure the worse of them. Scales are the military, I am sure mind reader dude knows all about them. Then there is the Violets. Nothing of note about them, if I maybe honest. No one really knows what they do, just whatever they do gets them lots of funding.
Then there are the smaller factions. The Sandcastles, which is mostly what they call unskilled factory workers. Makes no sense cause they are all skilled in some way. The Dark, a group who knows dark magic for some reason. So while they don’t have “jobs” so to speak, people don’t mess with them. Lights, who have light magic and focuses on healing people. They surely would be higher up on the faction list if there wasn’t so many of them. Then there is the Hearts, who have powers related to cooking. How they became a faction I really don’t know. Then there is the Tests, who are the teachers of the world. A group who are probably the picture of a golden retriever human, while also being smart. Make sense of that.
Then that leaves us. The ones without a faction, without a place to go. Our part of the city isn’t even marked on the map unless its some city official map for city hall purposes only. Forgotten about, barely helped, and thrown to the side. We make up the rather unwanted jobs. The cleaners, the retail workers, the bar tenders. Cheap Labor that comes with a party trick.
I can’t help but hate it.
But that is how life is in Trench. People of powers having their lives trained up to one thing, and if you reject it or its just not useful, you are sent here. Not fair, but it doesn’t have to be. Either way, I am still searching.
My power is something that is somewhat of an oddity, if even that. Actually, if you asked the government, I don’t have a power. Somehow a first in this world, which has caused me nothing but issues. But I do have a power. I can see doors. Doors that are seemly invisible to anyone else here. When I step into the door, I find myself in a whole new world. Sometimes it mirrors the world I know, other times its completely different. I have taken care to spray paint “STAY OUT” on some of the doors that I fear of. But what these doors are, I have no idea. All I know is I can step into them, explore the world it puts me in, and come out without losing time in this world. While the world isn’t paused when I am in the doors, it barely moves. I come out after weeks of adventure, only to find five minutes have past. Why that is, again, couldn’t tell you.
But that is why I am off looking again today, for a new door to give me the answers of what all this really is. I have no idea if anything will give me a clue, but it is better than nothing. I past by a lot of doors that I marked before. But not yet the one I have been searching for.
