STASIS

A fat man stood in front of a young girl-kieran- stooping down to her height. The man looked tall, still towering over Kieran as he was draped in the shadow of the lower city

“You’re officially an employee of Lower State,” the man said, trying his best to give a pleasing smile

“Employee?” Kieran wondered, looking up at the man while holding the hem of her dirty tattered gray dress something a slave would normally wear

The man nodded in response, putting his broad chubby fingers on her head “It means you're going to work for me”

Kieran only nodded in response, unaware of what she was agreeing to. Her attention was captured by the bright neon lights in the upper city, which was a stark contrast to where she was. Mud stuck to her slippers, passersby drowned in shadow, ducking in and out of alleyways, and the unmistakable sound of a man dying.

.

.

.

.

Kieran took off the link helmet and laid back in the chair, looking up at the ceiling. Thinking back to her past- even though she should have gone back to work- Kieran could have avoided this life.

Kieran could have avoided being indebted to lower state but alas, she was a naive child back then. She lifted her hand to the ceiling as if hoping she'd disappear and appear in the upper city, but the bracelet on her wrist brought her back to reality.

On the bright side of being indebted, if they hadn't taken her in, she'd be dead. Children don't live long on the streets of the lower city.

“Kieran!” Vivien Whisper–shouted, “What are you doing?”

“You're not blind. I'm done, and I'm relaxing”

“Do you want a repeat of last time an overseer saw you slacking,” Vivien argued

Kieran rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore Vivien. The last time she ‘disrespected’ an overseer, she got put to sleep outside, in the cold, for a week.

‘It's a miracle I didn’t die of hyperthermia with how cold the lower city is at night’

The bells rang overhead, signaling it was time for a shift change. Kieran got up and headed out the door with Vivien, heading to their designated sleeping quarters.

Above them, the lights of the upper city seeped down, outshining the stars above.

“Do you ever wonder what up there's like?” Kieran asked Vivien, looking over at her before looking back at the upper city.

“No. I'm more focused on surviving down here” Vivien answered, keeping her eyes on the ground in front of her

“You do know you can buy your way up there?” Kieran asked as the upper city disappeared from view.

“Can't buy your way up with this,” Vivien replied, raising her right hand and showing her bracelet. A reminder to every person who wore it that they were tied to the lower city.

Kieran and Vivien entered the shared dormitory with an unhealthy amount of others shoved in there. The room was like trying to force an extra battery into a lamp. Cramped, hard, useless and unnecessary.

Vivien sighed next to Kieran before mumbling heading to her bunk “The world wasn't always like this…The modern era was better”