Change is inevitable.
It listens to no one and can occur at any moment, nobody knows what change will bring. Fortune? Fufillment? Failure? Or something that turns your world upside down.
A tea table and a chair resided in the corner of a empty room, right next to it was a opened window which allowed for some light illuminated by the moon to enter the room, opposite the table layed a young boy
with pale skin and jet black hair. The boy had a eye disorder called Aniridia which made his eyes look completely black, the condition also made his eyes sensitive to light which was the reason he normally went outside at night.
He layed their looking at the moon, for some reason it looked extra bright to him today. after glaring at the it for a couple more seconds he looked down at the object he was holding in his palm. It was a small unopened bottle of orange juice, ever since a kid he had enjoyed drinking orange juice, he didn't get many chances to drink it but whenever he had one he would always savour every moment. With a grim expression clearly written all over his face he placed his other hand on the lid of the bottle and twisted it slowly. Placing the lid on the floor he raised the bottle to his lips and took a sip. He tried to not drink all of it at once, savouring the orange juice was something he wanted to do, not cause he was extremely thirsty but because it could mostly likely be the last thing he consumed, so this mission was extremely important to him. After a while he sighed and placed the empty bottle next to the lid and then started to glare at the moon again, but this time he saw eleven moons and a dark red sky.
He immediately tensed up, not knowing the events which were about to transpire scared him to the core.
"The makutu is starting to take place"
He said with a trembling voice, Arlo was contempt with the fact he might die but deep down he still feared it. He didn't have anything precious nor a reason to live so why was he so scared of death. Arlo was conflicted with himself, will death be the end of everything or just the beginning?
Two weeks ago, Arlo started feeling a build up of pressure in his head and his vision would start to blur from time to time. At first he thought this pain would subside and go away as quickly as it came, but to his surprise it didn't stop and it only grew stronger, after a while he started hearing a voice in his head. It repeatedly said:
"You will bloom"
His suspicion of carrying makutu which he had tried to deny was immediately confirmed when he heard the voice in his head for the first time. A kid from the border who carried makutu, having no knowledge of the basics of fighting and survival was destined to die from its gruesome trial. If his life was to come to an end would he be satisfied with the life he had lived? would he be happy during his last moments or be filled with immense regret?
After learning that he would soon bloom, at night Arlo headed out wearing black trousers which were a bit torn allowing some of his knees to be exposed he also wore a black jumper and a grey t-shirt underneath it. He walked through the empty and quite street looking up at the glamorous night sky, walking from the outer border to the inner border would take some time so he had brought a small bar of chocolate to make the journey a bit sweet.
Chocolate in the outer border was scarce but so were a lot of things, Arlo liked to hoard things he thought were special and chocolate to him was one of those things but because he had little time left he didn't want to just let it rot so he had brought it with him. He took small bites to fully experience the sweet goodness and would also let some it melt on his tongue to savour it as much as he could.
' So good '
He thought as he approached an officer who was in his late twenties with brown hair and eyes. He had tan skin, a chizzled jawline and broad shoulders, people who looked at him for the first time would be intimidated by his build but he was actually a kind man. Arlo had met him only a handful amount of times as he usually didn't go to the inner border, however even though they had talked for only a couple of times he could tell that he was a genuine person who took pride in his work.
"Hello Mr William, how's the work going?"
Arlo said with a soft voice, he felt easy around him so making conversation wasn't that difficult. The office looked at Alro and then with a smile appearing on his face
" Not to bad just the usual, but what brings you here Arlo?"
He said with a hint of confusion appearing on his face.
Normally people from the outer border would come to the inner border for rations and a bit of money if they were lucky, so seeing Arlo today even though rations had been given out a couple days prior confused the man
With a bit of hesitation Arlo said
"I came here to say that I carry the makutu, I've experienced it's symptoms for a couple days now"
The officer became still like a statue for a bit after he heard what Arlo had said.
"Ar..are you sure it's makutu"
He said with a trembling voice.
Anyone who failed the trial presented by makutu would turn into a hideous monster and start causing destruction, destroying anything in its path. Which was the reason why people who carried makutu were feared, the chance they might turn into a powerful monster wasn't that high but just the idea they might become one scared them.
A couple decades ago a thick mysterious grey fog consumed parts of the world, with the fog came Makutu. Humans looked at makutu as a outwardly entity which puts men and women through a trial to see if they are capable enough to evolve. This sudden change made the world go Into chaos. Having no knowledge of the fog or makutu led to the death of hundreds of millions of people throughout the world, and even more people were forced into a life of poverty and misery. The world had to adapt to change and it did, but it was of minimal effort.
Mostly all regions in the world which were inhabited had three sections to it.
The city was the first and mostly definitely the best place to live, in the city lived the rich, government individuals, evolved humans, people with meaningful jobs - like teachers, doctors , lawyers etc - and a couple others who were important in maintaining the city. The city itself is surround by large metal walls, the reason behind is so monsters can't enter the city, but everybody knew that it was just an excuse. The real reason was to have a concrete division between the more fortunate and the less.
The second section is the inner border, people who live outside the city but near the metal walls are residents of the inner border. Most people live their because of the rations that are given out and the protection that's set in place. The third section is the outer border, people who dislike interacting with others or those who enjoy spending time alone live in the outer border, however it's also the most dangerous section. Whoever lives outside the city and has any possibility of carrying makutu is told to go to the outer border, so that if they ever become a monster they won't put lots of people in danger and destroy important infrastructure.
"Yes I'm sure of it. I hear voices saying I'm ready to bloom"
Arlo said, the officer looked at him with a sadden expression on his face
" When did the symptoms start?"
Scratching his head Arlo thoughtfully said
"I started feeling pressure in my head a couple days ago, but I started hearing voices when I woke up this morning"
The officer looked up at the night sky for a couple seconds, then with a sigh he looked at Arlo
"If you started hearing voices today then in two weeks the trial will happen. I'll tell the government so that they deploy someone if anything goes wrong during your trial"
Arlo nodded
"Thank you I appreciate it, that's all I had to say so I'm going to take my leave"
Arlo twisted his body and started to head back until he heard the officer say
" Wait Arlo"
The officer walked towards him then he moved his right hand into the right side pocket of his pants and pulled out a bottle of orange
"Take this Arlo, it's not much but it's better than nothing"
Arlo looked at him then with a with a smile he took the bottle.
" Thank you"
With the bottle in his hand and a smile on his face he walked back to the outer border.
Now two weeks later the trial was starting to take place.
The eleven moons looked exactly the same except the fact they were each a different colour. Even though Arlo should have been terrified he found looking at the multiple moons thrilling. After staring at the moons for some time he stood up and with a satisfied pace walked towards the open window.
Arlo's body was still in the empty room, but his soul was in between a place that no one knew. His soul wasn't on earth nor was it in the trial, it was at the boundary between the two.
Arlo kept walking till he got near the window, what he saw made him shiver.
It was a massive body of water which kept on going for as far as his eyes could see. The body of water had small waves crashing into each another but except from that it was quite still. Arlo was wondering were it began and were it ended, just what kind of place was this.
People thought of the makutu as an outwardly entity, but was it really? Arlo knew the basics of what happened with people who carried the makutu, with his knowledge he thought of it as more like a game. The makutu was a game and he was more like a character in it, so if his assumption was write then who had made this game? Who had made makutu? Well Arlo could have been wrong but their wasn't enough known about this weird entity to make a good assumption.
As he kept pondering with himself he heard a sudden sound, forgetting his thoughts he looked at the direction where he heard the sound come from, which made him look up at the red sky. With a focused look he tried to analyse the sky to see if anything was out of place, he gazed at every part of the sky that his eyes could see to find out what had made that sound. After a while his eyes landed on a certain part of the sky which was right next to one of the eleven moons. His eyes widened with fear
"It's a…a crack"
A crack had appeared in the sky, as if reality itself was being torn apart. With a wide mouth he kept looking at the sky with more cracks appearing on it every second, until he heard a horrible sound coming from the tea table next to him. It sounded like a piece of chalk being scraped on a board, such a excruciating sound that it made him put his fingers in his ears. Looking at the table made him realise that something or someone was trying to write something on it.
The boundary Arlo was currently in, was crumbling a little more every second. This place was the boundary between earth and the place his trial was about to take place, which meant that he would start losing his consciousness because the boundary was being torn apart. Looking back at the sky, Arlo was able to see that the small crack now stretched for miles on end.
Suddenly he started to feel weak, his mind was starting to shut down.
"The trial is beginning"
Arlo weakly said.
Before he fully went unconscious he looked back at the tea table to see if whatever was etched into made any sense. He glared at the table, their were only three words ingrained onto the wooden table. As he started blacking out, he read
[Never trust perfection]