I live in a little town called Justice. To be fair, there is anything but. It's beautiful, if you are in the right place. Lucky for me, I am even though I shouldn't be. According to the law, there are certain...regulations. You have to fit into a click and, if you don't, you go down town. The rules are: No gays, lesbians, bi's, muslims, jews, blacks, the list goes on. Yet, even though there is no equality, they call it justice. At least you get to live in the gutters. It's what some would call tranquil, others would say it's perfect. I, on the other hand, think it is hell. But, if I said it, I'd be taken. How or where is something I don't know, but the why is obvious. It's for having a voice. They say this age has evolved, but we've moved back to the days of true discrimination and hate for being unique. Every day, we sneer and scold. Well, all bar me. That's just how the other half live.
Roughly, I'm pulled up from the pavement. I scramble for my knife. The streets are tinged red, commotion deafening my ears. Stab. More blood. Then the reinforcements come, armed and poised. All well brought up and taught how to hold a gun. But they don't have the motive to really shoot. They don't go through days of suffering, scrounging in the dirt for left overs. They didn't have their little brother taken. They haven't gone through the hurt and reached the loathing like I have. So I'll fight to the death. No question. I don't care where they take me, what they do or say. Nothing will change my mind. These bastards are evil and deserve to die. Every. Single. One.
My hand slips from his. We run into the night, guns blazing behind us like fireworks on independence day. Once well out of reach, we let our gaze meet, seducing each other. It's like Romeo and Juliet, forbidden love. He vanishes into the night, back to fight for equality. Me on the other hand, I go sit alone in my room and watch the town burn. It's a crime, us being as one, but nothing else gives me the thrill. I am a shadow, slinking in and out with no questions asked. Shadows hold secrets, secrets not even Blake can know. Like that I've killed a man.
My names Blaine Anderson and I like to think that I'm not afraid. I live in Hope, the run down part of Justice. I'm not exactly the stereotypical guy here. My sexualities not a secret but I still disagree with the rules. I'm almost the eyes of the town, the holder of the secrets. My best friend Blake is like me, completely against everything about this stupid war and just wants equality. But, unlike everyone else in this town, we want the violence to cease and the barriers to be broken. Blake chose to come to hope, rather than go to his rightful home in One. He didn't want to be labelled and didn't want to be part of the crowd. He has a girlfriend though, Nellie Veitenheimer. She's an odd one. She is sly but obvious, a shadow but a sun beam, a link in this broken chain. They are practically re-creating R and J, letting the tragedy play out like a movie. And me? I'm openly gay and have my eye on someone in One. But I'm too scared off the risks, especially after what happened to Jake Puckerman five years ago.
There are always two sides to a story and this is mine.