Prologue: Along Came Trouble

My first memory was of darkness. It was the kind of darkness that swallowed you whole, the kind of darkness that stole the words clogging your throat. I don't remember how I got there, wedged into the tiny crawl space behind the metal paneling in my parents' closet, but it felt like I had been there always. Like maybe I had grown out of the very walls that surrounded me.

It was cold, and I was swaddled in a thin woolen blanket that was scratchy against my skin. There was another body pressed against mine, tiny and warm, the only thing that kept me from crying out.

When I got older, I realized that the person next to me had been been my sister, and she hadn't been pressing close to me to keep me warm-she had been trying to steal my blanket.

To be honest, that event still described our relationship.

Eden had always wanted what was best for herself-the best clothing and the best food, the most of our parents' love and the title of most doting pupil. She never hesitated to trample others on her way to success. In fact, that seemed like all she knew how to do.

But everyone loved her, myself included, even though at times I wished to be the one standing in the light of day.

~XxX~

When Earth was on the path to its final destruction, a group of wise men and women created something called the Ark, a space station to house the remainder of humanity. It was ingenious. And it was the only salvation for those left, so it had to be.

But the Ark was a harsh place to live. Everything was rationed-clothing, food, and even air. Any crime, no matter how small, was punishable by death. Those who didn't follow the law were Floated, no questions asked. Life was fleeting and expendable, and humanity had lost its will to think otherwise. Those under the age of eighteen were granted a special kind of leniency-they were awarded prison cells for their crimes instead of the airless vacuum that was space. But as soon as their eighteenth birthday rolled around, there was nothing that could save them from being Floated.

Another one of the strict laws forbade families from having more than one child. That was the law that slammed into my family like a physical force when my mother found out she was having twins. My mother was immediately terrified, and my father was as well. Twins were practically unheard of. It had been nearly fifty years since a pair had been born, and because of the poor conditions we all lived in, the youngest had died soon after birth. Of course, the news was kept strictly between my parents and my mother's doctor, Abigail Griffin. My mother was convinced that she should have the pregnancy terminated completely to avoid any conflict with the law, but my father pleaded with her to reconsider.

My mother relunctantly agreed to carry my sister and I to full term, and when the time for our birth came, my father was the only one present. Trained as a medical assistant, he delivered both my sister and I without any sort of issue. The only problem was, unlike Abby had predicted, both of us were completely healthy. Somehow, as the younger, tinier child, I had clung to life with a stubborness that I would carry for the rest of my life.

Moira, my mother, was hysterical. She only wanted her eldest daughter-she had never asked for two girls, she had told my father, crying. She had never meant to unintentionally break the law. She didn't want to be Floated. Moira refused to name me when the time came. She called my identical, older twin sister Eden. She was to be perfect in every sense of the word, just like the land she was named after. My father had been the only one to hold me that day, and the name Elodie had struck a chord in his heart, so that was what I was called. It meant 'foreign riches', I learned later on. You were my special surprise, Elz. You needed a special name, he had whispered to me one day when I was still small.

That was when I still felt special, like something with worth.

After the quick delivery, my parents made a joint decision-they would tell Abby that I had been a stillborn at birth, and my mother didn't even have the chance to hold me or name me before my father had my tiny corpse Floated. That was the lie that saved me, much to my mother's chagrin. The thought of breaking the law terrified her so much that I became something that she resented. Eden was constantly in her arms, and she refused to even address me by my name. There was a crawl space hidden behind a loose metal slab in their closet, and when inspections went on or the atmosphere of the Ark was off, that was where I spent six days out of every week.

Since Eden was the first born and my mother's favorite, she got to experience the Ark in all of its glory, every single day. Well, except for Wednesday. My father and mother bickered about it, but it had eventually been decided that Wednesday would be my day to interact with the world. Just one day out of every week, I would be allowed to see the Ark and its inhabitants, and I wouldn't have to worry about being discovered.

I was instructed to pretend to be my sister, on these days. My father had taken me by the shoulders and told me that if anyone found out that I was not Eden, I would be taken away from them forever and he and my mother would be Floated. Just the thougtht of my father dying was enough to scare me into complete compliance. I learned all of Eden's mannerisms-her nasally giggle and the way that she always talked with her hands, the way she tapped her foot when she was anxious and the half-smirk she gave when she thought she was being clever. I knew Eden better than she knew herself, and I blended well. No one ever thought I was someone else, even in those earlier days of me attending school.

My father was impressed, and my mother remained indifferent toward me. She still said, 'you' when talking to me. That, or she purposely called me Eden. It was almost as if she thought not acknowledging my existence would make me not real. Moira's behavior toward me slowly began to reflect in my sister as well. Eden didn't want to go into the Den (what I had dubbed the crawl space) on Wednesdays. "It's not fair," she had pouted. "Wednesday is the only day we do plays, and Elodie is there for every single one of them!" Never mind that I always came home and recited her the plays, asking if she wanted to reenact them with me. Eden grew to resent me almost as much as my mother did, and I felt alone.

Even my father began to distance himself from me as I grew older. He began to distance himself from everyone, in fact. His dark eyes no longer gleamed with the mirth they once had, and his conversations with me were few and far between. I still held onto the hope that I was his favorite, because without it, I felt like I would die. Who was I if I wasn't my father's special girl? I was just a burden to my mother, a hinderance to my sister, and nonexistent to the people of the Ark. Even when I was out in public, I was known as Eden Chambers. No one knew of Elodie, the secret girl that was never wanted, the second daughter that ruined everything.

We held the same pattern for years, up until the Unity Day masquerade one month before our seventeenth birthday. My father had allowed me to go instead of my sister, the first time I had ever been out on a day other than Wednesday. Eden had pouted, of course, utilizing her big brown eyes in a way that I had never tried with my own. "It's a mask party, Daddy. I don't want to miss it! Can't we both go?"

My father had looked like he was considering it.

"Don't even think about it, Zander," my mother had snapped, trying to the best of her ability to scrub the dirt out of the laundry she had collected from the Ark earlier that day. Her blue eyes had been hard. "Pick one of them to go. If someone sees how much they look alike, it's all over. It will be the end of all of us." She had raked a hand through her thick red curls and sighed, avoiding looking at me.

It had been decided that I would go, since I had never experienced any of the Unity Day celebrations other than the history lesson we learned in school. I had pulled on a gray frock dress that had once belonged to my mother, with faded black tights and my worn boots that laced up to my knees. My father had crafted me a mask out of the gauze strips that had been alotted to our family, touching it up with a few well place feathers snagged from my pillow. "Have a good time, Elodie," he had whispered. My hair fell freely around my shoulders, out of the usual ponytail that Eden wore, and he wrapped a strand of it around his finger. "You look like a princess, my special girl."

I had remembered hugging him tightly, and then wandering, in a daze, down to the festivities. There had been several people I thought I recognized, but the masks and the pulsing lights made everything slightly distorted. I had danced as Eden, finding her friends and shrieking along with them to the music. It had been the most fun I'd ever had, and for a moment, I had forgotten that I was supposed to be my sister. A boy had grabbed me by the wrist, spinning me around in a circle slowly. I had giggled, looking up at him. He had dirty blonde hair and bright green eyes framed by a red cloth mask, and the devilish smirk on his lips had completely undone me. "I'm Drew!" he had called over the music. His hands had crept down to settle on my waist. I hadn't minded it. "What's your name?"

"I'm El-" I had frozen, the rhythm of the music crashing over me like tsunami. Fear had wedged itself between my ribcage. I'd almost given myself away.

"What was that?" Drew had asked, leaning in closer. "Sorry, this damn music is too loud."

"Eden. My name is Eden," I had finally breathed. I sighed and pushed Drew's hands off my waist. "Sorry, but I-I have to go. My family is strict about curfew." That, at least, wasn't a lie. I had seen disappointment flash in his eyes, and I wound my fingers in the thin material of my frock. "Maybe I'll see you around, though?" I had called back, trying to send him a smile.

Drew had grinned back and nodded, wriggling his way back through the crowd, and then I was running torward the exit. I was nearly around the corner when I saw a guard drag a dark haired girl behind him down the hallway.

It was only later, when I was knestled safely into the Den, that I heard my parents murmuring about what had happened. The girl that I had seen being dragged away was named Octavia Blake, and she was an illegal child, daughter of Aurora Blake and sister to the guard that had tried to save her, Bellamy. Aurora was designated to be Floated the next morning for her crime, Bellamy was being demoted to a janitor's position for his part in the deception, and Octavia was to be imprisoned with all the other juvenile deliquents aboard the Ark. For simply existing.

Something had clenched in my heart then, a kind of fear that I had never known. A girl like me had been damned to a fate she didn't deserve, and now there was no question in my mind-if they found out about me, my family would be killed, and my sister and I would be imprisoned. The Council made no exceptions.

The name scare earlier had put me on edge, but the news about Octavia Blake terrified me.

And as it turned out, things were about to get much, much worse...

Hello! So I told myself I wasn't going to start this, since I'm currently working on two other stories, but hey, this idea was bouncing around in my head after I marathoned the first season of the 100. And I have no self control, so here-have a story! My name is Harley, and I'd love if you guys would review to let me know what you think. Also, I'm currently working on two Teen Wolf fics, so if you're interested, feel free to check those out. Thanks so much for reading!