On the border of Angeles and Sonege, there is a place where the sun casts golden hues on the rolling hills and the green leaves of twisting oaks. Miles and miles of grape vines paint the red ground. Plump purple grapes fill their leafy stems. The air smells of life and dirt, yet a hint of smoke lingers in it. On top of the tallest hill sits a mansion. As the sun sets, its yellow rays create the perfect backdrop and casts the fields below into long shadows.
One could tuck themselves away in the hills and believe that there was no foul in the world.
In the fields below, Harley's hands rip the grapes off one by one as the hot sun fries the back of her neck. Red scratches cover her arms. Her once light grey shirt has turned dark grey from sweat. Dark spots swim on the edge of her vision. She pauses to swat them away.
"Date prisa antes de que él venga," says the man working next to her with his dark brown eyes focus behind her.
The supervisor strides towards them. She inhales and her hands fly across the branches. One catches her hand. Blood drips to the red soil.
A shadow falls over her.
Harley's work becomes slower as she heard his laborious breaths. She waits for his harsh words or the lash of the whip but none came. The shadow leaves leaving Harley to face the burning sun.
Harley places the grape that she plucked in her palm. The purple skin looked rich amongst the dirt caked palm.
"Hey! Get to work!" Shouts the supervisor.
In surprise, her hand clenches. The juice leaks between her fingers leaving muddy trails between her knuckles.
She returns to work humming a song that will never have words.
Her arms ache as she brings her last box to the shed. The endless night shone overhead lit with a thousand stars. The only pollution to block out their beauty came from the mansion. She glazes upon it, the light house amongst the dark sea.
Her heart aches through her body, threatening it break her apart.
"Ain't it beautiful?" The man says as he takes the box from her hands. "It would be nice to be a two and march around in a big fancy top hat." He shakes his head with a solemn look. He places the bin in the shed with a sigh, "But I guess thats just how the city falls."
His face scrunches in confusion as he spot tears reflecting the light of the lanterns in the shed on Harley's face. "Ya alright?"
"Fine," Says Harley with a Southern drawl.
"I don't believe ya."
Her lips quirk up in a smile as she turns away from the man.
She walks through the lines of dark grape vines standing attention to someone she could not see. In the distance, she could hear him shouting, enforcing nerves into the plants that they did not have.
Her heart hammers in her chest.
Nerves she did not have.
Her stomach turns; Her legs tremble. Every muscle in her body aches and burns.
Then she sees the light upon the dark hill.
Her stomach calms and she marches on.
When she reaches the top, heaven is before her.
Twinkling fairy lights flutter in the soft breeze that smells of honeysuckle and lavender. Flowers flourishes in their beds. A fountain babbles in a bed of roses.
Her dirty boots pound against the cobblestone pathways taking her through the garden like she's been here a million times. She pauses at a statue of Artemis with her bow and runs her fingers across the smooth stone face to the sandpaper feel of the broken nose.
She smiles and continues on till she comes to knobby oak tree on the edge of a cliff. The fountain sounds far off here and the darkness stretches for miles. Harley reaches inside her pocket and pulls out a golden medal on a blue ribbon. She touches it to her lips and places it to the base of the tree.
"I will... I will..." She stops and considers her words, then decides there is only one thing to say-
"I will always love you, Adonis. I promise to live-"
A blinding light illuminates the tree. Pain floods back to her; She staggers back. Her vision turns black. Through the roaring of her ears she hears,
"Get out! Now 7 before I call the soldiers!"
She covers her eyes with her hand and stumbles through the blinding white light. She makes it to the bottom of the stairs before the pain becomes too much to bare. She collapses onto the dirt. Tears flood from her, darkening the earth. A hand grasps her shoulder.
She tenses, but is too weak to look up.
"Hey." A voice says, "I knew ya weren't alright."
The voice parts the rushing in her ears. She could hear the crickets and the rustling grape vines.
She looks up.
The man that took her box stares down at her. Only she notices now that he isn't a man rather a boy around 17. A short, muscular, dark hair boy.
"Do ya need help up or do you just like the view from down there."
She tries to stand, but her body refuses to move.
"Alright. I gotcha." He pulls Harley to her feet and wraps her arms around his shoulder. "I would ask ya if you could make it home by yourself but ya track record isn't looking so good. So would ya mind if I help ya home? I promise I ain't no killer."
Harley shifts and says, "Suppose not. I live on the South Side of town. By the river."
They began the slow process of making their way through the rows of vines and into town.
"What's ya name?" He asks.
"Harley."
"Got a last name or are you one of those people who only goes by their last name? I knew someone that did that. He would beat me up and steal my lunch. Of course no one gave a darn about those ruddy sevens."
Harley smiles and says, "Ditch. Harley Ditch."
"Oh. I get why you don't tell anyone your last name now. If it makes ya feel better, my name is Jose Martinez and my fathers name is Martin Martinez the fifth."
"I don't mind my name. I think I might even force my husband to take it that way we can have a whole bunch of little Ditches. But I'd say you really lucked out that you're not Martin Martinez the 6th"
Jose laughs. The sound makes the weight in Harley's stomach disappear.
"My lil' Martin won't be as lucky," he says before asking in a fake southern accent, "Now, Harley what is a Southern Belle like ya doing in Sonege working the fields?"
She smiles at him, but says nothing on the matter.
"A woman of few words, ain't ya? One who likes to listen and learn rather than fill the air with pointless words... as my pop says. He should be saying bullock. How are ya suppose to learn if ya just sit in silence?"
"Don't know but I suppose you can learn a lot just by the body language of a person."
Jose scoffs, "Then I'll keep my mouth shout and ya tell me something about me, Miss Harley Ditch."
She laughs.
"How on earth am I suppose to see your body language? I can barely see the gravel on the road."
"Bullock. I told you."
"Of course, old wise one," Harley teases, "That's my house up there."
She points at a small square house with white walls and an orange roof. Moths swoop around the dingy light illuminating the front porch.
Harley tenses and says, "I haven't turned that light on."
She slips away from Jose, who nervously glances around.
"Are ya sure? Ya could of just forgot."
But Harley had already snuck to around the back of her house. She reaches into the bush and unwraps the metal wire from around the branches. She fashions it into a hook and slips it under the window.
Jose looks at her with wide eyes.
"Should we get soldiers? My mom won't be happy if I come home dead. Not happy at all. My pop will beat me till a come back to life, only to kill me again for making my mom unhappy. Oh, no I don't like this. Not at-"
"Jose, if you're just going to grumble, take yourself home. You don't know me. You don't have to stick around." She glares at him and pushes the window open.
As she surveys the dark room with only a bed, a dresser, and a book case, she says "As for guards. You said it yourself no one gives a darn about ruddy sevens."
She push off the window ledge and lands in the room with a dull thud. Light leaks in from beneath the door.
She crawls towards her bed and lifts the edge of the mattress. A gun lays black amongst the dark bed.
Her hand tremors as she reaches for it.
The air grew cold so it nips at her toes. It froze her bones so that they would never be be warm again.
"Got everything? GSD?" Asks Commander Firenze as he stands at the entrance of the tent dressed in his white camo. "You don't have to do this."
Harley clenches the metal dog tag. The cold metal cuts into her skin. She stands, slinging the gun across her body.
"I have less to live for than the other men."
A loud bang echoes through the memory General Firenze grabs his gun but Harley moves faster. The gun rickshaws in her hand. A bullet flies through the air.
Someone is screaming.
The air grows warm.
She blinks.
She is back in her room. The light is on. A woman stands at the doorway. The rough fabric of a soldier rubs her skin. He forces the gun from her hand. Jose mumbles in the corner. He shakes his dark hair. He glances at her and says,
"I should've asked if ya was a killer. What would my mama say?"
He trembles and in one fluid motion jumps out the window.
Harley staggers to her feet, shouting, "Jose wait! I'm not a..."
Pain explodes through her body. She collapses to the ground.
She twists to face the woman in the doorway. Her impressive figure and obvious wealth did nothing to intimidate the dirt caked Harley.
"What do you want?"
The woman cleared her throat.
"As of twenty minutes of ago, you have been named one of the selected. Congratulations are in order Miss Ditch."