Prologue:

Keagan. Her bright golden locks fell effortlessly behind her perfect ears. Her baby blue eyes resembled her mothers, and she stood very slender. They were refugees of Ember. She felt safe now, they were out of the unknown. The lights of Ember always powered the way, without them they'd be lost.

KEAGAN'S VIEW:

Lina Mayfleet, who knew she'd be the one who would save Ember? She always was content and shy in the school house. She stuck to herself a lot, but she did talk to others enough to make the current teacher happy.

I guess that everyone thought she was so bubbly and full of personality. From what I could gather, she was secretly holding herself together through drawing. She drew pictures of what she thought the rest of the world looked like. No one thought there was more to the world. Well we actually all did, but we never mentioned it.

Poppy was cute. I wish she was my little sister. I would love when she'd come running to greet Lena saying "WE-NA! WE-NA! WE-NA!" I was jealous. I did have a younger sister named Paisley. As you can see, in Ember we like to have unique names! Well back to Paisley, she never greeted me as "KWEAGON!" or whatever. She always knew how to talk properly, even when she was 2 months old. My mom called her the prodigy child, basically referring to me as the mental child. It always made me mad!

Doon, oh how I loved him. Most people would call him a weirdo, but to me he was always knowledgeable. This is mostly why I was jealous of Lina. I somehow could sense that Doon was in love with Lina. Why not me? I was so much smarter and prettier than her!

THE ESCAPE:

When I heard Lina and Doon ran away I thought they went to go get married or something. It never fazed me that they had found the exit to Ember. I mean how two 12 year old kids could find the exit when even our mayor couldn't. Then when the letter was found it changed everything.

The mayor tried to sneak out without letting any of us know. He was like that, always hiding things from the people of Ember. Of course only the children noticed that he tended to do that. Mostly because we had better insights than the adults did. We were raised smarter than them. I wouldn't let him go without paying the price. I followed the directions with all of my things I needed to bring down to the exit. I found the mayor there. I took my knife which I brought to carve some wood for fun. I stabbed him in the back with all my strength. I felt good, but I couldn't tell anyone what I did.

Then everyone came rampaging down into Pipeworks. It looked like it was an accident, but I knew the truth. Keagan Morang, a killer. We all got onto the boats and traveled down the underground river. I held Paisley tighter than I had ever held her. She was still trying to comprehend everything that the letter had said. She was very smart but still had the common sense of a 4 year old. She screamed as loud as the other young children had.

Finally we all reached the end of the river. It opened up to a small shallow pool. Paisley climbed onto my back. She was chocking me, but I wasn't bothered by it. She was scared and she should be.

Once we were all out of the boats, we heard familiar voices, it was Doon and Lina! They were coming down the rock cliff to our left.

"You guys found our letters! I am so excited! Me and Doon were sorry to just leave, but we had to save Ember. We hope that none of you have a grudge towards us for this reason. Now, is the mayor here?" exclaimed Lina

I knew I had to speak up.

"No." I trembled out

"Very well then, he was lying to all of you. This may come to as a shock to you, but the mayor was secretly stealing all of our supplies for himself. May I ask where he is?" Lina replied

She replied so gracefully. I knew that I did a good thing. No one would consider me a killer, but a HERO!

"Anyone?" ask Doon

Doon. He looked amazing.

"I—I killed him! There I said it. I stabbed the mayor in the back. I made it look like he got run over by all the people running in Pipeworks. I KILLED HIM!" I screamed

"Keagan, you did nothing wrong. I knew I had shared my feelings about him with you before school was out. Once you guys received the letter, Keagan had reason to believe he had something to do with it." Sympathized Lina

My mother ran to my side. She kissed my soften cheek. How could she love a killer so much? How could she love me? How could the person who I envy act so nice to me? How did I deserve any of this treatment? I guess it was the Ember treatment.

"Keagan, don't worry! He was a bad guy!" suggested Paisley

Those simple words didn't lead me to Poppy, but to my sister Paisley. For once I was happy to have a perfect sister like Paisley. Maybe she wasn't like Poppy, but she knew that simple words got to my heart. I gave her a firm hug.

"I know, I know, I know. Thank you Paisley, so much. The mayor had always had schemes to steal from the people of Ember. Lina warned me, when she left I had to take some action. I love everyone here and I always will." I thanked everyone

"I love you Keagan, more than I will ever show." Paisley laughed happily

Somehow I knew that I would always love her.

TO BE CONTINUED