4522 {The Number Series}

2

I woke up the next morning and repeated our morning schedule. As I dressed and pulled up my hair I noticed my hand was sore from my punishment the night before. I flexed it and sighed.

As I stepped out from behind my curtain I realized I had been running a little behind everyone else and cringed. 4313 looked at me with wide eyes and glanced around for the Officer. I bit my lip to keep quiet even though I wanted to tell him that our previous Officer had been replaced by a man. It wasn't long before 4313 found out for himself of the replacement.

The new Officer came down the hall, inspecting us as he went, at an almost leisurely pace. His raven hair was brushed neatly, his dark eyes were observant and contrasted with his pale skin. Everyone tried to hide their shock.

As he was about to pass me he stopped and smiled. I swallowed a knot that had formed in the back of my throat. The Officer had let me off easy the day before but he knew I was trouble; he could have changed his mind and wanted to make my life difficult over a nights sleep.

"How is your hand?" He asked to my surprise. I gripped it.

"It's fine, Officer."

"Good, I knew it would be," he said with a wink before walking off. I blushed. I hadn't noticed the night before but his voice was silky. I also hadn't noticed that he was young, not just young for an Officer but in general. I was guessing his age was no more than nineteen which meant he was fresh out of Officer training.

And since when did Officers wink instead of scowl?

I pondered this as we formed a line to walk to breakfast. I passed by walls of brick and glass in a blur. It wasn't right to be thinking so hard about another; questioning them and their motives because of course the wink meant nothing. The Officer was just doing his job for the society like he should.

At least, that is what my mind was telling me I was supposed to believe.

The breakfast consisted of toasted bread, scrambled eggs, grapes, and a glass of juice. It was the usual breakfast for Friday. It was my favorite. I ate it in the correct order, much to the relief of the others at the table and to my disappointment. I figured I had gotten in enough trouble for one week. If I pushed too hard I would find my punishment to be death, not sentences.

I watched 4313 as he finished his breakfast and wondered what he thought of me. But the thought was stupid. He never got in trouble. He never did anything wrong. Thinking about others was wrong so he probably didn't think about me at all.

 My classes passed slowly. It was raining outside and I kept letting my mind drift from my lessons. I followed every step when I was in my mathematics class. The Teacher scowled when I sat down but, behind the scowl, I could see the surprise she was hiding. I was alive and she was wondering why.

I tried not to smirk.

Thunder continued to shake and rumble through lunch, afternoon classes, an hour of free time, and dinner. Lightening flashed. Some of us were fidgety during storms but not me. I wanted to play in the rain. I wanted the thunder to crash and the lightening to light my way. I would never say this out loud. Even as I said it in my head I knew it was a strange and dangerous thought.

Finally, the final night time bell rang for us to head to our sleeping quarters. I followed the crowed to the blue curtains and found my bed. On the chair sat a fresh night gown. On my bed was a fresh sheet and pillow. I change out of my stiff uniform quickly. Everything about it was constricting while my pajamas left room to move as I pleased.

We all laid down. Or, at least, I thought we all had until a few minutes later when I heard 4313 shift onto his bed. My face scrunched with confusion. He laid down late. You weren't supposed to do that. I wanted to call over to him. I wanted to talk. I even considered crawling under the curtain which was crazy. If he told on me I'm not sure how everyone would have reacted. Girls mixing together in their curtains was bad. A girl crossing into a boy's, down right scandalous. And for some reason, I wanted to stir up trouble. I stood slowly off the bed, trying my hardest not to make a single noise. My feet touched the cold white tiles. My heart thumped.

Three hundred and seventy-two.

The number came to mind quickly. I froze. It was the number of steps from the living quarters to the library. I glanced at the curtain that separated 4313 and I. Then I glanced at the curtain that separated me from the library. I had to make a decision. I stepped towards the hallway and peaked my head out. No one stood guard outside.

That made up my mind for me. Quickly I made my way to the library. The hallways were dark and in the distance, I could still hear that there was still a storm brewing. I counted each step I took. After a while, I began to worry that I had taken a wrong turn in the maze of white brick walls. The numbers grew closer and closer to three hundred and seventy-two and still, I did not see the big wooden doors. My mind played on horrible thoughts of what would happen if I were to get caught.

Thoughts of turning back and going to bed crossed my mind but were quickly silenced when I saw the double wooden doors. I stopped counting and dashed to them. My hand rested softly on the cold handle as I wondered if anyone would be inside. I figured it was too late to turn back. The door clicked as it opened. I opened it just enough to slip inside.

The ceiling was so high that in the dark it was like the library didn't have one. A funny smell filled my nose that I recognized as books. We didn't usually use paper books, we used our tablets, but I recognized the smell from the few times were did use them. Shelves lined the walls and stood in rows that filled the space. I walked father in and up to a desk. The desk had a few books sitting on it, some open and some closed. I reached across the desk and turned on a small lamp. I gasped at what I saw.

Books I had never even heard of were sitting there. Pictures filled the pages of one. A man was nailed to some sort of lower case T in another. That one made me cringe. I did not dare look at any of the other pictures in the book for a fear that I would see more painful images that would give me nightmares. I flipped it to read the cover. It read Religions of the World.

I scrunched my nose. Religion? I had no idea what that meant but it looked painful.

I flipped through several more but they didn't catch my attention. We read in class often, and I enjoyed some of it, but none of them looked like these.

I went farther back into the stacks and read the titles. A few were catchy but I continued on. Finally, I stopped at one with fancy curly letters. It said The Lost Princess. I touched the title.

Princess? It looked old enough that it might disintegrate if I wasn't careful. I brought it back to the desk with the lamp and opened it. To my surprise, the letters weren't curly like the cover but more like the way it was on our tablets. It wasn't very thick and when I began reading I noticed that the way it was written wasn't exactly the way we wrote things. Even some words were spelled differently but seemed to mean the same thing as ours.

The Lost Princess turned out to be a girl who had been stolen from a kingdom, which I assumed was another name for a city, and she had no idea. I became engrossed with the book quickly as the princess began to find out who she really was. She had to run from thieves and an evil witch, whatever those were. It had to be the most fascinating thing I had ever read. And, when I finished it, I hungered for more. But my eyes were feeling heavy and I knew it was late.

I put everything back the way I found it before turning off the small lamp and making my way to back to the sleeping quarters. I felt giddy all over as I laid down.