A Hallowed Anthology: Contest Entries for Halloween Vault 3D

Remember the Fallen

Analya stopped before the large bronze statue that stood before Citizen Compound. Overlooking the old main street, the statue of a blank-faced figure held a tall staff, face lifted to the sky. It was the only public monument left to commemorate the program that had committed such atrocities to those culled from the citizens to endure it.

The guilt weighing on her shoulders seemed to dig its claws in even deeper at the sight of the Citizen Statue. I had nothing to do with it, Analya scolded herself. You don't share in its guilt. But despite everything she'd done, despite the revolution she had fought in, the guilt would still plague her for not having done enough.

Jase and Leken are dead. Anton's been driven insane and will never recover. And Dye – I killed Dye.

The memories of Dye's last moments, of his charge, the thick knife aiming for her heart, the screams, the gunshot.... She hated to think of that day, hated herself more than any of the monsters she had battled against to tear down the Citizens' Society, for what she had done to him.

He would have killed you, the psychiatrist had told her, over and over. Dye would have killed you because of what they did to him.

But what if I hadn't killed him? Analya always asked. What if I had merely stopped him, could we have reversed the reforming and helped him?

We don't know. We'll never know. All Citizens Reformed were killed in the war.

Analya's eyes filled with tears and she dashed them away, seeing the statue clearly again. With the anniversary of the downfall of the former society approaching, debate had resumed over what to do with the horrific statue. Tear it down was the common call. Analya had thought that was a good idea, as it would erase just one more memory of guilt from the landscape of their new world. But she thought about all those who had been involved in the Citizen Reform, how that guilt would be lessened from their shoulders as well by removing one of the largest reminders of their crimes. Did she really want to forget what had been done here, to people not deemed worthy enough, risking the eventuality of it being repeated further on down the road?

So Analya went to work with a vengeance, drafting up her plan for the statue's future. Once it was approved by the ruling committee, she set the plan in motion.

On Freedom Day, the crowd before the Citizen Compound was enormous, almost more than the army that had charged in to take down the former society. The Citizen Statue was covered with a large cloth and the crowd was continuing its chant of "Tear it down! Tear it down!"

But they were silenced as soon as the cloth was removed, displaying the old statue with a new addition, in the form of a large sign over the blank figure, proclaiming simply, Remember the Fallen.