The iron world slowly rusted over time.

The machines grew louder and screams muffled underneath its roar. Revolution, you say?

Revolution doesn't value a class over another, in fact, it breaks the borders between them. It gives the world the justice it deserved, at least, that's what's believed.

Dignities were lost. Prides were smudged under the pointed shoes of the wealth. Skies turned gray and water turned black yet a heart struggle to remain as pure as it always had been even years after witnessing a world of cruelty, a world which displayed wicked power in the form of righteous leadership, a world of toxicity.

Merit's little world had no revolution. Five years have passed and her life took a turn into what she defines as a "Maze". She no longer feels entitled to a propose, still bugged by the unanswered questions she had, but by time, she reached the inevitable conclusion, she was locked in a prison for an eternity.

Izora was a small city, had a quite small population and almost no overseeing from the government. Milasic had no influence there, and the city was known for its craftsmen and various activities that are forbidden in Ilusia, including excessive drug use and immoral science practice.

The small hideout the revolutionists had chosen was an underground one built underneath and ancient mansion owned by George's well respected family. It sheltered children all under the age of twenty including Merit, but nothing comes for free.

"Discipline is an essential element for success here"

Echoed a male thick voice through the speakers as almost a hundred children stood rallied in a huge hall all wearing the same uniform, and same expression.

"The higher your rank goes, the higher the possibility of you being chosen as an overseer is" Repeated the voice once more as the children remained in the same state, expressionless, exhausted and calm.

The girls wore long dark grey cloaks and underneath it was black trousers and boats, each girl had a different necklace indicating their work inside the hideout. Some had an axe, another had an arrow while other ones had an eye, as for Merit, ironically, she had a silver eagle.

The boys wore the same outfit with a slight change in color, they had red cloaks and black trousers with gray boats, they were all keeping the same haircut, short and decent. They had the same necklaces as well with the same signs.

Merit was among the girls, standing in the back. The five years did change those golden eyes into dim ones, black halos under each eyes and a look of exhaustion on each face Merit looked at. Her icy hair remained the same, she refused to let it grow and constantly cut it into a boy cut that she believed made her feel more liberated, as for Mechi, he kept twitching and turning in her pocket in boredom while she kept muttering to keep him staying still.

"Stop it, L! You're making us look suspicious" Merit whispered underneath her breath as Mechi forced himself to stay still until the speech was over, It's been an hour now since these children has been forced to stand still wearing the expressionless face and even muffling their loud obnoxious breath.

Girls started eyeing Merit in an attempt to shut her as she was making a noise by trying to calm Mechi, fortunately for her, Mechi stopped before the security cameras caught her.

"Children of Revolution, each task you finish brings us closer to redemption day, the day where we finally unravel the truth behind the unexplored lands, remember your cause-and stay loyal to it."

These were the last words the man in the speaker said before the children all, in one breath, repeated, "Resist, explore"

As they were dismissed into their cribs, Merit let out a sigh of relief as she hurried into the line leading to her room, "I want to pee so bad" she muttered to herself as she kept going faster and faster till she reached the vast room where she and another twenty girls slept.

Once the doors opened, Merit was the first girl to run as fast as wind into the bathroom cursing under her breath with the disciplined girls looking at her and shaking their heads, she was indeed an odd one among them.

After she finished and got out, having a pleasant look of relief on her face, she was met by the glaring eyes of the girls who all starred at her, "What? Haven't you all heard of nature's call?" She said, hurrying to her bed and ignoring them, ready to change clothes into her night gown and get to enjoy the few hours she gets to sleep before the instructor busts into their room shouting to get them up.

It has became repetitive, boring and almost gloomy. That's how Merit felt regarding her life. She held no friendships within this place she calls "Paid orphanage".

She has to pay for everything. Food, sleep, well being, medicine, all that is repaid by child labor, or "Revolutionists tasks" as they call it, it was still forced child labor. These children were either thieves, workers, mechanists or even soldiers. That's how they paid for their accommodation, but little did these young miserable beings realize that they're serving a cause they're still immature to realize, how dare they oppose what they can't understand, comprehend and swallow yet?

"How was your hunt today?" Asked a young girl sleeping next to Merit, she was dark-skinned girl with beautiful curly hair and innocent wide eyes that were filled with joy none of the kids in this room ever possessed.

"Awful. Like always, and I'm not up for a girls chat, go annoy someone else" Merit rudely said, cutting the girl away who quickly rolled to the other side of her bed as the lights went out, and there was nothing but pitch black darkness and the girls' exhaustion that quickly drifted them far away into a much more decent world they can only visit when they're asleep.

Merit's mind was quick to stir the memories she had suppressed deep in her mind once her foot touched Izora, she recalled the vicious man with black hats chasing her with his iron claws and how she discovered the eerie images on her camera and at last, the weird transformation her old friend, Andres, went through and the return of her necklace. These memories haunted her every night wondering what happened to her camera and why did the man in black hat leave her be. It was a mind twisting mystery that even her now grown mind can't comprehend, not a night went on without remembering the restless nights she spent in the cold alleys of Ilusia, the train rides she took to Steamhall and her great stealing abilities she developed within these days, now, all she does is steal things that don't benefit her, she thought.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Merit dreamt of the same nightmare over and over again. A dark night where the moon had no light and a world where sound seized to exist, she'd walk liberation square under the lamp lights where there are no other humans around her, nothing but revolution flags on the ground, and it read, "Redemption day has ended"

Merit would walk in the never ending streets of Ilusia as the ground would get more crowded with the redemption day flags, still not processing the none existent sound element she's missing, even her humming couldn't be heard, only feeling the vibration of her vocal chords.

Once she reached the ending of long street, a dark figure approaches her from afar, struggling to move among the sea of flags, she always took few steps back, but he'd come to her at last.

"Where's the camera, scum?" He'd say, and she'd wake up in sweat and tears, ready to face the new day, the one she had yesterday and the day before it.

While Merit drifted into her nightmare, the instructor -As expected- busted in shouting at the girls to wake up, it was five in the morning. The girls jumped out of their bed including Merit who felt her soul dropping out of her nose.

"Half an hour till breakfast, go" Shouted the instructor who was almost sixty years old, she looked terrifying as most children believed. So fat that her clothes could be ripped off of her any moment, she had messy white hair she never combed and yellow teeth due to her awful smoking habit, she was the beast of these girls nightmares.

As she went out, the girls were getting ready for breakfast, Merit remembered she had stored a small piece of garlic bread she loved in her cupboard. She hated the fried -burned- eggs they called breakfast with the sugarless orange juice that tasted like fuel.

Once she had opened the cupboard, yawning and almost falling asleep again, she had found her precious piece of bread folded into a handkerchief, once she reached out her hand to grab it beyond the girls eyes, her eyes saw something indeed out of place, something odd that didn't seem to fit. Merit looked around her to be sure she's not seen again by other girls, and reached out to take out, once she sensed its iron texture, she was amused and a little terrified.

"This is not mine.." She whispered to herself, taking it out.

It was a silver handclaw, usually used by chasers like Merit, but the high class ones that can afford it, "How did this get here.." She whispered to herself, slowly hiding it into her night gown as she walked to her bed.

And just when she was about to unfold it, the doors were wide opened as another instructor got in, it was Shelby, the Chasers overseer.

The girls soon jumped into lines, including Merit who's heart almost fell out of its place, Shelby's arrival was a bad omen, specially that she felt strange having found this handclaw.

"I have said it, a million times in fact, that whoever dares to put hand on equipment that isn't theirs, they will only face the worst punishment imaginable" Shelby said, eyeing every girl in disgust and suspicion.

The air grew thin around the girls who started feeling scared of this unusual early inspection, but for Merit, not only she gasped for breath, she knew something was wrong as she and only three other girls where chasers.

"Someone had the disgusting thought of swarming into Lord George's own office and going as far as to steal his own equipment." Shelby said, and at that moment, Merit realized what she has unwillingly gotten herself into.

"Who ever has this equipment, step out now before I come and get you myself." She shouted at the girls who started to look at each other suspiciously, knowing none of them had stolen it, and none of them would even dare to come near George's office.

Instructor Shelby walked around the girls taking a look at each face while Merit's knees were shaking in fear knowing that once Shelby's eyes comes across her bed, she's done for.

The guards were quick to notice the girls glances to Merit and one of them approached her bed, "What's that, Meredith?" He asked Merit felt her heart being shattered, she felt as if she was drowning in everyone's suspecting eyes, she felt as if she was being wrongfully accused and being tried, she held back her tears.

"I-It..I-I don't k-know, I-I found in my closet just now." Merit trembled as she held it up and gave it to the guard hoping he would spare her, the guard snatched it out of her hand and completely unwrapped it, "So it was you? Unexpected." The guard sighed in disappointment taking the handclaw and Merit as she struggled to explain herself, why would a strange item end up in her closet?

"It wasn't me who did it! I found it in my closet, at least let me speak to George!" She cried out as the guard held her steadily from her arm, he ignored her words and pushed her through the hall as the children looked at her, shamefully, she was dragged through the hall with her hot tears covering her face and her eyes glued to the ground, she can hear their muttering and side talk that she knew she would hear till the end of her days in Izora.

She was taken to what they call the cell, a solitary room with a dim light, a chair and a bed. She was given a punishment to stay locked here alone for four days and George refused to see her, Merit felt enraged rather than being sad, she knew it wasn't her action and there was no other explanation than that someone put it on her closet on purpose, or could it be her closet is some sort of a magical one?

"Dammit, motherfuckers! I knew I would sooner or later get into this, I'm just too kind to everyone." She said, hitting the steel edge of her bed and the lights were suddenly shut down announcing the ending of her first day in the cell, she jumped on her bed sighing violently like a volcano waiting to erupt, her words were swelling deep inside her and there was no way she could get them out, there was no one to listen.

She knew she lied about not wanting a friend, someone who would have protected her in that situation, her solitary was fortified by her thoughts within the dark cell, the silence in the room couldn't erase her rage.

Merit was about to fall asleep when she heard a stuttering sound, she dismissed it as a security screen's sound but then she was horrified to hear human voices..in her own room.

"It wasn't supposed to be the handclaw." A male voice nervously said, Merit jumped off her bed in a defensive position as she held her pillow as an armor, "who is it?" She shouted, there was no response.

Merit repeated her words again to find no response, the voice seemed As if it was coming from a speaker, not someone within the room. But she knew there was no Speakers inside the cell, only in the alley, she held the pillow close to her and sat on her bed with fear running through her veins, she wondered what did these words mean and who was that person, was the same person who put the handclaw in her closet?

"Fucking assholes!" She shouted as she got up throwing the pillow across the room, "Show yourselves!" she shouted once more as she finally got what seemed to be a response.

"I'm sorry" Said the male voice but this time, Merit can hear that voice not in a speaker, she can hear it in her own mind.

She held her head as if she was trying to force them out, she felt in pain but unable to do anything or even call for help, she ran through the dark room in her white dress banging on the walls like a maniac,"HELP!!" she shouted repeatedly, she bled for help with her terrified heart beating like a drum.

"I'm resetting it in 3..2...1"

The voices disappeared, Merit was somewhere safe and relaxed. She could tell she was asleep, she got up thinking she was in the cell only to find herself standing in front of the cupboard with a bloody nose and a terrible headache with no memory of what happened, "I must get ready quick" She said in an almost robotic tone, Merit felt..reprogrammed.

After five long years, Merit once again is falling into the enigma she was left behind, she was forced, to be precise. She's oblivious, but now, as a much more older and mature girl, her choices are more fatal.