-Raven POV-

She slipped inside quietly, punching in her card as the bell rang for her shift to begin. The factory bell was always on time, reminding the stragglers like her that they had nearly been late. The punishment for being late was no wages and repeat offenses led to having a finger cut off and losing the job. No factory would hire someone with a missing finger and thus the offender would have to live a life worse than death working at one of the many brothels in the city until they were no longer useful and cast out onto the streets to die.

“Raven,” The foreman glared at her, evidently displeased by her near tardiness, “I am sure you will not be almost late tomorrow, correct?”

Raven’s eyebrows shot up,

“Yes sir, but what exactly is tomorrow?”

The foreman sighed, putting a hand to his face,

“Maybe if you had shown up earlier, you wouldn’t have missed the important meeting that I had told you all about yesterday. The royals have come to visit the city with their son. We have been one of the lucky factories chosen for them to tour during their stay.”

Raven resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He had never mentioned any such meeting, and by lucky, he most definitely meant that everything had to be in perfect condition or she risked immediate firing.

“I understand sir.”

The foreman nodded,

“Good. Now go to your station and get to work. We’re already behind schedule because of you.”

Raven softly sighed, blowing a strand of her dark hair out of her face. If he hadn’t kept her for so long to scream at her, she wouldn’t have had so much time wasted, she mused, putting on the plastic mesh that kept her hair from getting caught in the machinery.

Well, she didn’t exactly work with any of the machines like her friend, Julia, did. In comparison, Raven’s job was easy, especially for one at a death factory.

The factory was one of many in the country of Olom, where death was a business. Everyone all across the world shipped their dead here in order to be cremated and disposed of. Factories like Raven’s were one of hundreds if not thousands. If one shut down, another two were created, as the only thing constant in life was death.

She headed towards her station looking at her first cadaver of the day. Her job was to remove all articles of clothing and jewelry off the people’s bodies before they were cremated and turned into ash.

Today’s first person was a young man, his fingertips turned black and his chest hollow. He most definitely worked at one of the factories, another victim of the unclean air. Most factory workers did not make it past the age of thirty, killed by the air and fumes that they were always inhaling. There were never any breaks for the factories. Workers came in and out according to the shifts that they had been assigned. The country was always awake and working. One body at a time.

“Raven,” Julia hissed from her station, “Come over to my house tonight. Jayden and I have something to tell you there.”

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Raven nodded dutifully. Julia and Jayden had been together for as long as Raven could remember, though always in secret. If Jayden’s father, the factory owner himself, found out, he would send Jayden far away and fire Julia, making sure that she was as good as dead. He would never accept a relationship between his child and a ‘lowly’ factory girl.

Raven turned back to her work, focusing on her latest body, a young girl, roughly her age with pale yellow hair and hazel green eyes. She had definitely never worked as her uncalloused hands were adorned with gold jewelry that Raven could only imagine ever owning. She couldn’t even steal them as the foreman watched them like a hawk, lest anyone do anything similar to what she had thought of.

She sighed mournfully, tossing the pretty gold rings in a plastic bucket where the rest of the discarded jewelry went, most likely sent off to be traded to other countries in exchange for munitions.

The foreman shouted a few words at them, but Raven could scarcely hear them over the sounds of the machinery. It was probably curses and swears as he was usually pretty drunk by her shift.

As she mindlessly finished removing the clothes and jewelry of an older woman, a rare sight, she heard the bell that marked the end of her shift and the beginning of the one for some worker to come take over her job.

As she headed outside, she felt Julia’s presence behind her,

“We’re going to the house on the other side of town,” She whispered to Raven.

Raven resisted the urge to groan; walking to Jayden’s house took half an hour at least on a good day. Julia must have noticed her face as she whispered,

“Don’t worry, Jayden promised to send a hover car to take you home.”

Raven smiled half heartedly, trying to make her best friend feel better as they walked in relative silence the rest of the way there.

Opening the door to Jayden’s home always stunned Raven. Jayden lived in luxury, a single room in their house larger than Raven’s entire apartment. The decoration and furniture was also some of the highest quality, or at least compared to anything else Raven had ever seen. Jayden and Julia sat down on the loveseat as Raven sat on the futon.

“Raven, Julia and I have something to tell you,” they began as Julia pressed a finger to their lips.

“Raven, Jayden and I are going to be leaving town. We can’t stay here anymore, waiting each day that maybe Jayden’s father dies or suddenly changes his mind about someone like me.”

Raven’s mouth parted into a small o, shock hitting her like a giant wave of disappointment. Her best friend, gone?

No. She needed to pretend, for her friend’s sake, that everything was fine. This is exactly what her friend had been waiting for for so long.

Raven put on her biggest smile, sticking her tongue out teasingly,

“I am so happy for you guys, but you better make sure I get to come to the wedding. I’ll never forgive you if I can’t.”