Bathed in the whitish golden light was a massive structure made of the twisting and looping glass roller coaster tracks that stretched as far as I could see. They were down low near the ground and up high by the clouds. But one thing was very unsettling about it, the tracks were almost floating. There were no support beams, nothing! I immediately wondered why they were here and how such a large structure could be here.
A loud clanking noise brought me out of my stupor and directed my attention to the struggling form of Jorif. He was trying to climb back into the tunnel. “Amarilde! Help!” he cried. I reached for his hand and he tried to grab mine but he missed. Fortunately, when he missed he caught the edge of the tunnel. Jorif slowly pulled himself up and stared at the tracks while the platform rumbled away.
“I’m wondering how you are feeling about your decision to go on the roller coaster.” I taunt. That seemed to be the wrong thing to say. His expression hardens and he glares at me. A deep growling sound comes from his mouth. “Gosh, you don’t have to get so upset with me. I already warned you.” I say. “Why did you try to come back up to the tunnel anyway? The view wasn't bad. And I thought you would've thought it would be fun.” “Why would you care? It’s not like I’m going to tell you anyway.” he replies. I roll my eyes and walk back to the corner that I'm starting to grow fond of.
“Aren’t you cold? You can come over to the corner.” “No, I’d rather sit there,” he motions to the middle of the tunnel while sitting down. I get up and sit next to him.
“Forget being cold to each other, we’re already freezing. We need to survive, that’s not something that will be easy with both of us, not to mention alone.” Jorif’s expression stays as hard as stone for a while. Then his face crumples and he says, “Maybe you’re right.”
“I’m going to sleep. You should too.” I say, walking away. “Fine,” comes the curt reply. As I settle down in the corner, I think of my life before banishment. Before the violation of Rule #356 that Jorif and I were blamed for. But I didn’t do anything. I’m not sure about Jorif, but I’m 100% sure I am innocent. We are probably just scapegoats for the Elders since they don’t want to bother to search for the real culprit. Maybe it was Reribrov’s idea. I wouldn’t be too surprised if it was.
A pang of sadness washes over me as the faces of my family go through my head. My mother . . . my father . . . my cat . . . my older brother, Baelfis.Those days when we went to the nearest park for lunch. The parks were heavily guarded and rimmed with menacing looking barbed wire fences but they were the best place in the city to have fun because everywhere else is even worse.
We would take an old, tattered patchwork quilt and a basket of food to the park and sit on the concrete ground while we enjoyed foods such as fried tortiere, petite hors d’oeuvres, and Delmonico potatoes.
My poor lonely city. This whole world never gets to see the light of the sun. I hear that travelers from a world called Earth say it’s warm, bright and yellow. But I was lucky to hear that information. The Elders do not want to tempt the people to think about escaping. They do not want Earth to sound like a better place to live on than here. They tell us that we have the best planet in the universe, that all other ones are in worse condition than ours. Not that anyone would believe that. The city is dark, overcrowded and filthy with almost no food or fresh resources. And from the stories told to us by Earth people, we have the least livable state of affairs.
I stare at my hand. The Earth people found it surprising that we looked just like them. Maybe they expected us to look like monsters. Maybe deformed creatures. Or mutant animals. I don’t know. I stop thinking as my consciousness slowly slips away and I fall into oblivion.

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