above under

Chapter 1

Home Sweet Home

I look down at my lap. There it was, the thread I couldn’t stop picking at. Don’t pull at it, Lys, or your dress will fall apart. I know that’s what she’d say if she were here. But as accepting as Lula was of me, she wasn’t the kind of girl who wandered through the Under in her free time. Not that any particular girl was that way. Sure, some may find themselves in the smoke-filled alleyways and garbage-laden streets out of a kind of morbid curiosity, but this was frowned upon. Illegal, even.  

Well, illegal for girls born in the Above. I’m not like them in many ways, but this was the main one. The one that matters most. I was born an Under, and because of that I will never belong here. They may have given me a place in the Halls and educated me on history (or their version of it), but they will never accept me. Still, for a hot meal I’ll sit through a lecture on all the good the Above does for the Under any day. It’s all complete propaganda, but at least I got the stench of Shine smoke out of my hair for a while.

The Under and the Above aren’t all that different from each other in some ways. They hate each other in equal measure, and that hatred means that choosing to leave one permanently bans you from the inner circle of both. That’s why when I heard I’d been selected for the Halls, the first Under in nearly a decade to be chosen for the elite Above university, I didn’t announce my departure or say my goodbyes. I disappeared into the night and never looked back. It was easier that way. Or at least, it was until now.

Now, I’m graduating. That means back to Under I go, unless I can get married in the next six months. Not a chance, I think, continuing to pull at the fraying edge of my sapphire blue dress.

Colors are important here. Gold is the color of the Prime leader and his family, Diamond white for his courtesans and advisors, and Onyx black was reserved for the Guard. From there colors are assigned based on wealth. Ruby red, Garnet orange, Citrine yellow, and Emerald green. Sapphire blue was the color of the Hall’s students. A sort of uniform flagging us as perpetually poor, even if we were educated to hell and back. The ‘worst’ color on this big floating rock is Amethyst purple. Servants, maids, and Unders who found their way here were all relegated to the purple tier. At least I’m not an Amethyst. It’s the little things, right?

I could still get off this boat. I don’t have to go today. There’s plenty of time to—

The boat jolts forward rather suddenly. A Diamond next to me exclaims a profanity that is normally reserved for the Onyx. A Ruby shushes her reflexively then apologizes profusely, probably not used to being around someone who outranks her. Everyone here outranks me, except the boat captain. We make eye contact. His lime green irises glint in the sunlight, accentuated by his purple robes. Ruby sees this and shrinks away as if these mutations come in some form of communicable disease.

No, Unders may have unique marks, but they aren’t shareable. They serve as bright signs saying, “look at me, I’m different”. We all have at least one. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy to hate us.

For me, it’s my opal-colored hair glinting blue, purple, green depending how the light hits. For Lula, who is one-quarter Under, it’s her bright pink eyebrows. For Anonymous Boat Captain, it’s his lime green eyes. For some reason, unique eye colors seem to scare Aboves the most. Like such eyes can see their secrets, bare their soul, and steal their power. Of course, no such thing is true. If anything, they’re just a nuisance. I mean, what matches lime green? Certainly not purple.

I start thinking of all the Under traits I’ve seen over the years. Green skin, orange lips, silver hair, amber-colored eyes. His eyes.

I wouldn’t be so worried about returning if I wasn’t expecting to see him. We promised each other we would escape together. But I got my chance and leapt for it, leaving him to fend for himself. Granted, I was eighteen and not the most mature, but I still know if the situation was reversed, he’d have stayed for me. He was always stronger than me in that way.

The boat jolts to a stop again. Diamond and Ruby make their way onto the platform.  

“Ma’am, this is the last stop before the Under. Do you need to get off?” Lime Eyes asks.

“No, that’s where I’m headed”.

He looks at me incredulously, but ultimately decides I must be sure. My hair probably had something to do with it. The boat starts moving again. I’ll never get used to these air boats. So shaky, I feel my stomach turning.  

I haven’t seen any of them in three years. No letters, no communication, no goodbyes. I have no clue how they will react to my presence, but I do know that I’m terrified. It has become clear that staying in the Above isn’t going to be an option for me. No Diamond is going to wake up and propose to a Sapphire (who’s really more of an Amethyst), but I won't be accepting servitude for the rest of my life.

How did it get this way? No one really knows. The way the Above tells it, the Under was originally a jail. The prison population grew so out of hand, ‘brilliant’ Above scientists manufactured a new floating rock (literally, floating in the air) and sent all the ‘bad guys’ there. The Above remained moral, pure, untainted by the Under’s heathenism, and remains ironically suspended underneath the Under. From their stories, the Under is free to do what it wants within its own confines, but the way Unders tell it, the Above created it to send the poor, sick, and elderly to die. An out of sight, out of mind sort of situation.

I’m not sure which is true. Both sides seem to agree the Above created the Under and did so to throw out unwanted people. But whether this cause was for justice and peace or malicious in intent remains largely personal opinion. Having lived in both places, I remain unconvinced of either story. But you won’t find me in the woods looking for a witch to confirm or deny.

Witches have long since been banished, but as the oldest members of our society, they’re widely regarded by the Unders to be the true historians of our race. Rumors swirl about their existence every once in a while. A kid “sees a witch” by the woods, or a young girl sees them in her dreams. Being a witch (or consorting with one) is punishable by death in the Above and celebrated with near worship in the Under. It’s hard to imagine they don’t have a preference.

The air was starting to get thicker. Boat Captain’s eyes weren’t glinting in the sun anymore. The smell of bad fish and liquor started to fill my nostrils. And there it was, a line of small wooden planks stretching out from a big black floating rock. No sign of women or children at this time of day, but I could see the familiar sight of trash lining the street, men drunk and asleep on the benches, and the cats. Oh, so many cats.

Home sweet home.

Chapter 2

Cats

There’s another big difference between the Above and the Under. The animals. In the Above, only lustrous, high-maintenance, expensive pets will do. In the Under, having a pet is a luxury quite literally no one can afford. Only the most adaptable, cunning, and vicious animals survive. Hence, the cats.

I’ve never minded them much. They tend to ignore you if you ignore them, but today I was in their way. Trudging through the trash pile that lined the platform into the Under, cats were running past me at random intervals. I, too, whispered a few Onyx-style profanities under my breath as they streaked between my legs.

        I get through the trash pile, my Sapphire dress now muddied to brown. Hopefully that’s not a sign of things to come, I think to myself, knowing that it is. I trip on something, hard. I land on my elbows, felt the skin tear as if came in contact with something sharp. Great, now I’ll have weird hair and a communicable disease.

        I look for what asinine object had been left out strategically to welcome me. It was a cat. A pretty cat, I’ll give it that, but I most certainly have a vendetta against it now. Not that it is even remotely bothered by my disdain. It’s licking its white paws and ignoring me completely. I get up, brush off my dress, cup my bleeding elbow, and whisper a few more choice phrases. Maybe if the Under doesn’t work out, they’ll let me join the Guard.

        I head toward the nearest building, the bar that’s been standing for as long as I can remember. I enter and am taken aback for a moment. The multicolored hair, the pink and purple and green skin tattoos, the brightly colored eyes all used to be familiar but now feel so alien. You’d think I’d blend in, but with my muddy dress, bleeding arm, and what has evolved into a very untamed, frizzy, green hair moment, I stand out. And most certainly not in a good way.

        “Meow”.

        What the—

        I turn and there it is. That freaking cat.

It followed me in here? Why?

        “Wow, Vessy must like you.”

        I look up to find a short, round man with blue hair and goggles. He seems vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him.

        “If Vessy likes you, then I like you. You look like you could use a drink!”

        “Vessy?” I ask, already knowing his reply.

        “The cat. Vessy. Let me buy you a drink.”

        Well, at this point I’m not going to say no. All I need right now is a drink. I shuffle behind Blue Hair trying (and failing) not to draw attention to myself. When we get to the bar, Blue Hair turns to me.

        “Where are you from?”

        What? Can he not see my hair?

        “I’m an Under”, I reply, not disguising my lack of interest in this conversation very well.

        “Obviously, but where?”

        I think for a moment. It’s been a long time since someone cared about anything more than the Under part.

        “Ambrose Hill”.

        “Ambrose Hill? The orphanage?” he exclaims.

        “That’s the one”, I respond, voice muffled as I strain the muddy water from my dress onto the bar floor.

        “Meow”.

        Literally what is with this cat?

        “Oh ,don’t mind Vessy. She just took a liking to you, that’s all. But Ambrose Hill? You might know the bartender then, he was an orphan too.”

        “Well, orphans aren’t all friends,” a little harsh, but this day (and cat) hadn’t put in me in a talkative mood.

        “Still you might— Oh, there he is now! Emric, over here!”

        My blood turned to ice in my veins. I felt my face flush.

        Emric? My Emric? How is this possib—

        I didn’t have time to finish my thoughts before he was standing right in front of me.

        “What do you want, Blossom? I’m not giving you any drinks until you settle your tab.”

        Blossom! That’s why he was familiar, he’s the old guy who gave books to Emric and I growing up. Well, three books. It’s the thought that counts.

        “Emric?” The word escaped my lips before I knew what I was doing.

        His eyes met mine. Amber.

        “Lyssa?”

        The silence was deafening. The air between us was cold. I open my mouth, but no words are coming. I never expected to find him so quickly. Why didn’t I practice this in a mirror or something?

        “Meow”.

        I am going to strangle this cat.

        “Vessy, cut it out—” I start.

        “Don’t”, Blossom interjects, “Vessy’s been here longer than you. She can do as she pleases.”

        I don’t know what to say. Did this cat get elected Prime while I was away or something? Knowing the people of Under, that really isn’t all that far-fetched an idea. I might vote for a cat over some of the homicidal maniacs I’ve seen run in the past. But not Vessy. Homicidal maniac for me, thanks.

        “Lyssa, you shouldn’t be here.”

        I don’t know how to respond, so I don’t. I just stand there, searching his eyes, desperate to find a shred of familiarity, of fondness, of forgiveness. I find no such thing.

        “What the hell are you doing here, Lyssa?” a new voice chimes in.

        Oh good, more people who hate me. I turn to see Xi. They’re still my height, but their hair is almost glittery it’s so gold. At least Xi already hated me before I left, so nothing new there.

        “Hey Xi”, I say sheepishly, anticipating the lecture I’m about to receive and feeling preemptively exhausted.

        “We’re not friends, Lyssa. You abandoned us. You abandoned Emric. You shouldn’t be here.”

        “Meow”.

        For Christ’s sake, Vessy.

        “I just wanted to apologize and to—”

        “I don’t care what you wanted to do, what you did is unforgiveable,” Xi just keeps going, “Emric nearly lost his leg in the mines, and where were you? Dining in the Prime palace?”

        What?

        “What?” I turn to him. “Why were you in the mines?”

        “It doesn’t matter, Lyssa. The last boat for Above leaves soon, maybe you should—”

        “Because he was working off your debt after you ditched us here,” Xi finally brings it home.

        “My… debt? I don’t understand.”

        At this point people are gathering around, picking up on the fact that I’m a deserter. That’s as good as a death sentence in a place like this. My heart is racing.

        “You should go, Lyssa,” Emric says, again.

        “Meow”.

        Stupid cat, probably agreeing.

        I hear grumbles about throwing me out onto the street, so I turn and get out of there as fast as I can. Apologies will have to wait for another day. It’s pouring rain. I have no clothes, no place to stay, no friends or family to call. I’m as good as dead in this place. What was I thinking?

        “Meow”.

        You have got to be kidding me.

        Vessy is sitting in the rain, looking up at me with her pathetic watery eyes. Good try, I’m not a softy.

        “Meow”.

        Nope.

        “Meow”.

        Nope.

        “Meow”.

        FINE. I pick her up and hold her in my lap, hunch over her so the rain doesn’t hit her white fur. Why am I helping this cat who has made my life infinitely harder today? I’m not sure, to be honest. Something about her just feels important.

        The rain finally lets up and I doze off leaning against a pillar not twenty feet from the bar. Home sweet home?

        “Meow”.

        “Mmmph”.

        “Meow”.

        “Not now, Vessy.”

        “Meow”.

        “I’ll get you food later!” I exclaim, keeping my eyes shut like there’s a shot in hell of me falling back to sleep.

        “What are you doing?”

        I jolt awake.

        “Emric?” I say, unable to make out his face in the dark.

        “Did you really come here with no plan at all?” he asks.

        I say nothing, because we both know the answer to that question.

        After several excruciating seconds of silence, he lets out a loud, disapproving sigh.

        “You can stay with me tonight”, he says.

        “Really?”

        “If I leave you here, you’ll be dead by morning. Let’s go.”

        I hurry to my feet, try to (and fail to) wipe some of the mud off my dress before I scoop up Vessy in my arms. Emric stops moving.

        “Do you have to bring the cat?”

        I look at her, then look at him.

        “Yes.”

        We walk a short distance before we come to a ladder in a small alleyway. If I didn’t know him as well as I did, I’d have pretty legitimate concerns about being murdered right now.

        He gives me clothes then leaves the apartment. I understand, he’s still upset with me. I lay down on the pile of blankets in the corner in case he comes back and wants the bed. Vessy curls up next to my head.

        “Meow.”

        “I know,” I reply.

        She’s mine now. And I’m hers.

        Home sweet home.