A Perfect World Pt.5 (The Revolutionary)

I sit at a desk that isn’t mine. I stare out of a darkened window that isn’t mine. I grasp an enamel necklace that isn’t mine. I cry a tear that isn’t mine. 

All of these things belonged to my brother, Arrow. He was executed two days ago, while his best friend, Echo, was arrested for treason against Sparrowhawk. 

At first when he didn’t come home we thought he was working late at the hospital. But then we got a message from a Sparrowhawk representative telling us that he had been executed for direct treason. My mother screamed. She hasn’t stopped crying since we got that message. 

My father hasn’t cried. He just shut himself in his office. I can hear him punching the door though. I can hear him cursing the Sparrowhawk. 

But for me, I know neither tears nor punching can bring him back… Nothing can bring him back. 

A dark cloud fills my mind and I bury my head in my arms. My hand shakes and I hold onto the necklace as though it were a lifeline. My breath is stuck in my lungs and the ticking of the clock grows louder and louder and faster and faster until it is the only thing I can hear. 

I remember when I was seven and Arrow taught me how to swim. I remember when I was ten and Arrow punched a kid that was making fun of me. I remember when I was thirteen and Arrow became friends with the shy girl with glasses that lived down the street. I remember the day before he was killed that Arrow had kissed me on the forehead before he left for the hospital. It was the last time I ever saw him. 

It was the last time I will ever see him. 

It takes a few seconds before I realize I’m screaming his name. My screaming continues and my hand shakes uncontrollably. 

With a splintering sound his enamel necklace shatters in my fist. I gasp and drop it onto the desk. Immediately I notice the tiny piece of paper sticking out of the gold pendant. I hurriedly brush away my tears before leaning closer and sliding it out of the gold pieces. It’s a drawing of an unfamiliar bird. I suddenly remember a book about birds Arrow got for his eleventh birthday. It must still be here somewhere…

I stand up and look around his room. After a minute I spot the book in his bookshelf. Overcome with curiosity I slide the book out and flip through the pages until I come to a page with the same bird as the drawing. 

At the top it says “Peregrine Falcon.” In bolded letters. I see a notation under it which reads “A predator of the Sparrowhawk.” Almost immediately I notice that the notation was written in pen. In Arrow’s handwriting. I rise slowly from the floor and suddenly I can see notes written all over the page. Notes scribbled between lines, hidden in the drawings… My eyes dart over them and phrases jump out at me. 

‘Ember… cell 2187… Dune… resistance to environmental deterioration…. experiments on toxicity levels in the bloodstream… Hawk imprisoned on 4/45… the Forbidden Book… mass exodus from the dome?... Sparrowhawk pin code 2715454814…’

My heart starts to race… What does this mean? Ember cell 2187? That’s  a prison number…. Experiments? Pin code? What is going on?

I flip through the rest of the book until I find the page on Sparrowhawks. There is an envelope wedged between the pages… 

I tug it out and tear it open with shaking fingers. It’s not handwritten, it's… pages torn out of a book. 

It says “- The Sparrowhawk are an evil and greedy presence, willing to do anything to get power, even willing to destroy the world as we know it. 

Global warming was an issue for many years before Sparrowhawk began secret construction of the domes. When the environment became too toxic to live in, they made it so that people had no other options than to go to the domes. 

Here they manipulated and controlled every aspect of every citizen's life and even bombed the sister dome, Acies, in hopes of eliminating them. 

In the ashes of Acies, the Peregrine rose. The Peregrine is an underground resistance movement committed to freeing the people from the grasp of Sparrowhawk and returning the Earth to a stable state. Even with members across the two domes, Peregrine is in dire need of assistance. To join and make a difference please contact Artemis at 45328/678.”

That is where the typed text ends, but when I flip through the other pages I realize it’s more of Arrow’s notes-  “Dune and Ember brought to the Dome on 6/89, Dune in hospital room 56875, Echo infiltration. Ember imprisoned in cell 2187, Hawk infiltration. 

Night mission- me and Echo. Objective- locate the remains of the Forbidden Book.-”

Then his handwriting shifts from neat to panicked and sloppy. “Someone in Peregrine ratted us out. We don’t have much time left before they come for us. I don’t know if they are going to arrest us or execute us. Either way I can’t take the risk. To whoever finds this- You have to complete the mission. You have to free Ember and Dune before Sparrowhawk kills them. You have to tell the people the truth. You have to lead the revolution. Peregrine needs you.”

I blink a tear out of my eye. I never knew all of this about Arrow… I never knew that Peregrine existed… I never knew what danger Arrow faced just trying to lead us to a better world. 

I lift my head and stare out of the window watching the artificial stars shimmer on the inside of the dome.

It’s all because of Sparrowhawk’s lies that I’ve never seen the real stars. It’s because of them my brother is dead. It’s because of them that so many families were torn apart… 

Now it’s my time to complete Arrow’s mission. To free us- all of us. 

I spin around and run out of the room. I fly down the hallway and down the stairs. I hear my mom call my name “Ivy…?” 

I ignore her. I pull on my boots, yank open the front door and disappear into the night just as an inside clock chimes three o’clock.