Page 1 of Dark Reign

CHAPTER ONE

Nightfall

“Mind your manners, mind your tongue,

Fear the gallows, old and young.

Heads will roll, souls will plead,

For the Bylaws all must bleed.

Mother’s love, nor steadfast will,

Neither saves when night goes still.

Run and hide, come what may,

When the beasts come out to play.”

A passage from ‘Red Prose: A Collection of Cautionary Children’s Folksongs’

Origin: Postbellum North America

Year of publication: Unknown

Author: Unknown

Status: Banned from publication and distribution

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Corina

We all knew theStandard Fortyverbatim, could recite them forward and back. However, as I put distance between myself and the orphanage I broke into tonight—and then out of—Felix couldn’t recall the three little numbers that stood between me and freedom, life and death.

The gate code.

“Today, Fe!” I screamed through the mouthpiece.

My heart beat in constant vibration against my ribs. Glancing back, there were no flashlights, no footsteps other than mine rustling through the damp leaves. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that meant I wasn’t being stalked. It only meant the ones stalking me didn’t need lights or gadgets to hunt me down. Their eyesight and keen sense of smell wereenough.

“Nine-eight-something, Felix! Try nine-eight-two!”

He hated when I yelled into the com, but his sensitive eardrums would recover. Meanwhile, the six-year-old girl who clung to my back probably wouldn’t if we were caught. My actions today etched our fate in stone.

Hers.

Mine.

No, she hadn’t played a part in orchestrating this plan to break her free from a bleak, tortuous future, but she was a fugitive now nonetheless. From here, if we were caught, there would be only one outcome.

Death by hanging, in the center of town.

Yeah, of course the monarchs would consider it a wasted opportunity not to make an example ofanyonewho broke the rules. But when it came tome, a public hanging would have little to do with the implied warning to those considering rebellion. It would be about pride, about finally digging the thorn from their side, the one who evaded capture one too many times. Granted, my escapes were usually narrow at best, but that mattered little to them. In their eyes, every breath I took was an embarrassment, a mockery of this entire system built on a foundation of fear, greed and false loyalty.

As hard as I tried not to, I envisioned my death often, typically when trying to keep a meal down or trying to get a few hours rest. With the work our team did, getting caught and eventuallyhangedseemed inevitable, but dwelling on that thought wasn’t exactly productive.

Heaven knows I’d seen enough executions to imagine how mine would play out in the end. I’d be hauled to the heart of the Capitol while thousands gathered around the platform to watch. Millions more would tune in to witness the event by way of a special television broadcast, thanks to the name and infamy assigned to me by media whores.

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