Welcome to Starline

They tell you in school everyone in life has an equal playing field. You can be anything you want if you put your mind to it. You can be an Astronaut, a Pilot, Doctor, anything you put your mind to. They drill these ideas in your undeveloped mind with the hopes of creating contributing members of society. Even in this dystopia of Sex, Rape, and Destruction, the truth is none of us at this school want to be any of those things. The truth is we want to be everything the opposite.

Welcome to Starline Academy Class 4-A. Where the most reckless, ruthless, psychotic kids are sent within Starline city. A city where police fear the darkness within. A city where power is based on how crazy and brutal you are. Just to survive is a game you can lose any day. A game that doesn’t discriminate on gender, race, ethnicity, and the way that it can come to a end is up to you. There is no hope in this city of ours. But all we can do is live to see another day.

My name is Crecent, but they call me glitch for short. The reason for my nick name is because everyone in this society within the walls was born with a special ability. My special ability Is what others called “Glitch like”. My ability has gotten me in quite some trouble growing up, landing me in Class 4-A. In this city there are ranks and hierarchy. You have the peasants which were the people I grew up around aka “Noons”. The “Ostrins” who live above us on the surface. They have more rights than us and think very lowly of us Noons. Then you have the military. They are more of a bunch of gangs than a military in all honesty. They fight amongst themselves every day creating a constant warzone on the below surface and surface level. Drugs are funneled constantly to the lower level because of supply and demand. Despair and suffering are too much for most people here. Drugs are a way to escape life’s daily struggles. The military most brutal of slayings, executions, and Torture are performed underground as these people are deemed as worthless as a fly being swatted. Above the military you have Royalty. These royals are as stuck up as you could imagine, like the royalty you would see from a book or film. They hide in their cozy fortresses above with all the meat, water, and resources imaginable. Some say they even put cameras within the city to laugh at our suffering. If seen the younger royalty seem to ride in their cyber cars but the older royals use the traditional horse to ride around the city. The power of Royals supersedes any normal citizen from within the walls. Finally, you have the Ravens. The ravens are the highest of the high and they are above royalty. Little is known about them. They are rarely seen and hold absolute power over Skyline city. Some say they know what lies beyond the walls. Some say they may not even be human but even Ai robots. Either way….it doesn’t affect me. So even if he was some magical flying robot people who cares…

Growing up in the underground wasn’t the best life per say. My father was a mystery til this day I haven’t found him yet. My mother was murdered by a radical military faction. My mother was a good woman. She tried her best for what she had in this lawless world down here. She worked as a surface farmer and was only allowed special access because of her beauty. Her beauty was said to even supersede those of royalty. Her smile was as bright as the sun spilling into the sewer cracks at high noon. The speculation around her murder is still unknown. Some say she was a whore who was having sex with multiple gangs within the military police. Some say jealousy from other women, led to her getting stabbed to death. But all those theories in my opinion can’t be true…

We lived in a small cloth hut held up by 4 cut metal scrap metal rods, put into the ground. In the center of Skylines, underground city was an area called the Pig. This area got its name from the wild pigs everyone was seen with which people used for meat and milk. The tent community within the center of the Pig was the area where me and my mother lived. The smell was unbearable sometimes. The human feces, rotting human corpses, the livestock, created a nauseas smell that caused disease and sickness. My mom would wrap her shirts around my face and tie it so we could get a tolerable good night’s rest. At night sometimes she would shiver uncontrollably, but every time I would turn to her and ask does she need her shirt back, she would smile and say…

it’s okay.

Every time I was worried about her

it’s okay.

Every She would home from the unbearing labor the Ostrins would put on her, on the surface farm. Her hands would be full of blisters and blood. Her back was scarred with marks as if it came from some sort of lashing. Her legs, covered in dirt from top to bottom. One thing that I can say I always found odd was her face. Her face would remain unmarked, and her eyes would appear to have a infinite gaze. A gaze that would illuminate the darkness of any soul. As we laid at night sometimes she would roll over and tell me stuff, while she thought I was sleep…..

Your gift is special, you’re so special

Your ability is… just like your fathers

Til this day I have no idea who my father is or was. When she would say that, mystery would always fill my brain especially when I was younger. Most kids I know didn’t have their fathers. Most men here are lawless hardened criminals who have no desire to raise a child. Many men even choose to join the military, even knowing they’ll be used as human crash dummies, for the Ostrins; during drug wars or conflicts. What also confused me was I always saw my mother alone. So who was this mystery man, she would dream and mutter to me at night….. who knows

Gibbous.. please stay with me

Gibbous please i..i cant live withou…

Whoever that guy was he must’ve been important to her... now that I look back

Time would go on. And As I got older my needs would increase. As a growing boy you need more food, clothes, shelter etc. My mom would work harder and harder, and the needs would increasingly not be met. This is when I had to do what most had to do to survive here. I didn’t choose this way of life, because of rebellion, to be cool, Greed. I Became who I am because In order to survive. My “glitch” ability allows me to briefly teleport within a few feet- yards before leaving off a glitch like appearance that leaves others disoriented. It came in handy for Stealing food like bread from bakers and Cloth and clothing from the clothing tents. This led to me getting in trouble, which led to me earning the “glitch” nick name by the locals. I was known as a petty thief who wasn’t to be trusted. A lot of kids my age was told not to trust me, and that resulted in me not having many friends. The loneliness and isolation turned me cold… Turned me into the things they assumed about me. Maybe they were right.