I was seven when I got approval to join my peers in the next phase of training: Primary School. On the first day, I scurried along the Schoolhouse halls until I found the primary classroom door. I grasped the knob and stepped inside with a sigh. Finally! There, in stiff chairs, with their hair braided back too tight, was the skin of my skin, my family. And, just like that, my spirit awoke. My assimilation fell away.

“Comrades!” I cried, swelling with love. I hiked up my skirt and took the helm, jumping onto the nearest desk. It was occupied, but I didn’t care.

“Comrades! It is I!” I dipped my knees and threw up a fist. “To me!”

Slowly, they turned, pupil after pupil, eyes narrowed and intelligent. But they didn’t move. I frowned.

Suddenly, the classroom door opened behind me. Heels clicked, coming my way. It must be the rules, I thought. No yelling, no running, no jumping. They’d been quieted. I shouted again to wake them up, “Comrades, it is I! To me!” Leaping onto another desk, and another, I pleaded, buying time for them to rally. How long did it take me to realize that they wouldn’t?

When it finally struck me, like lightning square in the heart, I slipped and fell. My nose cracked against the ground and spurted blood.

Above me, the other students jittered nervously as the heels at the door clicked closer. They whispered a name I didn’t recognize. “Jones,” they choked. “Jones!”

A gray skirt stopped beside me. Pointed boots protruded from beneath. The toes, fortified with steel, were black as rat snakes. A drop of blood shivered on the tip of my nose, as one toe began to tap. Tap. Tap…

The Pit

THE PIT

The tapping stopped as a voice spoke from above. “Do you know what happens to children that won’t learn their lesson?”

My eyes peeled from the boots and rolled up the skirt. I shivered, meeting her eyes. Ice blue and colder than her voice.

“Primary Cobane, I asked you a question.” Her eyes sparked. “Answer me!”

My fear ripened and my teeth chattered in my head, sounding an alarm—run! I obeyed without thinking. Taking her by surprise, I jumped to my feet, and sprinted through the classroom door.

I didn’t look back, but a pinch in the back of my throat told me she followed.

I sped up, racing down the hall, pumping as fast as my hobbled skirt would allow. My heart beat like a bird as I looked for escape. Suddenly, I found it, a window at the end of the wood-paneled hall. I lowered my head, ripping my skirt as I ran.