Excitement. That’s all she felt. Distinctly she could feel the ache of tiredness in her bones, but now all she felt was a jarring electricity that swam over her.
Laughing, Orchid handed out cans and cans of bean soup and crushed pineapple crusted with sugar and fresh apples to waiting hands. The hands were many, dirt-crusted and filthy and shivering with excitement. Not that she would blame them. The excitement was euphoria, lifting and happy and light, in a way that made her bones lighter than they ever could, in a way that even made her muscles forget about their soreness.
She wondered if this was how Mad people, or the addicts felt.
The people were coming for the food now, arms outstretched, actively taking instead of getting cans from Orchid. She didn’t try to stop them, all too elated at the sight of them grabbing and pulling and yelling and rejoicing amongst themselves and their soon-to-be-full bellies.
Rejoicing and yelling and fullness that she had worked for, that she had caused.
Everyone, sewer workers with their grimed-up jumpsuits and factory workers with their missing limbs and shopkeepers with their grand tassels, painters with their crusted overalls, small children with blackened faces-even a few nightwalkers with their caked on rouge and ripped clothing crowded into the fray for more. She grinned at the sight, a maniacal laugh bubbling out of her. To watch the people be happy, to watch them enjoy, to gorge themselves-it made her happy too.
“If Adrian was here-“ Tassel started, but Orchid toned him out in favor of watching the crowd. Of tracking happiness, of seeing prosperity.
It was proof that they had succeeded. That the rebellion was working. That those people, that they were happy.
The air crackled with an energy that was almost tangible. Orchid felt it thrumming through her, a current of shared joy and desperate hope. This wasn't just about food; it was about defiance, about a collective middle finger to the iron fist that squeezed their city dry. Every apple devoured, every spoonful of sugary pineapple, was a victory.
Suddenly, her eyes felt heavy. And they weren’t from the lack of sleep.
“I can’t believe you’re crying from a can of pineapple.” Tassel made to sneer, but Orchid could see the tear tracks even in the dim light of the sewers.
She grinned. “You’re crying yourself.”
Tassel dabbed his tears away. “No, I’m not. I’m not!”
Hesitantly, she put a hand on his shoulder. It was a lot bonier than she remembered, but that didn’t stop her from squeezing it. “I get it, Tassel.””
“The what-I’m a crybaby?” He huffed, still glaring and sour.
Orchid laughed again. Her euphoria was so high that even Tassel couldn’t bring her down. “Yes, that. But, most importantly, this.” She gestured at all the happiness, all the people stuffing her faces and laughing. “This!”
“She’s gone off the rails.” muttered Cain, still crouched in the bed of the wagon. From the clanking of the cans Orchid could tell that the guy was stuffing cans in a sack, probably to pilfer. “Probably Mad, now, just like the rest-“
“The rebellion, Tassel!” Orchid wrapped her arms around him. “I get it! I mean, I get it before, but-now! Now I understand!”
Tassel stiffened under her touch, but this time, he didn’t pull away. “Took you long enough.”
“Don’t be like that!” Orchid let go of her friend, who seemed to be crying even more and trying to hide it more than he was crying. “I mean, I know it! I joined, didn’t I?” She looked around, beaming back at faces stuffed with food.
"But... I didn't feel it. Not like this. Not like I do now."
The words tumbled out of her, unbidden and raw, so sappy that Neko would strangle her for saying them. But, it was true. She'd been a cog in the machine, dutifully carrying out orders, attending meetings, even putting up with Listerius. She believed in the cause, logically understood the need for rebellion, but it had always felt… distant. A theoretical exercise, something to prove the need that Messenger called morality.
Simply put, it was a show. Something that Orchid did. A job, an occupation, a hustle. A bit of theater, if you will, to show everyone but herself a mockery of something moral.
Now, bathed in the reflected glow of makeshift lanterns and the joyous clamor of hungry mouths, it was visceral. It was real. It was the tangible weight of hope in a city drowning in despair.
A gaunt woman with dirt smudged across her forehead reached out and squeezed Orchid's hand, her grip surprisingly strong. "Thank you," she croaked, her voice rough with disuse and disease. "Thank you for this." She looked at the crowd of people still leaping onto the food, her own hands crammed with cans. Then. sensing the disappearance of the food, she hurried to grab more for herself.
Orchid's throat tightened. For a second, all strategy, plans, election-even schemes-disappeared from her head. Her heart swelled with something, her throat lumped up, tears in the corners of her eyes threatened to make themselves real tears.
“Oh, lord.” Cain groaned in the back. She turned around, all sentiment gone. Cain, having squirreled away an entire sackful of cans and the like, shook his head as if in denial. “First Tassel, now you. Next you’re going to be singing lullabies with Adrian, and then you’re going to be like Listerius, yapping about that Utopia or the like-”
But no one else heard him. Orchid caught Ana’s black curls as she cheered and let out laughs with the rest. Tassel stood on the now-empty wagon, watching the citizens of Hearts scurry out of the sewers. “For the Rebellion!” He called out after them. “To Hearts! To the Girl!”
Arms full of cans, the people turned their heads. Some nodded, others whispered. They knew, they understood.
No one responded. But, at the moment, Orchid understood the phenomenon called hope.
Hi!
This is the Prologue of a book that I’ve been writing for around six months or so, “The City of Hearts.” It’s more of a twist on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, but I assure you that it’s a lot more than caterpillars and roses.
What you just read has never been edited than someone other than me. I do want to publish this on paper eventually, so every single comment you guys give me helps. Please feel free to offer constructive criticism and such.
Thank you for reading!