I left the back entrance of the trial facility, holding onto my chest and resting against the wall as I heaved. The heat beating on my face flushed out all the temperate coolness from them and left a flustered red hue from what I could make from my reflection. The rest of the Vulrants followed suit behind me, all of them catching their breaths along with me.

The television screen within the training facility exit flickered on to life, somehow knowing we all entered the room at that exact time. And with the TV's sudden revival came with that of Zoe's face staring back at us. Her signature smile still worn on her face to provoke some kind of relaxing aura to radiate with her. Though I felt more anxiety than anything seeing her stare into my soul.

We had finished our final trials. All of us were wiped out, ripped of all our energy as the trials ripped all of what we had left in us; out. All the muscles in my body ached and burned in a deep searing pain.

Confidently I felt that I and the rest of the Vulrants were more than qualified to move on. Not as a boastful remark, but things seemingly flowed smoothly despite the pain and exhaustion all of us felt. We now stood in the waiting room to go outside to the 'Honorary Circle', a traditional area taken place outside where ceremoniously we are commemorated for our work done. Though this time around the injections were added, breaking the normality of tradition that had been held for roughly a thousand years. Not to mention the completely brain-dead idea of keeping the final part of our trials outside in the rain. The same ol' song and dance Madi and I complained about.

I took a moment while Zoe started talking to slow my breathing entirely and exit my active brain for a moment to hopefully cool my entire being down.

"Welcome Vulrants, to the last step in your journey of completion. All of you have come so far within your young lives to this point. From day one of selecting and being selected into the faction of your personal aptitudes. To the first day where you learnt the true depths of what your faction really meant. You've all rigorously pushed through it all to this final moment. Everything now unraveling into the staircase of your journey: and you've reached the final top step".

"That step fittingly named the Honorary Circle. The injections. As has always been tradition for our society for as long as we've been around, the Circle stands as a symbol of completion, a symbol of long-deserved ends and new beginnings. Counterbalanced with a little bit of newness, as the injections have firstly been implemented into today's celebration. You will, as previously mentioned, be gifted the final item of importance, of the injections. Vulrants will be the first to take the injections and the list will follow as such: Zyto, Indigo, Xultant, Forbids, Tyra and Skyrupt.

"You have all come along so far in your lives to be at this point, worked and strived for only the greatest. And for that you have my personal gratitude, admiration and future hopes that you make this wonderful city even more of a safer environment and more of a vastly rich economy. Good luck Vulrants. And good luck everyone" Zoe gave a final nod to us before having the television switch to darkness.

Zoe's words hung in the air for a while with their ghastly weight. I took a moment to fully absorb them as I finally started to relax from all of my exhaustion. Everyone else looked to be following the same method, as they too began to stand normally and controlled breathing.

One thing still remained that bothered me deep within my heart. It was obvious, and surely hauntingly hindered on everyone's mind. The one thing between us and adulthood.

And that was the injections. Those damned injections.

I didn't feel well with the injections at all, especially knowing now that the Vulrants were chosen to be the first recipients of the injection. That thought alone was enough to not sit well with me, as my nerves overworked my brain to exhaustion. There was so many questions that swarmed my brain all at once. What were in the injections? What did the injections really do? Why implement this now and not any earlier generation? Did they test this on anyone?

It's soon. It's ALL soon.

We exited the training facility to the outside courtyard where the Honorary Circle was located, being met with torrential downpour as soon as we stepped out. I flinched at the sudden coldness of the rain soaking me. If my calming meditation hadn't cooled me off surely this solved the trick quickly. Again my brain cursed the council's stubborn insistence of keeping the tradition of the Circle in effect. No matter the timing of weather.

The boy from earlier came running up to me and maintained walking at my pace. His hair was already doused in the rain to press against his forehead. And I unfortunately could feel mine do the same despite getting the soggy mess to cooperate during the trials. "You nervous?" he spoke out, trying to making his voice auditory over the rain and thunder.

"About what?" I asked, knowing what he was talking about but humoring him with being unaware.

"The injections".

I laughed a little to myself at the way he said the words, though internally it sent a shiver up my spine thinking about it. "I think the only reason you're asking me is to take the pressure off your own nervousness".

He rolled his eyes "you didn't answer my question".

'Yes' I thought. 'I'm petrified and nervous at the thought of the injections. The first time these have ever been implemented and we're the first ones to experience it. To unlock our true potential? Did they even test it? Yes, of course I'm nervous'. I started to think more on the actual effect of the injections... I was skeptical as to how it would change us. Were we supposed to feel an emotional or physical difference? Would it be painful? What if something were to go wrong? Then what? Did they have an antidote for their own serum?

"I don't know, I guess I'm a little frightful and curious in some strange messed up way" I answered the boy. It was a partial lie, I just didn't want to spew out my fears to this person I barely talked to.

He pursed his lips and looked towards the stormy sky, bobbing his head side to side in a comedic thinking type of way. "I see what you say, it's a half and half feeling".

I shook my head and left the conversation at that. I didn't want to dive any deeper into my own fears to share with him, nor know anymore of his concerns. We walked to the outer edges of the circle

The Circle is closing in.

All of the seven faction towers had back exits that all filtered to the same area. The ground was a non-blemished concrete that led up to a circular concrete pad with steps curved around it. Neatly trimmed grass grew outside of the concrete borders of the circle, seeming as though they were just cut. Various trimmed hedges and light fixtures circled around the area. Elegant white and pearlescent walls wrapped around past the grass, to give the circle a more secluded feeling to it. Statues of seven people loomed the perimeters of the area. Each of them constructed out of glass with plaques just below them on their stands. The seven statues were of the first seven faction leaders who correlated in creating the factions and Zykard itself. The glass elegancy of each one dripped and streamed with the endless rainfall. And beyond those pearlescent walls were buildings of the city that rose and dipped above us.

And then there was us, all seventy faction members standing out in the rain waiting for this daunting step ahead of us to be commenced.

On top of the center circle laid seven cases on a curved white table, one lone plastic chair was placed alongside the table. Those cases I could safely infer were what held each and every individual injection for everyone here. Everything was soaking wet beyond inconvenient annoyance. The menacing presence of the setup was enough for me to crawl within myself and just hope that it'd be over soon.

And I was there, in the middle of it all with everyone else...

In front of the Vulrant line. I would be

Chosen.

the first one who would receive the injection.

A set of steel double doors opened from the far side of the courtyard. Two men emerged from the doors and made their way to the center of us, specifically to where the table and cases were. Both of them held black umbrellas to shield themselves from the rain. I looked on with discontent to see that no one bothered to give any faction members any umbrellas, or a means of shielding from the downpour.

One of the men wore a sleek business suit despite there being a thunder and rainstorm raging on at the moment. I guess to keep the situation formal and more proper as it always had been. He wore a white suit jacket, its texture embroidered with reflective geometric triangles, with a black button up and a purple neck tie. His hair was slicked back as best as possible though the rain made it curl downwards to the sides of his head as it changed direction. It must've been Omar Remmington, the head council member of the city, no one else would wear as striking of an outfit as he would. Other than Zoe of course.

The other man, a little older than Omar, was in a simple white coat with black pants on underneath. I wasn't too sure who the man was, but if I had to guess he'd have to be a Indigo, as they were the only ones to wear that kind of coat. And I also doubt that Omar would be the one to give us the injection, and would have a professional take care of that job.

He approached the center circle, standing before us with a straight posture, and cleared his throat before speaking. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to your final step towards completion" his voice projected the rain and thunder to us. For having to speak over the rain as a formal man such as himself: his voice boomed with authority and bass, clearly being felt throughout everyone. "You will each individually step up from your chosen faction order, take a seat here on this chair, and will be injected with the serum by our Indigo specialist here" Omar said, gesturing to each thing he spoke of before putting his hands together. He remained quiet for a bit before outstretching his arm towards my direction. Everyone turned their attention to who he was pointing at. "We will begin with the Vulrants. You ma'am, step forward".

I knew he was talking about me, but I wanted to believe for a moment that I wasn't there to be called upon first to take the injection. That he was just pointing to the person behind me instead. Omar's brown eyes flickered over to meet mine in an eternal gaze, ushering me to step forward, and a deep pang in my ill heart spread towards my stomach. I wanted to run off and vomit out all the dread built up within. Everyone looked onto me with anxious eyes as I uncomfortably stood there.

'Shit... SHIT. I can't. I don't want to. You can't make me. I never agreed to this. We never agreed to this. I'll die from this injection I know it! Just excuse me and...'

"Come on now young ma'am. No need to be afraid" Omar's faint smile glowed to me, instantly giving me some kind of confidence boost to thrust my legs forward towards the center. How the hell did that work? What was the concept of walking? Can I even walk?

My left leg fell forward with a daunting half step, then followed after by my right leg.

Apparently I could...

Left leg.

Right leg.

That's it now, baby steps Crimson.

Left leg.

Right leg until I walked up the small steps to the elevated circular slab. Both men looked at me encouragingly, as if to reassure me that nothing bad was going to happen. And for a moment I could actually believe them and their fake smiles. To my left was seven cases with ten syringes in each one. Each box was labeled accordingly to each faction, and each serum's color seemingly corresponded by the faction's color. Vulrants color being a faint lavender color.

The liquid sat idly within the small glass tube. However innocent and ordinary it looked: an inevitable aura of intimidation shrouded them.

Omar continued to give a slight grin to me as I approached the chair. He outstretched his arm to gesture to the chair, non-verbally telling me to sit. I looked out to the other factions to see that all of them were still staring at me. Eagerly waiting to see what was to become of me from the injection. I tried seeking out my sister in it, for some kind of emotional support. She stood second in the order of the Zyto line. Madi looked up to me with a worried look, shrugging as if to say she didn't know what else to tell me.

I just had to sit down and endure the injection. That would be it.

Not just 'it'.

I sat down in the chair and gripped the armrests nervously, bracing myself for what was about to ensue. The older Indigo man stood next to me with the syringe in his fingers, ready to use it on me. "This will only hurt a little" he smiled at me to be more reassuring. I flashed a small smile back at him to hide my undeniable fear and anxiety I had bottled up inside of me. I quivered out an exhale to let out all the air I seemed to have held in my lungs for a long while. It didn't take me until now to realize that I hadn't breathed the entire time I walked up to the Honorary Circle.

The rain picked up heavier than before with a barrage of larger droplets to soak us. Again, I wondered why we had to do the injections outside, this just felt like the setup to some dramatic final act that would largely center around me. The audience looked upon me with suspense twitching at their fingertips.

The fact of the matter was that this was a sacred place that the ending of our trials were held. And always had been for a thousand years. This was no act and rather just apart of the same monotonous process repeated like it always was for years before our faction. It seemed a little too ridiculous at this point with all the rain and thunder going on.

But this was all apart of the

Plan.

process. I just had to submit to it. It's all just a circle, and I'm following the rotation like everyone else.

Only it isn't a circle... it's a spiral. A downwards spiral. And this was just the beginning of it.

The Indigo man cleaned the spot on my neck with a sanitary wipe as Omar held an umbrella over the both of us, the man then lowered his hand to my neck without warning and pierced my flesh with the needle. I could feel the miniscule point embed itself within me and I resisted the urge to shiver as that could mess up the process. He pushed down on the plunger and let all of its contents rush into my bloodstream before pulling it out and dabbing the puncture wound with another sanitary wipe. He put his hand to my neck and quickly repaired the skin that suffered the puncture from the needle.

I sat there in fear wondering if there would be an immediate effect to come from the serum, but nothing happened at all. All of the rain was drowned out to white noise as I could only hear the thumping of my heart fill the quiet void. I still remained in the seat as Omar and the Indigo man seemingly looked upon me with a nervous curiosity to see my immediate reaction to it. But I just sat there dumbfounded that it was just a simple injection. Nothing had happened. Not that I hoped for there to be anything to happen. Though I could eerily feel an icy stream of the serum run its course down my neck and deep within me.

Then it happened all at once.

Despite the rain to encourage it, my body became internally cold to the point of a mind-numbing freezing sensation. My vision turned into a darkened haze of smoke, and I started to panic being barely able to see the world around me. I unconsciously threw my head back in a sudden knee-jerk reaction, having it followed by me shaking my head left and right rapidly.

Something was happening within me that I couldn't control, as if the serum was taking over my body. I gritted my teeth to the point of pain trying to understand the pain going on in my brain. I could feel every inch of my veins and arteries run frigid with a sharp coldness. There were whispers unraveling in my brain and I couldn't focus on trying to understand what my brain was telling me...

My body flew forward onto the pavement, forcing me to collapse to my hands and knees. Again, all the actions I felt in me were controlled by subconscious puppeteer. I tried with all my will power to pull back and fight the numbing movements. My vision was starting to become more solid with the ever-growing darkness that consumed the peripherals of my vision. There was a sharp whine of ringing to rip through my eardrums that I couldn't make out where it was coming from. I let out a scream to the world, unknowing to how horrific it might sound due to the ringing that consumed my hearing.

I didn't feel any pain externally, only a sharp pain that was stabbing me internally in my brain. I wasn't sure what this sensation was exactly.

"What the hell? Are you okay" someone frantically called out. I looked out to see the factions bewilderingly staring at me. I could feel their eyes bore into my head as if they had their own syringes to take a stab at me with. Their eyes digging into me contributed to the mental pain, and I let out a scream once more to counteract my pain as best as possible.

I could feel fluids come from nose and mouth that were starkly different from the rain I was feeling. I raised my hand to my mouth and nose, retracting it to see that my fingers were covered blood before the red tinge was washed away in the rain. Droplets of the blood made their way to the pavement and stained the light grey concrete quickly, making the water a pink hue. My whole body twitched in agony.

This wasn't even the worst of it all...