Once I’m in the outdoors of Dandux, I head straight home. My house is surrounded by other houses that all look the same. Boxy and white with a few windows. I spot the numbers 952 and the large chunk missing from the top step on the porch. My father wanted to fix it, but I begged him not to. It’s the only thing that sets us apart from the others.

“How did it go?” Felix asks as soon as I walk through the door. I close the door behind me, slump my shoulders, and give him “the look”. He starts laughing. “I assume it went well, then?”

“Just peachy. He told me I was a sweetheart. He couldn’t understand why I was even there.” We both laugh. “Honestly, I think the next time I go there, I’m going to bring explosives. Put us both out of our misery.”

He cocks an eyebrow and half-grins. “That bad?”

I take a deep breath and let it out. “Worse. But it’s my fault. You know how I am.”

I sit down on the couch and prop my feet up on the coffee table. “Where are the ones who call me daughter?”

“I think the Constables wanted to meet with them. They said something about your blue hair being a distraction to other Dwellers. I think they’re going to hang you, and the ‘rents had to go sign the agreement papers.” I take off my shoe and throw it at my annoying brother. He hates my hair, but I love it.

He successfully dodges my shoe and laughs. “I really don’t know where they are. Anyway, what are your plans for tonight?”

“I think I’m going to hang out with Sage. We haven’t hung out since I’ve been labeled the big, bad, angry monster of Dandux.”

“You mean her parents are allowing her to?”

“Yes. They have known me since I was pissing in a diaper. They know that I’m different but not angry like the rest of Dandux believes me to be. Besides, I’m sure I’ll be dead soon, and they want me to enjoy time with my best friend before,” I make a slicing motion with my hand against my throat.

“Not funny.”

I MEET SAGE at the Quest, the only place that’s actually fun to hang out in for teen Dwellers. To be honest, it’s the only place we’re allowed to hang out—according to the Constables’ laws.

“Hey, where is everyone at?” I look around. “This place is usually packed by now. “

“The Constables are having a meeting. Everyone stayed home.” Sage is hanging upside down on a bench with her legs stretched towards the sky. Seeing her long ginger hair makes me wish I hadn’t chopped all of mine off. I miss the convenience of throwing it back into a ponytail. Now it hangs short and untamed in my face.

I teasingly ask, “Are they afraid of something?”

“Probably. You know that Dwellers are supposed to remain indoors during meetings.”

I laugh. “Then, what are we doing out here?”

“Stop trying to act like you follow the rules.” She sits up, I assume to allow all the blood to find its way back to her brain, smoothing her hair with her hands. She smiles.

“What do you want to do since all of our other friends are too busy following the rules?”

This is why I love Sage. She is level-headed and definitely the reasonable one in our friendship, but she also likes to find a little bit of trouble.

My lips curl into a mischievous smile. “I think we should eavesdrop. I want to know what is so damn important that they called a meeting tonight without alerting everyone first.” I sit down next to her on the bench. Plus, I have the slightest feeling it was to discuss me.

She scrunches her eyebrows together as she thinks about my idea. “Orion… I don’t know. We would be hanged in front of everyone first thing in the morning if we were caught.”

I laugh. “And? What point are you trying to make? It’s bound to happen sometime.”

“Fine! Let’s go.” I jump to my feet with enthusiasm when she agrees.

We sneak down a side street, and I can tell that Sage is reluctantly following my lead. I ignore the fear in her eyes and continue creeping along a wall. We make it to the building where the Constables are meeting and stop at a nearby window. I look up at the window and then to Sage. She is shaking her head, but using no words and a lot of hand gestures, she finally lets me climb on her shoulders to peek inside. I place my ear to the cold window but can’t hear anything.

When I realize that this is a total fail, I jump off her shoulders and then slam myself, as well as Sage, against the wall at the sound of heavy footsteps. We both almost fall from the force in which we clung to the wall. I stare urgently at Sage, trying to communicate with no words. We both hold our breaths as the footsteps get eerily closer. I can already picture us hanging in the center of town. Me and my brilliant ideas.

When the walking stops, we both let out a sigh of relief and start quietly laughing. We are both quickly silenced again at the sound of a deep, coarse male voice speaking to someone.

“Were they executed?” His words portray that as an order, not a question.

I try to keep my breathing quiet, but it’s difficult.

Another male voice nervously answers him in a hushed tone. “Well, no. We are still searching on Earth.”

I knit my brows together and look at Sage and mouth “Earth”. She shrugs her shoulders and puts her finger to her lips.

The deep male voice demands, “Search harder. The ones who escaped the Sphere will surely expose our kind. It will be both of our heads if they are not found soon.”

“I will leave immediately and notify the Hunters,” the other male voice replies, and then I hear footsteps again.

I grab Sage’s hand and lead her to start following the footsteps. She quickly pulls her hand free from mine and whispers, “What are you doing?”

“Seeing what Earth is. That is where he is headed. Have you ever heard of it before?” I have to speak so low that I’m unsure of whether she can hear me.

“We are not going. Obviously, it’s something we’re to know nothing about if we have never heard of it before. This is a bad idea, and it will get us killed.” I ignore her and keep walking. It takes her a second to follow.

We get to the edge of Dandux, the forbidden area blocked off by an electric fence. Anyone who passes this fence is guaranteed death. Is this why? Because it leads to this Earth he spoke of? My forehead is sweating as well as the palms of my hands. I admit, I’m scared. But there’s no turning back now. By the way those two men were talking, this is serious and top secret. I have to find out what is going on. Plus, I can’t help it. Curiosity is a large part of my genetic make-up.

Sage looks at me with skeptical eyes, but I motion with my hands to keep following the man. I quickly look in each direction to make sure no one has spotted us. When I’m satisfied, we continue following him from a safe distance. When he fades from view, we stop. Where did he go? I frantically look around, afraid that he knows we are following him.

“What now?” Sage whispers, panicking and breathing heavily.

I grab the knife out of my shoe. “I don’t know! Do you think he saw us?”

“I hope not! If he is part of the Constables, we will be dead by morning, and that little knife isn’t going to do a thing to protect us!” Sage states the obvious, and I roll my eyes as I tuck the knife back into my shoe.

“We should keep walking.” I take a step, but she grabs the back of my shirt to stop me.

Her intense eyes meet mine. “No. We are going home. We have seen enough.” Just as the last word leaves her mouth, a blinding light knocks us both to the ground. When it’s gone, we both remain on the ground. I tremble from fear and am overwhelmed with curiosity.

Breathing heavily and in a whisper, I ask, “What the hell was that?”

She moves her hair from her eyes with shaky hands and says, “How the hell am I supposed to know? Is that enough reason for you to take your wanna-be, brave self back home?” I quickly nod my head, and we both get up.

ONCE I’M SAFELY in my house, I shut the door behind me and take deep breaths to slow my heart rate down. I see Felix sitting on the couch, watching a movie, totally oblivious to anything else going on around him

“Felix!” I say loudly, but not yelling.

“What is wrong with you?” He begrudgingly looks away from the television.

I wipe the sweat dripping from my forehead and debate whether or not I should say anything. “Where are mom and dad?”

“Sleeping. Why? Are you okay?”

“Come with me to my room. We need to talk.”

We walk to my room and close the door quietly behind us. I play back everything that happened in my mind, trying to figure out the best way to explain this.

“First of all, what I’m about to say is going to piss you off because I know you hate when I do stupid things. And tonight, I admit, what Sage and I did is at the top of the list of all of the stupid things I have done.” He raises his eyebrows at me. I have done a lot of dumb things, so he is probably wondering what could top them.

Noticing I have his complete attention, I continue, “Tonight the Constables had a meeting. Instead of coming home, we sneaked to where they were meeting and tried to listen to what they were discussing.”

“Dammit, Orion! The minute you found out they were having a meeting, you should have brought your stupid ass back home!”

“I know, I know! Usually they announce meetings by a letter in the mail, so we know not to leave the house. I was already out and didn’t know about it. Trust me… bad decision.” I sit down on my bed and take off my shoes.

Felix sits in a bean bag on the floor and impatiently asks, “Well? What happened?”

“We couldn’t hear anything through the window. So, we were about to leave when we heard two men talking. Have you ever heard of Earth before?”

He thinks for a brief moment. “Nope, never heard of it.”

“Well, one of the men said something about going there to find Dwellers who escaped. I’m assuming there is a world outside of our own. So, we sort of… followed the guy who was going to this so-called Earth.”

Felix rubs his temples and sighs heavily. “You followed him?”

“I know. Bad decision. But I was so curious and-“

“And you could have gotten yourself killed. When will you learn to stay out of trouble?”

“Please, let me finish.” I roll my eyes and continue, “Then a bright light appeared, literally knocking me and Sage to the ground. The best way I can explain it is as if lightning struck us, only different…” I look at Felix, waiting for him to say something. He is staring daggers at me, and I know he is cursing me in his mind.

Finally, he says, “Did anyone see you?”

I shake my head. “No. I don’t think so.”

He lets out a sigh of relief. “Promise me you will leave this alone, and no more snooping.”

“I promise. I really want to know what Earth is, though. Why would Dwellers want to escape? I didn’t even know you could escape from our Sphere. Did you?” I lie back on my bed and replay the conversation between the two men.

“No, and maybe they were talking about another town we haven’t heard of.”

“Maybe. But they said something about killing the Dwellers who escaped in fear of being exposed.” I look at my brother to gauge his reaction to my words, and I don’t think he could look more serious.

“That is even more reason to leave this alone. It sounds like they are up to no good.” He stands and walks towards me.

“Obviously.” I yawn. “I’m going to bed. It was a crazy night.” Felix kisses me on the top of my head before leaving my room.

Maybe those men were talking about another town. But wouldn’t I have learned about it when I was in school? We learned the entire geography of our Sphere, and Earth was never mentioned.

To my knowledge, Dwellers and the Sphere we live in are the only things that exist. I know I promised Felix I would leave this alone, but I have to find out what they were talking about and what they are afraid of being exposed to others.