Screams

Author's Note: Hello one and all!!! Sorry, I got bored, and hey! This is that thing I posted part of once... 

Merry Christmas?

           What’s with society? Okay, let me be more clear-- what’s with my society? I’m Whitney, just Whitney. Where I’m from we don’t label ourselves with last names because that means we’re related to someone. No, in my world we’re separated by gender. We’re not allowed to know who we’re related to and if we do fall in love then we’re evacuated. Well, that’s what we’ve been told anyway.
            Personally I’m not that interested. Right now I find myself in the showers. Forty three women stand in the stalls. None of us were uncomfortable with walking around naked. This is how our life has been and we’re used to it. Little girls ran across the tiled floor, older women gossiped.
            From a distance I saw several familiar faces. But most of the women I saw were older than me by at least forty years.
“What are you staring at?” Amy snapped in front of my face. “Are you even listening?”
“What? Oh, sorry..” I hadn’t been listening.
            Caroline had caught my attention. One of the girls my age who was in the shower room with us. Quickly I smiled at her and looked at Amy.
“What?” I asked again.
“You totally didn’t hear what I said at all, did you?” She asked.
“Not a word,” I shrugged. “Tough skittles.”
“God, Whitney why are you so weird?” She sighed, shaking her head.
“Maybe it’s all of the fruity smells mixing together,” The shower room smelled like a million different fruity shampoos.
“I shouldn’t tell you important things when you’re high off fruit,” She nodded, hanging her towel on a hook.
“Exactly,” I agreed, opening a shower curtain.
“You’re such a nerd,” She laughed as she stepped into her stall.
“Are you just finding this out?” I laughed.
“Whitney!” Caroline stopped me from closing the door to the stall.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Would it be cool if I talked to you later in the rec room?” She asked, wringing out her hair.
“Totally, totally cool,” I smiled.
“Awesome,” She smiled. “I gotta catch up with some.. People, but I’ll see you later!” She waved and sprinted away.
“Smooth, Whitney. Smooth.” Amy laughed.
“Shut up!” I laughed.
“You’re so weird about it!” She tapped the wall in between us.
“She’ll hear you!” I blushed, twisting the knob so water would come out.
“Is that a bad thing?” Amy poked.
“A very bad thing!” I blushed.
“You’re so sensitive,” she giggled.
“You’d be too!” I hit the button that released soap as I fought her words.

           “No, you’re just super sensitive,” she shook her head.

           “Chill, okay?” I sighed, running my hands through my hair.

            Most women had long hair, it wasn’t something we had to do, it was just something we liked. But for a few years I’ve wanted to cut my hair shorter, I’ve always worn it so that it appears shorter. Although it doesn’t always work. I had slowly started to loath my hair though, it was the chains that tied me to this society.- I sighed and pushed it back, not interested in it anymore.

            In the back of my mind I remembered a fairy tale I was told as a little girl, some princess with long hair. I think a witch was involved but I’m not sure, what I really remember was the nursery helper that day was yelled at and sent away. But I remember little pieces of the tale, something to do with a prince and love. Which is why she got yelled at, all of the older women whisper about how things used to be, it was looser and not as bad.

            But this is how it’s been ever since my first memory. It’s never been different than this, always the same old strict warnings and fierce consequences. Suddenly the whole shower room got quiet.

          “What…?” Amy whispered, pulling herself up to see over the top of the shower door.

            I followed her in that sense, watching what was happening.

            The police were in here with us, normally a violation since they’re said to be men, yet none of us would know because they’re cover in a full body suit.

          “Oh my god…” I whispered.

            The poor girl was screaming and kicking, apologizing over and over. It was all happening so fast and none of us even knew what had happened in the first place. Older women rarely got messed with, but this woman who I’m assuming was around 50 to 60 years was being dragged out. A few women who were about her age whispered about what happened.

            Quickly Amy and I rinsed off and wrapped ourselves in our towels. Carefully we stepped out and walked over to them.

           “What happened?” Amy asked once it was quiet enough to hear them.

           “She was singin’ a man’s song,” one of them replied.

           “What?” I looked at Amy, confused.

           “Girls, this society has been here for years, at the beginning it was just a house with tape down a wall. At that point it was voluntary, and for hundreds of years it was voluntary. Towards now it got less and less voluntary, they were going to convert everywhere to something like this,” she gestured towards everything.  “And my friend was one of the last ones to volunteer here, she hung on to anything she could. That song she was singing was from a man from many, many, many years ago.—“

           “So why would they care?” I asked.

           “You were born in here weren’t you?” She smirked. “You don’t realize that they can hear everything you say, they can see everything you do, they know what you’re thinking. Hold onto anything of sanity.”

           “Oh my god…” Amy whispered. “Um.. Thank you,” she grabbed my wrist and slipped out of the shower room.

           “Calm down,” I put my hands on her shoulders.

            Amy started laughing.

           “That woman was nuts,” she shook her head.

           “You scared me there, Amy!” I shoved her. “You made me think you were seriously scared!” I laughed.

           “That was so fake, they can’t hear us,” she smirked, pulling her hair back.

           “What if they could though?” I asked, feeling a little spooked.

           “Well then hello to them,” she joked.

            Although at this point we didn’t know that it wasn’t a joke.