An explosion suddenly rang out, causing me to jump within my hiding place. Outside, muffled shouts and cries of shock began to ring out followed by the sounds of frantic footsteps going in every direction. A second passed, then another, and another. Silence.
I tentatively raised the lid of the dumpster and looked around. It looked like the coast was clear, the Prestiges must have run off either to or from the explosion. The sun had fallen, and the moon was in full view, casting a silvery light across the streets.
I slowly crawled out of the dumpster and slid to the concrete. Standing up, I quickly wiped the trash from my person, grabbed my medicine bag, and poked my head out of the alley. As I feared, the streets were filled with Prestige, each wearing looks of panic and confusion. Some were ducking into nearby buildings, while others dashed towards the inner city where a pillar of thick smoke was wafting into the air.
I anxiously bit my nails. That was probably one of the sides setting off another bomb. They had started doing this almost a month prior with increasing frequency. The bombings hadn’t originally been concerning for me, but that explosion, judging by the smoke, was very close to my home.
I knew that it was risky coming to Prestige territory, but I was desperate. The winter months were just around the corner, and I needed to stock up on medicine before the first snow. I had done this run several times in the past with minimal hassle, but those bombs from earlier put a definite damper on my plans to return.
I should have known things would end badly when I had been discovered earlier. Mother Nature, the cruel mistress that she was, had saw fit to knock off my hood and expose me to the populace. The Prestige had immediately taken note to my ‘differences’ and set upon me, forcing me to hide in that rancid dumpster until now.
Slowly, I edged my way out of the alley, taking care not to move too suddenly as to not garner attention. I slunk into the shadows, cautiously following after the Prestige at a safe distance, moving towards the source of the explosion.
My fear soon doubled as the group I had been following grew in size as more Prestige, both men and women, joined their ranks. Their shouts of confusion turned to cries of outrage and anger. Their pace quickened, their fury over the attack filling them with adrenaline. Before I knew it, they were running.
I still stayed back, not willing to go faster, I allowed the group to push ahead and round the next corner. Another explosion rang out, a little ways away from the first and much closer to my home.
My heart rate sped up and my pace quickened as the horror over the possibility of my home being damaged or worse weighed heavily on my mind. I rounded the corner and I was met with fire.
The dividing line between Prestige and Prominence, and the buildings that ran along on either side, were alight with wild flames. Houses, shops, there was no discrimination. As I stood there, loud shouts cut through the crackling of the fire. Turning to my left, in the ominous light of the flames, I could see two groups of people.
The first group, the one I had followed, were, of course, Prestige. Their faces elegant with high cheekbones and sharp features. Their clothes, while disheveled and a little rumpled, were clearly expensive in design, especially when compared to those of the other group.
Across from the Prestige, stood the Prominence. Unlike the others, the Prominence had a harder look to them. They were burlier and more muscular, their hands thick with callouses from daily physical labor. They clearly cared less about their appearance than their fancier counterparts as not only were their clothes of a shoddier quality, but many of them looked as if they had not shaved in weeks, the women included.
“You’re really crossed the line this time, filth,” a Prestige sneered, glaring heatedly at the opposing group.
“You took the words out of my mouth,” a Prominence responded, their expression equally furious. “You bastards have done a lot of crap, but this tears it!”
“Don’t act like you’re the victims!” a Prestige screeched. “You cretins started this when you set off that bomb!”
“We did no such thing!” a Prominence snapped. A female Prominence stepped forward, this significantly larger and more intimidating than the others.
“Of course it was you!” the lead Prestige sneered. “Only a lowly Prominence would sink so low as to do something like this!”
“Yes, because you Prestiges are so much better,” another Prominence spat with just as much venom.
The Prominece woman from earlier stepped up and spoke again. “We may not have started this little skirmish,” she began, her voice filled with distaste, “but you can be sure we’re going to end it right here!”
“Big words coming from a lowly rat,” a Prestige commented haughtily.
The two sides devolved into shouts and jeers directed towards the other side. Threats of harm and insults spilled into the air, clashing violently together like a vortex. It was impossible to distinguish actual words that were being said, all I knew was that they were all filled with hate.
Cautiously, I began to edge around the two groups, staying on the Prestige side, close to the burning buildings, hoping that neither side noticed me. It both amazed and horrified me at how much the two sides hated each other yet relied on each other.
The Prestige, with all their scientific advancements and medicine could not survive without the materials that the Prominence mined from the quarry nor the foods they harvested. Trade was essential between the two, yet neither of the two missed out on the chance to make things harder for the other by charging ridiculous wages for their goods. Recently, it got to the point that neither side could actually afford the other’s goods. As such, stealing became a common practice.
Because of this, tensions began steadily rising as the hatred between the two races built. I wasn’t sure as to what was the breaking point, but one day several months back, Prominence members had led a raid on one of the Prestige’s medical labs. There was a lot of damage done and a significant amount of medication stolen. In response, the several Prestige raided a storage facility and made off with quite a chunk of material.
Since then, acts like what was taking place before me happened frequently. It honestly made me ashamed to be a part of either of the two’s bloodline and, at the same time, amazed at how my parents came together despite the hatred.
My mother was a Prestige and my father was a Prominence. They kept their relationship secret as their love would have gotten them killed. Not that mattered as my mother dying in childbirth and my father of pneumonia seven years later.
I was raised within Prominence territory with my father until his death. I always had looked different from the others as a result to my Prestige blood, and not everyone ‘appreciated’ my presence. I probably would have been kicked out or killed before my third birthday had it not been for my father. He shielded me from the disgust and hate of his fellow race, keeping me out of harm’s way, not that I knew it at the time. This changed when he got sick.
The price of the medication he needed was much too high for us to pay for. As a result, his health just kept deteriorating until his body couldn’t last any longer. He died peacefully in his sleep, taking with him my heart and my shield.
Like vultures to a carcass, the Prominences descended down upon me, hurling insults at me, sometimes going as far as physically striking me as if to prove to themselves that I was beneath them. Confused and scared, I remembered the stories my father used to tell me about my mother, about the other Prestige. I thought that maybe I was in the wrong place, that I belonged with the Prestige. I was wrong.
I was treated just as badly with the Prestige. The shouts, the jeers, it was all the same. The only difference was that the majority of them didn’t want to touch the “filthy Prominence” and tended to stick with insults. Even so, it was clear that I didn’t belong in Prestige territory either. I didn’t belong anywhere.
In order to survive, I had to steal from both sides as neither was willing to give me the time of day to work for food, medicine, and clothing. I set myself up in a run-down shack on the north end of town, on a hill that sat directly on the imaginary line that separated the two people. People tended to stay away from my shack, but there were days that I would come home to graffiti smeared against my walls.
I was pulled out of my thoughts when a particularly loud shout echoed. Looking back towards the quarreling group, I almost blanched when I saw that the two groups had doubled in size. It looked like almost the entire population of both territories were out, all of them filled with hatred for the other. Never before had I seen so many Prestige and Prominence in one place. It would only be a matter of times before things ended in bloodshed.
Knowing this, I continued to make my way towards my house, doing my best to remain out of sight. I hadn’t even gone ten yards when a loud shriek of outrage rang out followed by dead silence. I turned around in time, but just in time to see the invisible line that separated the two mobs fall and for people, both Prestige and Prominence, to flood into the other’s territory.
They viciously attacked each other with fists and anything they could get their hands on, both sides wanting nothing more than to cause harm to the other side. Screams, both from pain and anger, were shot back and forth, harmonizing with the sounds of heavy impacts of flesh against flesh.
I dashed off, using the fighting as cover for my escape. I had no stake in the fight or its victor, both sides had made that perfectly clear. I just wanted to get home and—
I slowed to a stop, the sounds of fighting fading into a distant hum. Before me stood my shack, the place which I had called home for ten years of my life, was being consumed by flames.
I didn’t realize it at first, but I started to walk forward, not stopping until I could feel the heat of the flames. All the years of suffering under both people were nothing compared to this. I had thought I had found some place to live, but, again, the Prestige and Prominence took that away from me.
I turned around and glared down at the fighting people and I didn’t see two people. I just saw monsters.
Works Of Fiction by D.J. Adams 