One+Way+Street+by+Pria

I wasn’t scared when the mailman dropped dead on our lawn. It was a normal thing here in Leafwood Acres. Our gated utopia had many downsides, this was a small one. Our mail was sprawled out in front of him. I heard the rickety white van down the cobblestone street. The children next door played happily; they did not care that an old woman had been slumped over the sidewalk since yesterday evening. The rickety white van came and hauled the two dead bodies into the back. It drove off in search of more. Everything seemed normal, until Debbie and her family moved in.

They seemed like a normal family at first. I watched from my window as the large van drove up the street. I saw the innocent-looking family in the back. Too bad they didn't know they would never be able to leave. It really didn’t matter so much though; they’d probably drop dead in a while, before they figured everything out.

I shut the curtain and ran up the stairs. I shoved my rug back from the floor and scratched the soft wood with the rock from my pocket. I marked two more deaths. It now looked like decorations because there were so many markings on my floor. I knew it was no coincidence that Debbie and her mother were here. They were here only to replace the two deaths this morning.

So Debbie was our new next door neighbor. I watched her play outside, she had not seen anybody drop to the ground yet. Or so I thought. I came out of my house and watched Debbie throw a ball against the gray wall of her house. I leaned over the bushes to get a better view of her. She was not like any other girl I had seen before. She seemed so much smarter and more curious. Suddenly her eyes were fixed on me. I fell over into the bush. I tried to run back but she tackled me pinning me down.

“What is going on here?” she screamed at me.

I honestly knew a lot about the events that went on here at Leafwood Acres. It had been my own personal mission to find out everything but I hadn't talked to anyone about it before.

“I've seen people drop dead for no reason,” she growled at me.

I never had seen this kind of behavior from anybody in Leafwood before. She must still have the outside genes. I knew that we are changed genetically to be suited for Leafwood and that death is the downside of the formula. I had been here for a long time. My father moved us here when I was young and gave me an idea about what happens. I had been pretending all this time to be cured but I still had the outside genes.

“We don’t really die. I mean we do but we are changed into “normal” people to fit the perfect image of Leafwood with a formula that some scientist invented,” I explained.

Debbie rolled off my knees and sighed.

“I was not really going to hurt you. I just needed to know. I don’t want to be here anymore," she said.

“ Yes, nobody does, but Leafwood is a one way street. You can come in but never go out,” I said sadly. I also wanted to get out.

That was when Debbie suddenly dropped to the grass. I knew she was dead.

I knew they had been listening to what we had been saying so they took her. They installed a chip so they could listen in on what we were saying and they killed her. I should have told her sooner. I had been so close to finding someone who would finally understand how Leafwood works. My two best friends, Natalie and Chris, had changed and were now a part of Leafwood. I should have told her I was pretending to be one of them. I had never died and never will until I get very old.

Debbie might be a permanent death but maybe not, she still had outside genes. I got up and walked towards my house. I had to scratch another mark on my floor.

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