Elise had spent the last month making it from cloth she’d used all her savings to purchase. Every credit she had earned, found, and been given, was invested into this day.
She used a finger to smudge a bit of soot on her eyelids and stepped back from the small piece of broken mirror on the wall. This was it. This was the day she had been planning for since she knew she was an omega.
Looking around her room one last time before stepping out and shutting the door behind her, Elise sighed. It had hardly been bigger than the single bed pressed against the wall and didn't hold anything important to her.
She left a note on the bed for the girls she lived with, so they would know what happened and that they could let someone else have the room and the things she left behind. She’d done the same with her boss. Elise knew they wouldn't agree with her decision, but that was fine.
A couple of them were omegas still holding out. Elise was younger than them since she just turned twenty, but the others had no plans to turn themselves in.
She decided long ago that her twentieth birthday would be the day. There was no reason for her to wait since she was of legal age.
Elise stepped out of the building into the cool air with just a small bag over her shoulder. It had a couple pairs of clothes, and not much else. She didn’t have anything of value to bring with her.
It was cold enough that standing still left her a bit chilled without a jacket but walking to the center would warm her up.
She turned down the street without looking back. She had no reason to, with no sentimental attachment to where she had lived the past couple years. Elise had known she would be leaving it before she got there, and had no second thoughts now that the time had come.
This was what was best for her.
Elise stopped a block from the center. It hadn't been too long of a walk and she had taken her time so she wouldn't arrive sweaty, but she still wanted to stop and freshen up for a moment. First impressions could make a difference.
Once her breathing had slowed to a gentle rise and fall, she crossed the last bit of sidewalk leading her to her destiny.
Taking the stairs up to the front doors, her heart began to race. No one knew what was past them. No omega to enter the center had ever returned, and the people who worked there would be the last to talk about what happened within.
Fingers pressed to the handle, Elise paused, a shiver running down her spine. There was no turning back once she stepped through. Her life would no longer be her own.
Thinking of the dreary, worn down buildings she had passed, and breathing in the smog-laced air of the city, Elise straightened her shoulders and pulled. There wasn’t much that could be worse than her life. Worked to exhaustion every day of the year, she was used to the disappointments of life, and could take whatever was behind those doors.
Chapter Two
Stepping through the entrance of the collection center, the first thing Elise noticed was the cold. Where the temperature outside was chilly, the air in the building felt like she had stepped into a refrigeration unit.
The walls were a plain white, scuffed and dirty around the base, with a single abstract photo hanging in the center of the room. The white floor tiles were in even worse shape, cracked and dull with age and lack of care.
A fake tree in a green pot stood in a corner to her right, its leaves drooping with the mass of dust collected on them, and three dull-blue plastic chairs sat against the far wall.
It was… disappointing.
The desk sitting at an angle in the far-left corner was empty, and Elise hesitated, unsure what to do. As the door to the outside swung shut behind her, she looked between the desk and the partially opened door on the other side.
Elise could hear voices echoing out from the opening, so she crept closer to the desk, hoping someone would come out. By the time she stopped in front of it, there was still no sign that anyone would be coming to greet her.
Unsure what else to do, she called out a shaky, “Hello?”
The voices from the other room stopped before she heard shuffling and footsteps heading her way. Straightening, she crossed her hands over her bag, trying to slow her breathing.
A head of messy blonde hair popped through the opening, brows drawn together in confusion over plain brown eyes. When he noticed Elise, he pushed his way through the door to stand behind the desk.
“Hello, Miss. Are you lost?”
His tone and question made it obvious that not many people passed through this lobby.
Taking a deep breath, Elise spoke before she lost the nerve.
“I’m here to turn myself in.”
The look of confusion didn’t leave his face as he stared back at her.
“For collection… I’m an omega.”
His eyes widened, lips parting as his jaw dropped. Her racing heart made it seem longer than it probably was before he shook his head, throat working as he looked down at his desk.
“Yes… Of course…”
Gaze flitting over the bare surface between them, he leaned down and yanked open a drawer, the screech it released another sign of disuse and neglect. Pulling out an old tablet, he cleared his throat as he tried to get it to turn on. Elise could see color creeping up his neck to his cheeks as the screen refused to light.
Dropping it back into the drawer, his eyes landed on the outdated laptop sitting on the corner of the desk. Fumbling it open, he let out an audible sigh of relief when it cooperated.
“I have a form for you to fill out. I’ll pull it up on the computer, and you can sit at my desk to answer the questions while I go get one of our nurses.”
“Nurse?”
She blurted the word before she could stop herself, and his head jerked to face her.
“Everyone gets an exam when they arrive to be sure they are in good health. Just routine.”
Her mouth went dry, but she nodded. Her experiences with the entire medical field were less than pleasant since she had come from a poor family that couldn’t afford anything more than the charity-care clinics scattered throughout the city.
Overburdened, understaffed, and lacking in funds, she learned only to visit if there was a dire need. She always felt like just another body to get out of the way. Her mother died of pneumonia because an overworked doctor barely looked at her before claiming it was only a cold.
Her father followed not long after due to a work accident. He lost too much blood, then ended up with an infection that was resistant to the generic antibiotics he was given.
Lucky for Elise, she was already working and didn’t end up in the system, though things didn’t turn out as well for her siblings. As the oldest, she had always been too busy helping to bond with them, and she felt more like a nanny or a maid than an older sister.
Giving her a tight smile, the man stepped back and gestured to the seat behind the desk.
“Go ahead. I’ll be back in just a moment.”
Turning, he seemed to flee back through the door he had come from, shutting it firmly behind him. Elise could hear voices again on the other side, but they were too muffled to understand anything.
Placing her bag on the desk, she stepped around it and took a seat. The creaking made her breath catch in her throat as she paused and waited for the chair to collapse beneath her, but it held.
Elise filled her information into the form on the screen. Name, age, registration number… the usual questions asked on government documents.