The Suspire
Breathing. They say it’s easy.
I close my eyes, searching for peace I know I won’t find. My palms are sweaty and my heart pounds out of my chest. The noise of my distorted breath exists as a fearful reminder. I touch my respirator, running my fingers till I reach my air supply. The whole apparatus feels fragile and cheap. It’s tough to imagine that it’s as important as blood for me.
Looking around, I find no solace. The foul, polluted sky drapes over fearful, young faces and the collective of concrete blocks that shape the circular auditorium. My sister found the sky comforting.
No surprise. Val was an optimist. Even during the Suspire, you could see the undertones of hope as she took off her respirator and fell down, strangled by air itself. Val was always confident in the system; she was brainwashed, we would playfully say.
I couldn’t be more different than Val. I often asked her why we needed The Suspire, why we needed to take the risk. She always simply,
“There’s only that much clean air and The Masked, they own it.”
Does this mean that The Masked own the very lives of the Ungifted? The mayor enters above us and his voice jolts me out of thoughts. “Stand!” he shouts, his voice echoes thunderously throughout the auditorium.
We stand. Our tattered garments rustle faintly, fluttering at the whim of the wind.
The Masked enter the auditorium, standing beside the mayor. They sit on plush, crimson, red sofas. I can hear them sneering and cheering.
The mayor waves his hand, notioning for The Suspire to begin. My stomach dips as the first row of people immediately take off their respirators with false confidence. Silence pierces the intensity of the situation. Then people begin collapsing to the ground whilst hoarsely gasping. There’s nothing we can do for them, the Ungifted. Others smile in relief, knowing that they are the Gifted. They cough. People say that breathing takes a while to get used to
In moments, guilt and remorse set in. The mayor waves again. The second row is somewhat reluctant but The Masked wave their hands mockingly, mimicking finger guns. The third row and fourth row go by quickly.
This is it.
