Beginning of the End (Part 1)

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Beginning of the End (Part 1, Part 2 won't be published to trending)

After the empire’s ‘Golden Magacharter’ was codified, her mama lost her job at the health agency that helped people secure medical care. The empire didn’t do that anymore. The two cozied up to watch the livestreamed, glitzy, gold gala where leaders hailed the edict as the ultimate protection against “pirates plundering the empire’s resources.” Social services, they declared, would no longer be stolen booty. Her mama shook her head, her voice low as she murmured, “When did lifelines for vulnerable people become stolen loot?”

She tried to keep her spirits up for her daughter, calling their scavenger life an “arrrgh-venture,” full of “secret treasure hunts.” Then, they lost their home, and the Subaru became their ship.

They met other “street pirates,” people with stories of lives before everything was lost or taken. For a while, they banded together, sharing what little they had. When her mama got sick, the others brought food scraps & old pain medicine. Since they didn’t have the card that got them into doctors or hospitals, she watched helplessly as the fiercest woman she’d ever known withered into a shadow of herself, too weak to leave the car. Eventually, even the visitors stopped coming.
Desperate, she went to the street pirates herself. But they had changed & grew meaner each time she asked for help. The last time she begged, they let their dogs loose. She ran, but not fast enough. The dogs tore into her, leaving her with this face.
Without the hospital card, she scavenged what she could to fix herself. The scars stayed raw & uneven. Every time she caught her reflection, she wanted to hide. She hated what she saw.

Her mama, though, would look at her and smile. “You’re a pirate, my captain. Every pirate wears their scars with pride.” But the girl didn’t feel like a pirate. She felt broken & ugly. Her mama would list everything beautiful about her: her strength, her ingenuity, her courage. But it wasn’t enough. Of course, her mama meant it, but that was because she saw through a mother’s filter—not the world’s lens or the mirror’s reflection. And the mirror didn’t lie.

She scavenged tirelessly, doing her best to keep them alive. But every night, she prayed to the twinkling night sky, whispering a desperate plea to the stars: if her mama couldn’t get better, then please, take them both.

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