Sinner Upperworld

I. The Banished Lady

In a land not so far away, there lived a place that lived in the past.

The people there simply called it the Town because its founders never came up with a proper name. They were too much consumed with haste to build it and set the rules in motion. In every convention, in every meeting, they simply referred to it as The Town and it stuck up to this day.

Their rules were their law. And the people of The Town took their law quite seriously. If one would inspect them, they weren't even complicated at all. They were basic laws against crime one could easily find in any other towns.

But what sets The Town aside from the rest?

They refuse the use of anything more advanced than electricity in any way whatsoever and the children of the Town grew up knowing what other towns would call ancient or basic.

Oh, yes, they know about the other towns. They had heard stories. They believed the other towns owned carriages that didn't require a horse at all. They could talk and see one another even when the other person was not in the same vicinity as them. They could do things with the 'tip of their fingers' as what the teachers in the schools of the Town would say. The children thought it was magic.

The adults, on the other hand, saw it as threat. The leaders battled against each other whether or not to form alliances with the other towns, but they would always go back to what the founders believed: the Town was indestructible. In a sense, it was true.

The Town was not really a town. The other towns outside considered it a country, and a very strong one at that. And it spanned almost half of the entire continent in the west. The very few people who knew of the Town's existence would not dare distract the Town. No one dared think of invading it either. Its very presence was a threat to almost all other towns outside because they stood on it.

The Town was their very foundation, built deep underground with its own cities and streets and buildings. They destroy the Town, they fall with it. And everyone left them alone untouched, peaceful as ever, forever living the history that had long been forgotten by the other towns, unknown to the commoners aboveground and alien to the very few powerful who had knowledge of their existence.

The streets of the Town were made of stones, fitted perfectly for carriages to drive by and people to walk on. The houses, though with enough electricity to give light, were always on the side of dim. Businesses thrived. Livestock were kept on the other side of town as well as the farms with their own holes to provide sun to their crops. As a matter of fact, everything from irrigation to waste disposals had been thoroughly planned from the start by the founders themselves. The Town could stand on its own without help from the outside.

The people of the Town were generally content and happy with their lives. It was, after all, the only life they had known. But if there was one thing they would have liked to experience more, it was the sun. Yes, they knew of the sun. They could experience it from time to time and bask in its goodness in the many parks their founders had built. Such parks were built with perfect holes hundreds of feet above the ground, giving them natural light and ventilation. These holes were the only access to the other towns and they were surrounded by tall walls shaped like a funnel so no one from the outside could climb on them and see the Town below. And if ever one could manage to climb to the top, sliding down would be easy though the fall might lead to a sudden death. Climbing out, on the other hand, was impossible. Or everyone believed that to be so.

There were hundreds of such walls and only once had it been trespassed. That was almost a century ago and it never happened again. What became of the trespasser was never disclosed to the public though ideas that ranged from possible to insane circulated that the story soon became a myth and the trespasser was named Mr. Jones. Some stories said that Mr. Jones survived and married a woman from a higher class. Others said he was taken prisoner until he died. There was one that said Mr. Jones was amongst the first founders of the Town.

But this was not Mr. Jones' story for there were far better adventures in the Town that would awaken anyone's attention. One in particular was about the banished lady...

*****

She had never imagined such immense hatred.

She only knew of pleasing, of maintaining decorum and accepting. She also knew, or rather, perfected the art of being vile, being perfect, and of being the most beautiful.

She knew only of pride, haughtiness and sarcasm. She was the best at being hated-at being the enemy of pretty, powerless girls she had considered her prey for years. She fed on their weakness and ire, reveled on their fear of her hypercritical remarks.

But never had she let hatred rule her to full height no matter how many times she was tempted to.

Not when she had not gotten what she had always wanted, not when she was deprived of things she so desired, for the world was only good to those who do well, but never to those who were hated-to those who made the good look even better. No, she never felt hatred even when she felt wronged for having been deprived of the same happiness found by the girls who hated her.

No...she never felt it then for Lady Belinda Kate Carrington never new hatred until the day she was banished.

She had been in her room, getting ready for supper, unaware of men waiting for her to come down while her mother, lady Amber Carrington, insisted that she come down at once. Not even her sister, Julia, could look into her eyes while she descended down the stairs. It had only been a week since her great scandal-her very first one. Mayhap that was the reason, she had thought.

Her father, lord Emmett Carrington was at the door, his face hard and determined. Across from him were two men, both draped in large, black coats.

She had asked them what the fuss was all about.

And that was when her world started to turn upside down. It turned as they all moved, facing her, and the two men walked forward and loomed over her.

She shouted for her mother, for Julia. She begged her father to give her another chance, that she would not make another mistake once again, that she would never shame him once more. But no one listened and she was dragged toward a waiting carriage outside their doors.

Julia ran toward her before the carriage took off, ignoring their mother's orders to come back.

"Do not go far, Belinda," her sister told her. Her hope of her sister stopping the carriage sank down to her toes. "Do not go far. I will find you. Wherever they take you, I will find you. I promise."

"Do not let them take me, Julia, please," she begged.

"Be strong, Belinda. I'll be-"

"Julia!" their father's voice shouted for her sister. Julia cowered away from the carriage mouthing, "Do not go far."

Belinda's heart sank as the carriage went away, slowly driving her from the life she knew-the only life she knew. Tears wouldn't stop and she wiped them away, fear and cold suddenly enveloping her entire body.