Everyone was told there was no such thing as perfect, that no matter how much you try perfection can never be reached because everyone always has a fault. Still that never stopped human beings from trying to become perfect specimens. They tried and tried with the full belief there was perfection out there. Then along that road to the impossible dream of perfection they became dissatisfied with themselves and everything around. It went to the point where they tried even harder for perfection. Still they couldn’t reach it. Lost in doubt and faithlessness, humanity stopped trying to reach perfection, giving up on their dream. Some thought it was the greatest advancement in the world humanity made, realizing their faults and stopping their effort of perfection but it wasn’t. Chaos emerged and life became horrible to the point where people wished they never gave up on the dream of perfection, but with no signs of perfection being possible why keep trying.

                Then, in that loss of drive we were born, found, and revealed. Six children, defined by society and the world as perfect. The best grades, the best looks, the best abilities, the best life, the best jobs, and overall the best existence. We became the world’s drive that perfection could be reach. However it’s not just only them who can’t reach perfection. Perfection is impossible, I should know. I’m one of those so called perfect people and even I’m far from perfect.

~ ~ ~

                “Look there one of them are,” I could hear her voice from behind me. She sounded like a young girl looking onto her favorite singer. “She’s one of the Perfects.”

                “She’s so pretty!” Her friend, or who I assumed was her friend also called out behind me.

                “Shhhh you’re being too loud, she can hear you.”

                “Why would she bother looking at me though, we are far from her league.” Her words made me want to turn and look at them, telling them how I was nothing like perfection and that true perfection was impossible. However, if I did, I would be dead and so would they so I ignored their chatter about how I looked prettier than any model they had seen and walked towards my ‘home’.

                My ‘home’ was the place where I and the other five labeled as perfect lived most of the time. It was our school, our work, and our private life all in one. We weren’t allowed to go out to public places for entertainment. We couldn’t go to a public park but the one behind the house. We couldn’t go out to eat. We were kept separate from everyone else in the world, because from the government’s viewpoint the perfect shouldn’t get close to the non-perfect, even though they themselves were not perfect. Honestly I didn’t care, I just wanted to go to my real home where my mother, father and brother was. The home I was only allowed to go to for a week every single year because it was their agreement with the family. It was a horrible agreement but an agreement none the less. Not that I got a say in the matter though, I didn’t even get the chance to tell them how I really wasn’t perfect.

                They took me when one of the leaders of the government saw me playing the piano in my home town. I was only six at the time, which only now do I realized that playing the piano that young as well as having no training was amazing. Soon after he saw me, they were invading my school life to see my grades, judging my looks with other children, testing my health, and seeing what my fitness index was. To them I was label perfect and the first day of summer they walked through the door, told my mother they were taking me and that I would be home for one week every year. Before my mother had a chance to speak up, I was gone, and there was a letter to her apparently saying how proud she should be to have been able to carry a perfect child in her stomach for 9 months. She wasn’t because she knew I really wasn’t perfect and when they found out I was going to be dead even though it wasn’t my fault. They were so desperate for perfection they didn’t bother to ask the family about me or anything. They didn’t bother to ask how I was at night and they didn’t bother to wait to see if I suffered from anything that could be hidden from doctors to prevent from getting labeled. They didn’t stop to ask if I suffer from Memory Selective Panic Disorder, or MSPD. Which in fact I did. They were just interested in something that looked perfect, and that was my first clue that something was going on here.

                “Welcome back home ma’am.” The woman at the front door said to me as I walked through it. Every day there seemed to be someone new there, as if they didn’t want us getting too friendly with the person who would watch the door every day. That or they didn’t want the people working to say they got to talk to the perfect every single day. To those outside the job of working in this house was the greatest honor in the world. “Master Johnathan was looking for you earlier in the day.” She told me as she took the light jacket I had on and hung it up on the wall.

                “Did he say what he wanted?” I asked her as she turned around to face me. Before she looked me in the eyes however she bowed her head, something else that many people in this house did to us. It was like we were some god, and it made me sick.

                “No ma’am. He just told me to tell you when you came back that he would be in the library waiting for you.” She kept her head bowed and her voice low.

                “Thank you.” I muttered to her as I walked way into the house. She remained there bowed until I was out of view, or at least that was what she was supposed to do.

                I turned up a set of stairs that was just a little bit away from the second door. The house was strange. It was much like a mansion but also there was a couple different rooms that made it totally different than any mansion you would see. First off to get into the house you had to walk through one door, then walk down a small hallway through another door to get inside. Then once you were through that second door it looked like any other mansion. Giant staircase in the middle with a bunch of different doors on the bottom. The staircase split in the middle to two different paths. I took the one to the left which lead to the library and some of the classrooms we went to when we actually had class, which was pretty much never.

                Johnathan was one of the five kids I lived in this house with. He was the second oldest, the oldest being myself. However he acted like top dog and as much as I wanted to stop him I didn’t because I hate to fight. That’s why whenever I heard he wanted something I didn’t ignore it, because for sure when he would see me later he would try to hurt me. Yes I could beat him but I wouldn’t try so I would lose.

                It wasn’t long till I reached the end of the hallway and walked through a large set of wood doors into a giant library that looked like any cliché library from any cliché movie with a mansion. There was levels upon levels of books and every single book was different. There in the middle of the first floor at one of the only tables in this room was Johnathan. He was reading a rather large book which I knew right way to be a book upon medical techniques because I myself had read that book just a couple of years ago when I was his age.

                “I was wondering when you would come back.” Johnathan looked up from his book and stared directly at me with his green eyes that would make anyone feint over from the beauty of them, anyone but me and the other two girls here. He leaned back in the chair, putting a hand through his light blond hair that was just the perfect amount of combed and messy to make it look really good on him. However yet again, that had no effect of me because I was so use to it, besides I hated him like I hated everyone else here.

                “Stop acting all high and mighty to me. Remember who the older more experience one here is,” I commented to him, sick of his bossy tone which I hear about every single day. He glared at me and gave a stark huff as I took a seat at the opposite side of the table looking at him. “So what do you want?” For some odd reason his face today just made me angry, which I haven’t been angry in a rather long time. That was my second cue that something was up.

                “I think you know what I want.” Johnathan commented, giving me a harsh glare. “I want to know the truth.”

                “The truth?” I laughed. “You want to know the truth? Please when have you ever cared to know about the truth?”

                “I’ve always wanted to know the truth.”

                “If that was the case, you wouldn’t be here right now. You wouldn’t have bothered to try to make sure you were the head of us. You wouldn’t have gone along with everything the government did to us or said to us. You wouldn’t be playing your games with them. You would be like me, just trying to get by every day.” I snapped slightly, something I haven’t done for a long time. Something I told myself I wouldn’t do again.

                “Touchy subject isn’t it,” Johnathan smirked as if he was getting the reaction that he wanted from me. I huffed and calmed myself, not letting the brat get the higher ground.

                “So what truth do you want to know?”

                “You aren’t perfect are you?” He both asked and stated to me like he knew that it wasn’t a fact at all.

                “What are you talking about?” I retained my composure, trying to hide the fact that he was starting to scare me. I wondered how he could pick up on something like that when I tried so hard to hide the fact that I suffered from MSPD.

                “A couple nights ago I saw you walking outside in the garden.”

                “What does that have to do with me not being perfect?”

                “Why else would someone walk outside in the middle of the night if they weren’t able to sleep?”

                “The better question would be,” I smirked knowing where to go with this conversation, “why were you up in the middle of the night?” Johnathan didn’t say anything to me, as if I was finally striking a nerve with him. “Maybe you are the one that aren’t perfect.” Yes I knew I wasn’t perfect but if he wanted to play this game of making me seem weak and end up getting me killed then I can play it with him. Besides, he gave me all the bait I needed to do it.

                “That is none of your concern.”

                “Just like it is none of your concern why I was up that late. Maybe I was doing some late night reading for all you know.” I stand up from my spot. “Next time you want to go accuse someone of something make sure you have the right evidence and support for it.” I slowly walked out of the library knowing that I just put the younger ‘perfect’ in his place, and maybe just started to find his weak point because after all no one can be perfect. That is not how life work. However the feeling that something was wrong kept growing and growing inside me.

                I can remember the days when I was the only one in the house, it was better then. I was able to hide myself better and I didn’t have to worry about other people figuring it out or doing better than me. After all if I was perfect and so were the other five then wouldn’t we be able to do the same thing?

                Anyways it was two years until Johnathan arrived at this building and from the moment I saw him I knew he was going to be trouble. He looked like a ruler even at the age of six, which for some reason was always the age someone was brought in. After Johnathan came the twins two year later, Alex and Alexa. Then following the two of them about half a year later was Sarah. Finally about two years after that was the addition of the last member of the group, Joe. Since then no one had come and that was something I still haven’t figured out. It is like they stopped looking for people who were perfect or they realized that no one was perfect and that the six of us will have to do. Of course there is always the last option that they are afraid of what could happen if there is too many of us. Too much of a good thing could have people going crazy after all.

                Without even realizing it I came back to my room, where of course there was a sack of books but also a letter on top of it from the people who run this place. They love to leave letters in your room, and never talk to you in person. It happened so much one time that I would just throw the letters away in the hopes to meet them but since I kept ignoring them they just came in a greater and greater number till they had one of the workers tell me what they wanted. They were apparently in making sure that we never met them in person. Something that was really freaking strange, so I added that also to my list of things that didn’t make sense.

                I picked up the letter having a feeling it was another assignment for me to do or something of the sort. That was what it has been since I turned the age of 18, the moment of adulthood in this world still. Some things from the old world has yet to change much to my hatred. Instead however, upon opening the letter I noticed it was a summoning from the leader himself. “What?” I couldn’t help but ask out loud, totally lost by that thought. I looked at the letter deeply trying to figure out just what was going on. He never summoned us to him because again, we never saw his face. “This isn’t right,” I couldn’t help but mutter, knowing that something, something was horribly wrong. My instincts were all telling me that over and over as if they wanted me to run.

                “Adelaide-senpai got one too.” I heard Alexa say from behind me as I turned to see the twins standing there, together like always. She was holding up the same summoning that I got except on a small piece of paper. “It seems like everyone got them.” She spoke up again. Her brother nodded, Alex wasn’t the one to open his mouth unless he had to.

                “Have you check with the others?” I asked to make sure, Alexa had a habit of jumping to conclusions because it was too much work to go through the trouble of making sure. After all why make sure when you know that fact is going to be true.

                “Well I saw Johnathan-senpai with one earlier, now you have one. We have one for the both of us, so I think it is safe to assume that the other two have them as well.” Alexa looked at her brother he just stared at me. “What do you think it’s for?” She couldn’t help asking me. With the two of them being 14 years of age they had a habit of treating me like their mother, which of course I didn’t mind anymore.

                “I’m not sure.” I closed my eyes trying to think when suddenly it hit me. “That’s why Johnathan was asking me. It was because of this damn letter.” I looked down again at the paper that was summoning us later today to go to this meeting.

                “What are you talking about?”

                “It’s nothing to worry about now. Can you two do me a favor?” I asked and as if knowing my answer the two of them nodded and ran off. That’s the one thing I loved about those twins, I didn’t have to finish a sentence for them to know what was going on. Turning back to my desk full of books, I slam down the paper and walk away in the other direction, trying to find Sarah and Joe.

                “If I knew this was going to hit me in the ass I wouldn’t have gone for a walk that late at night.” I muttered to myself as I looked for the two.

The night in question happened about two days ago. I recently woke up from one of the nightmares I get from MSPD when I knew I needed some fresh air. Normally I sat in my room and didn’t worry about going out to get the fresh air but this one was severe, to the point where I had a scar on my arm, something that hadn’t happened in a while. Therefore I went outside to clear my head.

See the thing with MSPD is that it’s a mixture of a bunch of different disorders. It’s like a steroid version of PTSD, Nightmare Disorder, and Night Terror Disorder. That means that every night I am stricken with nightmares about things that happened to me and I can’t wake up or I have injury happen to me when I do wake up. However what makes MSPD really bad is that a lot of the time they have nightmares about things that didn’t happen to me and it never goes away, just gets worse depending on your age. Normally it is just something that requires a little fiction writing to fix but not that one. That one was rough. I didn’t want to see that sight again, the sight of the little twins losing their life and myself powerless to help them.

Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw Joe’s figure walk by. “Oh Joe,” I called out in the hopes that he would stop and listen to me.

“What?” He asked me in his normal annoyed tone. One thing us so called ‘perfect’ aren’t free of is the attitude that comes with certain ages.

“Did you get a summoning?”

“Yeah I was about to go to it now.”

“Wait now, it isn’t for another hour or so.”

“I don’t know what drug you have been doing but it’s almost time now.” Joe laughed like he was watching a comedy. “Come on lets go.” He said to me like I was the child in the relationship.

“You know you’re going the wrong way.” I commented walking down one of the hallways that lead to the center of the building, which of course had the leader’s quarters and the hall he summoned us in.

“I knew that.” Joe muttered, following along behind me. Joe was a very forgetful boy who also had a habit of losing his way. Thankfully this place is so simple to learn it was hard to stay lost for long. Besides normally he had a habit of running into one of us who would eventually get him on the right track.

It wasn’t long until we were all standing in front of the hall. It appeared like the twins found Sarah because she was standing next to them. Johnathan, being the ‘leader’ that he is, opened the door to go inside. Suddenly as those doors opened I had a bad feeling I hadn’t gotten in a long time. It was a feeling that made me think all those nightmares I have been having were going to come true, which mind you is the final symptom of MSPD. The nightmares you have turn into predictions of the future in some way shape or form.

Ignoring that feeling I stood at the back of the group as we stood in the great hall. “Something doesn’t feel right,” I muttered as we all stood in silence. “Something is wrong.”

“Please you have to be joking.” Johnathan laughed as he looked around. “We are just here early.”

“We agree with Analaide-senpai. Something seems wrong here. They would have been here by now if they wanted to talk with us.” The twins clenched their hands tighter together.  I looked over at Joe and Sarah to see that they weren’t playing attention at all, instead they were looking at some of the poles that were nearby. Curious of what they were so fascinated by I headed over towards the poles with them.  However feeling a wake of danger, I stopped and began to walk slowly to the door.

“Come on.” I spoke up, ordering the group of us for the first time. “They aren’t here so why should we be.”

“So now you decided that you’re the big leader of the group.” Johnathan commented. “Bet you are getting afraid that I’m figuring you out.”

“If that was the case, I would beat you to the ground.” I commented, now getting sick of his attitude. “I don’t know about you but I’m not about to stand here. Come on.” As I spoke only the twins slowly followed me towards the door. Only as I headed towards the door do I remember what was up with this hall. There wasn’t going to be any people here, there never was.

                I turned to the others sharply to see Johnathan had walked over to where the other two where. “GUYS GET AWAY FROM THERE!” I shouted but by that time it was far too late. They touched the pole…they touched the bomb that was activated by heat.

                Quickly and without thinking I pulled the twin in front of me, turned all three of us around, and covered their body as much as I could from the blast. I could hear a loud explosion and then, nothing but the sound of ringing ears and a pain sensation all over my body. Then darkness….darkness with no nightmare, something I wasn’t use to. Something that wasn’t supposed to happen until I was dead.

~ ~ ~

                “Analaide-senpai please wake up.” I felt Alex hit my arm, his small male hands stirring me from whatever I was in. No, I knew what I was in, I was a post-comatose state. There was pain all over my body, I could feel blood, dirt, dust, wood, and anything else that possibility could have landed on me when the explosion occurred.

                “Please….we don’t know what to do.” I heard Alexa crying, feeling her teardrops on my shoulder. “Please you are all we have left. They’re dead…they’re gone. Please wake up!”

                “I’m…awake.” I managed to force out my horse voice. Slowly, I opened my eyes to be faced with the sky. There was nothing above me but ruins, ruins of the house we just lived in for most of our life. “They tried…to kill us.” I spoke sitting up as much as I could. “I knew…I knew it too. Yet I couldn’t…do anything about it.”

                “Don’t get up.” Alex spoke trying to push me down, to which he could if I knew we would be safe and didn’t care about my life. I could feel Alexa sorrowful stare as if she wanted to explain how this wasn’t my fault however I wasn’t about to give her time.

                “We have….to go.” I muttered as I stood to my feet slowly, feeling everything in my body telling me to give up. “They will be coming to finish the job.” I spoke as I started my slow jog out of the area, leaving behind the body of the three others. I couldn’t even pass a glance at them, knowing the horrible shape they had to be in. True I didn’t love them but I didn’t hate them. I couldn’t face seeing the only family I have known for a while to be destroyed beyond recognition.

                “What do you mean?” Alexa cried behind me.

                “They planed that.” I scuffed out. “They wanted to kill us to get us out of the picture. They really think all of us are perfect.” Looking ahead rubble was piled everywhere, making it nearly impossible to find a root through it. Looking back at the twins, I motioned for them to wait and made my way through the piles of rubble.  Slowly I managed to find the way out and waved my hand letting the twins catch up. As we got closer towards the exit I stopped and looked around the area. There in front of the way out were guards and not just a couple but a lot. From the guards a man walked out in front. He had on black pants and a black trench coat that was buttoned up. His face was covered with a hood.

                “Make sure to get all their bodies.” A man said from under a hood. “I don’t want there to be any doubt that they died. The last thing we need is for one of these brats to get away with their lives.”

                “Right sir.” The men said as they ran in all directions and not waiting for another order. Two to three guards went down every possible path through the rubble. It was at that moment I thanked myself to taking the hardest route through the rubble, and one they sure weren’t going to take.

                “See?” I said as I turned to see the kids holding back tears in their eyes. I quickly grabbed their shoulders to comfort them not wanting their cries to be heard, “come on we have to get you to your parents. That’s the only safe place for you now.”

                “But how are we going to get out?” Alexa asked me with tears in her eyes. She looked over at her brother who didn’t look to have the strength to even move. As I looked at them and thought, she quietly grabbed a hold of him and hugged him tightly.

                “Easy, leave it to me.” I muttered knowing I would have to fight our way through. “Just when you see an opening make sure to run.” I stated as I made my way through the remaining rubble in front of me and ran towards the exit, ignoring all the pain in my body telling me stop.

                “There!” The two guards by the exit were shouting. Quickly without waiting for something to happen I charged at the two of them and hit them both square in the gut, taking myself down with them.

                “Run!” I shouted to the two as they headed out the door and into the woods that weren’t far away.  I quickly got to my feet to run behind them into the woods. “Make sure to stay hidden.” I yelled at them as I chased after them and they vanished into the woods. Before I ran into the woods I looked behind to see the guards chasing after us, trying to kill us. Knowing we wouldn’t get away if we stay together I ran another way from them, hoping, just hoping that they would go after me and not the kids who had so much to wish for.

                I ran and ran, trying to make my path as complicated as possible for those following me and it seemed like ages before I stopped, knowing I was safe from danger. Wanting to get the blood off me and relax my muscles I walked into a nearby river and dived underwater, feeling the cold water on my skin. I stayed under the water for a while, feeling at peace with both my body and mind. Just by resting in the water I could feel the cleansing of my skin and the relaxation in my bones, muscles, joints, and tendons. It was like I was lying in a hot tube more than a lake. I didn’t want to move, but I knew I had to.

                I slowly headed towards the surface with the plan of finding the twins and heading back towards my house, where we could take my family, run and find theirs. However the second I rose to the water I heard the sound I didn’t want to hear: gun shots and a scream.

                Panicking I headed out of the water and towards the sound, knowing that it was from Alexa. I darted along trees and bushes, the pain that was in my body gone from the panic was feeling. Reaching higher ground I slowed my pace and looked over the edge to see my worst fears, my nightmare come alive. Alex was dead, leaving Alexa the next to be shot.

                Panic rose over me again, knowing that if I didn’t jump down she would be dead, but if I did jump down I would probably be did. Suddenly in the middle of my thinking she looked up at me and smiled, a smile that was a thank you for trying to do something that seemed impossible. In that moment I jumped, knowing I couldn’t give up on her in my tracks.

                I felt the bullet hit my leg as I landed on the ground. I collapse from the pain, unable to do anything about it. “Run.” I muttered to Alexa as the sheer terror on her face told me that was the only thing I could do. I laid there as I watched her figure run away from me and out of sight. “Heh,” I muttered as I heard footsteps come closer towards me, “at least I changed my nightmare.” I felt the gun fire again into my arm as if the guard enjoyed feeling the bullet go through my skin. I held my tongue as I wanted to scream in pain. I felt my blood drip out of my body and the pain storm through my skin. I felt my body giving up. I felt the life slip away.

                I felt the gun to my head.

                I heard the hand pulling back.

                I heard the fire.

                I saw the darkness.

~ ~ ~

                “ARGGGGGGGGGGGGG!”

                “Quick calm her down! She’s having a nightmare strike.” Voices yelled out as I felt someone holding down my arms and the darkness escaping to leave me in the light. “Take deep breathes you are safe. It was just a nightmare from MSPD.”

                Panic flowed over me for a few moments before I someone managed to take a deep breath. I calmed down taking more and more breaths. It didn’t take me long to come to the realization I was lying in a hospital bed. I nearly cried in joy. It was a nightmare. It was all a dream. It wasn’t real. It was a nightmare, it was a nightmare but…from when?

                “I guess safe is a bad word to say,” I voice spoke, the same voice I heard from behind the hood. Terror struck my core. As pain from the explosion I experienced before flooded through my body. “Because let’s just say for the rest of your life you’re going to wish those nightmares were real.”

                Why…even upon waking I can’t escape the nightmare.