Graveyard Act: Part 1

2030

It's been 4 years since the tremendously controversial Graveyard Act; technically it's reached its first cycle.

The Graveyard Act was the first of its kind; it was proposed by Maxwell Reed, a renowned sociologist; it was supposed to drastically lower crime rates in cities instituting the policy. Having New Kory City (NKC), the third largest city in the world and my hometown, serving as the testing bed for this unorthodox method.

The Graveyard act was tremendously successful; crime in NKC reached an all-time low and was continually dropping. However, the methods used to achieve this tottered between the lines of legality and ethicality. The Graveyard act made it so high school students would also serve as civil servants during the night, their duty? The execution of criminals. Along with this--

My train of thought would be interrupted formal yet soft referral of my name "Helen."

"Ah, yes?" I said annoyed having been awoken from the thoughtless trance of recollection

I turned my head, my eyes met with the student council presidents. President Ophelia had short black hair with a fairly round chin and similarly round glasses, wearing her signature white gloves, which to this day I've never seen her without. Her face was always plastered courtly yet gentle smile, however seemingly cold and empty eyes, those eyes never ceased to unnerve me.

"We have a meeting Helen, as my VP I can only hope you'll show up on time....this time"

Helen huh? Rare for anyone to call me by my full name rather than Hel, but frankly I don't want the hassle of arguing with her. My tardiness is already being excused by her, so I don't need to push my luck further.

I nodded in agreement to her statement, still finding it odd for her to come to my class and tell me, but dosing off shortly after not paying it much attention. The rest of the day was uneventful as it was either me sleeping or droning through class.

When I arrived home it was more or less a bunch of the same things I'd already been lazily doing at school. I wasn't always like this, back in my earlier school years I'd work hard and diligently study, but ever since-

My phone alarm went off, the words [Meeting 8PM] flew across the screen. My heart sunk, I knew what night meetings meant, they're the worst type of meeting. My tardiness and absences towards the meetings were less caused by feelings of laziness and more by feelings disgust and fear.

I turned off the alarm and as I went to my computer another notification sounded from my phone. It was a text from Ophelia, "I'd hope you show up, deserting from civil work can be quite a charge, it could even give you hazard duty.".

"Heh..." a light yet terrified chuckle came out of my mouth, she's threatening my life... Hazard duty is essentially a death sentence.

Without second thought I left my house with nothing but my simple school uniform of a white button down shirt and gray khaki's along with a cheap gray jacket. Finally I brought my red secondary backpack since 'school supplies' may be needed for this meeting and made my way too the school.

Ever since the Graveyard act schools have remained unlocked 24/7 as well as most houses with high school kids leave their front doors unlocked, trust me, it makes the process a lot smoother especially compared to earlier years.

Once I reached the door to the school I opened my red bag to pull out a cartoony red dinosaur mask. Everything done in the graveyard act is supposed to be faceless, and well this is the only mask I have.

I made my way into the student council room only to realize yet again I was the last to arrive, but at least not tardy.

Ahead of me was a circular table in which the 4 other students were already sitting in chairs in their gimmicky and outlandish masks.

"Glad you could finally join us, it was getting lonely without our resident slacker" This snarky remark came from Lynn, a girl around the same height as me of 5'11 with a cool ivory skin tone and long blonde hair sticking out of her bunny balaclava. She was the student council treasurer.

"Nice to see you too." I retorted sarcastically

The room chuckled softly while Ophelia remained unmoving. Ophelia wore a white smiling opera mask as porcelain as her skin, which only served to make her look even more eerie.

Ophelia interrupted the light giggles and banter "The archery club was screwing around and someone on hazard duty escaped."

The room silenced, having understood what their new assignment would be

"We will be exterminating the hazard duty participant, 26-year old Ayesha Nicole, as well as reprimanding the archery club for violating Graveyard article B page 34." Ophelia spoke calmly as if she had memorized every nook and cranny of the graveyard act, as if that act was her life.

In her signature white gloves she pointed towards her phone. "I activated your hazard app and her location should be shared in real-time."

"Lynn, Helen, and Rex will be tasked with terminating the hazard"

"LETS GO!" Screamed Rex, he was around 5'7 and as pale as a geisha and wearing a demon kitsune mask. He also served as student council secretary.

Termination duty? Especially termination duty with Rex? This day could not get any worse.

"Malcom, you'll be on cleanup and documentation" Ophelia ordered

"Understood" His deep raspy voice always comes as a shock especially due to the lack of him ever speaking. He was tall and slender with a buzz cut and a deep ebony complexion. He served as the student council's anti-social historian.

"I will be reprimanding the archery club personally" Ophelia finally ended her tirade of orders

Rex used this moment to yell "LET THE COLLECTION BEGIN!". He was a loud personality and definitely read way to many web novels. However this did serve as the queue for dispersal among the council.