One

Considering the immense size of the crowd, we walked to our destination with eerie silence. A bubble of anxiety was almost visible, like it was stretching around each one of us and refusing to pop.

Hundreds, maybe even thousands of us, all marching towards our new lives. Each one of us would be a different person by the time night fell. We would no longer know our own normality. The life we had known for eighteen years would be gone forever. 

Today was graduation day.

Everyone who surrounded me had turned eighteen in the last ninety days. My eighteenth year was the only one for which I had ever received a card. That was true for all of us here today. Back in the human world, your day of birth would be celebrated with gifts and cards and family. They called it a 'birthday'. It must have been so exciting, counting down the days throughout the year to be able to spend it with loved ones.

I was of the secret opinion that humans took a lot of things for granted. Maybe it was one of the many reasons their world no longer existed.

The card each of us turning eighteen received was actually a beige invitation summoning us to The Dome, which is where we were now. It was an offer we couldn't refuse even though most of us wanted to.

We had all grown up at Pearl Education. It was an unbearable situation of hating where we grew up, but not wanting to leave the familiarity of it either. It didn't matter how much the authorities at Pearl Eds tried to prepare us, the choice we had to make was daunting.

There were no high, middle or lower schools in our world. Pearl Education was all that existed.

The minute we were born, we were taken away from our parents and placed here into Pearl Eds to begin the first phase of our life.

Pearl Eds existed entirely to prepare us for when we entered our adult worlds which we would be choosing today.

From the day we were born, we had every detail of the three generations drummed into us.

One of these generations would be our forever world once we picked it. It was a choice that seemed unfathomable.

We were taught basic education such as Maths, English and a few other must know subjects, but we wouldn't be needing any of those things in our next world. The authorities didn't care if we knew our times tables or the great works of Shakespeare. They only wanted us to know how amazing each of the three generations were so we could make the choice. They had spent years making sure these three generations would successfully be sustained and that meant getting each of us interested.

As we trudged on, almost robotic like, three huge, stone encrusted banners appeared in my eye line.

This meant that we were nearly there. That it was soon time to choose.

I looked in awe at them, stunned by how impressive they were. Under the banners were doorways. I would be going through one of those later today, forever. I would never be able to come back to Pearl Eds, the place that had been my home all of my life.

It didn't upset me as such. I had no attachment to this place.

I didn't have any friends or family here, none of us did.

While growing up, we each had our own space that we lived in, about the size of an average tent in the old human world. They were called The Nets. Nobody knew why our homes were called this, they just were. I had always suspected it was the way you felt trapped when you were inside. This small little shelter with a grey bed, table, small set of drawers and a lamp made me feel closed in. Caught. Like there was no escape. Which was true for the most part. Freedom was a fantasy we all longed for.

Our school hours were eight in the morning until six in the evening. After hours, we were to stay in our Nets.

We didn't have holidays or weekends. We were forbidden to interact with others unless instructed. The Pearl Education authorities thought that if we made friends with each other, it would affect our ultimate choice of what world we wanted to go to.

To make sure we kept our distance from each other, we never even had names. At birth, when we are snatched from our families, we are assigned a number to distinguish us.

Mine is 3002043. I had never learnt anyone else's number, they were too long to remember. I doubt anyone had ever learnt mine either. The numbers were just for the authorities.

In our new world, we would be gifted a name. We didn't get to choose. I hoped I liked it.

I looked up at the first banner. The Ruby Generation of Vampires hung in huge red letters. Each one made to look as if blood were dripping down. The words were bordered by ruby gem stones, sparkling in the light.

Pearl Eds taught us that the gem stones were real. In each world, you had access to thousands of them. In fact, some people had even built their own houses out of the precious gems. It seemed like a waste of beautiful materials to me, but I was basing that opinion on knowing that gem stones as nice as these had been worth a fortune back in the human world.

In the top right corner of the banner, sitting proud, was The Rubies logo. A striking bright white rose with a dark green stem. At the top of the pretty, pale flower sat a blood red ruby gem stone. We had learnt at school that every generations logo had been designed by the first ever person to enter that world. That person was now the Mayor of their respective generations and they would be the one to see us through the doorways today.

The Rubies symbol had been designed by a man called Matthew Perkins. He was tall and blonde, with wild shoulder length curls that he often wore scraped back. In all the pictured text books I had studied at school, he wore a long black coat and leather boots. His eyes were light grey, so light that you could barely see them. He was the first vampire to ever walk into the Ruby Generation. He was a strong ruler and was admired and feared by many.

I surveyed the middle banner next. The Emerald Generation of Witches and Wizards. The words were written in what looked like bright, spring green leaves. It looked friendly. The border was decorated with all shapes and sizes of gorgeous, glowing emeralds.

Their logo, also in the top, right hand corner was a little glass bottle of green liquid, a grey wand dipped half-way in as if to stir. On the handle of the wand was a carefully engraved W. Everyone that entered this generation would be given a wand exactly like it as they walked in.

Kitty Harris had been the first person to enter The Emeralds and had designed the logo. Kitty had never been feared by anyone. She was very loved unlike Matthew Perkins. She was a kind Mayor and as a child, every student at Pearl Education wanted to join The Emeralds just because of Kitty.

She seemed motherly. She was wholesome. Back in the human days, she looked like an average, cuddly middle aged Mum whose hair had started to go a bit grey.

At least, that was how I imagined Mums to be. You couldn't really know what a parent was like when you grew up alone.

The authorities never taught us about things like that. They didn't want us to know the comfort of another person. They thought it made us weak. They thought that we didn't need families or close bonds to survive.

Kitty always had a smile on her face. For the young kids at Pearl Eds, she was the image of a Mother we never had.

The last banner made me shiver. That was almost certainly the intention.

On a black background, a diamond border sat shimmering around the silver glittered words. The Diamond Generation of the Afterlife.

Their logo was very simple. A white, cartoon ghost. It wasn't scary. It reminded me of looking at a book about the humans from years ago in Pearl Eds. They celebrated something called Halloween and this drawing looked just like someone had taken a white sheet and cut holes for eyes. A classic, cartoon ghost. It was funny how something so tame could still give you such a chill.

The Mayor of The Diamonds was a man called Shane Smith. I didn't know an awful lot about him because every time I had tried to study The Diamond Generation at school, I got a wave of nausea. I knew that Shane was an older man, with silver white hair and a matching moustache, which seemed fitting. I had never discovered if he were friendly like Kitty or feared like Matthew. I didn't want to know. I guess I knew in my heart that The Diamond Gen was my last choice out of all three. But there was one big draw and I still couldn't figure out if it would be the selling point for me.

The crowd came to an abrupt stop. We had been walking through what seemed like a never ending building for twenty minutes. The Dome, only ever used for Graduation. It was huge, empty and intimidating. It gave me vertigo just looking up at the arched ceiling.

When we came to a stop, I counted that I was only four rows from the front, which meant I would be making my choice very soon. I looked behind me, noting that this dome had to be the size of a small town. At least, that's what it felt like.

All of us were hunched into a ball of uncertainty, wracked with nerves, waiting to choose our next phase of life.

Everyone who attended Pearl Eds wore a jump suit. Very similar to the orange outfits that prisoners had to wear back in the human days, but ours was beige instead of orange. Our belts that tied around our waists had our numbers marked on them.

Each of us were unique. Different races, different hair colours, different shapes and sizes. But at Pearl Eds, we were all just a number.

From out of the ground, an impressive stage rose up which held four people.

The host, a lady called Dianne Cash, stood in the middle, beaming at all of us with a grin so casual that she just did not seem to get that this was the biggest day of lives. Like it was just some party she was thrilled to attend.

She wore a cream blouse and a tight grey pencil skirt. Her wiry hair was orange and she had a pointy little nose and bared teeth, just like a shark. She was the host of graduation every year and the head of the Pearl Education authorities. She was the Queen Bee by all accounts.

The Pearl Eds Authorities who looked after us for eighteen years had once been humans when the world had started changing in 2039  They didn't have to choose between the three worlds like we did.

Instead, they were given immortality and assigned to stay here, educating us until it was time to leave. Then they would prepare the next lot of graduates for the same process.

The other three people on the lit up stage were the Mayors of the three Generations.

They each stood next to a huge barrel of gem filled necklaces. This was the necklace that we would wear for life. On a black, entwined string hung either a ruby, an emerald or a diamond.

I swallowed down my nerves, not quite believing I had to make this decision in a short while. I had had my whole life to decide, but it didn't make it any easier. There were pros and cons for each generation.

Just last night I had been furiously scribbling down the benefits and horrors of each. It was something I had made sure to do every week for the last year, knowing that this day was looming.

For The Rubies, the moment you picked them, the Mayor injected you with two shots. The first turned you into a vampire. The second made you immortal. If you joined the Ruby Generation, you would stay as you looked right now forever. Frozen in time. You would never age or hurt. You were free to wander the Ruby Gen as you saw fit. You could make yourself a home or sleep on the streets. Not that you really needed sleep of course. But it was routine for a lot of vampires and they still liked to keep the tradition of sleeping part of their world. I had read that it made them feel more human despite their immortality.

Most Rubies just 'slept' outdoors. Being a vampire, you didn't feel cold or hot. Back in the human days, there were tales about how if you became a vampire, you would be in pain for days and another vampire had to bite you for you to become one. In fact, there were all sorts of myths back then. Vampires couldn't go outside in the daylight, they had red eyes and they slept in coffins. None of that was true for this world.

Maybe it had been once, but becoming a vampire now was such an easy thing to do, that it seemed laughable it was ever just a cautionary tale. If you went into The Rubies, you lived forever, had super strong abilities in terms of strength and speed and of course, had a diet of blood. The blood thing was on my cons list. It would be hard to adjust to a life where you could only live on blood. Another con was that vampires didn't have the ability to feel.

When they get injected with immortality, it appeared to strip away all of their emotions. Fear, love, happiness....all of it just disappeared. Apart from one. Anger. There were many fights in the Ruby Generation, and even though vampires were immortal, there were still deaths within the world. Vampires had a temper. Nobody at Pearl Eds was ever told how to kill another vampire. We were cautioned that it was something we would see for ourselves if we chose that world.

The Emeralds was an all together happy world. Much happier than the Rubies. It was a generation that felt a lot of joy and love. The people that entered this world were not granted immortality. They would all die between the ages of seventy to ninety years old after living a happy life as a witch or wizard. Their death would be pain free and they would not suffer.

When they walked through their door, they were given a grey engraved wand which held the ability to cast every spell ever made. While alive, the witches and wizards could make themselves rich or good looking all with the flick of a wand. They could conjure up any potion the heart desired. They would never know a world of violence and conflict because their world was happy. They could even be invisible if they wished, although this wasn't a common spell for Emeralds to perform as they all liked each others company.

They liked to build little villages around the Emeralds Generation that would be home to clusters of witches and wizards who all lived in harmony. You would never find one of The Emeralds alone. Where the Rubies were mostly solitary, Emeralds stuck together. It was also the only world where animals were allowed, a source of content for many.

As for The Diamonds, it was a different generation completely. When I was younger, I used to wonder how anyone could pick that generation. As soon as you walked through the door, you were given an injection that killed you. Then you rose as the dead, still as you but with a see through quality. A ghostly presence.

In a way, the afterlife world was similar to how the vampires lived. They could never die because they were already dead. As a ghost, you could walk through walls and doors. The coolest thing about entering the Diamond Generation was that you could fly. A lot of people from Pearl Eds thought it would be the best thing in the world to be able to fly.

As a Diamond, you could never eat or go to the toilet or sleep again. You had all of your basic abilities taken away from you because you were dead. In fact, if you chose to go to The Diamonds, you would even have your ability to smile taken away. Unlike the vampire world, you felt emotions as a Diamond, but you couldn't show them. Vampires could smile or frown...or show any emotion, but it would always be fake emotion. Apart from the anger. Diamonds could never show if they were happy or sad.

It sounded like the cons to the afterlife world far outweighed the pros, but there was one big twist.

If you chose to live in a world where you were dead, you could be reunited with your family. Each world had the means for people to start a family, even the afterlife. But as soon as that baby was born, before you even knew if it were a boy or a girl, the officials from Pearl Eds would swoop in and take them to begin their eighteen years at school. But if you were a part of the Diamond Generation, you would be told who your family were. If you had any relatives in the Ruby and Emerald worlds, you were given the power to watch over them at all times although you could never speak to them.

If, however, any of your relatives had chosen the afterlife as well, you would be reunited. And that was a huge draw for people who had always longed to know about their family roots.

On stage, each of the Mayors were giving their speeches about their individual generations and why we should choose them.

Matthew Perkins was every bit as fierce as I had thought he would be. Although dashingly handsome, he had a cold persona.

Kitty's speech was warm and humourous. She had quirky glasses with huge frames and a loving glint in her eye.

Shane Smiths plea for The Diamonds was eerie and quiet, but he kept mentioning family reunions which I could tell was swaying people in the crowd.

The speeches didn't help me. Every time I thought I knew what one I was going to pick, I changed my mind. I had never really been swayed by any of them.

Each of the generations had things I wanted and things I didn't want. I clasped my hands together as the first 'number' was called to the stage. Without hesitation, a small red haired girl picked The Diamonds. Shane shook her hand, placed a sparkling diamond around her neck and sent her through the door. As soon as the door closed behind her we knew that she would be given the injection that would kill her. It was an incredibly strange feeling knowing that the girl who was just up on stage was no longer alive.

The numbers kept being called out by Dianne Cash and it was a pretty even playing field on which generation was being picked. About forty Pearl Eds had been called up to the stage before I heard my number being shouted.

I didn't have to fight my way through the crowds as they seemed to be calling us up row by row. With shaking legs I walked up the steps, heading towards Dianne, the smiling host.

I flicked my long, brunette hair behind my shoulders in a deliberate move. I had been known to fiddle with my hair when I was nervous about something, and I didn't fancy doing that in front of hundreds of other people today. The other Pearl Eds who had walked on to the stage had been calm and collected, so I had to be too.

"So, 3002043...your moment has come. Congratulations."

She held her perfectly manicured hand out, which I shook.

"Which generation do you wish to belong to?"

I stood there, staring behind the crowd in front me, not seeing them. I still didn't know. How could I still not know what world I wanted? I felt hundreds of pairs of eyes on me and an impatient rustling as everyone waited their turn. I knew I was taking my time, but now that I was up here, I didn't know what to do.

Dianne cleared her throat. I dared to shoot a look at her, she was clearly annoyed. Her sharp teeth were bared even more than usual.

"I have to push you for an answer 3002043. If you don't give me an answer in the next ten seconds then it falls to me to decide which world will be yours."

My heart thudded noisily. I was sure the whole dome could hear it beating. I dug my nails into my palm. I couldn't let someone else choose my world for me. That wasn't fair. I bit my lip, knowing that about five seconds had passed.

"The Rubies."

My voice was small, unsure of itself. How could I be certain? It was the ultimate decision. There would never be another choice as big as this in my entire life.

"I'm sorry, I need you to speak up and confirm what you just said. We need to be sure before we send you."

I nodded, taking a deep breath.

"The Ruby Generation of Vampires please."

My voice was louder, stronger this time. Dianne nodded and pushed me towards Matthew Perkins, the Mayor of The Rubies.

He took a necklace from the barrel and placed it around my neck. The stone instantly warmed my chest.

"Nice to have you with us, 3002043. You made the right choice."

He flashed me a dazzling smile, but it didn't ring true. Maybe because I knew it was fake. It was strange to think that he was forever eighteen himself. He for sure seemed and even looked older. Maybe being the first ever Ruby had a way of ageing you.

He reached behind the barrel of necklaces into two big brown sacks that I could now see were marked "Vampire' and 'Immortal'.

He took two syringes out, each full of a clear liquid. I gasped as he pulled me to him and injected me in each arm through my jumpsuit, gave me a lingering hug where I tried to squirm away and eventually pushed me through the door under the blood ruby banner.

The door shut firmly behind me as I stepped in to my new life.