The boy was nestled in the windowsill, staring at the view before him. He always sat here, in this same place, wondering if he would ever be able to ascend to the light. As much as he wanted to, he was forever forsaken to this dark place. It was a reality he would never be able to accept.
What the boy stared at day after day was the lower levels of New Haven. The cavernous expanse was only lit by artificial light. Blue shades were painted against grime coloured concrete. Yet above him, he could still see a small crack in the second level platform, which allowed the faintest sunlight to creep through.
The city was divided into two sections; the lower levels were for the ordinary folks — people who didn’t have the influence of money or power. Above was for the privileged, an entirely different place. The sun shone down upon those who walked the streets of Level Two. Their luxuries were many and inconveniences few.
For those who lived up in that heavenly world, their life was complete. For those who lived below, they could only muse on the happenings above. The boy would hear faint laughs in the night that somehow managed to echo down to him. His mind would wonder what gave them so much joy and happiness. The boy never really could know, for the authorities prevented that sort of knowledge from making its way down into the depths of society.
The boy continued staring at the streets below. The subterranean city was all he knew and all he cared for, but he had to be careful. His father always warned him of what would happen if the authorities knew he had these thoughts. They were forbidden.
“Aidan, get down from there!” an angry voice cried out.
That was Aidan’s father, a man who appeared to be well kept and healthy, yet felt seasoned and grizzled. Lines stretched across his forehead and down his cheeks. Stress had aged him faster than anything else. His leathery skin made it evident.
As always, his voice commanded attention and obedience. Aidan hopped back down quickly.
“I just wanted to watch them,” Aidan said.
“Watch who?”
“The people, everyone below,” Aidan answered.
“You don’t know who could be watching you from down there. Watching us,” the father countered. “You can’t show signs of curiosity. We’ve gone over this son.”
“But why?”
“We aren’t one of them,” the father said, pointing up to the bottom of Level Two’s platform. “If we ever end up on the other side of that, we can ask all the questions we want, but for now, come on over here.”
Aidan walked over with a hint of sadness in his step. He revelled in his curiosity. It was all-consuming, like an addiction. All of the others from the lower levels were brought up in an environment that constrained their intellectual development. They were raised thinking that answers were not significant, that following was the only true purpose of one’s existence.
How on earth those people remained that way, Aidan could never understand. Allowing his mind to explore the depths of his consciousness revealed many things, mainly questions. But to a boy like Aidan, questions always had answers. They had to be figured out, like a puzzle resting on a tabletop on a Saturday afternoon. Not that Aidan had many puzzles to solve, they were not even allowed. Any exercise of inquisitiveness was quelled quickly.
Aidan’s father walked over to his bed and said, “Get to bed, son. You need to be ready for tomorrow.”
“I don’t want to go,” was his angry response.
His father kneeled down, now eye-level with Aidan. “I don’t want you to either, but you have to go through this examination, and you have to put down your curious nature. If they find out how you think, then they will take you from your mother and me.”
Aidan lowered his head, realizing the seriousness of the situation. “Yes, papa.”
When a boy turned thirteen years old in the lower levels, they had to receive a conformity examination. Which more or less meant that they made sure he was following the predetermined protocol of lower-level life. He had to fit within the guidelines of a proper citizen, else drastic consequences would be enacted.
His father and mother had prepared him for this day for years. They would always encourage him to think his own thoughts but warned him that he would have to bury that deep within himself, as he grew older. He was finally at the age where he needed to fall in line with the rest of them, yet inside he would be like a diamond in a sea of broken stone. He would be unique, a free thinker.
“In the morning, we will go over things again before you leave,” his father said as he turned out of the room. “I love you, son.”
Aidan crawled into bed and stared at the dark ceiling. Small streams of light revealed cracks in the paint, or as he liked to think of them, flowing rivers. The way the shadows spread across it was something all too familiar. To him, the textured and shadow-covered ceiling was a map — a map of a faraway land where the world was right and fair.
Was the world fair on Level Two, Aidan wondered?
A sudden bang could be heard echoing through the corridors of buildings outside. He had to see what that was. It could’ve been anything, a broken window, a crash, or what was usual — another person who leapt to their death. He crept out his bed and made his way to the window to investigate.
What he saw triggered something inside of him. It was another break in the Level Two platform. A ray of light shone down from the heavens like an invitation to sneak through. The only difference about this new hole was that it was shining right down the side of his building. He was so close to seeing what was above.
This particular building ran all the way up to the platform above, transitioning into a Level Two building around the 40th floor. Floor 41 was sealed off with ten feet of concrete and blast doors, or so he heard, and there were guards constantly monitoring the passageway.
Aidan wondered if this new hole was close enough to the building for him to climb up to it? He leaned out from the windowsill, holding on tightly as he peered above. The light struck his eye head-on, causing him to squint. He slowly opened his eyes, and then shut them, then opened, allowing them to adjust to the brightness above.
A smile stretched across his face as he saw a patch of blue, it was nothing like the pictures his father showed him. It was so much better. The sky! What a wondrous thing to behold, he thought as he basked in the joy of his first glimpse.
It took hold like a flame, engulfing him in a desire to see more. Aidan couldn’t stop himself. His mind exploded with theories, with images, and with happiness. If only he could make it up there and manage to climb through.
Quietly he dropped back into his room and started to head out. The all too familiar squeak of the door made him cringe as it opened. He swung it ajar as slowly as possible, taking almost a minute to open it. He couldn’t wake his parents.
Aidan had memorized the patches of hardwood floor that creaked as a foot fell on them. He stepped through the room as if he was in a minefield. Each step was calculated and precise. He took his time, only thinking of the possibilities that lay through that break.
He turned to the corner of the room and dropped silently to his knees, lifting the floorboard. Below was a small compartment with various gadgets and trinkets. One of those gadgets was a highly illegal signal disrupter, which would prove useful at scrambling the cameras in the building. It was but another one of Aidan’s father’s rebellious inventions.
Now, the front door would be the dangerous part. It was usually monitored, but Aidan’s father had made a modification that tricked the door into thinking it was still shut. Luckily, the device was still rigged to the door. They only had to take it off before the monthly inspections.
Aidan quietly pushed open the door and slipped out. The hallway outside was eerily empty. Various patches of green light flickered at different intervals as he gazed down the hall. It seemed to stretch on into eternity, and it almost did. His building was nearly one mile long, with thirty thousand inhabitants. Only a few walked the halls this late in the lower level night cycle.
If he moved now, he just might be able to get to the 40th floor and one step closer to the break in the platform. The stairs were his only option, and he had to move quickly. The longer he was out the more chances of being caught. Something was exhilarating about breaking the rules, and there was also a feeling that he was doing the right thing.
All of his life, he was told not to think too hard, to obey, and to keep to himself. While Aidan did keep to himself, he always had a curious that couldn’t be quelled. He asked, but never aloud, why he should follow those rules — why did he need to stop thinking about an enigma — why was it wrong?
These questions might well never be answered, but if there was one thing he was going to find out, it was going to be what was on the elusive Level Two.
He slipped into the stairs and began making his way up. It was finally his time; he was ascending to the light after all. With tomorrow on the horizon, he felt he had to make one last act of rebellion. After the examination, he would be watched more closely as he made his way through the next tier of schooling. This would be his last chance.
Finally, floor 40 was at his fingertips, he knew that through this door would be guards and risk, but also the chance for freedom — the freedom of his mind. He slowly turned the handle and peered through the door, the guards must’ve already passed. It would be a few minutes before they made their way back, he guessed.
He remembered that the light shone from the west side of the building. Luckily enough, he was on the west side, now he only had to find the window closest to the hole.
Running around the corner, he could see it — the faint glow trickling in through a distant window. He began to run to it. It was the moment of revelation, his excitement boiled over, and he began to push himself faster. A smile stretched across his face as he arrived at the window.
Then it slowly faded. As his eyes adjusted to the view above, he realized that there was nothing there. The tall buildings he heard so much about were nothing. There was only sky. It couldn’t be. There had to be something up there, he cried internally.
“Drop to the ground!” a guard barked from the other end of the hallway.
Aidan whipped his head around in fright, seeing two guards with their shock sticks engaged. He turned back to the window, ignoring the menacing men. He was furious that he couldn’t get a better look. If only be broke the glass and climbed. It wasn’t far.
He reared back his arm and tossed the signal disrupter at the window, shattering it.
“Restrain him!” one of the guards shouted to the other.
Aidan moved quickly, climbing out of the window and grasping onto any handhold he could find. The hole was a mere yard away. If he jumped out and grabbed, he would be able to pull himself up — or if he missed, he would fall.
Looking back at the guards, he realized that either way, he would end up dead. So he might as well get his answer.
“Don’t do it, kid!”
Ignoring the command, and mustering all his courage, Aidan leapt from the window and aimed for a mangled patch of metal. An intense pain shot up his arm as he grabbed on. One of his hands grasped onto a sharp piece of the platform. He huffed in agony as he pulled himself up, fighting the pain, and slowly climbed into the hole that would lead him to Level Two.
The climb seemed to take forever, but he managed to finally pull himself through the veil, but there was no city. There were no people. It was just a barren land of blackened sand. No life. No wealth. No hope. The answer he sought for so long was all a lie. There was no Level Two.
His world was shattered. He had this image of a bustling, busy world above. A place that he would eventually escape to, but now the ultimate horror became real — that his world was all there was. The lower levels were the beginning and the end.
Aidan began to cry as this realization struck him. He fell back on the dark sand and stared into the sky. At least that wasn’t a lie. As the tears continued to stream down his face, he let his mind go, freeing himself of the pain — all he had hoped for was lost.
He looked down the hole and saw one of the guards clambering up. This would be his end. He would be silenced. This secret could not get out. The last thing he could think about was what he had done. Regret filled his entire being. His parents would not be forgiven for their son’s actions. He just killed them all — himself — his mother — his papa. How could he be so selfish? How —
The guard swung his arm up and hit Aidan with a shock stuck. He tensed up and began to fade. The last thought that crossed his mind was that the solution to the puzzle was not above, but below.
