"Mama,"
A seven-year-old boy with silver hair opened the front door of his house. His school bag was still on his back. In his hand, he carried a piece of paper with a drawing he had made at school, graded with a 90. Eager to show his work to his mother, he quickly took off his shoes. He ran into the living room with a very cheerful face.
"Mama, look... Mama?"
"Thud," the drawing paper he was holding fell. The child stood frozen. The cheerfulness on his face instantly vanished. In front of him, he saw a rope hanging from the ceiling, and his mother was suspended there, facing the wall. A feeling told him he would not be with his mother again. With trembling steps, he began to move toward his mother.
"Mama?"
The child walked slowly, approaching his mother's hanging body. His small hand reached for her skirt and shook it.
"Mama... Mama... what's wrong, Mama?"
The child asked his mother, but what he got was not his mother's answer but silence. His hands kept shaking her skirt, hoping his mother would turn around and hug him. Tears began to stream down his face, yet his expression remained hopeful. He was still sure his mother would answer his call.
"Mama... I made a good drawing at school. I drew you and me. Look, Mama, I got a 90. My teacher said my drawing was good. Answer me, Mama... Mama... Mama... sniff... sniff," the child, already weeping, said.
His small arm rose to wipe his tears. He could no longer hold them back, and now his two small hands were clutching his mother's skirt and then her leg.
"Mama... Mama... don't leave Shawn, Mama. Mama... Shawn promises to be a good boy and obey you... come back, Mama... don't leave Shawn," Shawn said, sobbing hysterically.
Shawn cried loudly, and his hysterical wails brought neighbors rushing over to see what was happening. A neighboring mother, who entered first, immediately pulled the crying Shawn away and hugged him tightly, letting Shawn cry on her chest.
A few male residents and a security guard lowered Shawn's mother's body and laid her on the floor. A cloth was taken to cover her face. Shawn, held by the neighbor, could only watch his mother lying stiffly, her face covered with cloth. When the ambulance arrived and intended to take his mother away, Shawn became hysterical again, trying to prevent the paramedics from lifting his mother's body into the ambulance. Several women tried to calm the distraught Shawn.
"Mamaaaaaaaa,"
Shawn could only scream, watching his mother's body being loaded into the ambulance and then driven away, leaving him behind.
***
"Aaaaaah,"
Shawn, now 20 years old, handsome, muscular, and wearing a pair of bracelets on his wrists, woke up, panting and gasping. His eyes were wide, and his mouth was agape and trembling. His body was covered in sweat, even though the air was very cold. Shawn raised his hand and rubbed his face, then covered one of his eyes, which was red.
"That dream again... why do I always remember Mama's death," Shawn muttered to himself.
Shawn looked at the two bracelets on his wrists. The bracelets were special tracking devices for inmates placed in a unique prison city on the ice continent, which was supposed to be uninhabited, called Atritopia City. This city was built by united nations because of the overwhelming number of criminals and convicted felons worldwide. These people were placed in the city after their "execution" and kept secret from the rest of the world.
The reason the city was established was actually to uncover the mystery of a civilization on the ice continent that had been buried for thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years. The death-row inmates, who were supposed to be "dead," both male and female, were employed for research projects on the continent. Shawn was one of the death-row inmates executed for killing a man in his 30s who had sexually assaulted and blackmailed his mother until she chose to end her life and leave him alone. He did it after finding out what had truly happened to his mother.
The man was arrested, but the law never gave him a sentence that fit his crime because he was the son of a wealthy tycoon who always helped erase the man's cases, even bribing his victims not to speak or having them eliminated. When arrested, Shawn was 18 years old and showed absolutely no remorse during his trial, which angered the man's family. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection—a poisonous substance into his body—and the execution had been carried out a year ago.
Then he woke up again and lived in Atritopia City, which had a harsh climate, was full of violence, and had no clear rules until now. Slowly, Shawn got out of bed. Then he walked to his closet and put on his clothes: a tight black shirt that clearly showed his muscular body, plus a warming belt that ran from his shoulder to his waist. After that, he left his room and sat in the living room of his apartment, enjoying coffee before going to work.
"Huh... I dream about the past almost every day," Shawn muttered, sipping his coffee.
"Click," Shawn turned to see the door of the other room open. "Ughhh," a girl around 19 years old, with long black hair, pretty, wearing a tank top that was half-slipped off and messy, still half-asleep and rubbing her eyes. The girl was his roommate, who also wore silver bracelets on both wrists, placed with Shawn in his apartment by the city government, which acted as the prison supervisor and manager.
"Oh... you're up, Shawn?" the girl asked when she saw Shawn.
"Yeah, I just woke up, Naomi. Hurry up and get ready. We're going together," Shawn replied.
"Alright, wait a minute... and save some coffee," Naomi replied.
Naomi went back inside. Not long after, after Naomi changed clothes, she immediately sat on the sofa right next to Shawn and took his coffee cup.
"Hey... we're late. We'll get a pay-cut penalty," Shawn said.
"Okay, okay... I'll just finish my coffee," Naomi replied.
After finishing their coffee and putting the cup in the sink, they immediately left the apartment, then ran downstairs and raced toward the excavation area on the ice cliff on the edge of the city, because the entire city was located in a valley with less ice. When they arrived, they immediately took the elevator up, which took them to the mouth of a cave in the middle of the cliff. They were almost leaving.
"Thank you... gasp... gasp," Naomi said.
"You guys are late again... what were you doing?" a fat man with a fully tattooed arm and glasses asked, holding the arms of his glasses.
"Overslept," Shawn replied curtly.
"You're just getting here yourself, fat Dennis?" Naomi asked, mocking Dennis, the fat man with glasses.
"No... I've been here for a while, but I forgot breakfast, and now I'm hungry," Dennis replied, holding his stomach.
"Huh... you're always hungry," a dark-skinned, tall, muscular, blonde woman interjected.
"Shut up, Gina. You're my roommate. Why didn't you make me food?" Dennis replied.
"Huh... I'm your roommate, not your wife. Don't compare a roommate to a wife," Gina replied.
"Stop it, don't fight so early in the morning," a muscular, bald man in his 30s named Mike scolded.
"Mike's right, no fighting," Shawn added.
The elevator reached the top with the passengers bickering. Then they got off at the mouth of the cave and prepared to enter, following the other workers. Suddenly, "Crack," a sound of thunder was heard above them. Shawn looked up. He saw black clouds beginning to swirl over Atritopia City, with lightning flashing.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Shawn muttered to himself.
"Shawn, are you coming in?" Naomi called.
"Yeah, let's go," Shawn replied, turning and walking into the ice cave.