Chapter 1: Hanging by a Moment

She's not my daughter

Those words raced through the mind of a seventeen-year-old teenage girl. Those words had haunted her for years. Those words were the very reason she was here...in the Sky Box, where they housed the juvenile delinquents.

The petite brunette slowly sat up from her spot on the floor and sighed. Her gazed focused upward at the stars through the lone skylight above. Looking at the stars and sometimes catching a glimpse of earth, were the only things that brought her joy, being caged inside her cell. A cell that she wouldn't be in right now if they had only told her the truth. She could have kept their secret. But they never gave her a chance.

Buzz. The door to her personal hell opened. She turned her head to see the devil himself walk in Marcus Kane. "Hello, Kennedy," Marcus said slowly.

For a moment, Kennedy's blue eyes locked with his hazel eyes, but she quickly looked away opting to stare blankly at the grey wall in front of her. She wanted to tell him to go float himself, but she bit her retort back and focused on the wall. At least the walls couldn't betray her...like he had. For a moment, Marcus just stood there watching the teenage girl in front of him. He couldn't bring himself to find the right words to say to her. Probably because there weren't any.

Marcus got down on his haunches beside her and cleared his throat, hoping to regain her attention. But he had forgotten just how stubborn she could be. He fished in his pocket for something-a silver heart-shaped locket. He dangled it out in front of himself, fixated on it for a moment, before looking at Kennedy once more. "In a few moments, guards are going to come through that door to collect you," he said.

Kennedy's head quickly turned toward him. That got her attention. "You can't float me. I'm not eighteen yet. I'm supposed to get reviewed and...you promised." The pain and anger were evident in her eyes. Marcus had to look away for a moment knowing that he was the cause of both.

Once he had collected his thoughts, Marcus proceeded. "You're not being floated, Kennedy." He watched as Kennedy relaxed a little, but he could tell that she was still wary of what he was about to tell her. "You-you've been chosen to go to the ground with 99 other delinquents."

"Chosen? Or forced?"

Marcus folded the locket in his hand before tapping his hand against his knee a couple times. "Depends on how you look at it."

Kennedy shook her head in disbelief. "You're exiling us. And there are some of us whose crimes are hardly deserving of such a punishment." Typical Ark politics.

"You knew the Ark's protocol and yet you chose to break it anyway. That's on you."

Kennedy scoffed, "Thanks for the reminder. Because I must have missed the hundred times you uttered those words when you turned me in!"

"I had to. I had to uphold the law. It's my job."

"You keep telling yourself that. But the only people who knew about it were you, me, and my mother. No one else." But behind Kennedy's sassy demeanor, there was enough pain to last a lifetime. She hadn't asked to be part of this mess. It had been thrown onto her and she had to be the one to deal with the consequences others so rightly deserved. Sins of the fathers…

Marcus closed his eyes, trying to keep from lashing out at her. He had promised that he wouldn't. After taking in a deep breath, he sat down beside Kennedy, leaning against the wall. Like the teenage girl beside him, he stared straight ahead. "This isn't how I wanted this to go," he muttered.

"Yeah, well, that's on you," Kennedy vehemently spat his words right back at him. In the corner of her eye, she could have sworn she saw him recoil at her words. For a moment, she almost regretted her words. But then she remembered that she was being sent to Earth-a death sentence in and of itself. Kennedy sighed. "Why did you come, Marcus?"

Marcus. The name stung his heart, but Marcus refused to let her see that. Instead, he just took a deep breath before he explained. "Your mother wanted me to give you this." He slowly opened his hand which contained the locket and offered it to Kennedy. "She wanted you to keep your family close to you."

Hesitantly, Kennedy plucked the locket from his hand. Her thumb grazed against the smooth silver heart. She recognized the locket as a family heirloom that had been passed down from mother to daughter over several generations. The trinket was quite old, having once belonged to Kennedy's ancestors that had lived on Earth once upon a time. It was her mother's most precious possession...aside from her, her mother would joke.

She tugged at the small latch on the side and the locket popped open. The heart opened to reveal small family photo from when Kennedy was younger. She resisted the urge to scratch at the man in the photo. Instead, she quickly closed the locket and tossed it back at Marcus. "I don't want it," she muttered, despite knowing that it belonged to her. But the picture inside and the fact that she would never be able to pass it along to her own daughter were too much to handle.

But Marcus was just as stubborn. He dropped the locket on Kennedy's lap. "Do it for your mother, please. She misses you. This hasn't been easy on her either."

"Well, you sure make it look easy," Kennedy retorted sarcastically.

Marcus shook his head. "That temper's not going to do you much good on the ground."

"If I even make it." Kennedy was surprised when Marcus didn't respond to her. But then another buzzing sound came from the door. She looked up to find two Ark guards walk into her cell.

"Prisoner 317, stand and face the wall," the first guard commanded, his voice reverberating off the empty walls. Kennedy looked at Marcus.

Marcus nodded his head. "Do as he says Kennedy and you won't be hurt."

Kennedy slipped the silver locket into her pants pocket. She gulped hard before she slowly stood and faced the wall. Tears stung at her eyes as she watched Marcus get to his feet. "Hold out your right arm," the second guard said.

Again, Marcus offered her his reassurances, but she didn't care what he had to say. Her bottom lip quivered as she forced her right hand out in front of her. They slapped a bracelet onto her wrist, but it hurt like hell. It pinched her skin and she could practically feel it digging into her. She wanted nothing more than to rip it off. Her left hand clasped it, but Marcus' hand reached out and grabbed hold of hers. He shook his head and then released her left hand from the bracelet. "It's to monitor you from up here," Marcus said. "It's how we'll know you're alive."

The words not that you really care echoed through Kennedy's brain, but for some reason, she didn't voice them. Instead, she just let the tears flow freely down her face. It wasn't fair. None of it was fair. She wanted nothing more than to go back to how things had been...even if it all was a lie.

But she was snapped back to reality when the guard pushed her forward with his baton. Despite however angry she was, her survival instincts took over. He was the only way she could possibly get out of this. Kennedy looked to Marcus with glossy eyes and tear-stained cheeks. "Please!" she pleaded. "Please stop this!"

Marcus stood tall and evenly responded, "I'm sorry." But to her, he didn't seem sorry. His words seemed calloused and rehearsed. It was almost as if he didn't even care. Then again, why had she even expected him to?

"I hate you," Kennedy hissed. The guard pressed her forward. With each step forward, the looming sense of dread seemed to grow within her. Her impending doom growing more and more imminent. But then something happened that flabbergasted her.

"Stop!" Marcus called. For a moment, Kennedy thought that he might have changed his mind. That maybe, he was going to make things right with her. That she could be able to hug her mother again and walk freely about the Ark once again.

He slowly crossed the distance between them and rested his hand on her shoulder. Kennedy looked at him pleadingly, some might even call it hopefully. But there was no stopping this. "May we meet again, Kennedy," he stated.

Kennedy's body went rigid. Those were words of goodbye. A fire seemed to light behind her teary eyes. She knew she was supposed to say the phrase back to him-but she refused. Not after what he had done. Finally, a chance to use the words she had been wanting to tell him since the beginning. "Go float yourself." She couldn't tell if Marcus was bothered by her words or not, but she hoped that her final words would be seared into his brain for the rest of his lifetime.

The guards then pushed her out the door and ordered her to walk. Slowly, she walked across the metal grate with the baton pressed against her back. She looked all around to see the other delinquents receiving the same treatment as her. They too were being led like pigs to the slaughter...and it seemed like none of the adults present cared.

Despite the tears that showed her true emotions, Kennedy held her head high as she made her walk of shame. She noted several familiar faces in her midst. A few that had been locked up before her and a few must have followed after her.

The guard commanded, "Turn right."

Kennedy turned right and found herself at the end of a line of delinquents. The guards told her to stay before they walked away since there were already guards watching the line. Not even a proper goodbye from them. Kennedy slowly exhaled, blowing tendrils of her hair that had been glued to her cheeks by her tears. Roughly, she used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe away any evidence of her tears. Now wasn't the time to look weak and pathetic.

The line moved intolerably slow. There were delinquents trying to cry their way out the situation, fight their way out of the situation, and those who just accepted their fate. While Kennedy wasn't so sure she had accepted it, she refused to be either of the former options. Besides, she had already tried both options with Marcus, the one person who could have saved her, and neither worked on him. They certainly weren't going to work on people she had no ties to.

"Next!" the guard at the entrance to the drop ship shouted.

Kennedy rolled her eyes and muttered, "Yay! Me!" She then took a step from the Ark into the dropship. Spaces were already beginning to fill up. If she had to guess, it was probably already half full. She looked around and the faces and found a seat where she hopefully wouldn't be bothered.

After crossing the dropship, she plopped down into her seat before strapping herself in. Safety first, right? Kennedy then pulled the silver locket from her pocket once more. She opened it and stared blankly at the family picture in front of her. They looked so happy...but that all had changed. In fact, just about everything had changed.

"Well, well, if it isn't Kennedy Kane," a voice taunted from behind. For a moment, Kennedy froze. She hadn't been called that in quite some time...at least, not to her face.

Kennedy closed her locket and rolled her eyes. She turned around to find it was John Murphy who had made the comment. She shook her head and responded, "Oh, go float yourself, Murphy." He just laughed at her. So she turned around once more, folded her arms across her chest, and waited. Waited for her impending doom.

Author's note: Another plot bunny on the loose! Oops! Haha! Thanks for taking the time to read! Feel free to come check out my tumblr: missjanuarylily!