Forbidden

By Amanda Vint

In a dystopian future where relationships are non-existent, Leah knows she's different. She feels it, she knows it, but what can she do about it? With the earth in such a bleak state, there seems to be no way out.

After an encounter at her workplace with a mystery man, Leah doesn't realize that her whole world is about to change - and her life is more important than she is aware of.

Samuel has found Leah for a reason, and that reason is going to shape the future of the entire world.

The purpose for her existence is something that is unfathomable even for her wildest dreams... and she's more powerful than she could ever imagine...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amanda Vint
• Release date: Mar 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201105457

Amanda Vint

Amanda Vint started writing romance novels in July 2016, self publishing her debut novel "Live and Learn" in the October of the same year. Following on from the positive feedback that the first book prompted, it then went on to become a series; with the next books "Twists and Turns" and "Clarity" being published. Specialising in the romance genre, she also uses her educational background in the field of psychology to incorporate a darker side to some characters, thus adding dramatic plot twists to the storylines. Amanda loves to connect with her readers and has a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/AmandaVintBooks) and blog (www.amandavint.com) dedicated to doing so.

Book preview

Contents

Chapter One - Leah

Chapter Two - Samuel

Chapter Three - So it Begins

Chapter Four - Awake

Chapter Five - Informed

Chapter Six - Preparation

Chapter Seven - The Darkness

Chapter Eight - Unthinkable

Chapter Nine - Sacrifice

Chapter Ten - Where There’s a Will

Chapter Eleven - The Mission

Chapter Twelve - Irregardless

Chapter Thirteen - Conquering All

Chapter Fourteen - Balance

Chapter One - Leah

The world was a dark and dangerous place: I’d never doubted that for a second. The faint dim of streetlights, consumed the hidden depths of people scurrying home out of the way of others. I’d never been too preoccupied with hiding away - I knew how to take care of myself.

‘Leah! Hit!’

I pounded the bag with the power of my hand, lashing out and aiming my focus full force. It was my strength at play here in this hall, which made me feel all the more streetwise.

My mom had died when I was a baby, so I never knew who she was; but who did? Once born you were immediately implemented into the care system, where you either fought for yourself, or diminished young. The world lived in fear, and I was never quite certain what that fear was.

We were taught in care school that you never got close to anyone or the worst would happen. I would spend hours and hours trawling through digital screens in search for an answer, but always came up with nothing. I would find hints as to something which I couldn’t put my finger on - hints such as a ‘feeling’, that really had never been explained, or explored.

I was naturally curious. I felt different, and always had done. In the midst of the dark and dank people that trudged their way through the streets, I still stood tall. I wanted to be seen; I didn't mind being seen, but only in passing. I did possess a slight fear of something that couldn’t be explained, but I didn’t want it to dictate my existence. People went about their business, worked to earn their food, and then became matter in the ground. There was no sense of loss, as we were all at a loss from the moment we were born. I think each and every person who walked this earth was lost. Nobody knew what they were doing, or why they were here - and I felt exactly the same - but still different.

Different: a word which clung to me like the mist of the night air. I suppose that the night was something to be feared, because that is when things were less visible. Then again, the sun in the sky was clouded over most days, so there was never any ray of hope.

When I was a teenager, I decided that I would take matters into my own hands. The only extracurricular activities, outside of a screen, were usually within the martial arts sector, which strengthened people for the workplace to keep them focused. I liked the feel of the burn in my core from the intensity of the workout, and the feeling that if whatever this unknown thing was would strike, I could handle myself.

Wiping my brow with the hand towel and feeling the drizzle of sweat cascade down my back, I sat on the bench in the far side of the hall and leant against the cold wall. Cold; yes, everything was always cold. But that was normal; such was life.

‘Leah, same time next week?’ my instructor called out.

‘Yeah. Although my wrist is sore... I’d like to do more floor work rather than on the bag next time.’ I winced as I grasped my wrist with my other hand.

‘Life is pain, Leah. Suck it up,’ my instructor replied before exiting the hall - I wouldn’t see him again until next week.

‘I know. Fine,’ I sighed, as I hauled myself off the bench and scooped up my bag and towel.

Walking over to the doors of the shabby wooden hall, I took one last glance around, noting how it must have been years since this place had been maintained, but it was the same everywhere. There was just no care for the place, no... oh, what’s the word? Nope, my mind could conjure nothing.

I stepped out onto the cool streets of Washington, enjoying the coolness of the evening, but immediately wrapping my coat around me. I could feel the scorch of the cold pierce the beads of sweat, and it wasn’t long before my body temperature had resumed its normal state. Placing my arms in the sleeves, I huddled myself in the collar of my black jacket, and made the journey home on foot.

The darkness of the street made it difficult for my eyes to focus on the path ahead, as the mist descended rapidly and made visibility unclear. I was never scared of being on my own; I had always been that way, and would remain that way until the day I died.

Well, that was unless I chose to be ‘introduced’. I heard that one day, women could get the ‘urge’, and in doing my duty for society, I would head down to the nearest clinic and become one of them. I wasn’t sure how it really worked, or whether or not this urge would hit me; but it was something to consider.

The signposts for being ‘introduced’ were everywhere along the streets. Tall building walls would be glowing with the call to women everywhere to be brave and do their duty. I wasn’t sure why anyone would want to do it, as it sounded pretty painful, but nevertheless, women did seem to go and have it done sometimes. Apparently there had been a stoop in the levels of the human population, and it was no wonder, really. There wasn’t much else going on to be living for, and I could often found to be possessing that feeling myself.

Nevertheless, we all plodded along: work, sleep, screen time, repeat. To be fair, I quite liked my existence that way. I don’t think I knew a different way, and wanted to be as arm’s length as possible from other people. Other people were strange, and that thought had always been reinforced. We were taught that other people’s intentions were ruthless, and you never knew what they were capable of - trust no one.

I’d seen that on many occasions, and even as I took my leisurely stroll home, I could hear the distant shouts of strangers yelling something at each other. They really had to be careful though, because I’d heard that people who yell at each other, don’t last long.

No, I preferred my own company. The only other person I could tolerate being around me was a girl I worked with called Ava. She seemed okay, and I chatted to her briefly when I was at work. Everything was brief at work, though. I worked in a cybercafé, which was the only other thing which seemed to be popular nowadays.

People would come in, order, and then sit at a screen until they either got thirsty, had to go to work, or back to their unit. I was just there to serve the coffee and take my pay-check. But Ava was a nice enough person, and I would sometimes talk to her for a moment about what broadcast she was currently watching.

Broadcasts were the main source of information, and I would look forward to my nightly session of watching them. It would be the time to sit down and bask in the glory of not having to think about the next working day ahead. These broadcasts would be put out for all citizens to watch; to inform us of where to go, and what to look out for. Then there would be fictional dramas on, with nitty gritty themes to get lost in. I would happily sit there and watch it for hours on end, until the lull of sleep took me away, ready for the day ahead.

I reached the doorway of my unit; my cosy little one bedroom unit, and opened the door. The same nightly routine consisted of taking off my shoes and jacket, heading into the little living room, flicking on the broadcasts, and getting cleaned up.

Undressing in the bathroom, I switched on the hot water of the shower. As the water cascaded down into the pull of the drain, I listened intently to the background noise of what the reporter was broadcasting. I rolled my eyes as I listened in about another double-suicide. What was going on with people? It seemed that nobody was safe, and I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as if mass-murderers were rampaging the streets; people were willingly ending their lives - together. I couldn’t imagine talking to someone long enough to be able to bring up a discussion such as that. Yes, my own company was much safer.

That’s why the call to be ‘introduced’ was so strong; the population was rapidly diminishing because people were not wanting to be here. I could feel a pang of what they were feeling, but I couldn’t label it. I suppose it was an emptiness, a void; but I didn’t know what could fill that void. I think that’s why I dedicated my spare time to making myself useful, and attending the classes with my instructor. It was an escape, really; an escape that made sure that you were safe, but also, in its own sense, kept you away from others.

Whenever I trained, it was always on my own. There were no classes held; they seemed to have died out years ago. My instructor did once tell me that they weren’t popular nowadays, as people preferred to learn in solidarity and then get back to their lives, and I could really see the appeal. That was the gist of our conversation, before I carried on training and then once again he left my presence.

I remembered reading once about how people used to use the word ‘relationships’. It was a loosely used word, which I didn’t fully understand the meaning of. A school nearby to me closed down, as they generally did over time, and I was called in to help clear the building. I’d stumbled across a pile of looks, no, books; that’s it - that’s the word I’m thinking of. I didn’t know what these things were, and it was fascinating to see. They had things in them called pages, and you could actually feel them. I wasn’t used to being able to feel pages - I was used to flicking through them on screen. It was a novelty, and I'd bundled them discreetly under my top and got the hell out of the school as fast as I could. I dread to think what may have happened to me if I had been caught with them - but I just had to see what these things were.

Remembering bringing them home, I thumbed the pages and was utterly mesmerized by the contents. I tapped the books a few times, thinking how funny it was that you couldn’t zoom in and out of the words like you could on a screen, and it did make me laugh about how primitive they were.

Anyway, apart from these books talking about society and money, one of them was about how humans used to interact. Some of the pages had been torn from it, but there was one that stood out to me, and it briefly spoke about these ‘relationships’. It said that they were formed on the basis of a mutual agreement to share things with one another. There was not a chance that you would be finding me sharing things with anyone; they might steal it, or maybe that’s why those two people were found face down on a rocky shore together. I bet she had let him share something, and they’d been caught - yeah, that sounded plausible.

I stood there and shuddered at the thought, as I creamed the shampoo into my ebony hair, and washed away the musky scent of the old hall I’d been in; giving myself a mental pat on the back for never allowing myself to become too close to another person. I valued my life, and I wanted to stay alive.

Clambering out of the shower, I wrapped a towel around me and decided to eat and drink something before bed. Another day, another dollar, I mused to myself as I searched in the cupboards for some sustenance. Pulling out a pack of my readymade food, I placed it on the heater. The glow of the heater swamped the pack, as it pinged after a few seconds, revealing my ready-made portion. Retrieving an ice cold bottle of water from the brisker, I secretly reveled in the convenience of it all.

One thing that we did learn in school was how people used to have to make their own meals and I found it really funny. Why would you, after a long day at work, want to come home and actually make something yourself? No, I liked my packs and I would never be found making anything. It was unheard of now, anyway; all that were sold in stores were packs. It was bad enough that I had to serve coffee all day, but I got paid for that, and it was only due to the sheer popularity of it. It did give a welcomed boost to the day, to keep people plodding forward, so I often paid for a couple of coffees and drank them as I went through the day to stay awake.

Like others, it was only coffee and water that I found myself drinking. Tea was scarce, as there had been that many wars, that some importations had dried up. Coffee was still popular for energy, and water was always bought in bottles. You never drank water from anywhere else, as it was deemed contaminated, and not fit for consumption. Alcohol was still around and about, but it wasn’t popular. It was known to lower people’s inhibitions, and it caused nothing but trouble for anyone who drank it. It wasn’t understood, so nobody really wanted it that much.

Settling myself down in front of the broadcast, I opened up my meal pack. It was always exciting wondering what flavor food I would be having tonight, as it never said on the label, and would be a little treat to find out. Carefully, I used my fork to delve in and have a taste. Beef - lovely.

I ate my meal and drank my water as the latest drama played out in front of me. It told a tale of a young woman who had been ‘introduced’ and then tried to fight for the child afterwards. It detailed how she had been punished for her behavior, and I wondered whether she was some kind of idiot. Why in the world would anyone do that? I rolled my eyes and turned the broadcast off - I couldn’t watch anymore stupidity.

Hauling myself from my chair, I went and placed my empty meal pack and water bottle in the kitchen disposal unit, and decided that I would go to bed. I had a long shift at the coffee shop tomorrow, and then I hoped to do a bit more training tomorrow night.

Today had been long enough, so it was definitely time for sleep. I trudged along to my bedroom, feeling the heaviness set in my thighs due to my workout. Luckily I’d been at this for so long, that my body adjusted quick enough, and I wouldn’t have any aches and pains when I awoke in the morning. I climbed into bed and called up for the lights to go off. Almost instantly the light in the room disappeared, leaving me cradled in the darkness of the night.

I AWOKE IN THE MORNING due to the intermittent sound of the alarm overhead, signaling for the working day to begin. The shrill bleeping was enough to get anyone up - you couldn’t even attempt to sleep through it. Rubbing my eyes, I swept away the ebony strands of hair which had fallen on my face overnight.

I sat upright in the bed, wanting the bleeping of the alarm to stop, but I knew it wouldn’t. Standing up, I felt the wooden slats of the floorboards beneath my feet and shuddered at how cold they were. I walked over to the panel that was situated across the room; placing my palm onto it and announcing that I was indeed awake. The alarm stopped instantaneously as the voice activated panel read my heart rate, and confirmed that I was up and out of my pit.

Yawning, I headed straight for the bathroom to have a wash and brush my teeth in the normal fashion that I was accustomed to. The mirror would scan my features, and a minty mist would be sprayed over my face to clean every crevice and every pore. I sometimes wished that showers could be that easy, but it seemed that technology had not spanned that far yet.

Dressing myself in my usual white t-shirt and work trousers, slipping on my comfortable black shoes, I then brushed my long hair into a ponytail. I quickly made my way into the kitchen and pulled out a breakfast pack and placed it on the heater. A few seconds later it pinged, and I was glad to be served up a portion of porridge, as the past few days I’d been served a grainy type of cereal, which I was pretty sick of now. Taking another bottle of water out of the brisker, I sat to watch the morning broadcast, which could not be missed.

The morning broadcast was possibly the most important one of the day, and with a wave of my hand on top of the minute black box, the holographic screen jumped to life. This broadcast would tell all citizens whether there were any impending threats to the city, and what to avoid for the day. As I sat and munched on porridge, I watched intently as it seemed that there were more suicides that had occurred overnight.

‘The world’s gone mad...’ I thought to myself, as I watched and munched at the same time.

I really couldn’t understand what had gotten into people. Maybe there was something in the water? I eyed my bottle of water curiously - no, they’d probably tried drinking tap water that had been contaminated with goodness knows what. There had been that many disputes and wars, the nuclear waste in the water would probably turn anyone into a funky shade of green.

When the broadcast finished, I knew that that was my cue to leave for work. I grabbed my jacket and bag which contained my lunch pack and unit key, and set off down the road to the coffee shop. The street seemed fairly empty, and it was no surprise. After broadcasts such as that, it took people a fair while to venture outdoors again, but I wasn’t particularly petered. I would just go