Elva

Now for the story about a girl named Elva, who was about to be taken from her home. This is the year 2257; the day is Monday, October 7 at 10:45 A.M. Exactly 70 years to the day when the outbreak of that terrible disease broke out.

Elva Sheppard was just 14 years old and a bit of a mystery. We have only a vague description of her because she had since been taken from her home in Namatius, Senzacion (which is located next to where the city of Sacramento, California once was). This huge, extremely crowded city astride a river is best known as the site of an historic battle; the battle was the Venetian-Pacific War, which was fought in the years 2097-2119. The majority of its inhabitants are involved in pottery, and it is considered noteworthy for its lavish mausoleums, which were dedicated to the soldiers and civilians who died during that great and terrible battle.

The description of Elva was this: She had round green eyes that are like two emeralds and silky, straight, waist-length blonde hair. She was 14 years old and quite short for her age. Her skin is cream-colored. She has an upturned nose and high cheekbones, thin lips, and slightly pointed ears.

Elva was born on June 9, 2243 in Namatius, Senzacion. Her mother, TaLuna, had died when she was very small. Raul and Victoria Sheppherd raised her in the neighborhood of Wildwood Arbor, which was located just outside of Namatius. Although Wildwood Arbor was a nice little place, it was isolated from the rest of Namatius and the people living there were very anti-social. There was virtually no discrimination in Senzacion, but there were the issues of mental illnesses and gangs running rampant through the neighborhood.

Elva grew up having to deal with the gangs that ruthlessly tortured ordinary citizens on a daily basis, and most orphans often ended up being absorbed into the gangs. Raul and Vic tried to protect Elva as much as possible, but the fact that she was an orphan made her a target for the gangs, who were trying to get her to join their ranks.

Despite that, Elva excelled in school and was among those who would have been sent to the capital boarding school for advanced education, had she not disappeared. She was described as fiercely independent, loyal, smart, and brave, but she was also very stubborn and rebellious, which would affect her future life.

With the deaths of Raul and Vic when she was just ten years old and since she had no brothers or sisters or other living relatives to take her in, Elva was sent to live in an orphanage, where most children whose parents were unable to raise them would go. There, various adults looked after the children until they became of age, which was the age of 16, when they are able to marry a person of their family’s choice. Marriages in Senzacion were often arranged from birth, occasionally occurs between relatives and they last for life; divorce was not permitted. Very rarely would an unmarried person live in Senzacion, unless they were part of the clergy.

Elva was last seen walking underneath the trees in the Wildwood Arbor Park. She was wearing a plaid green dress, a red scarf, and black shoes. She was just barely two years away from becoming of age, in which she would be married off to a young man of the headmistress’s choice. Elva did not think that she was ready for marriage; she was more of an adventurous girl who refused to be tied down by the mundane things of life such as marriage and family. Not when there was a huge world for her to discover.

All of a sudden, a hand reached out of nowhere and she found herself being snatched away from where she was standing.

No one saw the kidnapping, as most of the neighbors assumed that gang members had carried her off. Although the search for her dragged on for several months and scores of gang members were apprehended, they never found her.

But Elva did disappear and where she ended up, nobody knew. What only Elva knew was that her life would never be quite the same…