Keepsies

Did you know that every button has a fairy living on it? No? Well, it's true.

Every button in the whole world has a fairy living on it. The only time the fairy leaves is if the button is shattered into tiny little pieces. These fairies are used to being alone, it's true, (admit it, you've passed by many a forlorn looking button just lying on the street) but they do prefer company. After all, buttons are meant to be worn by people. There are a few people in the world who are quite aware of these little button fairies. These people tend to do their best to collect any lonely buttons they see and put them to a better use.

If nothing else can be done, the fairies very much enjoy each other's company, which is why it is therefore not uncommon to find a tin here, a box there, or a drawer simply brimming with the shiny, sparkly, bubbly little things. These button boxes, or button tins are known among the knowing as keepsies.

It is in one of these keepsies (specifically a rusty old tin) that our story begins...

Ben and The Academy

“Go.” Ben spoke the word softly, but with command. The next minute he was running to the elevator, the strange woman close on his heels. I knew beforehand, that he didn't want me to follow him down the shaft, since he needed the doors to close before the woman got inside.
My eyes scanned the floor of the hotel for a likely escape route. Funny, it was the “escape” sign that clued me in to the stair case. But I needed to get down fast. I took a good flying leap over to the railing. Yes flying leap. I have an ability to sort of float. It's not flying, and if I'm not concentrating, I sink, but otherwise I can hover a good foot and a half off the ground.
I didn't even look down, instead I focused on the far railing, and vaulted over the edge. My ability doesn't exactly slow me down, but it does cushion my fall. I did a free fall down the middle of the stairs, letting my hands grab each rail as I fell, sort of like climbing down a very large ladder at high-speed.
I held on at one floor and saw that I was on a balcony overlooking the lobby, and that Ben had just reached it with the elevator. He stepped out and the woman materialized in front of him! She hit him hard in the face.
I was so filled with rage that anyone would hurt him that I threw myself down the last flight of stairs, and tore across the lobby to retaliate. I was right behind her when she just went POOF! I was staring at Ben whose eyes were mirroring my surprise.
“Huh.”
I started giggling at his eloquence, then I let out a full-belly laugh, and nearly couldn't stop. I got only a chuckle or two out of him. He wasn't comfortable with laughing. Not as loudly as I was used to.
“She was a Program.” His words snapped me back.
“ A program? That can't be. The Academy is the only one who can initiate programs. How could they have known we were together?”
“Maybe they found out.”
“If they had found out, we would be in a lot worse trouble right now...and we wouldn't still be on this field trip!”
Ben shrugged it off...how very Ben-like. We walked out the doors together into the cool night. I gave a tiny jump that put me in the air and sent me forward at a walking pace. I liked doing this to annoy Ben who was limited to moving his gravitationally-pulled feet on the ground.

The Green Silk

Dear Thomas,
I will of course do as you ask and keep an eye on her.
I must warn you, however, I do not believe you will find
any joy in this correspondence at all. In fact, I highly
recommend that you dispense with this idea, and simply
try to live your life...forget her Thomas, she is a
different person. The Green Silk has done its horrid duty.
It pains me to say so, but the dreadful thing is working
its will on her. She is not the same girl you left
mere days ago. I must go now, and please burn this
letter after you have read it to your satisfaction. I
need not relate to you how much trouble I would
be in if I were found to be passing on
information on royals.
My heart goes out to you friend,
-A.

Robbed

Katherine tried to slow her breathing, but adrenaline was tearing through her body along with questions. What was going on? A bank robbery? What was this man going to do? What did he want? Would he kill her? How could she escape?

"ASSIEZ VOUS ! ASSIEZ VOUS !"
Katherine’s eyes widened in recognition. She thought frantically, then came to a decision.

“He wants you to sit down! Everybody sit down!” she yelled hoarsely. Before she had finished her words, the gun was pressed harder into her back, and her eyes watered at the pain.
When all the people slowly sat down, Katherine felt herself being whirled around to face her captor.
She was looking into a pair of watery-green eyes.

Youth

Italy was the second country to contract “Juvi-Fever”. Any child who reached the age of about eighteen developed something like a common cold. That cold turned to pneumonia, which evolved to a previously nonexistent malady. With Juvi-Fever, the child spent three weeks in intense pain and suffered physical mutilations. In the fourth week, they died. In the first year, all people between the age of eighteen and twenty died suddenly and mysteriously. At the time, it had been treated as a freak viral epidemic that infected the young and vital. England became the first to succumb. Then Italy, Germany, and so on until all of Europe was forced to realize they had a terrifying problem on their hands. Eventually Asia joined the ranks of the loss. Africa was checked off the list in less than a year.

Over the course of four years, every country in the world reported the strange epidemic. Every country, that is, except the United States of America. World leaders met. Conspiracies were considered, but no matter how many fingers were pointed at the US, an equal number of one way plane tickets were immediately purchased. Despite the outrage of diplomats, parents could not deny that there was safety for their children in the United States. For a while there was mass chaos with the government enforcing immigration laws. Then they gave in. The entire world had to admit that America was a safe haven for the children of the world.

It wasn’t for another three years that the new system came into complete effect. When it was discovered that children were safe until the age of eighteen, the US government declared that no children under that age were allowed within US borders. Not even American born citizens. Eventually all children, once born, are immediately to be given a number or ID and sent randomly to a country where the population can handle the addition. Every child becomes an orphan. No exceptions. I myself was lucky enough to remain in the country of my birth; Italy has not been teeming with orphans in the last year. Despite this, I was still sent to an orphanage immediately. I have never known my parents. I doubt I ever will.

My name is Leonardo.
I am a Juvenile-Citizen of Italia.
I am sixteen years old.
I have a cough.

...tomorrow I go to the United States of America.

Tade Shadow

Tade did not want to be a flyer. Of this much he was certain.
He didn't know what exactly he wanted to be.
He didn't know why it had never bothered him before.

There was something else he was sure of, and this was the hard part to know: he could tell no one else, because no one else would understand...no one else was brave enough.