The Declaration

experience new, fresh, horrors, the result of feverish planning by whoever was playing the game’s ‘Legal’. The real reason that Anna could not bear to watch the tormentor or tormented was that recently she had begun to lose her appetite for the infliction of pain; she no longer felt comforted by watching another being bullied or, indeed, by tormenting another Surplus herself; no longer enjoyed the brutality and desensitisation that went with it. The shrieks of delight as the chosen Surplus was subjected to some new, horrible punishment used to make her feel elated and relieved, because whatever horrors lay ahead in her life could never be this bad, could never devastate her as the ‘Legal’ was devastating her slave for the night. But recently, Anna had begun to realise that the horror she faced in the life that lay before her was not in beatings, or humiliation. It was the horror of what they all were, what she was. Surplus. Unwanted. A Burden. Better off dead. And no amount of pain, no amount of desensitisation could take that away, or even make it matter slightly less.
    That evening, when Anna returned from Female Bathroom 2, she found the game in full flow, with Sheila the Surplus and Tania her master. The sight immediately made her stomach clench with apprehension. Tania was a year younger than Anna, and a year older than Sheila. She had been at Grange Hall almost since birth and was a tall, large-boned girl with dark brown hair and even darker eyes. She towered above Sheila, who was so slight she looked as though a gust of wind might blow her over at any minute.
    Sheila’s hair was a pale orange colour, the same colour as the freckles which covered her fragile, almost bluish skin. This, combined with her fragile frame and watery blue eyes, made her an easy target for bullying and insults; her steely determination and refusal to acquiesce to her bullies’ demands had only made humiliating her more attractive to her attackers. Until a couple of years before, when Anna had reluctantly begun to protect her, prompted mainly by the fact that Sheila had begun to follow her around, making her fights Anna’s fights, Sheila had been target practice for every bully at Grange Hall.
    As Anna walked past, she averted her eyes, refusing the various invitations to watch, and trying to convince herself that the game was nothing to do with her. But as she reached her bed, she could hear the cries and taunts emanating from the other side of the dormitory getting louder, and reluctantly she turned to look. Then she frowned. To her surprise, Sheila was not face down on the floor with Tania’s foot on the back of her head, or completing some humiliating task. Rather, she was simply standing beside Tania’s bed, tears streaming down her face and her body trembling as she shook her head.
    Anna looked away, but the noise from the watching Surpluses was becoming deafening, and eventually Anna turned round again. Sheila was still standing in front of Tania, now with red marks on her cheeks, no doubt the result of a slap or two. Other than that, she could see no other physical damage.
    Biting her lip, she walked back towards the cluster of Surpluses. Tania was towering over Sheila, her eyes boring into hers, saying over and over again in a low voice, ‘Say it. Say it. Say it.’ Sheila, meanwhile, was shaking her head, her hands drawn into little fists.
    Anna watched them for a few seconds. ‘It’s time for bed,’ she said. ‘You can stop the game now.’
    A few of the Surpluses turned to her with strange looks in their eyes, and Tania, without moving her eyes from Sheila’s, shook her head. ‘She hasn’t done what I told her to do yet. The game can’t stop until she’s done it.’
    Anna’s eyes shifted to Sheila. ‘Come on, Sheila,’ she urged, ‘just do what she said, then we’ll all go to bed.’
    ‘No, I won’t.’ Sheila’s voice was soft, and low, but it was also determined, and Anna felt her stomach sink. You weren’t allowed to say no. That was the rule. You had to do what the Legal told you; that was the whole point. No one ever said no. Why did Sheila have to be so defiant?
    ‘Sheila, it’s a game. You have to do what she says,’ Anna said, feeling the electricity around her as the other Surpluses stared in excitement at the scene unfolding before them.
    ‘I won’t,’ Sheila said simply. ‘I won’t.’
    Anna looked at Tania. ‘What did you ask her to do?’ she asked. ‘Because if it