Death.
Darkness.
Destruction.
The world was in chaos. We had destroyed everything that was once beautiful about our planet. I’ve seen pictures of what it was like, what it was like before nuclear bombs left craters the size of small towns, before biological warfare poisoned the air, before we cut down the last tree, paved over the last square of grass, turned the last ocean toxic. Before we destroyed everything that was once good.
But Mother Earth had mercy on us, she gave us a solution.
The Heilari.
* * *
I saw a small figure hobbling down the road. Her pure white hair was held back in a long braid and secured with a bit of rope. Hunched over her cane, she struggled to make it down the sidewalk. My heart ached for her because I knew she could be no more than twenty years old. When she looked up to check for cars at an intersection, I saw her eyes, which were a brilliant green. An earth healer then. The Heilari woman crossed the street and was soon out of my sight. I pressed a gentle hand to my swollen stomach and pulled the curtain back over the window.
* * *
It was about fifty years ago that the first Heilari was born. The child was born with bright blue eyes and a head full of snowy white hair. The doctors assumed it was a simple genetic mutation that caused the baby to be born with white hair, it was only later they realized that it was so much more. When Child X was five years old, he ran away from his mother to a polluted puddle and stuck his hands in it. Before his mother could pull his hands out of the toxic water, the puddle was clear and the water pure. His amazed mother brought him to a doctor, who sent him to a lab for a few tests, where researchers discovered that he could purify all polluted water. By this time, other white haired children were discovered, though they were not all able to purify water. Those with green eyes could make healthy plants grow, those with brown eyes could heal the soil, and the rarest of them all, those with gray eyes, could clear the polluted air and heal other people.
Once the true value of these children was discovered, pregnancies began to be monitored, and the children born with white hair were claimed for use by the government. Parents were allowed to raise the children until they were five, but then they were brought to live in a government facility where they were used to systematically heal the Earth. Parents were allowed weekly visitation rights.
A few years later they began noticing strange aging patterns among the children. They seemed to age much quicker than everyone else, and a twenty-year-old appeared to be eighty. The Heilari seemed to absorb the pollutants from the air, water, and earth into their own bodies, causing their bodies to age prematurely. The oldest Heilari died at age twenty eight. Even after these effects were noticed, the government didn’t stop taking kids- they were sacrificing our children for the world’s regeneration.
*   * * 
I heard a knock at the door and stepped out of the kitchen, still clutching a wooden spoon. I could see the shadow still outside the door. Where was Kayson? He should be home by now! I walked tentatively towards the door, exchanging the wooden spoon for a blanket when I passed by the couch. I stopped in front of the door and took a shaky breath, readjusting the blanket over my arm to make sure it fully covered my baby bump. Steeling my courage, I slowly reached out to open the door.
“Hello, how can I-”
“Sky!” Kayson ushered me back through the doorway and pulled the door quickly shut behind him. “How many times do I have to tell you how important this is? Never open the door!”
“Kayse! You set me up!” I chided, swatting him on the shoulder and dropping the blanket back onto the couch.
“Yes I did. But only because I know you! I know you don’t like staying cooped up in here all the time, but you can’t just open the door like that. Someone could see you! It’s too big of a risk.”
“Yeah, I know that but-”
“No buts, Sky. It’s too dangerous. Your stomach is showing too much.”
I sighed, admitting defeat. I knew he was right, so I accepted the hug he offered, nuzzling into his embrace. We stayed there for several minutes, enjoying each other’s comfort and relying on the support the other provided.
*   * * 
Most parents went along with it- were proud their kids could do so much to heal our earth, and cherished the two decades they did have with them. But not me, I would fight for my child’s life, the world didn’t deserve her. That’s why I had to hide my pregnancy. If anyone found out, the government would know and then, if my baby was Heilari, they would take her.
If the human race was willing to sacrifice the lives of children to save their lost world, then they weren’t ready to care for a healed earth. Even when trying to heal, their very nature was destructive. We would sacrifice the lives of millions of children to save the planet, only to destroy it again, and maybe this time- Mother Earth wouldn’t provide a cure.
*   * * 
I woke to an intense pain in my lower abdomen.
“Kay! Kayse! KAYSON!” I yelled, gritting my teeth against the pain.
He startled awake, flipping himself off the side of the bed and taking most of the blankets with him. I heard a thunk, and saw his blonde head pop up a second later. His hair was spiked up every which way from sleep, the perfect match for the half dazed expression on his face. The effect would have been comical if my insides weren’t making a valiant attempt to become my outsides.
“Sky? Sky what’s wrong? Is the baby coming?” He asked, scrambling back onto the bed, pulling the rest of the blankets off in the process.
I could only nod.
“Good! Oh my gosh! Baby! Great! What do I do? Blankets! Towels? Oh! Pillows! Pillows are good. Pillows… pillows… pillows… Where do we keep pillows?”
As the contraction passed, I was able to unclench my jaw and stop Kayson’s mumbling, “Kayson! Stop! Just breathe. This is going to be okay, just calm down. Please.”
“Right. Calm. Calm is good,” Kayson nodded, eyes still wide from his panic attack.
I was about to tell him what he needed to get when the next contraction hit, rendering me useless to direct him. I left him to figure it out on his own and just tried to breathe through the pain.
*   * * 
The second I heard the baby begin to cry, my stomach filed with dread.
“Skylar! You were right! It is a girl!” Kayson informed me, cradling our child and moving over to a set up on a nearby table to clean her off and wrap her in a blanket.
What if our child was Heilari? Hiding the pregnancy was necessary in case she was, but I sincerely hoped that it was all for nothing. If she was born with blonde or black or brown hair, she could grow up and have a normal life, but if that tiny head of hers was covered in white? Her life would be full of secrets and hiding who she truly was.
“Oh no…” I heard Kayson breathe out
No, no, please no.
“Sky… Sky, she’s Heilari.”
No! I’m dreaming! Please be dreaming. Wake up! WAKE UP!!
“She has gray eyes, Sky.”
Gray eyes. The ability to clean the air and heal other people. The rarest form of Heilari, the one most valuable to the government. The withholding of which is considered high treason against the state.
My mind was racing through the severity of what we were doing. Each thought was fleeting and incomplete, yet I knew that despite what could happen to us, we were never going to let the government lay a hand on our daughter.
Kayson came over with our newly swaddled daughter squirming in his arms, “Sky, are you ready to hold her?”
I nodded, brushing a section of sweaty hair off of my forehead and holding up my hands to receive her. Kayson gently placed her into the crook of my arm before pulling away to clean up everything he had strewn across the upper floor of our house in an attempt to find the extra pillows we kept in the downstairs hall closet. Looking down into her bright gray eyes, I realized that I never knew how much I could love something,  how much I would actually give up to protect the wiggly bundle cradled in my arms. I kissed the tuft of pure white hair on the top of her head and held her close to me, knowing that a lifetime with her would never be enough, let alone only twenty years.
“Aerilyn,” I breathed out, lost in her silvery-gray eyes.
“Aerilyn?” Kayson asked, standing in the doorway with a bundle of crumpled sheets and blankets in his arms.
“My beautiful air,” I said, running a finger along the underside of her chin, eliciting a squirmy baby giggle.
“It’s perfect,” Kayson said with a smile, “I love it.”
*   * * 
“Momma, why do we always have to dye my hair?” Aerilyn asked, looking at me through the mirror she was seated in front of.
“Because you’re different sweetie,” I said, rubbing the brown dye over the roots of her hair, “and the government doesn’t like when people are different from them, so they try to take them away.”
“Would they take me away?”
“If they knew that your hair was white, yes, they would take you away,” I said, hating that I had to scare my daughter into keeping our secret.
“You wouldn’t let them do that, would you?” Aerilyn’s eyes looked sadder than any seven year old’s ever should.
“No, sweetie,” I said, shaking my head, “I would never let them take you from me.”
*   * * 
“SKYLAR!!” I heard the door slam open, immediately followed by Kayson’s yell. “Skylar, come here, we need to start packing!”
I rushed into the family room to see Kayson running through the room, grabbing various items and tossing them into a bag, and Aerilyn sitting by the door, crying.
“Momma, I’m sorry. Please tell Daddy that I’m sorry,” she said, tears still running down his face.
“Baby, you’re fine. Whatever happened, I’m sure we can fix it,” I grabbed Kayson’s arm to stop him from hurdling up the stairs. “Kayse. What is going on?”
“Come with me; grab what you need, but only what is absolutely necessary.”
The seriousness of the situation was written on his face and I followed his orders without question. I ran through the rooms grabbing a few sets of clothes for each of us, as well as irreplaceable items and things like toothpaste. While I was throwing everything into a large duffle bag and piling up a couple of pillows and blankets I pieced together what had happened through Kayson’s half sentences of hurried explanations.
They had gone to the park with one of Aerilyn’s friends on the way home from school. Aerilyn’s friend fell, off of what, he didn’t say, and scraped up her leg pretty badly. The girl was crying and bleeding pretty profusely. Before he could get there himself, Aerilyn had rushed to her friend’s side and was trying to calm her down. Without thinking, she reached out and touched the girl’s leg, healing it instantly. Some of the other parents had seen.
No. Anything but this.
The weight of the situation crushed my stomach into a knot of stress and fear, and I quickened my pace, stuffing the pillows and half of the blankets into a second bag. Kayson’s footsteps pounded down the stair as he carried two of our bags down to the door. I grabbed the last one and quickly followed. By the time I got downstairs, he was already running back and forth between the car and our house, transferring our bags into the trunk. Aerilyn had moved away from the door so as to be out of the way, but was still crying.
“Mommy, what’s going on?” Aerilyn asked, standing up and tentatively walking towards me.
I gathered her up into my arms and held her close, stroking her falsely brown hair. “We need to go, honey,” I said, glancing down the street to watch for any approaching cars. “Someone might have seen what you did at the park today and we need to go in case they told anybody what happened.”
“I’m really sorry Momma. I didn’t mean to do anything wrong,” she said, biting her quivering lip as a few stray tears continued to run down her face.
“It’s okay sweetie, it’s not your fault. We just need to go now.” I said, putting her down and picking up the last bag.
I was about to grab her hand to walk her out to the car when I heard sirens and the screeching of wheels taking the turn onto our street too quickly.
“SKYLAR! We have to go!! Come on, or it’ll be too late!” Kayson yelled, running halfway to the house.
I grabbed Aerilyn’s hand and dragged her through the door, down to the driveway, but it was too late. The government cars skidded to a stop in front of our house and nearly twenty agents flooded out to surround us. Kayson pushed me behind his back, shielding me from the guns pointed our way, and hiding Aerilyn from view.
“Kayson and Skylar Kappi, you are under arrest for high treason against your country.”
“Leave us alone!” Kayson yelled, stepping forward.
“You have withheld a Heilari from the state, and therefore must accept the punishment deserving of such a detestable crime.”
“Please, please let us keep our daughter,” I begged, stepping forward next to Kayson.
“You’ll be lucky if you get to keep your lives,” the man, signaling the other men forward.
Kayson turned me toward him, kissing me quickly, “I love you,” he breathed, “I always have and I always will.” He knelt down to hug Aerilyn, but the soldiers got there first, pulling him back. “I love you both!” he yelled, fighting against the men holding him. He broke free, trying to run back to us, but another man intercepted him with a hard blow to the side of the head, knocking him out.
“No! Kayson!” I yelled, curling Aerilyn against my body to stop her from seeing what was going on.  Her tiny arms wrapped around my waist and she buried her face into my stomach. I could feel her body shaking softly with her sobs, and felt the hot tears running down my face as well as I watched the men lift Kayson’s limp  form into one of the cars.
At another signal from the leader, more men came forward grabbed my arms, wrenching Aerilyn away from me. “No!” I yelled, fighting against the men holding me with everything I had in me.
“Mommy! Mommy, what’s happening?” I heard Aerilyn crying, struggling against the large man holding her off the ground.
At the sound of her voice, I fought harder, kicking and hitting and biting everything I could reach. But it still wasn’t enough. The men holding me began to pull me away towards another one of the cars.
“No! NO! AERILYN!!!!”