I used to know a girl who wore cow tag earrings. A real ray of sunshine, that girl. She said we were all cattle waiting to die. I mean, she was right, but who'd wanna hear that?

The City had a population of around six million people. Of those six million, a good number died or went missing regularly. The difference between cattle, and the citizens of The City was that cattle had an order to their slaughter. Maybe then an ear tag would be nice to have. Death only came as a surprise to the wealthy and powerful of The City, but regular folk like me feared it – For good reason too.

There were a few reasons for the danger within The City's walls. In our sprawling metropolis there was more than just a class disparity. Of the six million people, one in ten was a Monster. You couldn't tell the difference between us unless the Monster let you; Monsters had the ability to change their appearance at will. Skin with inhuman hues and horns growing from their heads was how you could tell them apart. Most of them preferred to keep their Human appearance to get along with the majority of the population, but some didn't care to get along. You'd often hear about it through the internet or neighborhood gossip, mostly horror stories. Something like the bloody disappearance of a partygoer on their way home, or a family found dead with their bodies ripped apart. Humans feared Monsters, and with the amount of Human victims, it didn't take a conspiracy theorist to come up with the idea that disguised Monsters ruled the top of The City like they did the dregs. 

There was someone running the show — he didn't have a name as far as anyone knew — people called him The Tsar. No one knew what he looked like or if he really existed, but the Monsters spoke of him. Their stories about him were awful, spectacular. He ran The City with his closest underlings presiding over each of the six districts of The City. Some said he could give Humans and Monsters any power they wished for. Others said his goal was to take over the world outside the unbreachable walls that held us all. He was supposedly omnipotent and knew all your secrets. Some just believed it all to be a load of crap. One thing was for sure: the Monsters who helped Humans were the only reasons we had an idea of what could be going on. They weren't bad at all, but most were as clueless as Humans were.

We all had one thing in common, Monsters and Humans. No did anything. What could we do? Monsters were stronger than Humans by a long shot and yet it seemed all their ire was directed to Humans and not whoever was keeping us locked in our concrete prison. There was only one bridge out of The City, and whoever managed to leave disappeared and never wrote back, or they'd come back as if they'd never tried to leave at all. We really were cattle just waiting to die.

And die I did. 

***

The sky was clear when I stepped out of my apartment. The sun would go down in just two hours, though. With the end of summer, it got dark much sooner than I preferred. I used to be a big fan of the earlier nights; the term was nightlife after all. Though, wasn't really my scene anymore. Nowadays, I had a sleep schedule and my days were spent in the shop downstairs. I made my way down the stairs and unlocked the shop's doors again, the chime of the bell above the door and the delightful smell of wood greeting me as I stepped inside.

Every day I sat behind the wooden counter towards the entrance waiting for people to come in. I looked out of place in the shop with its carved statuettes, ornaments, jewelry, clothing and even some beauty products. All the items in the store were remnants of a culture only my family seemed to have practiced, and like those items, the store itself was a remnant of my family.

The shop was left to me by my parents who were religious and hopeful. They had hope for Humans, hope for The City, hope for the future and hope for their children. I never met them, but they spoke about my grandparents a lot too. The grandparents came to The City when my parents were still young, too young to remember what was outside The City. The City wasn't yet the den of sparkling glass towers — the tallest building didn't even reach two hundred meters in height and you could see much more of the sky. There were photos on the wall behind the counter of my grandparents and my parents in front of the store. As of last month, I was twenty — the same age as my father in the photo of him and my mother — however I wasn't ready fot a picture despite inheriting the shop. I lacked a partner to smile with for the picture and the parents to take our photo. All I had left was this shop and the statuettes of gods that didn't respond to my prayers.

I fingered one of the carved wooden statuettes of Ndiya and smiled wistfully. I supposed a part of me did fit into the shop. Every day I prayed to the relics of that culture my family brought here. I was just waiting, like the statuette. I wasn't completely hopeless.

***

Regulars at my shop were primarily young or old women. When my mother and sister were still alive, they'd braid hair in the back of the shop. I figured I could hire some girls and start that back up eventually.

The bell at the entrance rang and in came one of the shop's regulars.

"Hey man," she said, making a beeline to the aisle with hair products. 

"Hey, Deja," I responded. 

Deja was someone I knew before I inherited the shop, an upperclassman a year ahead of me who I coincidentally got to know outside of high school. Like me, Deja and her brightly colored braids fit The city's neon lights, but she came to my cozy little shop because she preferred the handmade products sold here. Or maybe it was because we were friends

She wasn't a very close friend though.

"I was wondering," Deja dropped items on the counter, "You ever gonna come back to Vecherinka?"

Vecherinka was the heart of The City's nightlife, the go-to spot for partygoers, drunks and dumb kids. I used to visit often, before my family's death.

"Uh... I'm not sure. Why? Do you miss me?" I joked.

Deja pouted as I grinned at her.

"It's just different after… well you know. But a few of us are going out again. And it's dull without you," she said with a sigh.

I guess it'd been a bit dull for me too.

"Well… maybe. I've been a bit busy."

Not really.

I bagged her items and gave her the total.

"Well, I guess I do just miss you a bit. And the others have been asking me about you," Deja added as she looked through her purse.

I thought about it as she paid. I really wasn't busy.And i wasn't going through bouts of depression in bed anymore. At least not often.

"I'm free next weekend," I mumbled, tapping my finger on the wooden counter. 

"For real?" Deja immediately lit up. "We're going to this place — Kandelika. It's new, really cool, you'll see!"

"Alright, just text me,"

"Yup! Bye-bye!"

The bell rang. The shop was empty again.

I looked at the rack of keychains to the side of the counter and realized only one keychain remained. I reached under the counter and grabbed my tools to start making more.