2-New Friends, New Foes

In this chapter you'll meet a new character and learn more about the characters that were in chapter one. Also, more about the orphanage is revealed.

2-New Friends, New Foes

 

 

 

The next morning I woke up feeling horrible. My stomach ached, my hand stung, and my mood was ruined. I yawned and ran my hands through my blonde, tangled hair. Yay, one more thing to look forward to. Well at least my hair was short, so it wouldn’t take too long.

It was just the same routine as it is every morning: get up, get dressed, brush my hair, eat breakfast and go to the library. There was really only one difference, and that was that I took the pain-killing pills immediately after waking up, so not much of a difference.

After searching for a while I still couldn’t find the report. Oh well, most of it was embedded in my brain.

I browsed a bit until I came across a book I haven’t read yet. The book appeared to be a book about poetry as it was called “Poetry of the World”. I scanned the cover. On it was an illustration of a blue sky, white clouds, yellow sun, and green grass. Just to inform you, I haven’t seen any of that in real life. Sometimes I wonder if any of it existed. I looked to the bottom left and there, in cursive, was the name of the author; Hibiki Susumu. I’d never heard of him before. I flipped the book over and looked at the date it was published. I was pretty sure it was from this year. Of course, I didn’t know what year it was, but I had a guess.

I opened the book and flipped to the first page with poetry. My eyes followed the words as they continued down the page, and this is what I read:

“Sound rises, resonates

 

Giving a chance for all to hear

 

The bombs detonate

Killing all that dare come near

The trumpet calls out

The soldiers rush in

We have our doubts

We’ve been plagued by sin”

 

Then I looked back up at the top of the page. The poem was titled “War Rises, Resonates”. Quickly realizing that it was in a relation to the first line, I began to figure this poet was clever. The poem was obviously describing war. I’ve never seen one, never been in one, and never heard stories of a real one. Sure there were those stories of World Wars in the past, but no such thing existed currently. Even those World Wars haven’t been proven to be true.

On the page parallel to the one I had just read there was a painting of a flag falling, a trumpeter playing, and men with guns pointed at each other. Looking closer, I saw some fallen men and some cannons, all residing on a dark night sky. The picture sure wasn’t something I’d like to stare at all day, so I turned the page.

The next page had another poem. Hopefully this one wouldn’t be as glum. I began reading.

“The tears fall

The night moves on

A wolf’s call

Awaiting the dawn-

 

“Hey there!” Aiden greeted. He had swiped the book away from me. Then I glared at him and he gave it back. I set it on a nearby table, right next to my notebook.

“I heard there’s a new kid coming today! The staff said he’d be around our age too! Let’s go meet him okay? They said he should be checked in by the time we wake up too, so let’s hurry and see if we can find him.”

I felt my wrist being tugged, so I let him drag me around after I grabbed my notebook. Something felt wrong- wrong about this new kid and wrong about Aiden, and now that I thought of it Ella was around, so something wrong with her too. Then again, it could just be my paranoia kicking in.            I was lead to a room. When I saw the room’s number it felt like I had stopped breathing for a while. All the sudden, my hand began to throb. Damn, it was this room, room 802. It had belonged to my only sibling, my older sister. She had died in that room, me by her side. It pissed me off that I let it happen. If only I had known.

“This is it.” Aiden said, smiling at me. My train of thought had been broken. Jeez, stupid Aiden. He knew what had happened. Then again, I guess he might’ve not remembered.

“Oh yeah. I’m sorry.” He replied, looking down. I guess he did remember.

“It’s fine.” I told him, returning the smile he had given me earlier. He looked back at me and smiled, then gave me one of his head-pats. I had totally forgotten about my sister.

His hand withdrew from my head, and extended to the door. He knocked on the wooden door, with its number printed on the front of it. After knocking a few times, the door finally opened.

There stood a brown-haired, red-eyed boy around my age. He had bags under his eyes and looked half asleep. His hair was going every way possible, and was pretty much just a tangled mess. Point is, I could tell he just woke up. As you can imagine, the pajamas only helped prove that.

The new kid let out a yawn. “What do you guys want?” He asked, mumbling the question. Then he raised one of his hands and rubbed his eye. “I just got here so I didn’t get to sleep last night.” He commented, and then another yawn.

“We just wanted to say hi.” Aiden explained. I nodded in agreement.

“Thanks.” He rubbed his other eye this time. “I’m Zero, Zero Takumi.” Then the boy held out his hand.

“I’m Aiden, and this is Kurai.” He stated. I looked up at him and smiled. He knew I’d be more comfortable with him introducing me, instead of me having to do it myself.

Aiden took Zero’s hand and shook it. Both of them exchanged a smile and then there was another yawn.

“Want any help unpacking?” I smiled. It was like Aiden to just offer to help. I didn’t care if he intended to include me or not, I’d help either way.

“No it’s okay.” He replied. “I don’t plan on staying long.” It was then that my eyes widened, and the atmosphere changed. I glanced at Aiden and he had the same expression as mine. Did this kid know how things worked around here? Or was he just crazy?

Finally somebody broke the silence. “That’s impossible.” Aiden responded. Then it was quiet for a moment, until Zero spoke up.

“Nothing’s impossible.” He grinned. “All I need is some bed sheets and a window.” The red eyes scanned the room. “There’s one somewhere right?

Aiden shook his head. “Nice try kid, but it’s going to be harder than that. One way in, one way out. It’s as simple as that.” He explained.

The new kid’s red eyes lit up. “Good point. ‘It’s as simple as that’.”

Aiden let out a sigh. “Look kid, don’t try anything stupid. The guards around here have all sorts of weapons. They’d be able to chop you to bits before you leave.”

Then I spoke up. “I wonder why they want to keep us here.” I thought out loud. There wasn’t really a legitimate reason. Now that I thought of it, nobody left unless they were adopted, which rarely happened, even with the young kids. I guess I’d be stuck here forever, since nobody adopts older kids.

Actually now that I think of it, all of the older kids died, usually from illness. Some of the other kids tried to escape, and met their fate that way. In all the time I’ve been here there hadn’t been an escape, and I’ve only heard of one. Apparently once a boy about eighteen years old escaped. All of his friends failed to make it, but he had escaped somehow. That’s what I had heard, at least.

“Unless I can get ‘em first.” Zero commented, reaching back by the side of the door and grabbing a sword. From what I knew, it looked a bit like a kendo sword, wooden with a plastic tip.

I looked up at Aiden. I could tell he was wondering how the kid managed to get that in. I guess Zero knew what Aiden was thinking too.

“I used to practice kendo, so that’s why I have this.” He said, gesturing towards his sword. “The guards here aren’t smart though.” He said as he pulled a dagger from under his shirt. My eyes widened and I instinctively took a step back, grabbing onto Aiden’s shirt and hiding behind him. After a second I took a step back forward and let go, but I still kept my guard up just in case. Aiden had always told to be careful about new people, just to be safe.

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything.” Zero confirmed, setting the blade down on a nearby table. “All we need is one more weapon right? Then we can try to escape.” He looked around the room. “The bedpost,” He said quietly, almost to himself. “It could be a staff.”

“Wait, before you continue I have a question. Why do we want to leave in the first place? Here we’re cared for, fed and we have friends, so why leave?”

“Cared for!?” I had to jump in. This was seriously ticking me off. We weren’t cared for. If we were, it’d feel like we had parents, and it’d feel like we were loved. Plus what did he mean by friends? Wasn’t I his only one? Then again, maybe he considered that annoying girl his friend. “How is being fed mush everyday cared for!? How is not being loved cared for?!” Tears began welling up in my eyes and I felt them run down my cheeks. Then warmth appeared on my head. I knew right away it was Aiden’s hand.

I smacked the hand away. “Aiden stop it! I don’t want you touching me with the same hand you use with her. I-I don’t even want you around me anymore!”

More tears fell as I pushed him away and ran into my room, which was the room next door. My room was room 801, so right next to the new kid’s, which is what used to be my older sister’s.

What was with Aiden? He was acting weird, and there was something wrong with him. Usually he’d go with the flow, inform the new kid and then if he still had his dreams, well that was the new kid’s problem. Instead Aiden opposed. I couldn’t help but to wonder why. Did Aiden feel loved? Did he not want to leave Ella? Was there something else that made him not want to leave? I sighed and took more of my pain medication. It was all too much. Decided that I’d dealt with enough for now, I took a short nap. I wiped my eyes then closed them, let my head hit the pillow, and well, that’s all it took.

“Kurai.” My crystal blue eyes fluttered open as I regained consciousness. I looked over to see Aiden sitting on my bed. Then I yawned and sat up, slightly leaning on him.

“I guess…” He started, his voice trailing off. I focused on his expression, and noticed that he was thinking about what he was going to say next.

“I guess I’m sorry for that. It’s just, well, at least here we can live so-“ He began, before I cut him off.

“Aiden you and me both know this place is full of death. There’s way more of it than there should be. Think though, all of the older kids either get in an accident, fall ill, or something like that. In the end, they always end up dead.”

He sighed at looked at me, his eyes clouded. “None of them are intentional though, just accidents. I guess the people here are just unlucky.”

“Wow, do you really believe that?” I asked, gazing at him.

“Well then what are you intending? That the staff here are murderers?” Then Aiden’s eyes widened.

“Well if you think about it, doesn’t it make sense? Stuff like that doesn’t just happen that much. The only question is why they’d want to get rid of us, especially the older ones.” I sighed and then looked up at Aiden. It seemed like if we didn’t so something, we’d be gone in the next few years.

“Maybe they figured we’d find all of this out by now?” He suggested.

Yet another sigh escaped from my mouth. It all made sense now. I mean, sure, we could be wrong, but better safe than sorry. I gazed into Aiden’s green eye(s) with a concerned look. He knew that I was depressed, because we knew each other well enough to know what we were thinking. If we didn’t try to escape, I figured we were good as dead anyways. We might as well give it a try, since we have a well balanced group. Zero, Aiden, and I all think in different ways; for example I think intellectually and think more about future outcome, Aiden is well-balanced, and Zero thinks quick and about the present. 

“Now that I think about it,” He started. My eyes lit up and I turned to him, smiling, knowing what was coming next. “Maybe it would be better trying to escape.”

I nodded and stood up. “C’mon let’s go talk to Zero.” I grabbed his hand and went next door. Aiden knocked for me and we were greeted by Zero again, still in his pajamas.

“Mornin’.” He greeted, yawning. He still seemed tired. It was the afternoon, but I didn’t realize at first, as I had just woken from my nap.

“Hey.” I replied, smiling at him. His red eyes were hard to read, so I couldn’t find out anything about him. “We decided that it might be a good idea to leave.” I told him. He just nodded, his red eyes gazing into mine. Then he spoke up.

“Okay, so here’s how it’s going to go.”

 

Author's Note

Ignore fragments (again). I wrote the poems really fast, and you can see in this chapter why I'm not a poet, but what do you think of it anyways? Should I add more detail or will that slow the pace too much?

Reviews

[Cassandra D.]

Spacing the paragraphs may let the reader read this clearly, well, just a thought.
Slowing the pace slightly to a story will add much more suspense, but then too much detail will leave the reader dying of boredom. I think it is much wise only to add detail to the scenery and character's doings. Time and time again, authors add detail to the character's image some time after they appear in the chapter. It may help to do that, only to not leave readers skipping around.
By the way, the poems were very nicely written!