2-New Friends, New FoesA Chapter by KuraiIn 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.” © 2010 KuraiAuthor's Note
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StatsAuthorKuraiMIAboutDescription: Just myself, a crazy otaku who has enough time between school, playing keyboard and drums, drawing, and my own leisure to write a story. I know, I know right now some of you are wondering.. more..Writing
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