Renunited

Here we see the relationships between our characters, how they act towards each other and what part they each play in the family they have created. You have to wonder: how would you react if you were in their situation?

 

 “Wake up, you lazy cow.”

Amilie blinked, the dim light still hurting her sensitive eyes. She went to sit up, but her right side suddenly was ablaze and she fell backwards.

“Nice one.”

Amilie couldn’t resist the urge to grin at Felix’s continuously sarcastic tone. She opened her eyes, and saw she was in a dark grey metal room.

Always the same.

“You’re up,” a different voice stated from behind her.

“Clever boy,” Felix commented, and Amilie rolled her eyes. The sound of shuffling was right by Amilie’s ear, and she moved her head away from it.

“Want help?” Archer asked, ignoring Felix, and Amilie nodded, grateful for the casual assistance. His two strong hands placed themselves under her back, and sat her in a sitting position. Amilie’s arm was wrapped in a black material, as was her ribcage. With a sigh she remembered how she had acquired those injuries.

Wait… aren’t they…?

“You’re dead,” Amilie said bluntly to the room, which was answered by a stunned silence.

“We don’t look that bad,” Felix answered.

“La Règle said you were dead, that he killed you in the Forest,” Amilie said slowly, feeling incredibly stupid – he obviously hadn’t killed them; they were sitting right in front of her.

“Oh right. Kayde mentioned something about that before he left.”

Amilie looked over to who had spoken, panic rising in her chest.

“What do you mean, Lost?”

Lost was the only one standing, and was leaning back on the wall, with his foot back against the wall, chest out, arms crossed – he certainly looked much older than seventeen.

“Why you so defensive Lost?” Felix asked innocently, receiving a glare from him. She smiled childishly, fluttering her eyelashes – even though she was only fourteen, Felix was the best at body language and could usually tell what people were thinking/feeling by how they positioned their body etc.

“Were back in this God damn cell – why do you think I’m defensive Felix?” he asked sarcastically, and Felix shrugged, sitting back against the wall beside her twin Frankie.

“Sorry guys, it’s my fault we’re back here again. If I had bloody kept up with you, then we could have been long gone,” Amilie said guiltily, looking down. There was a brief silence.

“Ami, honey, this isn’t your fault!” Frankie said, sounding shocked that she could think that it was.

“Yeah, Ami, we wouldn’t even have had the chance to escape without you. It’s not your fault the blood Directeur conveniently ‘forgot’ to tell you about… you know,” Archer added, anger flashing past his copper eyes.
        Amilie smiled sadly, before looking up, peering around for Kayde. Lost saw this, and spoke up, his deep voice cutting through the tense atmosphere.

“Kayde arrived with you, Ami, but then the doctors took him. That was about two hours ago. You’ve been asleep for six. Kayde said he scared you, and you fell off La Barrière, and broke your whole shoulder,” Lost explained calmly, and Amilie nodded, but her eyes were still wide with panic.

Two hours? That’s a long time for a quick chat and a biscuit.

“Don’t worry babe, you know Kayde, hard as a rock. He’ll be fine. We’re more worried about you. How you feeling?” Amilie looked over to Archer who was sitting slightly to the left of her, his light brown hair all ruffled, leaves still hanging off the natural spikes, and smiled.

“I feel much better – did they do something? These thermal pads are certainly helping,” she replied, looking down at the black material around her injuries that were pleasantly warm.

“Yeah, but it was before they took you in here. They looked well frustrated, cause Kayde must have been giving them a bit of a hard time. He was pretty pissed that La Regle had said he had killed his whole unit, and scared the life out of you,” Frankie answered, fiddling with Pixie’s hair.

“Oh, and he said you owe him two laps round the field, because apparently you spoke quite a lot of French when he said we were dead,” Felix said with a grin, nudging Amilie with her elbow.

“I don’ fink that counts, ‘cause like, she fort we isn’t here,” came a young voice from the far corner of the room, and Amilie felt adoration swell in her chest. Little 4-year-old Harmony was like her baby, and she loved her so much. The pale brunette ran over to Amilie, and put her skinny arms around her neck. Amilie kissed her on the cheek, forever thankful that her unit hadn’t died.

“Yeah, it doesn’t count, right Harmony?” Amilie asked, smiling as the little girl nodded in agreement.

“Take it up with Kayde,” Felix said, laughing.

“What now?” asked Dust, her six-year-old face filled with sadness and depression. Amilie looked over the eight kids that were around her in the tiny cell that was pressing down on her claustrophobia limitations.

“Come here, all of you.”

Harmony sat in Amilie’s lap, while Dust scooted over to sit beside Archer – she adored him. Archer smiled, scooping up the little girl, holding her close protectively. Amilie smiled at the pair; Archer may be the same age as her, but he acted so much older. Zodiac grinned as Frankie pulled the eight year old into her lap, tickling him. Lost, of course, stayed where he was, waiting for Amilie to continue. She grinned as she watched them settle down - they gave her the impression of some strange family… but a family nonetheless.

That’s what we are – a family.

“I want to know that no matter what they try to do to us, no matter what they try to pull, that we are always going to be together, and if anyone tries to change that, I will personally kill them. Or, get Kayde and Lost to personally kill them.” The group laughed, much more upbeat and optimistic. Amilie always had the ability to do that. She wasn’t just the Alpha Female – she was the mum.

“I know our leader isn’t here right now, but Kayde will get back shortly, and we will find a way to get out of here. I love you all, and I hope you know that I will do anything for you wonderful kids. I know I’m getting all soppy here, but trust me. It’s the truth. Now, stay happy and good, and everything will hopefully turn out alright, if it’s the last thing I do, okay?” The kids all nodded, the younger ones cheering and laughing like they weren’t stuck in a security chamber. Lost and Archer still had the pessimistic, hopeless look in their eyes, but at least they had lost the deadness.

 

        Soon after the kids had settled down to sleep, and snores filled the small area, the door creaked open. Lost, who was sitting next to Amilie, tensed, his black eyes glistening in the small ray of light that had poured over them from the corridor outside.

        Kayde was pushed into the room, landing hard on the metal floor on his hands and knees. The door shut again, and chuckling growls died away. Lost held out his hand, helping him to his feet. They had no relation at all, but were more like brothers than anyone else in the world.

Kayde rolled his shoulders, and wiped off the thin trail of blood that was trickling from a shallow cut in his cheek with the back of his hand. He laid his eyes on Amilie, and his grim and slightly pained look was replaced by one of worry and love. Amilie smiled up at him, the feeling of safety washing over her.

Kayde sat down next to her, looking over her injuries briefly.

You okay?” he asked her, and she nodded absently, not caring about herself, only about him.

“How about you? You look…” she trailed off, not knowing the right word.

“Crap.” Lost finished for her, and she rolled her eyes.

“Thanks, mate,” Kayde replied, grinning softly as he glanced at him, before setting his gaze back on Amilie.       

“What happened, Kayde? What did they want with you?” Amilie asked, failing to attempt a light hearted tone. Kayde lost the smile, his eyes darkening over as he looked down onto her pale complexion, not wanting to worry her further.

“They weren’t exactly pleased when they caught us trying to escape. La Directeur had a small chat with me concerning our repayments…” He trailed off from the terrified look on Amilie’s face, and the warning glance on Lost’s – they both knew Amilie wouldn’t be able to handle something like that.

“But it’s fine, Ami. Don’t worry about it, we are all going to be fine,” Kayde added gently, eyes softening as he looked into hers. Amilie scrutinised his face for a few seconds, before tutting.

“Yeah, cause the little baby can’t handle all the big tough information – that’s for the big boys to deal with,” she said, a pout on her face and her tone annoyed.

“Sorry, Ami. I just don’t want the same thing that happened last week, to happen again. The little ones couldn’t handle it,” Kayde said softly, caressing her cheek gently. She moved her head away sharply, and hissed in pain from her shoulder. Kayde tried to pull her to him, but she pushed him away. He fell backwards, looking slightly hurt, but taking the hint.

He slowly stood, looking down as Amilie turned away, arms crossed, a deep scowl on her delicate features, and sighed before walking away, over to where the rest of the Unit lay asleep and he settled down, back to Amilie.

Lost sighed, getting to his feet also.

“He’s just trying to keep you safe, Amilie,” he said, shaking his head, and he walked over to sit in the corner, head back against the wall, eyes closed. Lost doesn’t lie down.

Amilie sighed, waiting for the two boys’ breathing to lapse into heavy inhales of breath, accompanying the others. When they did, she let the tears she had been keeping back for many hours drip slowly down her face.

She was falling apart - it was easy to tell. She was a 15-year-old girl, who had woken up when she was still a toddler to find herself on a stretcher being wheeled down a corridor. The next thing she knew was this cell. Now she was the mum of 9 kids – sure, she had Kayde and Lost, but it was different. It was she who everyone came to – Kayde did all the fighting, and Lost all the thinking. It was hard to cope with all that responsibility.

Amilie cursed her selfishness – they were her family, her life; shouldn’t she be happy to provide for them? But it didn’t seem that way, in a hellish place like L’Académie.

And then there were the most recent problems. Of course, problems weren’t exaclty rare in this place, but this was not what they had expected: Amilie had just found out about her advanced stages of Leukaemia – which La Directeur knew about, but just happened to forget to tell them. She had rapidly lost a lot of weight, was continuously vomiting blood; would suddenly have a loss of energy, needing to sit down or collapse; would have constant headaches dark bruises would appear if she squeezed her arm, and occasionally become temporarily blind for a few minutes. It was quite dramatic and painful at times, making it extremely hard to keep under control, especially without notifying the younger kids. 

The incident Kayde had referred to happened last week, when they had been walking along the corridors towards le Cafétéria. Like usual, Amilie had been having her headaches all day and was extremely tired, but was keeping it quiet, so not to alarm the kids. They had just been turning the corner to enter le Cafétéria, when she had felt all the energy leave her in a split second. Next thing she knew, the ground had rushed up to meet her as she collapsed forwards, vomiting up an uncomfortable amount of blood.

Luckily for her, Harmony and Dust were asleep and getting carried, and Archer and the twins had swiftly picked up Zodiac and Pixie, not allowing them to see what was happening to their Alpha.

Kayde had instantly scooped her up, Lost in tow, taking her straight to the medical centre. She had scared the life out of everyone, and was not planning on doing it again. But she knew that it would be happening again very soon, if something wasn’t done about it. The only problem was, they had been told – by the trustworthy head doctor – that she had only four weeks left.

That was 18 days ago.

She had 10 days left to live, and was going to die in this hellhole.