Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The building seems to shine in the sun as we run towards it. My lungs burn, but I don’t care. Mom will be there. Everything will be okay. Everything will go back to normal again. No more scrounging for food, no harsh winds tearing at us. No more feeling lonely on cold nights.

I start laughing with joy. I can’t believe we’ve finally found it. After all this time… After all this hurt and tears, we finally made it.

With the building only a few meters away, I slow down my pace to a walk. I stop, letting my breath catch back up as I stare at the building in front of me. It looks to be a school, except slightly more… homey. Plants emerge from the windows, and the gray walls almost seem white in the light.

“Whoa,” I hear Jack breathe out behind me.

I feel the same way. Can it really be this good? Can it really be real… or just another dream?

My brother comes up from behind me, “You ready?”

I look at him slightly, then back at the building, “Yeah… I think I’m ready.”

I take a step forward, then two, then three. It seems like it’ll take a thousand to get to the doors. But eventually, I’m right in front of it. The handle seems to taunt me, daring me to turn it. I glance at Leon, make sure he’s here with me, then knock.

For a few moments, nothing happens. What if this is abandoned? I think to myself, my heart pounding in my chest. Then, the door slowly creaks open, and a face pops out from the small crevice in which it was opened. He expresses nothing as he assesses us. I begin to fidget with my hair again, twirling it around my finger until it loses circulation.

He seems to have decided when he nods and says, “You may come in.”

He opens the door fully, and I take a step back as I see the inside. People are in lines to scan their fingerprints. I don’t know what scares me more: How many people are here or the scanners. Why are there so many people rebelling against our country? I shake my head, I never confirmed that Jack was telling the truth. These people might just be widows and orphans. But as I look around, I see complete families together. Holding hands and whispering reassuring words to one another.

I feel a hand clasp around mine, and then my brother’s voice whispering, “It’ll be okay.”

I sure hope it will, I think to myself as I take a deep breath and then step through the door. I hear the man close the door behind us and I slightly panic. There’s no turning back now. I squeeze Leon’s hand tighter as I inch toward the lines.

The bright light feels familiar as I try to squeeze through the crowd. With all these people, I’d expected it to be… louder. But it’s dead silent. A step sounds like a bullet as we move through.

I move into a line, giving Leon one last squeeze before he moves to the line next to me. I focus on my feet as I try to concentrate. I slightly register the figures ahead of me moving, and I shuffle my feet in their direction. The beating of my heart is pounding out of my chest as I move closer and closer… 

And suddenly… no one is ahead of me anymore. I look up, staring at the person having their finger scanned. I count the seconds that go by, biting my lip as I anticipate my turn. The scanner flashes green and the person moves away to the left along with the other people beside them. It’s my turn now. I try not to think as I put my finger on the scanner, barely registering that Leon in the line next to me isn’t scanning his finger…

A second flies by, then two, then three. Each one my heart pounds faster and faster as I anticipate the green flash. The inner part of my lip starts to bleed from my biting, but I pay no attention to it. Finally, I see the light flasher power up, and I take a shaky breath as it portrays my passing color:

Blue.

I freeze in my spot as I feel the stares at my scanner. Why is it blue? my thoughts ask me. Is it bad? Good? What’s going to happen? I quickly look over to Leon, where he stands petrified. I start to move towards him as I feel a hand on my arm.

A cold feeling rises from my chest, blocking my throat as I face my opponent.

He has the most serious look on his face when he says, “It’s time to go.”

All the blood rushes from my face. His words repeat into my head and I try to shake my daze. I suddenly widen my eyes as a realization dawns on me. They’re taking me away to be executed. They recognized my fingerprint as a criminal. This was all a trap. I look back at Leon again, seeing the same look on his face. We silently stare at each other as tears fill my eyes.

“Leon-” I start, my voice choking my throat.

“No time for goodbyes,” the guard says sternly, “We have to go now.”

“No- wait please let me just-” I fumble, the sweaty, warm tears streaming down my neck.

“I’m sorry,” he says, his eyes flickering with silent guilt, “but I can’t.”

He grabs my arm further and tries to lead me to the door, but I fight. I’m not letting Leon go again. I’m not losing him. Especially not now. We might still be able to escape.

The guard sighs, “Please don’t make this more difficult than it has to be.”

I turn to him, my brows furrowing as I tell him, “No, I won’t stop fighting.”

The guard shakes his head, then pulls me harder. This time my feet seem to have turned to butter as I slide across the floor. I fight him the entire way, trying to hit him and screaming my brother’s name. He leads me down a hall, passing many doors before he stops at one near the end. He types in a passcode and then opens the door. I feel the whooshing of the air pass me before I look in. There’s a table set up of 2 chairs. They must intend to interrogate me. I choke down a sob as I think of all the horrible things they’ll do to Leon if they find out he’s my brother. I’ll just have to keep a brave face and go through the torture…

The guard pushes me in and locks the door behind me, leaving me in solitude. I slightly look around the room, taking in the dim lighting. And no windows. 

“You’ll have to wait here for our leader to come,” he says from outside the door.

I nod silently, even though he can’t see me. My legs seem to feel heavy all at once, and I sink to the ground. There’s no point going to the chair, they’ll probably torture me there. The floor seems safer.

Deep, shallow breaths fill my mouth as I wait for my persecutor. I let the tears dry slowly, but not enough so I was calm. I don’t want to tell myself everything is okay today. It’s not. And most likely will never ever be again.

I don’t know how long it’s been since I was thrown in. Could’ve been 5 minutes, an hour, a day. I wasn’t paying attention. My thoughts enveloped me as I stared at the ground. My heart isn’t there anymore. It’s empty, gone. Along with Leon.

Eventually, I hear the sound of the keypad. I ready myself, raising my chest off my knees. The door opens, but I don’t flinch. 

“Why are you on the floor?” I hear a man ask me.

I don’t reply. There’s no reason to.

He sighs, “Well, aren’t you going to sit in the chair now?”

I silently get up and move my body to the chair, keeping my head down. I see that he moves into the chair directly in front of me.

“I guess I should begin by getting to know you better. Your name is Rosemary Mira Hicks, correct?” he asks, continuing when I don’t respond, “Do you like to be called Rosemary or do you like to be called something else? Mary perhaps? Or Rose? Or even Mira?”

I let out a frustrated sigh, “Look, just get the interrogation going.”

“No need to rush,” he says, then adds, “...What do you mean by interrogation?”

I snicker, “You’ve obviously not brought me here just to have a little chat.”

He sighs, “Would it help if I told you what the blue light on your scanner meant?”

I pause. I assumed it meant I was an intruder. But what if…

I shake my head, “You’re just trying to get information out of me.”

“I can promise you, Miss Hicks, that I intend you no harm,” he frowns.

“You didn’t say you wouldn’t question me,” I point out, “So you obviously still want to know more about me.”

“They’re only simple questions,” he insists, “And besides, it’s just to fulfill my curiosity.”

I close my eyes, “Please just question me already. I’m tired of this back-and-forth conversation.”

He exhales, “Fine. I’ll make this more casual then. I’m Larry Morris.”

When I don’t reply, he continues, “I guess I’ll start off with the most important question: Do you happen to have any siblings?”

My body immediately tenses, but I try to make my voice sound confident as I say, “I don’t.”

He raises his eyebrow, “Really?”

Larry pulls out a record, making my body tense even more, “Your records say you do.”

My eyes widen. He knows. He must be chasing Leon down right now… My face falls as I try to think of an excuse. Suddenly, it comes to me. 

I try to form my face into sorrow, even adding a few tears, as I say, “He… died on the journey…”

I see Larry’s face immediately fall, and I silently thank my teachers for teaching me how to lie. At least Leon will be safe… Hopefully…

“I’m… so sorry,” he says slowly.

I shrug, keeping my slumped posture. Thank goodness he doesn’t have a lie detector with him.

He pauses before he continues, “Well, I guess my next question is… Were you perhaps related to Linda Hicks and Matthew Hicks?”

At this, my head bolts up. It’s my mother’s and father’s names. A thought suddenly strikes me…

“What have you done to them?” I command, my voice quivering.

I know he’s just trying to get me to talk. But… Mom is my only hope. She told us to come here. Why did she tell us to come here? Maybe it was invaded…

“We haven’t done anything to them. The army did,” he says, his voice full of disgust before he mumbled to himself, “I can’t believe they were right about their kid…”

“Right about what?” I ask as his head tips up in surprise.

He pauses for a moment, “I think we’ll need to take this in small chunks… Most likely you’ll deny everything but… it’s just so amazing… Such a shame… but amazing.”

I wait for him to continue, twirling my hair as I wait. This isn’t like a normal interrogation…

Finally, he breaks the silence, “Miss Hicks, you may not believe this, but your fingerprint and scan show total confirmation,” he pauses, “You have magic powers.”

I burst out laughing, half-hysterically half-disappointed. That’s the best excuse he can make to make me trust him? I’ve seen fleas lie better than him.

He frowns, “I knew you wouldn’t take this seriously…”

My smile fades, “You can’t make me believe anything. Especially make-believe nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense!” he insists, “You are the key to helping win this war, Miss Hicks.”

“So… you’re going to experiment on me,” I say slowly. I had heard the army had been experimenting on people who did extraordinarily well in training, but I never thought it was true… My eyes water and I smile bitterly, at least Mom was right. I will serve my country, just not how she intended… So this is what you want, Mom? You knew I wouldn’t survive training, so you wanted to give me a better option. Needles and head contractions fill my head as my vision slowly goes black…

Larry shakes his head in frustration, surprising me, “No, that’s not what I mean at all,” he takes my hand in his as he tells me, “You have an amazing gift, Rosemary. One that we hope you will use to help us.”

I roll my eyes, retracting my hand, “So what are these “powers”?”

He pauses, “We… don’t know exactly…” he adds when I’m about to rebut, “But we do know they exist.”

“And what does this have to do with the war?” I’ve got to admit, he’s got this lie all figured out in his tiny little brain.

He sighs, “I’ll tell you over time… But I think I need to explain a few other things.”

“And what would those be?” I ask.

He pauses, then shakes his head, “I’m sorry… this is a lot to take in. Believe me, I get it. Your world probably feels like it’s upside down right now… But… your mother… well… she died.”

The blood in my cheeks drain out as I whisper, “What? How?”

He shakes his head again, “We are pretty sure she was caught leaving her house after curfew and when she was questioned… well… the truth came out eventually.”

“No,” I whisper, shaking my head, “You’re lying. You’re trying to get me vulnerable, get inside my head so I tell you things I’m not supposed to tell you…”

Tears fill my eyes again. Just when I think it couldn’t possibly get worse, it always does. When things seem to go right, they just go wrong. Why? Why is this happening to me? Perhaps I deserve it. My lips crumble as I sob. They probably got Leon, too. There’s no bright side to this. I’m alone. Completely and utterly alone.

He looks sympathetically at me as I hear him say, “I’ll… give you some time…”

He gets up from the chair and moves across the room. He whispers something to the guard I can’t understand. Not that I want to. I don’t need time, I don’t need space. Nothing could fill the emptiness.

Larry looks back at me, “We’ve decided to let you go outside to process this information.”

I feel my head nod as I follow him out the door. I keep my eyes on my feet. They seem to move automatically, without my control. I feel like one of those androids that go around patrolling the neighborhood. Right, left, right, left. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Larry open a door to the outside and I shuffle my feet towards it.

“Oh great, another super-kid,” I hear a snarky voice call.

I look up, and to my surprise, there are two kids that stare back at me. My eyes widen, I didn’t realize others were here. One, the boy who called out to me, is leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. His black hair is tamed down and he has a glint in his emerald green eyes as he smirks at me. The other one looks nicer, a girl about my age who seems to have been writing in a small book.

“Excuse my brother,” she says to me, giving a ginormous death glare with her mint green eyes to her brother, “Let me introduce myself. I’m Maryn and this is Vex.”

I simply stare at her, my surprise fading already. They must be here to make me more comfortable. Or they’re simply other experiments. I should’ve expected this. I look around the rest of the area. There’s a concrete square where I’m standing, but to the left, there is a field of grassy plains. A river slices through it before it ends in a small forest. I also take note there are fences on either side. Another way to make sure I don’t escape…

“My children are here because it’s their break time,” I hear Larry explain.

I only nod in response.

He sighs, “I guess I’ll leave you here then. I’ll most likely be back in an hour… Or whenever you’re ready of course.”

I silently move over to the grass. I’ve only ever seen rivers in the pictures they showed us in school. This river… interests me. Is it cold like the books in school say? I sit down beside it and gingerly touch my finger to it. It is cold, but not so cold that it’s freezing. It’s almost a… calming sensation. The way the water rushes and seems alive, dodging my hand as it moves down the riverbed. It seems so sure of itself. So happy…

I stare at my reflection in the water. The river seems to greaten my ugly features. My fat nose, thin silver glasses, and piercing blue eyes stare back at me. They don’t look happy. My face crumbles, and before I can stop it, I cry again. Nasty tears drip down my face right into the river. Joining it, helping it move along.

How did this happen? Why is this happening? I sway my hand in the water as it gently brushes by me. How can I have lost this much and still go on? I answer myself: I can’t. I’m tired of fighting and doing what people say. I want it to be done. I’m tired of trying to live a life that keeps getting worse and worse. I have no future here. And if Leon hasn’t been found yet… well I’m their only source of finding him.

Perhaps… it would be better to simply not exist. To have this sorrow not fill me anymore… I stare at the water again. It feels so calm… perhaps that is what death feels like. A calming feeling as you know that you’re finally done with life. No more hurt… no more pain… no more suffering. Just never-ending peace.

I hear a muffled girl’s voice. She must be attempting to talk to me. I’m pretty sure even if I wanted to listen I couldn’t. My thoughts are deafening. Suddenly, the muffled sounds stop. She must have stopped trying.

Perhaps it will make it easier for me to commit to this new idea… I try to think of something in my life that could possibly be good. Something that I might want to stay alive for. But I find nothing.

I take a deep breath, everything seems so clear now. I just need to be brave enough to do it. I uncurl my feet from underneath me, cautiously dipping them in the water. I look up to the forest and breathe in the fresh air. It will most likely be my last.

I dip the rest of my body in. I quickly figure out the river is pretty shallow. I will really need to sink in order to drown. I hear the muffled shouts of people, but none of that matters anymore. The water is already enveloping me. Encasing me in its warm arms. It seems so safe, secure…

The water doesn’t feel cold anymore… it feels so nice. Like every worry in the world is fading away. I can feel arms trying to reach me, but I sink my body deeper. They can’t pull me out. I won’t let them.

“Rose…” I hear a muffled voice call out.

It seems familiar, oh so familiar. I’m starting to run out of breath, and the water is making my head slightly fuzzy. It feels good that way. To forget and to have the water fill my lungs.

“ROSE!” I hear the voice call again.

Can’t they just leave me alone? Leave me in peace these last few moments? I guess they would need me alive to experiment on… but other than that they have no reason to bring me back to that wretched reality.

“ROSE!! IT’S LEON! YOUR BROTHER! PLEASE, PLEASE, ROSE!! STOP!!” The voice calls out again.

Leon… Leon? Leon, my brother? He’s here?

Suddenly the water doesn’t seem calm anymore. It’s burning, burning my lungs. I flail in the water, trying to escape its grasp. It holds its firm grip, keeping me trapped. I won’t make it.

But suddenly, I seem to rush back to the surface. Rising, rising. I open my eyes to the sky.

I gasp and I look immediately to the shore. There, standing right there… is Leon. 

The corners of my mouth turn up as I whisper, “Leon.”

Then everything blacks out.

Author's Note

sorry this is REALLY dark!! I would appreciate ways to extend this chapter as I find it kinda short :3

Reviews

[RenyReads]

You're not supposed to make me cry...😭. I didn't yet realize what Rose was doing. And then Leon calling for her at the end was a perfect (sad) touch. I wish I could smack Vex.

[Rosez]

GAH-

I need to make you not hate him he’s going to be the dark humor T-T