Chapter 7

That night had presented itself as very successful. After the teenagers had gotten into bed, the council and I went into our meeting room and sighed in satisfaction. We all exchanged glances of satisfaction, except for Blink. He still looked very somber. We didn’t notice at first. It was only when J laughed and said
“I think we’ve earned a little rest? Don’t you?” Just as Nine was about to nod in agreement, my brother turned to them and said
“Wait.” He said it in such a way that you couldn’t tell whether he was angry or not. Then he stared at me. He glared at me when I think about it. “You,” he pointed at me “This is your last night sleeping with us? Got it?” I sat open-mouthed staring at him in disbelief. I’d forgotten about our argument the previous night.
“I thought we were past this.” I whispered. For the second time in two nights J and C had to watch with great disdain at another sibling dispute.
“We are.” He threw back. “Your staying with them and that’s all there is to it.” He got up and began walking to the door. Nine had a look on her face, half shocked and half satisfied. J and c were plain shocked and kept diverting their eyes from my brother to me, as though maybe we would jump out and say that this was a whole joke. My mind began to race trying to find an excuse for me to stay with him. The night before I had been angry and confused. Now I was just plain scared. I didn’t want to be with the rest of “their army”. Then I said something. Something stupid, but which let me stay with them for a good 5 years more.
“If you make me go out there,” I said with calm hostility in my voice “I’ll run away when you least expect it and tell everyone at the surface about this place.” For an instant my brother froze in his path and though his back was facing me so I couldn’t see his expression I knew he had been taken aback. Deep down, a beacon of hope shone. My brother spun around and looked at me.
“Are you really that desperate that you have to make threats now?” he sneered. No one moved. There was absolute silence as he moved closer to me and cracked his neck. Trying to seem relaxed, he looked me in the eye. I could almost see the flame of fear that was dancing around inside of him. “I’d be very, very careful with your threats little sister,” he sneered “You have no idea what I capable of.” He spun around and walked out the door without a second glance at me. I felt proud that I had stood up against the most powerful person I’d known at the time, but at the same time furious. My brother was acting so horrible towards me and it didn’t make sense. I was embarrassed and I avoided the eyes of the rest of the council who were obviously gawking at me. I heard the faint sound of my brother’s door being slammed.
“It doesn’t matter the surrounding or whether or not they have parents around. Guys are always immature.” Nine laughed. Shocked, a swerved my head in her direction.
“You put him up to it.” I yelled. She was stunned at my reply towards her joke that was obviously an attempt to lighten the mood. I stormed out.
“We’re immature huh?” J shot at her as I slammed the door behind me. I stormed out of the room and stood in the hallway for a moment. I needed to breath. So many emotions had passed through my body in the last ten minutes I was loosing my breath. As I stood silently I raised my head and looked at the ceiling and closed my eyes. That’s when I heard a sound I wouldn’t have imagined that I’d hear. A rock fall. I opened my eyes and for a moment considered whether or not I had imagined the sound. Slowly I peeked into the open hall and to my horror I saw one of the new boys climbing the wall. They were about forty feet off the ground it didn’t look like he was showing any signs of stopping. I took a step back. Shocked I staggered back against the wall and began to panic. I had two options; I could either run in and try and resolve the problem on my own or call my brother. At the time the right choice was evident, I stood in the entranceway and stifled out a cough. A loud enough cough that the boy would hear me, but loud enough that it wouldn’t scare him into falling to their certain death. The boy stopped crawling up the wall and didn’t even turn around.
“Shit!” he rested his head against the wall in frustration.
“You wanna get down?” I asked coolly. He turned around and looked down in my direction.
“Not really.”
“What…W-What the hell are you doing?”
“I dunno.” He laughed “Guess I wanted to do something crazy.”
“Running away from home isn’t crazy enough for you?”
There was a short pause and he began to climb down.
“Sorry. I lost my head there for a bit.”
“I would say so.” I mumbled as he jumped down from the rest of the wall. His weight hitting the ground made such a loud noise I cringed and turned my head towards the council’s rooms. After the echo had subsided I looked back at the boy.
“You should get back to bed.” I began to go head back to my room.
“You trust me?” he teased. I stopped and turned back to look at him. He was grinning at me. “Walk with me.” It wasn't a question however it wasn't an order either. It was very matter-of-fact. And for some reason I found myself walking with him.
“So…” I began after we’d walked only a few steps. “Why were you climbing up the wall anyway?”
He chuckled.
“I’m not sure. I guess I was just curious to see what was at the top.” I rolled my eyes.
“Your lucky it was me who found you. Had it been my brother…”
“Which ones your brother?” he looked shocked.
“Oh, right.” I’d completely forgotten he had no idea what my relation to the council was. “Blink is my brother.”
“I see.” He stared down at he ground and dug his hands in his pockets. “Seems a bit crazy if you don’t mind me saying…”
“Why are you here?” I asked bluntly, not wanting to let any of my emotions slip out.
“What?”
“You voluntarily left home to live in a gutter. This doesn’t make much sense to me.”
“You did it.” He answered quickly. Embaressed I turned away realizing that on a technical point he was right.
“What I mean,” I corrected myself “ Is, don’t you miss your family, friends, all the stuff you loved to do?”
“Well…my mom died when I was a baby, my dad’s a drunken prick and my friends are…I dunno…I won’t miss them. I like to do crazy shit to forget you know?”
“Ya I get it.” I nodded even though I didn’t.
“So you’re here because your brother is?”
“I guess you could say that.”
“Why else would you be here?”
“Simple.” I looked at him “He dragged me down here to help set this place up and work like a freakin’ slave.” I choked and turned away using all my will power not to cry. “But you know, it builds character.” He looked at me in disbelief and began to shake his head.
“You don’t believe in the same shit that you brother does do you?” I didn’t answer. I pulled back a few tears and ended the conversation right there.
“So…what’s your name again?”
“Joshua.”
“Ok.” At that point we’d reached the dormitory hall and I stopped walking.
“I have to get back.”
“I know.” He smiled and gave me a friendly pat on my shoulder. “Hey don’t let it get you down.”
“Let what get you down?”
“I don’t know. Anything that’s getting you down.” He did a pirouette and began to sink back into the darkened hall.
“Joshua…”I called back after him. He popped his head out of the darkness flashed me a big smile.
“Ya?”
“Don’t let anything bring you back up. Ok?” I laughed pointing to the ceiling above me. The smile disappeared from his face but only for a second and said “Right.” That was the last I’d seen of Joshua for the night and I felt relieved. I shook my head and smiled. Who climbs a wall to get rid of stress? I walked to the opening of the council room hallway and stopped grazing my hand against the rock wall of the main hall. A gripped the closest stone and closed my eyes. I remembered the fight I had with my brother not even 15 minutes prior and let go of the wall. I laughed to myself and continued on to my cell not noticing the red blinking light coming from the ceiling.