I’m not sure how they did it, but they found us. Part of me wanted to break down, run away and sob, but the other part of me screamed “be strong”. We can’t hide forever.
That night after dinner, I told Olivia about the broken window and bullet holes in the wall.
“What?” she asked with a mixture of shock and terror. “What are we supposed to do now?” I shake my head. I don’t know. She turns away and looks out the small window absolutely still.
I get up and walk to the far side of the room, away from everyone else. I can’t hide forever, but I suppose I can for now.
“Skye,” I hear Dillon whisper. I turn to face him, puffy-eyed. “Come with me.” He reaches his hand out to me, and I don’t hesitate to take it. We walk out of the common room and he leads me up the stairs.
“Where are we going?” I ask, confused.
“You’ll see,” he responds, squeezing my hand tighter.
After climbing four flights of stairs, we come to a long, narrow hallway. Dillon creaks open the door at the end of the hall with the words “Do not pass” spray-painted on it, making me a bit skeptical.
“Close your eyes,” he whispers. I shut my eyes, and then feel a blast of cool air in my face. He leads me forward and then says, “Okay, you can look now.”
When I open my eyes, I look down and see the perfectly uniform rows of farmland and thick trees from the nearby forest. Then, my gaze shifting higher, I see the paved roads running through the rolling hills leading up to the city skyline; dark, towering buildings each dotted with tiny, bright lights.
We aren’t that far into the country, but we were just far enough from the city to see the night sky at its best. It was a clear day today, resulting in dozens of stars twinkling above us. The full moon took center stage, shining the brightest in the jet black sky. I search for familiar constellations, and feel the comforting sensation of being back at home. A faint smile creeps on my face as I pick out Pisces in the mass of stars.
“I knew you’d like it,” Dillon says while my neck was still craned and my eyes glued on the sky.
“I don’t like it,” I reply. I hated being cooped up in the stale basement factory all day. I have wanted to get outside since I stepped foot in the building, and the tiny window in my room doesn’t satisfy me. And now I got to see the beautiful night sky. I didn’t just like it out here.
I take my eyes off of the stars and look straight into Dillon’s ocean blue eyes.
“I love it,” I finish.
He holds his other hand out to me. I’m a bit confused at first, but when I figure out what he’s asking, I smile. I take his hand and we start dancing; just like at the dance in early April except now there’s no music, no lanterns, and no other people. It’s almost hard to remember that night. Though it wasn’t even a month ago, so much has happened since then. Dancing on the small stone balcony reminded me how it was one possible to not have to worry all the time. And how impossible that seemed now.
We sit down on the cold surface of the balcony a few minutes later. Though it’s spring, the nights are still chilly. Dillon holds me close to him; I must’ve been shivering.
“Do you think we’ll ever get back home?” I ask him. He looks out into the distance, as if figuring out how far away home was. Then he looks at me.
“You’ll get back home, Skye, I’ll make sure of it,” he answers. Something in his voice, his gaze, told me he was dead serious. He would do anything for me to get me home safely.
“Don’t say that,” I whisper, voice breaking.
“Well, what else can I say?” he asks me. I don’t know what to tell him, so I just sit there wrapped in his arms in the cool spring night. Now I understand what Marcus was telling me about; about loving someone too much.
“How would we escape?” I ask him after a while.
“I’m not totally sure yet, but we have to do it soon,” he replies. “You, me, Marcus, Olivia…we can do it. We can make it back to the village and then we can figure out what to do about the men.”
“But what about Chase and Scarlet and Violet and Lyra and—” I begin to object.
“We can’t have more than the four of us. We wouldn’t move fast enough and more people missing would be more noticeable,” he points out. I know he’s right, but I still can’t settle with leaving them behind.
“You saw those bullet holes,” I say, pain in my voice. “We can’t just leave them here. Who knows what kind of danger they could be in.”
“Don’t you think we’re in more danger?” he asks me, strength clear in his voice. “They’re after us, not them.” We’re both on our feet now and his arms are no longer surrounding me.
“We can’t just leave them here!” I nearly shout at him. “They can’t defend themselves and you’ve seen what those men are willing to do.” They’re willing to kill.
“Well why don’t we just take everyone in the building?” he shouts back. “Do you want to survive or not?” Something about the force he spoke with made me recoil.
“Haven’t you thought of how many people they’ve killed?” I ask him, softer. “I don’t want anyone else I care about have to face them unarmed.” I managed to keep my voice steady, but a tear slides down my cheek. He’s about to argue with me, but then I see his face soften.
“Oh, Skye,” he says gently, moving towards me. He understands why I can’t bear to leave them behind. I can’t leave them in the mens’ path unarmed like how I left Rose. And that caused her death. He understands this now, but now it’s too late.
I throw open the door and sprint down the stairs, smearing tears across my cheek and the back of my hand alike in attempt to dry them. Whether he followed me after I left or not, I’ll never know. I didn’t look back, I just ran to my room.
Scarlet, Violet, and Olivia are already there when I slam the door shut. My bed creaks as I collapse onto it, face buried in the pillow.
“Skye?” Olivia says. I could feel her eyes looking down on me. “What happened? Where were you tonight?” I roll onto my back and face her and Violet and Scarlet who have crowded around me too. I don’t want to be rude, but I really only want to tell Olivia what happened. She’d probably be the only person who’d understand. Before I can say anything though, there’s a knock on the door. Violet turns to answer and Scarlet follows.
“It’s almost curfew,” I hear Violet say plainly to whoever was at the door.
“I have to talk to Skye,” Dillon says. I guess he did follow me.
“What’s there to say?” I ask him. He looks pleadingly at Violet, who gives a sigh and lets him in. He walks over to me and sits next to me on my bed. There isn’t much privacy in a bedroom shared with three other people, but Violet, Scarlet and Olivia move to the other side of the room, though it isn’t that far away, so Dillon and I can talk. Or rather, he can try to talk to me.
“Skye, I’m so sorry,” he tells me, anger vanished from his voice. “I didn’t know—”
“No, of course you didn’t know,” I cut him off feeling more hurt than mad now. “Sometimes you just don’t understand. Sometimes you just get caught up in—”
He kisses me with so much want and desire that it’s almost overwhelming. I pull away.
“I love you,” he whispers. Something I already know. The clock on the wall reads nine, and Violet opens the door and motions for Dillon to leave. He hugs me, and I hug back.
“I really am sorry,” he says again. Then he leaves.
Rose was in my dream that night. But it was a horrifying dream. “Why didn’t you save me?” she screamed at me. “I’m dead because of you!” Then Scarlet, Violet, Chase, Lyra, and the others appeared shouting, “You can’t leave us behind! We’ll be dead just like Rose!”
I woke up and wept.
