Chapter 5

I lay on the mattress alone for the first time in years.  My mind keeps wondering about the fate of my sibling’s and the strange boy, Adian.  Try as I might, the image of the light crawling up his skin does not escape my mind; it all seems like a dream.  I keep telling myself that Shadow will be okay and he'll remember me once he wakes up but luck doesn't run well for me these days.  I keep away from the thoughts about what is happening to Willow; the thought of being able to do nothing for her is too much to bare. Soon I relax enough to fall into a light sleep …

I bolt upright as the lights flicker on in the room. At first I am confused, wondering why my two siblings aren’t beside me.  Then it hits me.  Everything hits me.  Everything that had happened yesterday and way it all happened.  I can’t decide if I should punch the wall or cry . . . or both.  My vision blurs with tears but I remind myself that crying won’t help my family, only action.  

 I stay on the mattress until the man with black skin comes to get me and I am taken to Eblis.  When the black hood comes off my head, he is staring at me with a smug look on his face.

             "So, how are you today?" Eblis asks taking a sip of the coffee cup that in his hands. When I don't answer he motions to his eyes, "Your eyes are looking a little red, darling. Have a cold?"

 Anger clouds my head. How dare he even pretend that he doesn't know whats going on.  If the law of Fire reached out here he would be dead in seconds for shooting Shadow . . . and for kidnapping us and for everything. My judgment of what should and shouldn't be said changes and my head snaps up.

             "I'm going to get out of here one day, Eblis." I say, "Me, my sister and Shadow, we are all going to leave but before we do I'll come back … and I will kill you."

 Eblis raises an eyebrow, "This is because I shot your brother, isn't it? I would say it was an accident but that would be a lie. Why don't we just put it behind us?"

             "Where is Willow?" I ask.

             "She's safe." Eblis says simply.

             "No, she's not."

 A smile spreads across his face, "You are a very perceptive young woman."


A plan forms in my mind.

             I lurch forward in my chair and with all my force I break the duct tape that binds my hands.  Eblis is so surprised that he falls backwards and the guards all around him try to tackle me. I slip through their grasps and head for the light generator that sits beside the door. I flip open the metal door to the switches and turn them all off.  Darkness consumes the room and from the other side or the door I can hear the screams of all the other residences of Stone.  They think it's simply a blackout. I grab from the door handle and twist it open and run out into the hallway. 
I can hear the footsteps of the guards echoing behind me as keep running straightforward. A few of the blue emergency lights flicker on and off over my head allowing me to see a few inches in front of me every few seconds, I see a corner ahead and take a sharp turn to my left. My shoes slide across the suddenly wet floor and I feel myself begin to fall but a pair of sturdy arms catches me.

 "Watch it!" A voice says.

             I squirm out of the arms and turn around, squinting in the flickering blue light to see who caught me.

             "Adian?" I whisper.

 Adian reaches into the pocket of his coveralls and pulls out a small flashlight and shined it in my eyes.

             "Avril? What are you doing?"

 I snatch the flashlight from his hands and turn it off. "I'm trying to get away from -"

             I hear footsteps approaching the corner and push Adian back against the wall but the guards turn the corner and stop right in front of me. The blue light above finally flickers completely on. There is a total of seven guards in front of me.

             "That was a nice trick." Eblis said as he strides around the corner, "I almost -"

 Suddenly he stops and stares at Adian.

             "What are you doing here?" Eblis snarls.

 I glance at Adian, "Do you know him?"

 Adian doesn't take his eyes off Eblis, “Of course, Avril, I work here. He's my boss."

             Eblis continues to stare at Adian but talks to me, "Why don't we take you to your room?" He turns to me now, "Perhaps a few days without taking trips to the dining hall will teach you not to try to run."

             "Actually," Adian says, "I think Miss Avril should go to the infirmary. I've heard that her brother is there by some unfortunate mishap.  Perhaps she should be allowed to see him."

 Eblis grabs Adian’s collar and shoves him back against the wall, "Perhaps you should remember that I run the city of stone and all decisions are made by me."

             "Really?" Adian glances at the guards behind Eblis, "Do they know that?"

Eblis lets go of Adian’s shirt collar and bends to the ground.  He grasps one of Adian’s wrenches and holds it in his hands thoughtfully. “You are nothing but trouble, Adian." He says almost with praise, "I should never have hired you."  Eblis hits Adian over the top of the head with the wrench.  Adian grunts and falls to the ground and splashes into the puddles of water.  Eblis flings the wrench to the side and grabs me by the arm, "Please don't struggle I don't want to hit you too." 

I desperately want to slap him and rip his eyes out but I am tired.  I know that any attempt I make to pull free of his grasp will only hurt me . . . and possibly Willow.  For the first time I willingly let the black bag be pulled over my head and let the guards drag me to my room.

             As punishment for my attempted escape I am only aloud to eat a small lunch in the confines of my room. The bread is moldy and the milk is sour so my mind is forced to think about other things. I try my best to picture the places I knew in the compound, like the dining hall, the washroom and the infirmary and where they might be keeping Willow.  It was now that I wish I knew more about where I am being kept, not just the compound but the entire city of Stone.  I remember stories about a prison that the old Americans used to call Alcatraz and how Stone was sort of modeled off of that but I don’t understand why it is modeled after a prison since the citizens of Stone live here.  A storm of questions rise in my mind; why did the leaders of Stone choose to keep my family in here?  Why not another place where we aren’t near the civilians?  Could it be that Shadow, Willow and I aren’t the only prisoners? Another question arises, one that I have been asking for a long time now; who is Adian?

 I know two things now.

 One,  it is time for me to stop trying to just protect my siblings but to get them out of this place and back home. 

 Two, Adian the electrician is the only one who can help me.

Chapter 4

I stand up protectively in front of Shadow as the buzzing door creaks open.

"Is there someone in here?" I hear a boys voice ask.

"What do you want?" I try to make my voice sound less panicked than I feel.

A boy pokes his head around the door; he looks about my age with light brown hair and single streak of blonde in the front.  He's speaking English so I can tell he isn't from Stone.  He reminds me of someone I've seen before but I can't place who.

"I heard a noise in a place I didn't think anyone should be, so I came down." He says.

He seems nice and I really need help.  I pray that I'm making a good choice as I say, "It's my brother, he’s been hurt. And -"

I don't get a chance to tell him who I am because he comes rushing in as soon as I say the word "hurt".

He's dressed in a black coveralls, which are zipped up half way.  The top half is tied around his waste and he wears a grey long sleeved shirt with combat boots.

He bends down and examines the bullet wound in Shadows stomach, muttering to himself as he goes. He stands up and whirls around to me; his face is only a few inches from mine and I notice something very startling … the boy has maroon eyes.

"What's his name?" he asks.

"Um, Shadow." I manage.

The boy smiles, "Shadow? Very nice name, I like it."

He bends down in front of my brother and looks him in the eyes, "Shadow, you've been shot in the liver, which is bad. The good news is, the bullet went through so it won't have to be taken out. But-" Shadows eyes begin to close but the boy slaps his cheek, "Keep your eyes open. Now, you're probably going to die from blood loss but don't panic because it will just make you bleed more.  Can you get up?"

Shadow shakes his head.

"Huh, it's worse than I thought." The boy says, "Well, I'll just have to help you up. Come on." The boy puts Shadows arm over his shoulder and hoists him up. Shadow gasps in pain and almost falls down but I catch his other arm before he does.

"Thanks," the boy says.

"Are you a doctor?" I ask.

The boy smiles, "Nope, I'm an electrician. Help me get him out the door."

"There are cameras out there," I say. "Someone will see us."

"Well, lucky for you that's why I was in this area anyway. I was repairing the cameras, they're all off."

We drag Shadow out the door where the boy has and old shopping cart full of tools and equipment.

The boy and I lean Shadow against the wall, "If he starts to pass out," the boy says as he quickly unloads his cart, "Slap his face. Sometimes if you pass out, you never wake up."

My heart pounds harder, "What do I do if he's already out?"

The boy drops the power drills in his hands and run over.

Shadows eyes are closed, his forehead is sweaty and there is no sign of a pulse.

The boy puts his fingers on Shadows neck and then on his wrist.

"Uh oh." The boy says, "Crap …" He runs back over to his cart and begins to rummage through his things.

"W-what's wrong?" I ask, my voice is full of panic and I feel like my heart is going to burst.

"I should have known this was going to happen." The boy mutters, "Getting shot in the liver is fatal anyway, so I don't know why I'm trying but…" The boy grabs a cylinder shaped leather case and runs back over to me and Shadow, "It's worth a try. Help me get him on his back."

Together we pull Shadow into the middle of the hallway, "Take his jacket off him and anything else that's metal." the boy says.

I work Shadows jacket off and then take his metal identification bracelet of his wrist.

"What are you going to do?" I ask, the panic still rising in my voice.

"His heart isn't beating," the boy says. He pushes up his sleeves to reveal leather bracelets on his arms and then reaches under the neck of his shirt and pulls out several leather necklaces. "So, I'm going to start it again."

Suddenly he grabs my hand and I find his strange maroon eyes staring into mine, "Avril, my name is Adain and I promise you everything is going to be alright."

I don't ask how he knows my name, I just trust him.

Adian pulls out his cylinder case, "Stand back."

I scramble back to the wall, unsure of what he is planning.

He opens the case in his hands, a crackling sound fills the air and a bright light illuminates the walls.

I see Adian's face crinkle with concentration as he puts the palm of his hand on the open top of the case. He takes a deep breath and lifts up his palm.

Several moving lines of blueish white electricity follows his palm, sticking to it like glue.  The zapping of the electricity fills the air as Adian forms the electricity into a ball, takes another deep breath and smashes it.

My eyes grow wide, the electricity is racing around his arms and hands like tiny snakes. Adian cracks his knuckles sending sparks flying on the floor, "Here goes nothing." He yells over the crackling.

He slams his hands down on Shadows chest and Shadows body jerks on the floor. Nothing else happens.  Adian rubs his hands together and shakes his head like he doesn’t believe what he’s doing will work. 

“I must be crazy.” I hear him say. “Nobody is this lucky.”

Once again he slams his hands down over Shadow’s heart.  My brothers body jerks, his eyes fly open and he gasps for air. Relief fills my heart.

"Ha!" Adian exclaims, “I didn’t think that would actually work but it did!” He shaks out his hands which no long have electricity on them. “But he’s not out of the woods yet Avril.”

"How did you …" I begin but Adian cuts me off.

"Help me get him into the cart."

Shadow pulls himself back against the wall as best he can, "Who are you?" He asks painfully, clutching his stomach.

It takes a moment for me to realize he's not just taking to Adian but to me as well.

"Shadow, it's me, it's Avril." I say crawling over to him.

My brother looks at me with feverish eyes, "I don't know you."

The panic rises again, I turn to Adian.

"He's lost a lot of blood and he's dying." Adian says, "He's in shock."

"But he'll get better right?"

Adian smiles, "Of course." He walks over to my brother, "Shadow, you need help, you're dying so I need to get you to the hospital wing.  Will you help me to help you?"

Shadow looks uneasy and I can tell he's still the same person with trust issues but reluctantly he nodes.

"Good." Adian says.

We hoist Shadow up and help him sit in the shopping cart that has one end missing in the front.

"Stay here," Adian warns. "Go back to your room and stay there until I come back."

"Who are you?" I ask.

Adian smiles, "I told you, I'm just an electrician." He playfully salutes me and pushes the cart down the hallway leaving me alone.

I look amongst Adians tools and contraptions and finally spot the cylinder case he'd kept the electricity in.

I nudge it with my shoe before picking it up for fear the getting shocked and when nothing happens I bend down and grab it. The case is aluminum on the inside and leather on the outside. I flip the top up and discover that a mark has been carved in the middle. It's an arrowhead facing up an bellow it arrowhead facing down and in-between them there is a line.  I didn't know what it means but something about the case strikes a chord in my brain. I feel like I'd learned about it at the academy I'd  attended in Fire … something about lightning and dust.

Also something about murder.

Chapter 3

My heart pounds and my mouth turns dry. No, is no longer and option to say … I must speak.

The man pulls up a chair and sits in it backwards, with his arms folded over the back.

"Leave us." He says to the men in the room. When they are all gone he turns to me.

"So, let start with the one thing everyone is talking about. Where is your resistance camp?" He smiles but it is a cold and evil one.

I shake my head, "I do not know."

The smile disappears, "Oh yes you do. I know you do. Perhaps the better question to ask though is, where was it?"

I say nothing.

"Oh, go on!" The man prompts, "tell me the story of how you go here. I am very curious."

I stare at the man, "I do not know."

The man simply gives a small frown and nodes, "I see … well if you won't tell me I could do something to you. Let me see …" the man stands up, "what could I do? Oh! I know!" He runs over to the door and slides to a stop, holding the handle, "I could kill your brother."

He jerks open he door and Shadow is standing in the doorway. His hands are tied behind his back but he looks unhurt. A man behind him kicks Shadow to the ground and he falls with a grunt.

The strange man pulls a gun from his pale coat and points it at Shadow.

"Now, what was that story again?"

I look at Shadow and he stares at me, don't do it, his eyes are telling me.

Sometimes he is a complete idiot, I'm not going to let him die so of course I'm going to tell the man our story.

"It was five years ago," I began. "Our family was traveling from the city called Fire to the boarder of the city called Spark. We were going to visit an army camp on the border."

"Why?" the man asks.

"Because my father is the President of Ignite, visiting army camps is what he does."

The man nods "Continue."

"When we got there everything was normal but that night an army from Stone attacked the camp and burnt it to the ground. They kidnapped me, my brother and my little sister and brought us here." I lean forward as much as I can, "They think that the border patrol was a resistance camp that violates the treaty that was created after The War Undoing but it wasn't. Now they think there is another camp somewhere, that's why we are here and that's why we can't leave."

The man nods again, "Very good, so where is the other resistance camp?"

Confusion crosses my face, "But I just said, there was no resistance camp, there is no resistance camp, it was boarder control."

The man cocks the gun and points it at my brother, "Tell me, where it is."

"You don't understand, there is no resistance camp!" I say.

The man pushes the gun to the side of Shadows head, "What you fail to realize darling, is that your father was visiting a resistance camp and he knew he was. Your father has been plotting against Stone for quite sometime and he was getting ready to move his pawns. Of course, if the men of Stone kidnapped you your father would hold off on his little attack just long enough for them to get the information they needed."

I can hardly breathe. My father was breaking the treaty; everything Jimson said was true. I look at Shadow who is a shocked as I am but soon a different look crosses his face. One I recognize.

"Shadow, no!" I scream.

It's to late, Shadow knocks the guard over who is holding his shoulders and launches himself at the man with the gun. The man’s head hits the side of the table and blood pours down over his eye. I struggle to free my bonds but they are too strong. Shadow is on his feet and starts to run over to me when there is a shout.

"Hold it!" The man’s voice breaks through the chaos. He is now pointing the gun at me.

"On your knees." He spits at Shadow.

Shadow falls to his knees, "Don't you dare." He snarls.

"Oh, I won't," says the man. "If she tells me what I want to know."

"We don't know anything! Why can't you understand that?" I ask.

"I know you know." The man says, coming close to me, his eyes are directly in front of mine "I can tell, somewhere in the deep recesses of your mind, you know."

I see something in his eyes … something different and strange.

"Who are you?" I ask.

"My name is Eblis," says the man, blood trickles over his eye making him look like the devil, "Eblis Blackheart. I am everything you wish you never met."

Everything turns black.

I wake up to the familiar hum of the electric door. My eyes focus on two figures looking down at me; it's Shadow and Willow.

"How long have I been asleep?" I ask.

Shadow helps me sit upright, "About ten minutes. We both got brought back for some reason."

I look at Willow and smile, "Happy Birthday."

Willow gives a huge grin, "I am ten!"

I give her a hug, "Yes, you are."

We both pull Shadow into the hug, "Things are going to change," I say. We release from the hug and I look at my two younger siblings, "But it's going to be okay, I promi-"

Suddenly the door bursts open and Eblis comes sauntering through, "Isn't this touching?" He says. "Which one of you is the birthday person?"

My sweet little sister, not knowing who this man was, raises her hand, "Me! It's my birthday!"

"Just as I thought!" Eblis says, "And how old are you?"

"Willow, don't-" I begin.

"I'm ten!" She announces happily.

Eblis shrugs "Close enough." He turns to the guards behind him, "Take her."

"No!" I scream as the guard comes and grabs Willow under her arms and drags her to the door.

It's not supposed to be like this. She can't go. She's to young.

Shadow jumps up and punches the guard holding Willow. The guard falls to the ground holding a bloody lip but he is replaced a another guard who grabs Willow once again and pushes Shadow in the floor.

"You can't take her!" I yell.

Eblis’s laugh fills the air, "Oh, yes. I can!"

Shadow scrambles to his feet and lunges for Eblis.

"How annoying." I hear Eblis say.

Almost in slow motion, I see Eblis reach into his pale jacket and once again pull out his gun.

A sound echoes loudly through the room, my ears ring and my mind can't wrap around what has just happen. I can see Willow crying and I look down at my shirt to see a spatter of red.

Blood.

I feel no pain . . . it isn't my blood.

Shadow stumbles back into my arms and his weight causes me to fall. I collapse against the wall with Shadow leaning against me. He is still conscious but we are both unable to move. My ears are still ringing and my head is still pounding as I watch my little sister be dragged out of the room. She holds her hands out for help, calling our names with tears running down her face.

"I'm so sorry, baby." I whisper.

I see Eblis's smiling face and before he closes the door he gives me a little salute.

The door slams shut and the electric humming fills the air.

I sit staring at the door, holding Shadow in my arms as if he might be taken away from me too.

Suddenly, my entire body jolts as I remember that something has happened to Shadow. I ease him to the side and crawl out from under his body.

Shadows hand shoots out and grabs my arm, "Avril … go get her." He says.

"We will, Shadow, I promise." I remove this hand from my arm and pat it, "It's going to be fine…" I lift up his shirt and my heart drops to my stomach; all I can see is blood.

"Am I going to die, Avril?" I hear Shadow ask in a soft voice.

A feel tears forming in my eyes, "No, Shadow, you’re going to be fine."

I lie and I am so sick of lying.

I run over to the concrete shelves that are built into the room and grab a bundle of old sheets. I rip them and run back over to Shadow.

"This is going to hurt, okay?" I press down hard on the bullet wound to stop the bleeding.

Shadow clinches his hands and his knuckles turn white, "Avril, stop …"

I shake my head, "I sorry, I know it hurts but I can't stop. I'm so sorry."

I don't know what I'm doing, this has never happened before, I can't lose him.

"Somebody please help me." I whisper through tears.

Behind me the door creaks open.

Chapter 2

When we get back to our room a note has been taped to our door.

"You will regret" it says.

It's not hard to tell whom the note is from as the actual note reads, "Uoo whil raggret".

"Jimson spelling has gotten better from the last note." I say. This brings a rare smile to my brother’s face.

He rips it down and crumples it, "This is the fifth threat this week," Shadow says, "I have yet to see a follow through."

"Don't worry." I pat Shadow on the back, "I don't think they'll ever actually do anything. It's all just talk."

Shadow replies with a shrug and opens the concrete door to our room. I set Willow down in the middle of our sleeping mattress and cover her with blankets.

"Story!" Willow begs.

I shake my head, "Not tonight, sweetie. Shadow and I have to get up early tomorrow,

so, we all need to sleep."

"Where do you have to go?" Willow asks.

I glance at Shadow who is replacing the bloody bandages on his hand. He shoots me a look that I know says, "Not yet".

I turn back to Willow and sigh, "Which story would you like to hear?"

Willow gives one of her killer smiles, "The one about the kingdom!"

Now, the phrase "the one about the kingdom" could be a number of stories but I know the one she means. I take a deep breath but tonight I can't bring myself to tell it. I turn to Shadow, "You have a good story telling voice, Shadow. Why don't you tell Willow the story?"

My sweet little brother sighs, I know how much he hates talking but I need him to tell this story. He tells me it hurts if he talks to much but deep down I know it's because he is ashamed of his voice. Shadow doesn't like when people see him when he is weak so that month when he was sick was complete Hell for him, mentally and physically.

Shadow moved beside Willow and began, "A long time ago there was this kingdom called-"

He looks at me but Willow beats me to the name, "Gold!"

Shadow nodes," Yeah, Gold. So, anyway, this kingdom called Gold had two princesses and one prince who were very wise, just like the king and queen. But one day the two princesses and prince got kidnapped by a rival kingdom called, um, Coal. They were held prisoners of Coal for a very log time and soon Gold gave up and pronounced them dead." Shadow's voice suddenly becomes distant, "But the two princesses and price stayed strong and tried to think of a way to escape because they knew that Coal would try to attack Gold and kill everyone they knew and loved." Shadow stops.

"Did they escape?" Willow asks even though she has heard the story at least a dozen times.

Shadow looks up, almost surprised, "Oh, yeah, of course they did. They got back home and saved their kingdom."

Willow smiles "They sure were brave, weren't they?"

Shadow gives a hint of a smile and nods, "Yes, they certainly were."

I bring my knees up to my chest and watch Shadow give Willow a good night hug. My brother never shows compassion unless he's around her.

Soon Willow falls asleep and Shadow comes to sit next to me. The clock above the door shifts to a different position and loudly the door automatically locks. We are the only room that has a curfew. Shadow and I sit in silence for a while; the low buzz of the electricity that encompasses the door fills the air.

"It's Willows birthday tomorrow." I say.

Shadow nodes.

"She'll be ten years old."

"Two more years." Shadow says softly.

Unfortunately he is right; two more years and they would start on Willow. Two more years and they would take her every day to be hit and slapped and yelled at. It hurts my heart to think about. I lean my head down on Shadows shoulder; even though he is younger than me he is still taller.

"We have to get out of here, Shadow." I say. Just like I do every night.

And, just like every night, Shadow says, "We will."

Together we crawl under the covers on either side of Willow on the mattress.

The hands on the clock on the wall shift once again and the already dim lights turn off.

"Avril," Shadows voice says through the darkness, "Don't make me tell that story again."

He sounds so much like a little brother that it makes me want to cry.

"I won't." I say.

He hates the story as much as I do. To Willow the story is just a story but to Shadow and I … well we know who's story it really is. It is ours. Two princesses and a prince lost in another kingdom, thought dead by all. Of course, the only difference is … we don't make it back.

I am awoken by the lights in the room flickering on. Willow is still asleep; she is used to sleeping with the lights on. Shadow is over by the door, grimacing as he slowly unwraps his hands. If the men who keep us captive knew that Shadow is trying to stop the pain, they'd just hurt him even worse. I roll off the mattress, hoping not to wake Willow, and sit next to Shadow.

"Are you alright?" I ask.

Shadow throws his bandages on the ground and stares at his hands. He nodes and together we sit in silence listing to the humming of the lights, the buzzing of the door and the beating of our hearts. Suddenly, the electrical field surrounding the door stops buzzing and a hand pounds on the outside. Shadow tenses; he knows it is time. The men burst inside the room and grab Shadow and me by the arm and drag us out into the dank hallway. The man holding Shadow drags him to the left and I am dragged to the right. We give one final look to each other, and then a black bag is placed over my head.

 The bag comes off when I am in the interrogation room. It is dark and I am in a chair with my hand and feet tied. There is strange technology all around and beeping that I recognize to be Morse code. There are at least five other men with dark skin in the room working the machines; their backs are to me. One of them turns around; the same one that yells at me every day. He is tall and big, his face is like a rock and he wears the standard Stone military uniform.

He babbled to me in his language and once again I simply say, no.

This goes on for five minutes before he starts to slap me. I scream, no and even yell at him in English but he keeps on.

"Well, this just isn't working is it?" A voice says behind the man, who stops slapping me.

My heart starts to pound. He is speaking English.

The big man moves aside to reveal a younger man, perhaps in his early twenties. He wears strange clothes I have never seen before. His hands are in the pockets of his long pale trench coat. He wears black pen stripped pants and a black silver lined waistcoat with a white necktie.  His belt is covered with unidentifiable gadgets and his wrists and neck are covered with strange jewelry.  Atop his head sits a small fedora with a pair of workmen’s goggles around the band.  He looks like a well-dressed engineer.

"A little bird told me, well, two little birds actually, told me that you don't speak the language of Stone." The young man continued, "So, I'm here to make absolutely certain that we get every little ounce of information about that resistance camp we can." He walks up to me and smiles wickedly, "Let's get started shall we?"

Chapter 1

I lie. I lie as I have been lying most my life. As to the circumstances that lead to my need to lie, lets just say they are better than most for doing so. I sit in my metal chair that, over the years, has become all too familiar. I listen to grown men screaming in my face and wonder what will happen when they realize I don’t understand them. They yell, they point, they slap. I know what they want to know and I also know that if I can somehow tell them, they’ll just kill me.  So to avoid that grim fate, I lie. I shake my head and say the word that is the same in most languages,

“No.”

I look up at the clock, that I can’t read but have come to learn the positions of the hands. Big hand at the bottom, small hand at the top.

It’s almost done. I think

Soon the screaming and the pointing stop. A man with black skin comes and unlocks my chains that bind me to my metal chair. I am hoisted up and marched out of the room.

The hallway is dark and I am reminded, as I am everyday that I am lost.

The man with black skin opens the door to my room and I am thrown in.

He gibbers something I don’t understand but I can pick the words that I think mean “nine” and “free”.

I nod knowing full well what he meant.

They would come for me again at nine and if I tell them what they want to know, they will set me free.

I sigh as he slams the door shut, they will never set me free.

I crawl over to the small bed my nine year old sister sleeps in. She is too young to be interrogated and far too young to be mixed up in the mess of unfamiliar speech. I brush her tangled brown hair out of her eyes and watch her sleep. Suddenly, I am jealous of her peacefulness and pray for my own but soon realize that it is pointless, as I know it will never come.

Soon the door opens again and a new figure is thrown in our room. My brother, who is sixteen, a year younger then I, pulls himself up onto his knees. I can tell by his face that today was a torture day for him. The strange men, who keep us captive, have decided that it is only right to torture male captives and limit themselves to only slapping the female. 

“Are you alright?” I ask.

My brother, who doesn’t talk unless he needs to, nods.

I scan his body trying to find the spot of torture, “What did they do to you?”

He holds out his hands, they are bleeding.

I breathe in sharply and gently take his hands in mine. I’d seen the injury before. The men take the hands of the victim and slice them with knife.

I grab one of our sheets that we have designated to medical needs and quickly tear two strips of equal size and start rapping them around his hands.

“Does this hurt?” I ask him.

My brother shakes his head, but there is pain in his eyes.

“Did you tell them anything?” I ask.

He shoots me a look and I know he is telling me “Of course not”.

I give a smile. They will never break my brother.

I hear my little sister stir from her peaceful sleep. She sits up in her bed, rubbing her tired eyes.

“Avril,” she calls me, “I’m hungry.”

I craw over to her, “Dinner is in a few minutes, sweetheart.”

All three of us wait in silence, waiting to hear the dinner bell. When it finally comes the doors to our room is opened and we walk out and down the dark hall to the dinner room.

The dinning hall is a large room, bigger than any of the other ones. It’s filled with five thousand tables and ten times as any chairs. The ceiling climbs high into the air and the walls are made of solid concrete. On any given day the hall is full, but ever since the sickness swept through, whipping out half the population, and almost my own brother, not all the chairs are full. The women over fifteen are swept into one line, the men over fifteen are filed into another. I let go of my sisters hand as she walks over to the line for children ages fourteen and under. We grab trays and plates and fill them up the usual Friday dinner: noodles, bread and hard carrots. I look at my meager plate and sigh, just like a do every day.

I sit down at a table with my brother and sister and the three of us eat in silence. The dining hall is loud with noise and I begin to wonder how anyone could possible live this way their whole life. More importantly, how will I?

Through my peripheral vision I see my younger sister eating her carrots happily. She has never known life outside of this prison; in fact, she doesn’t even know that we are in a prison. This place, this horrid dark place, is her home. But, it’s not where we belong.  We belong in another city, but in this place it seems like another world.

I am shaken from my daydream by a hard slap on my back. Sekra, a girl my age, seats herself next to me, along with Jimson, a boy a year or two older than me.

    “Avril!” she says in my language “How are you today? I hope you’re all right! Jimson and I went outside today, did you guys? Oh, wait, that’s right I’m sorry, you’re not privileged to go outside, because you three are prisoners here.”

    “That’s right,” Jimson chimes in, his English almost as bad as Sekra’s, “You’re not even citizens of Stone. I still can’t believe they let you eat with us.”

I forget that what is prison to me, is home to others.

“You know,” Sekra is saying, “you can become a citizen of Stone. All you have to do is tell our leaders where your little resistance camp is and –“

Suddenly she is cut of as my brother’s fists bang on the table.  He remains seated; his dark hair hides his face.

“Betrayal.” He says his voice is dangerously low. There is also a slight rasp to his voice due to the sickness he caught two years ago. He coughed so much his throat was damaged forever. “You suggest that we forsake our city just to become a citizen of another city that is the most forsaken of all?”

Jimson sands up, causing Shadows water to spill on the wooden surface of the table.

“You dare mock the city of Stone?” he says.

To my surprise Shadow gives a small laugh, “Your voice has a hint of a threat,” Shadow stands; he is a head taller than the Stone boy, “Jimson, are you threatening me?”

Jimson laughs, “Even if I was, would you fight me? I thought the citizens of the city of Fire loved peace.” Jimson steps an inch closer to Shadows face, “Or was that a lie just like the peace treaty?”

Shadow’s face twists in anger. He pulls his fist back but I catch it before it goes any further. Shadow turns round and gives me a glare.

“Don’t,” I say, “You know you’ll just hurt your hand even more.”

Shadow understands that not only will his fist hurt but we could also get in a lot of trouble.

Shadow quickly grabs his knife off his plate and puts a shallow but long cut in Jimson’s hand. 

Jimson lets out a small cry and backs away.

“That’s for this.” Shadow says unwrapping his hand and showing his cuts. He steps towards Jimson, “I will never forsake my city. And you will do well to remember that one day Fire will soon swallow up all your mighty talk about Stone.”

Shadow throws his knife on the table and walks towards the door. I pick up Willow and begin to walk after them when Jimson stops me.

“That brother of yours will soon get you into trouble. I suggest you keep a leash on that dog, for you and your sisters sake.”

I push him out of the way, “My brother made no mistake in trying to hurt you, he holds the sprit of our city inside of him.  Pure fire.  And if you think he’ll give in to a bunch of useless and weak methods of dragging out information then you are dead wrong.”

I walk past Jimson in a heat of fury.

“Avril,” Willow whispers in my ear, “Why are you angry?”

“Because,” I answer trying to keep the rage out of my voice, “I am tired of being a prisoner.”

Prologue

THE FOLLOWING IS RECORDED BROADCAST FROM THE FTS RADIO STATION.

--If you are listening to this I thank you for your support and courage.  You have either been listening to this station for a long time or you have just stumbled across an old radio and found this broadcast.  Don’t try to turn the channel because this is the only one. 

For those of you who do not know what this world used to be listen very carefully.  The earth you are standing on used to be called the Americas; then The Storm hit.  The Storm is exactly what it sounds like, a giant weather storm that ripped this land apart and spurred the already divided continents to go to war with each other.  We call this war, The War Undoing.  Fifteen years after the was started a peace treaty was signed which divided the land into five large cities.  The cities were called Stone, Spark, Fire and Ash.  The fifth city has now been destroyed and its name will not be included in this broadcast.  The new country as a whole was called Ignite and that is where you live now.

Years have passed and a new threat is growing, a large . . .  [The words after the word “large” could not be heard on the recording]

         . . . My name is Adian and this is the second to last time you will hear my voice; I am the leader of this resistance.

END OF BROADCAST

I thought I should include that in the beginning of the coming story you are about to read.  I am the leader of the resistance but in the city called Stone is where it all really began.  I am not the narrator of this story and I never will be.

Those who are brave enough to break the rules and pay the price that follows will narrate this entire story and the ones that will follow.

-Adian