9 - Last Chance

I sat in Master Romia’s office waiting for Oriole to return, and for every second I sat in her surprisingly comfortable guest chair, there were billions of barely unspoken questions that threatened to burst out my mouth and into the world. Bye, bye, little secrets!

I made an odd, agitated sound and crossed my arms in front of me. If Oriole doesn’t return in the next minute, I think I’m going to die.

Just then, I heard the door opening, and I jumped out of my chair so fast that it fell to the floor with a crash. I cringed, feeling embarrassed that I had let my impatience get the best of me, but didn’t avert my gaze from the door. It opened slowly—which was surprising considering I could be certain whoever was behind the door had heard that obscenely loud crash—to reveal Master Romia, alone, with no bandage of any kind. She gave the room a befuddled look, where her gaze stuck on the chair, then looked at me, her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth slightly agape like she was genuinely confused as to what could make such a noise in a practically empty office.

“Was... was that you?” She closed the door behind her and stood straighter and more regally.

I gulped and nodded, looking back down at the chair.

“Then please pick up my chair from the floor.” She said the words with restraint, like she was holding something back.

Anger. It struck me with a cold shiver, and I waited for her to take a seat before I sat down.

Master Romia put both her hands on the desk in front of her, took a deep breath, then sighed in defeat. “You did it.You actually, really did it.”

I folded my hands on my lap and waited contently to get to the subject.

“It’s a little funny because I never thought you’d capable of victory, even if it was just chance,” I opened my mouth to speak, a little offended, but then shut it. She would stop soon enough. “I thought for sure you’d be the one lying on the ground unconscious.”

I bit my tongue, my foot beginning a fast tap on the floor.

“Anyway, what is it you needed answers to?”

I sat up straighter, cleared my throat, and spoke as confident as I could, the irritation of Master Romia’s indirect and probably accidental insults only acting as fuel to my confident façade. “I would like to know what you’ve been studying that you haven’t been telling me, and what the people running this place are doing.”

This made her face darken and she took her hands off the table. “A deal is a deal, then, but under one condition: these words will never leave this room, you hear?”

I nodded once, the unanswered questions buzzing around my head like insects.

“Good. The truth is, we don’t actually know what they’re doing. That’s what we’ve been trying to find out,” she saw my look and a grim smile met her lips. “Yeah, I guess you don’t know who we are. By ‘we’, I mean me, the men from that dugout in the east quarter, and Oriole. As much as I tried to stop that girl, she never backed off, so now she’s stuck in this murder case.”

My eyes widened and she chuckled.

“That’s what some of us think they’re doing, anyway. There are still a lot of loopholes in our conspiracies.”

“And what are you going to do now?” I asked incredulously, expecting more of an explanation. “They’ve been taking people daily, and soon we won’t have anyone left.”

“That’s the problem. We can’t actually get near enough to find anything out, so we’re practically sitting ducks, but sooner or later we’re going to have to put it all on the line or we’ll all go under. It’s like you said, kid, whatever they’re doing that somehow involves us, they hit it good—”

“Wait, wait, so did you ever plan to tell me this?”

She raised her eyebrows and tapped her finger on the table absently. “I don’t believe I would have, considering I never thought you’d win and the fact that I was originally unwilling to let you join my group of investigators and underground rebels. The facts should tell you as much.”

I sat back in the chair and started tapping my foot instinctively, hoping she’d just continue without me telling her to, since I had taken the subject.

She cleared her throat, taking the hint, and continued. “As I was saying, there is one thing we are confident about, and it’s that the higher-ups here are definitely up to no good.”

I stopped tapping my foot and stared at Master Romia, who then pursed her lips and returned my probing stare. She definitely had something she wasn’t telling me.

“Master Romia,” I though about what I would say, putting a colossal amount of effort into trying to word it so she wouldn’t turn me down. “If... if you had to take your best guess at what those people are doing, what would it be?”

“Wow. Didn’t expect that.” She stood, pushing her chair back, and walked around the desk so she stood directly to my right. “Itoma, why do you want to know so much about my group and what we’re looking into?”

I stared up at her, wide-eyed, and I lost my train of thought completely. “What?”

She sighed and turned around, putting her hand to her forehead. “Nevermind, just...” she turned back around and met my stare with the eyes of an eagle. “Just don’t pry into things that don’t concern you.”

I stared at the sand as I walked back toward the sleeping cabin. It was already dusk and Torin would be wondering where I was, though I chuckled, remembering how he was almost in tears the last time I came back late, then I sighed.

She didn’t spill.

How was I going to convince Master Romia to talk? I didn’t have very much time until eventually, inevitably, I would be the one summoned, so I had to make a plan, or there wouldn’t be anyone left to be summoned. Then what would those freaks do? Obviously, I thought, they would have to shut this place down. But then what?

I shook my head as I came up on the cabin. Torin came to greet me and asked where I was. I told him I was with Master Romia, and nothing more was said. I had told him about Master Romia’s lessons, since it wouldn’t do me any good to keep them from him and about how she was such a good fighter, but other than that, he knew nothing. I knew it was unfair that I never told him about my family or any of the twisted plot that was going down, what with how much he trusted in me, but I also knew that it was better he just didn’t know. He didn’t need to know my sob-story—he would get all soft about it, and telling him about the dugout and Oriole’s involvement with the Ridge’s plot would just make him worry even more, and that poor guy didn’t need any more worry. I felt bad about all of the summonings, but Torin knew all of those people. He treated everyone at the Ridge like family. I couldn’t imagine loosing my family like that. I couldn’t imagine loosing my family at all. Not ever again.

“Itoma, are you doing okay?” Harris, one of the people I had made a pact with, said worriedly. “You look pale.”

“Doesn’t he always look pale?” Someone from the back of the room yelled. A few people snickered and I sighed.

“I’m fine, and just so you know, Person-In-The-Far-Corner-Bunk, from where I come from, my skin is actually fairly tanned.” I looked down at my arm to make sure. It was true. I wasn’t pale, and to be specific, my skin had darkened dramatically since I had arrived at the Ridge, though it wasn’t surprising that a lot of people here were darker than me. They had probably come from sunnier places than the far, heavily-forested north.

I walked past the few people who were out of bed to my own bunk, where Torin had already situated himself. I climbed the metal bars up to the top bed and plopped down, my thoughts once again wandering to the courtyard and to Master Romia’s office, and I rolled over, my face drowning in the scratchy pillow, and groaned. How would I ever make it to sleep if I couldn’t stop thinking about actually winning for once and still coming out beaten? She had beaten me with mere words. I didn’t get more than a single, almost useless answer out of her, and then she somehow turned things over and started asking me questions.

With these discomforting thoughts swirling through my head, I drifted off, exhausted after a long day, only to be plagued by nightmares filled with fires and explosions, of dark-faced smiles and halfhearted words, and then, finally, to hard, grueling work in the sun, where many perished and were set to war against each other. After I had died in the dream, I awoke and went to shower, since it was nearly morning. My sleep was shallow, which was to be expected of a nightmarish darkness, and it felt like no time at all until other people started filing in. I took my leave and started for the breakfast building when I saw a guy there who looked like he was praying, and suddenly I remembered where I was going to. It was another morning where someone would disappear. Suddenly, prayer didn’t sound so out of the ordinary.

I walked in and was met with the disturbed silence that came along with the summonings. I sat down and waited. I didn’t think I would be able to eat even if I wanted to, and so I laid my head on my arms, which were folded on the table, and sighed. For how long would this have to go on?

After a while, people started getting food, and Torin came and sat next to me. Nothing was said between us. Nothing needed to be said, for everything on both of our minds was already explained, and in what seemed like no time at all, the baritone man was at the front of the room and the tables had gone silent, just like yesterday and the weeks before that. I looked at my lap and thought of Master Romia to pass the time while the man brought up his paper that signaled someone’s summoning.

Answers. I needed answers, and how was I going to get those out of Master Romia? Would I have to beat her again for another explanation? I had done it once, but that was just dumb luck. How could I ever hope to do it again?

I paused, feeling an odd presence, and looked at the people sitting around me for some sort of explanation, and my eyes widened. They had that look. The gaze full of pity and guilt. It was that stare that meant...

“Itoma, Avi!” the baritone death note rung through the room for apparently the second time. “You have hereby been summoned to the southern courtyard. If you do not come by the fifth bell, we will proceed with collection.”

I stared at the table in front of me in disbelief, hoping that if I waited long enough, everyone would just disappear and I’d wake up in my room in my home back up north, until Torin shook my shoulders. “Avi, talk to me,”

I looked up at him and became really mad for some reason. I knew he was just being considerate, but I didn’t particularly care in that moment, so I shoved his arm away and stood up, and my hands folded into fists without any effort. I made for the open doors, but someone was in the aisle with their tray. I strutted forward and shoved him to the side and I kept going as I heard his tray crash behind me. Some part of me felt like turning around and apologizing to the whole room for my rude behavior, but another part—a bigger part—felt a twisted satisfaction. They got to stay here while I’m taken away.

It’s only right for someone to even things out.

+++

I have less than a bell. Less than one bell until the abyss that comes after that claims me. Less than one bell until I really won’t know what will happen. One bell until it all comes to an end, either through release from Naihabi Ridge or death.

I sat, holding my legs up to my chest, leaning on the gate to Master Romia’s courtyard, and buried my head in my knees. I had completely succumbed to the idea of death at the gong of the bells until I looked up and found the temper tantrum’s maidservant standing in front of me with a surprised expression.

She stepped back and bowed politely. “I’m very sorry to have interrupted you, sir. Please forgive me, I was in the middle of an errand for my master.”

I stared up at her, still surprised to have found anyone here at this time. “Er, yeah, I guess...”

How awkward...

“If you would excuse me, sir, I need to continue my errand.” She turned to go, but for some reason I wanted her company, so I reached forward and tugged on her sleeve. She nearly jumped out of her stockings, then turned around and bowed again deeply. “I deeply apologize for my in—”

“Don’t leave me.”

The words went through my mind and straight out my mouth before I registered how creepy that must sound. I let go of her sleeve immediately and proceeded to burrow my face into my knees for mental support.

This is so embarrassing.

She didn’t say anything for a long while. She just stood, from the sound of it, and stared. I could feel her stare on me, and heat rose to my face quickly, making me want to dig my head deeper into my knees and just, I don’t know, turn into a little ball and roll away, but since that wasn’t going to happen, I knew, sooner or later, that I would have to unbury my head from my pantlegs.

“Very well,” I looked up at her as she took hold of her skirts and sat down in the sand in front of me. She folded her hands on her lap and smiled warmly. “But only for a while. My master will only wait for so long.”

An image of the tantrum, purple-faced and yelling, found itself in my mind’s eye, and I suddenly felt bad for keeping her.

Her, I thought, suddenly much more awkward than before. What was her name again?

“Would you like me to talk about anything, sir?”

I looked at her, biting my lip and trying from the very depth and corners of my mind to remember her name. “Your, uh... your name is... Tara...?”

She smiled again and chuckled. “My name is Thirré, sir. It was very kind of you to try to remember me.”

“Of course...” I tried to remember how I was even sentenced to the tantrum’s quarters in the first place, but that came much easier and soon I was cringing from the sheer audacity of my old plans.

“Are you alright, sir?” Thirré asked, mildly worried, but when I looked up at her, she was staring at something behind me in Master Romia’s courtyard. That was odd... I had already had my last session with her...

I turned around to see what she was looking at, and I saw quite quickly that Oriole was standing closely over my shoulder. I yelped, scrambling backwards a few feet in surprise, and she yelped too, stepping back at my reaction, and Thirré, who was behind me, started giggling at our reactions.

Oriole caught her breath and sighed, suddenly on her more usual, rocky side of less emotion than more. “I would like to know why you’re in the southern quarter so late in the day, Itoma.”

But unlike her, I had not yet recovered from my shock, and so I just sat and gaped, then her cheeks became red and she lowered her head so her long, black hair covered her face. I eventually faded back to my senses enough to stop staring. “I, uh, was...”

What was I doing? I was mourning. Pitying myself. That’s what I was doing.

I got to my feet, turned around, and walked away. Thirré rushed after me, but I started walking faster until I was running away. I didn’t know where I was going, just that my legs were longer than theirs. I didn’t even know why I was running until I showed up at precisely the wrong building at precisely the wrong time.

The summoning courtyard.

The sand blew in my eyes in hot gusts, but I couldn’t stop staring at the building. I didn’t even notice when Oriole caught up and started shaking my shoulders.

“Itoma!”

The building was made of the same wood as the rest of the Ridge, but it had a certain aura about it that sent chills down the spines of anyone who dared enter its perimeters. It was simply terrifying.

“Itoma!”

My eyes followed the steps of the porchway to a huge dent in one of the support poles. It must have been damaged by someone struggling. I wasn’t surprised. It had but one window on each side of the single, wooden door, and—

A clapping noise met me with a stinging on my cheek. I started, finally looking down at Oriole, who had her hand up. “Itoma, get a hold of yourself!”

She had slapped me. It wasn’t meant to hurt because I barely felt it, but it got my attention.

“What’s wrong with you?” She glared up at me, her eyebrows furrowed and her chest heaving as she panted from chasing me. “Why did you run away all of a sudden?”

I didn’t reply. I didn’t know the answer, so how could I reply? The answer came to me and I stepped back as Oriole’s hand, which was still on my shoulder, fell to her hip.

“This is where I’m supposed to be now.” I sidestepped and began walking past her.

“What do you mean?” She said, then she took in a sharp breath of realization.

“This is where I’m supposed to be.” As I said it, the bells started to chime. It was blissful, in a way. I didn’t know how, but saying those words and hearing the sounds all fit together in some twisted clockwork that actually made me feel calm. Distantly, I heard the running footsteps of Thirré as she caught up, but they didn’t stop me from moving toward the wooden steps. Not until I heard her voice did I pause.

“You don’t belong there!” She yelled in a high-pitched voice across the courtyard. “Where you belong is gone,”

My eyes widened, but I didn’t turn around.

“Avi Itoma, you don’t belong anywhere. This isn’t your home! Your home was destroyed along with everyone else’s,” I heard her voice crack, but she continued. “You think you’re special? Like you’re the only one who lost what meant the most to you?” She took in a shaky breath and shouted, “Well you’re not! I lost everything! Minaka lost everything, your friend—the tall guy—he lost it all too! You think you’re alone where you’re going? You’re not, so stop pitying yourself like a spoiled brat!”

I swiveled on my heels and saw her as she fell to her knees, her breaths heavy, desperation entangled in her light green eyes. “But where you’re going... you’re never going to leave... I know.” Tears streaked her cheek. “They’ll never let you go.”

I stared at her, my eyes wide, and my whole body went numb.

“What?” Oriole breathed.

But I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t stop the men who came out from behind me and dragged me inside that wooden door and into the darkness.