I've been trying to open my eyes for what feels like hours. I have no idea how long it's been, I've tried to call for Jaxon, but every time it's just a groan. They must have given me something after I passed out. I try to open my eyes again, but it's the same blurry image, I can't even open them long enough to look around. But I can see that it's night now.
I let myself fall to sleep, maybe it'll be better after I wake up.
I wake up to Cora's voice. And I was right, it is better, now I'm fully alert and can see everything. I see Cora standing in front of me, I notice I'm in a new room, the one that resembles a dining room. There's a window with a wonderful view of the sunset, which I'd usually prize, but I can't enjoy it tied up, wandering if my friend's alive.
I'm sitting on what looks like a cot, but it's made of leaves and sticks, I have a rope tied from the leg of the cot and it has about two feet before it reaches my wrists which are tied together. "Good morning sleepyhead," Cora says. With a slight smile.
"Where's Jaxon," I say in a sharp, dangerous voice.
"Oh come on, don't you wanna have a nice conversation without him for once?" She smiled, "With just us girls,"
"No, I don't,"
"Well in that case you can see him," she says, but there's something, there's a catch, no way would she give me exactly what I want.
"Just answer some questions for me,"
I scoff, of course I think. "What do you want?"
"Why can't I get into my son's mind?" her voice is a tone I've never heard from her before, it's dangerous, and full of anger, rage, it warns me not to mess up. I flinch. I'd never heard her so angry. But I notice something, for the first time, I notice a slight bruise on her cheek. Where I slapped her in my dream. I could've killed her. And next time I will.
"Look, I don't know," I say. "Liar!"
"Do you not want to see my son?"
"Look, even if I did, I wouldn't tell you, because then, it'd be the last time I saw him," I say, "I'll let you go, and he'll be happy, even if he's not really here, he'll be in a happy place in his mind," she says. "Probably with you," she mutters under her breath.
"It won't be real!"
"Fine, if you won't break, I'll just have to take control of you, and kill your family, and that boy, what was his name? Oh yes!" She walks to me, and pulls my rope, I groan as it rubs against my already sore wrists but I still try to pull away.
She whispers into my ear, "Graham,"
She lets go and I pull back into the corner, getting as far away from that monster as possible. She smiles at my fear and says "Think about it," before disappearing outside, the door creaks as it closes behind her.
I pull my knees close to me and rest my head on them but I really don't know I think, and now his life is on the line because of me again. What do I do? Would I tell her if I knew? Will she even be able to get in without me letting her? I begin to cry quietly, completely hopeless.
At some point I fell asleep, I awoke from Cora yelling, at Jaxon, "Just tell me and this'll all be over!" Then I hear Jaxon yell. She's hurting him. I think her own son! I feel anger inside of me, like a flame ready to burst.
I look for something to cut my ropes. To save Jaxon. I see my weapons on the table. I pull hard to try to reach them, but my rope burns only get worse. I sit back down, and when doing so, I feel something poke me in the leg inside my boot.
I reach into my boot, trying to pull out whatever's biting be, but instead of a bug, I feel something cold and metal. My knife I think she didn't check my shoes!
I see some blood trickle down my leg. I go to pull the knife but then realize, I'd only get myself caught if I try to escape now. I'll have to wait. I hear Jaxon scream again and again, almost bursting through the door each time. But I can't. We'll both get sent right back here.
My options are to stop her hurting him now she'll catch us we won't escape and we'll be right back at this moment again or I wait and leave for good later. I try to tell myself it'll be better to wait and every time, each and every time sounding less and less convincing.
◈◈◈
Why did they have the Arabic Plants? When we first got here, people used them to get "high," but they slowly kill you. But that was before we established a government, before we had rules now, you'll get put to death for even knowing about them, let alone helping working with them.
Kayden noticed me staring, "It's the Arabic plant, but it looks like you may know," he says and his eyes seem to laugh at me. Jordan however, seemed to do the opposite, he sat there, arms crossed, and his eyes seemed to be trying to put holes in me.
"What'll be my job?" I ask quietly, not able to speak louder because the fear seemed to clog my throat and also not at all prepared for the answer. "Oh! You- your gonna help transport them,"
I was shocked, there was no way I'd live through one year! Let alone five! Kayden seemed to Notice my horror, and it was as if he could see into my mind, "Look kid, you've got a lot of life to live, and it shouldn't be cut short, trust me if you could get that book, you can do this, it's harder if ya think about it," He said.
"There's not enough security to cover every street only a few officers they just want you to think they're everywhere."
"In fact, we got your first order right here!" Kayden handed me a map and a bag which smelled strongly of something burning, but I think that's just the plant.
I opened the map. There were numbers on every house I looked at the paper bag in my hand. The bag had a large 11 written on it, then I saw a 11 on the map.
"We don't sell to all of them of course, they're just there, in case," Kayen said. Jordan was still in a corner, arms crossed, watching us. "Hey, if your done now, you should start, we don't have all night, and I expect you to do at least three orders," Jordan said. I looked at Kayden "Well, he is technical your boss now,"
I began on my very first trip. I peek out of the house before slipping into the shadows of the homes behind me to find number eleven.