I stand next to Jordan's bed. The general had a real doctor deal with his wounds and now he can finally rest. He looks completely harmless while sleeping. Like he could never even think about hurting anyone. If I didn't know him I might not have even believed he could.
I hear the tent flap move and a hand on my shoulder. "Oberon, we need to talk." I already know what he wants to talk about. Graham wants to know about Jaxon and why I said Jordan isn't gonna live. "Not now. I need to go through my dad's things. I need to decide what's going to the people and what I'm keeping." I stand like it'll erase my worries and I'll feel better than when sitting- I don't.
"R-right I'll help. The boys can even-"
I finally look up at him. "No." I say sharply. I sigh and release some tension in my shoulders. "I'm sorry. I just can't face him. I'm going to be the reason Jordan dies and you a-and… I just can't face them." I look back down at my dark, unsymmetrical shoes.
"It's not your fault, you know. She's crazy, sad, angry, and desperate for revenge. She can't admit to herself it's all her fault so she blames it on you and she wants you to blame it on yourself too. Try not to give in."
Maybe I wouldn't feel so horrible if I was going to die too but I'm not. I'm going to live and they're not. Why do I feel so horrible that I'm going to live? It's not exactly my choice.
"Okay. let's just go to his house. He doesn't have much anyways. Just things from the market and such."
We walk to my dad's house, which isn't too far. The place Jordan's staying is one of the many houses the general built although it has an extra room for extra beds. The road is full of people comeing and going all different ways. We don't say a word the whole walk there which almost makes the rest of the world seem quiet.
When we get there, Graham opens the creaky door for me and and then follows behind when I enter. Graham lets the door close on it's own and it creaks the whole way until it finally shuts with a thud. The place looks the same as when I left it. I feel a sense of dread and guilt for his death. I guess Cora's plan at revenge is working after all. I cant let it show though. She can't see that she's torturing me.
"He didn't have much, did he?" Graham says, looking around the empty room and rubbing his hands along a dusty window seal.
I erase the sad look on my face and walk towards the ladder. I stand next to it and look at Graham. "We can take a couple bowls, plates, maybe a couple blankets and pillows, if he has any. This is the only room I've ever been in."
"Okay. I'll grab some things." Graham says, turning towards the cabinets and opening a couple revealing short stacks of clay bowls, plates, and cups. "I'll check upstairs for any crates or something to help carry them." I say. "If there aren't any, I'm sure the general will be happy to lend us a couple.
"I'm not sure 'happy' is the right word."
Graham looks back at me and chuckles. "No. Probably not."
I turn and head up the creaky ladder up to the attic. All these homes are laid out the same. There's one room downstairs and in the attic, there's a larger room for you to sleep in, and a much smaller room for storage- like a closet but not quite as small. The homes are made completely of wood too. If I set a fire, it may not just burn this home, but probably the other close houses too. It really won't be hard for Cora to put a huge dent in this place.
In my dad's room, there's a more expensive, larger, and much more comfortable, cot with a balled-up blanket and a pillow towards the top. Other than that, he has a couple crates of clothes- maybe he doesn't use his closet? Or perhaps he has more than we thought.
I walk toward the crates and crouch down. I carefully put his folded clothes from one crate to the other. I don't have many clothes so I grab a large plain brown shirt with sleeves to about my elbows, a red long-sleeved shirt, and some long, comfortable, pants.
I grab a thin pillow on the bed for us but someone else can have the blanket. Whoever gets it probably need it more; we can get nearly anything form only asking. Before I put my new things in the crate of things I'd like to keep, I notice a key sitting at the bottom. I examine small, polished, wooden, key. I look around for where it can go to. I notice for the first time a lock on the closet. I put the key on the bed and quickly shove my items in the crate.
I grab the key and quickly head to closet. I slowly put the key into the hole. I'm a little surprised that the key even fits the lock but, for some reason, when it turns and the door opens, I'm even more surprised. I hope there's something useful in here like weapons or other supplies. It feel almost like the treasure hunts I did at school as a kid but I'm afraid the end of this treasure hunt won't be so pleasant.
The closet smells familiar but I can make out what the smell is. It's an earthy, almost sweet, smell. There's a candle on the wall. I touch the tip and it lights up most of the small room. I see familiar outlines and, before my eyes even fully adjust, I know what the smell was. Arabic Plants.
On the ceiling, I notice there's a removeable piece, I assume so they can get some sun. There's little bits of spilled dirt on the floor and the bright green, healthy plants are too large for the small closet and overlap each other.
I run down the ladder to tell Graham about what I found only to see him arguing with one of the retired soldiers. He's slim, tall and has dark, long, greasy, brown hair. I fake a smile. "I'm sorry, I'm not sure you're supposed to be here right now. If you're looking for Abram, he's not here."
"Right, the man that lived here- was he your relative?"
"Yeah. my father." I say. "Ah… he never mentioned having kids. The resemblance is difficult not to notice though."
I look at Graham to see if he seems to have any idea why this man is here but he seems just as confused as me.
"I made a deal with the general. I get to do as I wish with his things. I'm very sorry for your loss but I need to speak to my friend."
"Yes. I'm sorry for your loss too." He says, but instead of going out the open door, he slips further into the home and closes the creaky door.
"See… your father and I were… business partners. I'm not sure you'd want what we were selling anyways. Let me take it off your hands for you."
"No. I don't need you dealing with it. I'm fine, thank you." I say in a harsh tone. "Ahhh, did you already find the plants then? You seem to have a good idea of what I want already." He says, his smile widening, sending chills down my spine.
"Yes. I found the Arabic plants. I can handle them on my own, thank you." I try to make it clear I want him to leave and that the discussion is over but he doesn't leave.
Graham's eyes finally switch from confusion, to frustration. "They sold them?" He looks at me. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"Because I didn't know before. Besides… you don't need to know everything about me, especially when you're keeping much darker secrets of your own." I say. "What are you talking about⁈" He suddenly gets offensive. I try to keep my tone calm. "We'll talk later."
"Yeah, you keep saying that." He says, quietly. "I can tell there's… tension… Let me just help you deal with these and you'll have one less problem on your hands." He says.
"No. my life, and many other's were destroyed because of these stupid things. I'm burning them."
I begin to turn away but his wide eyes and desperate look stops me. "No! Don't do that! They're rare here! Very rare! I'll even pay you."
"We dont need money. Why should we even give them to you?" Graham asks. The man looks at me. "Let's face it. We aren't surviving out here. Those huge trees come quite close quite often, with your… connections with that woman, I highly doubt your father's death was natural, and we're hanging on by a thread. We're the last humans and we're simply ignoring we're being hunted."
I wonder how he knows all this. Most people don't pay attention enough and don't know about or just don't believe in Cora. He's the first person I've met that seems to know anything which almost makes me want to question him but I don't have the time. "Yeah, so?" I ask. "So, we should enjoy the little time we have left. Even if we need those plants to do it."
I think about it. With the time left, is there even any time for lives to be ruined or taken because of those plants? "Fine. I'll give them to you but there's something I need to know first."
His creepy smile returns and he seems to relax more. "Anything…"
I look deep into his eyes. "Did my father use them?" I ask. "No. he was certainly tempted at times but he-- he didn't. I'm thinking now... that it was mostly due to you he didn't."
"Can I have the key please?" The man asks. "It's already open." I respond.
He slips upstairs without another word. Graham stares at me. He's clearly upset, but doesn't say anything. We stare into each other's eyes for a moment before I turn away. I'm too drained to argue with him. If he's not going to say anything to me, I'll take it.
I turn to head upstairs. I should make sure that man doesn't steal anything. "You're just gonna leave then? Without even talking to me about what you just did?" Graham says. I sigh. "I only took one more problem off our hands."
"Yes and now it's on the general's." He responds. I scoff. "Good. Is that all? I need to be sure the suspicious man I let in doesn't take anything."
"You know, the whole reason we're out in this forest is because of these plants. If they didn't exist-"
"I would've been killed or in prison for years for stealing a dam book and Cora would've gotten us all without us having a warning or a chance? I need to go." I say. "Those plants ruined my life too. I went to prison for three years and tortured for information I didn't have."
I begin walking up the ladder. "That's your own fault- not mine." I say in a cold, empty, voice. How dare he use that against me? I've dealt with that guilt for years and it was all his fault.
When I enter the room, the man is moving all the plants off the shelfs of the closet and onto the floor in front of the closet door. The man doesn't even look at me when he speaks. "You don't happen to have a box, preferably one without holes, do you?"
There are only three plants. Three plants the size of small trees. "No." I respond. "We need all the crates we have anyways. Will anyone even know what those are?" I ask. "I'm not sure. I shouldn't risk it. Perhaps I could retrieve them tonight?"
"No. I won't be here."
"You could leave the door unlocked and I could just come in, grab them, and leave."
"No. If you'd like, you can leave them behind the house to grab them tonight though."
"That may work…" He says and shrugs. "I suppose I don't have many options."
He picks up one of the plants and slips out of the room, soundlessly. I decide to look around the room for anything else I may want. There isn't much in the bare room. I do find a necklace with, what must be an ancient arrowhead hanging from it. It probably came from the people here in the very beginning. It's probably worth a fortune but money's the last thing I'm concerned about right now. I put it around my neck underneath my shirt.
The man comes back into the room and I notice he's already getting the last plant. I never even noticed him get the one before. This man would likely make an excellent thief. Who knows, maybe he is a thief. I make a mental note to watch out for him though.
I put the blanket in the crate with all my dad's clothes and grab the other crate of "keep" things to bring downstairs. The crate is only about half full and can probably hold anything Graham may have found.
Graham has two bowls and a plate, and a chipped cup on the counter and some rations from the general. There's also lots of random valuable items as well. Likely things he traded for the plants. In the pile of random items, there's things like Crombene plant leaves, jewelry, and different seeds. Next to it, there's a pile of coins too.
"Well, he did trade for decent things at least." I say. "Yeah. what should we keep."
"All of it but the Crombene and jewelry. I have a crate here for what we're keeping. I'll go get the other one."
I grab the crate to bring down. When I'm down, Graham already put everything that's going with us into a crate to take to the house.
I help him put the rest of the items carefully in the other crate. "Where are we bringing the other stuff?" Graham asks. "I was thinking we could donate it to the infirmary. It could be a thank you for helping us with Jordan. Even if he still doesn't…"
I look away. Graham grabs my hand and smiles. "He'll pull through. He's strong."
"Yeah, I know but you don't understand her power. She's killing you all off slowly to hurt me, not because she can't kill you all off in seconds."
"You and Jaxon made it out all by yourselves. You even won against her! We can do it again."
I'm not convinced but I force a smile for him anyways. "We should bring these there then." Graham says. I nod. Graham picks up the crate that's going to the infirmary. I open the door and let him go through before following after him.
We get lots of stares as we walk down the streets. Many of these people may not even be able to afford something like a warm blanket because they need to scrape enough money together for some food. That's how my mom and I were for a little bit after my dad left. Eventually, my mom managed to get a job.
I feel a little bit angry at my father for selling the plants again. He got money for ruining lives. Am I any better though? I just let it continue. That man is going to get the plants tonight- maybe- maybe I can dump them in the woods. He'll probably assume they were stolen. I may still have a chance to fix this.
"Graham?" I say. "Yeah?" he responds. "I think I want to put the plants back into the woods. I don't want it to be my fault when, later, the business is big and ran like how the last one was. I only agreed because it was… easy."
He smiles. "I agree. It'd at least take a while for him to find more. He said they were rare. Who knows, maybe they could be forgotten completely, eventually!"
I smile. I'm not sure there will be and eventually but I keep my thoughts to myself. We're already at the infirmary. The wooden hinges creak as I open the door for Graham to come through with the big box. The nurse is checking on Jordan- her current worst patient. There's also a man with a broken arm, and a woman who has an infected gash on her leg.
"Hello ma'am," I say. The nurse has greasy blond hair and bags under her tired eyes but she manages a smile. "Hello," She responds. "For the patient?"
"No, they're actually a donation- to the infirmary. My father passed and I managed to get my hands on his items but I don't need all of it."
Her smile widens and her eyes light up. "Thank you! You don't know how much this means to me!"
I can't help but smile back. It's been a while since I actually smiled. I usually force a fake smile to be polite or to hid other emotions. She points to an empty cot. "You can put it here." She says to Graham. He walks across the room and puts the large crate down. The nurse immediately begins digging through the crate.
"Sorry, it's not much. My dad, like I assume most people here, didn't own too much."
"It's quite alright! This stuff will help the infirmary more than you know. even the things we don't use, they're good quality and we can trade for things we will. Did your father work under the general?" she asks.
"I don't think so," I say. "I didn't know anyone could afford things like these here, especially not working under the general." She says, without looking up from her new items. "Yeah…" I say, uncomfortably, "He managed…"
"We should get going. We had that-- thing to do." Graham says. I look at him, confused. "You remember? To uh- honor your father's old job."
"Oh! Right! Yeah, we do need to do that." I turn to the nurse. "We may be back tonight. Before we go, how's he doing?" I nod at Jordan who's been unconscious since he got here. She finally turns towards me.
"It looks like he's going to make it. He's making a wonderful recovery. He may even wake very soon!" She says, hopefully. "Good!" I say.
We walk out of the building, closing the squeaky door behind us. "Let's get rid of those plants." I say to Graham.
We go behind the house where there's a big crate and two men. One is the tall, skinny, man we saw earlier. The other man is a shorter, yet bigger man.
"Oberon!" The man from earlier says as a smile creeps across his face. I don't recall ever telling him my name. I don't even know his name yet. "You're here… now…" I say, a little confused. "Yeah! My friend, here, is going to help me move the plants. he's even got a crate to hide them!"
"Yeah, but you said you were going to come later…" I say. "That was the plan! That is, before I remembered my friend had this box. I didn't want to take the risk of someone taking the plants before I could."
I sigh. "I'm sorry but we have to take the plants…" I say. "But you already gave them to me. You can't do that!" He says, his smile disappearing.
"We actually can. We're not going to be the reason the operation grows. There's a reason these plants are illegal. Now go." Graham says, stepping in front of me. The man looks at me and forces a desperate smile. "Oberon, and I already spoke about this… the village won't be here much longer anyways. People should get to be happy in the last few weeks- however they may want to do that."
"I changed my mind." I say. "I'd appreciate you leaving without us letting someone else know… like the general." I say. "Ha! He'll arrest you for owning them. That man is anything but reasonable."
"Trust me, I know, but how do you think I have all of these possessions? It's because he needs me, believe it or not. He certainly won't arrest me."
He glares at me. "Fine. we'll go. But I'll give you one last chance to let me have these plants."
I scoff. "I think I'll keep them, thank you." I say. The two men leave, the shorter one grabbing the tall box while the other soundlessly disappears.
I turn to Graham and sigh. "I guess we'd better bring these out to the woods," he says.
I grab a plant while Graham grabs the other two. I'm not sure, even this close to the village, if we're completely safe out here. We walk deeper into the woods and I feel more and more uneasy every step.
We are by no means quiet, we step on dried leaves and dead twigs. The woods are thin out here. There are flowers of all colors and tall, skinny trees. The sun pears at us through the leaves. It's nothing like the normal, dark, creepy, woods I'm used to.
Graham finally breaks the silence. "Aren't you worried about what he said?" He asks. I laugh sharply. "Why would I be afraid of a threat from a creep like him?"
"He just seemed- dangerous. I'm worried about it."
I laugh again. "I'm serious." He says. "Don't worry. I'm fine." I say.
We find a decent area and dump the plants. "Do you think he'll go this far?" Graham asks. "I doubt it. The forest stretches for miles. I doubt he'd find this one area."
"You're right. Maybe we should head back."