"Stop!" the girl cried, "where are you taking me?"
"Shut up!" Leo said, "Walk faster already."
Leo dragged the girl into an alleyway. The boy looked left and right, looking to see if anyone had followed them. Satisfied, he walked past her, removing a metal lid. He looked at her.
"Get in!" Leo said. The girl looked at him, and at the hole that led down into the ground.
"Down there?"
"No. Up there, of course down here, get in!" Leo beckoned, more frantically, watching the street. Meimei obeyed reluctantly, going into the pit. She did not expect it to slide down all the way to the bottom.
Leo followed right after, putting the meat lid in place before sliding down as well. He went to the center of the room and began to look for something. It took a while but he found it. He lit the match, going to the center of the room and lighting up a bunch of sticks that had been piled together in the center of the room. He sat down in front of it. Meimei watched him from where she stood, wary of him.
"You aren't going to sit down?" Leo asked.
"Who are you?"
"A kid."
"Your name."
"Not important."
"Why?"
"Why?" Leo looked at her, "Why did you use your gift?"
"They were hurting the boy and his mom. I had to do something."
"And show your gift in front of them?"
"Why can't I?" the girl asked, "Our gifts are to protect, not hurt."
"Well, congratulations. Your gift is going to be the death of you. They are going to look all over the place for you and try and make you join them."
"I would never."
"Good luck with that. You might as well freeze to death in those clothes of yours."
"My gift is fire."
Leo looked at her in silence. Fire? So the barrier thing wasn't hers. But he had sensed… or was it that he had stopped her from actually using it.
"Your gift isn't barriers?"
"Yes."
"It's fire?"
"Yes." Meimei said proudly
"And you watched my use a match to start a fire?"
Meimei looked away, trying her hardest to avoid staring into the piercing eyes of Leo.
"You are so useless."
"No I'm not! My name is Meimei Vonharte and I am going to be the best hero in Utopia!" Meimei declared.
Leo looked at her in silence. Then he broke out into laughter. "You? Hero? Ha! Dream on. And Utopia."
"Utopia is where I live."
Leo looked at her. Then she wasn't from around here. That explained her naivety. "You're from the above."
"No. I'm from Utopia. And Utopia is not in the sky. It's next to the ocean."
"Yeah I know. We call it the above. It's like Paradise."
"Oh."
"Well, welcome to the below, above dweller. The way you are you might not last a day here. Why are you here alone?"
"I followed a friend of my father. But then I fell asleep and I woke up here."
"And you are not bothered?"
"Mr. Newt will find come for me, I know it."
Leo sighed. It was obviously kidnapping, no matter the angle one looked at it from. It was either she was kidnapped by her father's friend, or someone kidnapped her from her father's friend. There would have been other factors, but then, there was no way to get to Utopia. And the fact that she was naïve did not help.
"Whatever." Leo said, "The sooner you leave the better."
"So, what's your name?" Meimei asked.
"Won't tell?" Leo ask
"Why?"
"Why should I?"
"No fair, I told you mine?"
"I didn't ask."
Meimei frowned. She looked around her, the cobwebs, the bricks on the walls, the rats that watched her back, which made her shiver.
"Where are your parents?"
Wasn't the normal thing that you waited for the answer of the first question? Leo stood up, walking to the corner of the room. He tossed a torn up blanket at her.
"Here." Leo said. "It's for the cold."
"But I can use fire."
"Asleep?"
Meimei wanted to reply, but then stopped. "Thanks." She said, wrapping herself up in the cloth. Leo took one for himself. "Get some sleep. Tomorrow, you're going somewhere else."
"Where?"
But Leo had had enough of the questions. He had already shut his eyes, not wanting to talk anymore. Meimei looked at him, at the fire and finally at the ceiling. She closed her eyes, thinking about her home; of her mother, her best friend, her father. Her thoughts slowly turned into dreams, and soon she was fast asleep. Under the watchful guard of the boy with the cyan eyes.