On the walk to Sara's office I had no idea what to expect, a feeling of hopelessness swarmed my body as a part of me knew I couldn't escape the torture. The boy I had mentioned earlier, if I were him and truly did know how to use that eye, I'd tell them in a heartbeat. A part of me was hoping that Sara would believe I truly didn't know anything about the necklace, but I knew we were past that point.
On the way to the office, the boy turned to me, "Finlo." I looked at the boy puzzled, he responded, "My name, you asked earlier." I turned to the boy, "Never heard a name like that before." The boy smiled, "Pretty much nobody has. My dad had two criteria for my name, it had to be unique, and it had to sound like it could be the name of a Star Wars character."
I smiled at the boy, something about him gave me a sense of happiness. With everything dark going on, this boy brought a comforting feel of innocence to the moment. I turned to the boy, "Shine, uh that's my name." Finlo looked at me with an expression of respect for the name, "Pretty name, I like it." I smiled at Finlo, "Wish it was my own. It's just my nickname. My parents had two criterias for my name to,, make it as unique and displeasing as possible. Literally, it's the worst name you could have." The boy began to laugh, "Well now you gotta tell me." I smiled at the boy, "Hell no, no way." The boy continued to laugh, "Come on, come on." I laughed as well, "AHAHA No, no way." The boy laughed a bit more, "Come on, come on plea-" the boy was poked aggressively with the head of one of the twins guns from behind, his grim look from earlier immediately returning. "Shut the fuck up!" Something about seeing the spirit from the boy immediately leave lit a fire right out from under me. I felt the same way I felt back at the cave and the walk to the gym, an uncontrollable wave of anger swarmed my body.
I thought about all the possibilities. I thought about turning around, punching that dickhead in the face, stealing his gun, and killing both of them. The way I thought when I was angry terrified me, still does. I stopped in my tracks with my fists balled up and faced the twins behind me, "What the fuck is your problem?" I told him. He's just a kid! " ." The twin responded, "My problem is that you two are still alive after all you time traveling fucks have done. You're lucky I'm not in charge. I would have had you both killed right now." I balled my fists tighter as I faced the twin, "I'd love to see you try, give me an excuse to do what I've been waiting to do all day." The twin's face turned to a look of anger, "Oh yeah? Well, consider this your excuse." The twin grabbed me and threw me aggressively against a locker. His hands moved up from my shoulders, from which he pressed me against the locker to my neck. He began to strangle me.
I tried to push back against him, kick my feet, even but his brute strength was too much to handle. I began to feel my head pressing against itself, my vision starting to blur, until I heard a loud yell from the right corner of my vision immediately forcing the man to take his hands off. "Hey, get the fuck off her!," the boy let go, I dropped to my knees coughing while also trying to catch my breath. I saw that the voice I heard was none other than Sara. "Do you have any idea how much this next hour and a half means? From this point forward, anytime spent doing anything but getting answers out of these two is a fucking waste!" Sara turned around beginning to walk to her office, we must have been close. The other twin turned to his brother and gave him a hard punch on the shoulder, "Bro, you made her yell at us, nice going dipshit!" With that, the other twin began to walk following Sara. The twin who choked me turned to me, "This isn't over," he as well began to follow.
It was at this moment that I decided that somehow I was gonna kill that son of a bitch. I walked into Sara's office, the boy following. Upon entering the office, I was met with a familiar sight, a generic-looking principal's office. It had all kinds of motivational posters on the wall, the wall had a peach color. While mostly everything in the room had a brown color including Sara's desk and chair. The desk had a picture of what I presumed to be her mom and dad as well as a younger version of Sara. I came to the conclusion that this was most likely her dad's office before he passed. Sara sat in her father's chair with a confident, authoritative demeanor contrasting the more open, friendly version of her I had met upon coming here. Her feet were on the desk as she laid back in the seat. She pointed to the floor of the room, "On your knees, hands in front of you." Me and the boy both followed as we seemingly had no other options. Sara continued, "I'm just gonna come outright and say it, we have about an hour and a half until Kreel and his forces invade the rest of the world. Before he can do that, I plan on using the eye necklace to go back and murder the bastard before any of this ever happened. Now I can't do that without actually knowing how to use one of those things, so I figure that you're gonna tell me exactly what I need to know."
I looked at her with what I thought was a normal expression. Sara was instantly triggered, "Don't give me that fucking look! Based off what you've told me about yourself, I take it you're not necessarily thrilled to help me out. You're probably thinking to yourself why the fuck would I help this bitch after she acted like my friend and later betrayed me, which is probably a fair question." I continued to look at Sara as she spoke, "But if I were you, I would help me, just ask your friend over there what happens when you choose not to." I looked over to the boy and saw him look down at the ground immediately, seemingly ashamed. Something about his face made me feel like I had to protect him. I looked at his black eye, must've been a bad punch. After looking over at the boy, that same feeling of anger once again returned to my body. I looked back over to Sara, "He's just a fucking kid, you psycho!" Sara's comfortable position on the desk changed as she sat up and reached over to the coffee mug in front of her, she picked it up and threw it at the wall causing me and the boy both to jump. "I would be very, very careful with the way you address me. You are in absolutely zero position to raise your voice at me. You eyes really are as stupid as I thought you were. If I were you, I'd be kissing my ass right now, 'Oh Sara, please spare us. I'll tell everything you need to know.' Let's see if you're smarter, tell me how to work the eye." I looked at Sara and gave her the same spiel I had been giving her since I've been here, "I already told you, I have no idea how to work this thing." Sara lunged from her position, hitting the desk, "Bullshit!" I immediately responded, "Don't you think if I knew how to work that thing I'd even be here in the first place?" Sara's face turned to a smile, "You really think we're that fucking stupid? You killed that pig because you knew we'd save you, knew you'd end up here. You were gonna infiltrate us while we were preparing our attack and get that boy out of here."
I began to plead with Sara, "Listen, I swear to you, I don't know anything. I swear on everything I love!" Sara responded with an eerie smile on her face, "Hm, okay." She got up from her seat and took a knife from the desk. She began to walk in front of us. In a flash, she grabbed the boy by his shirt, she slammed him on top of her desk, she held the knife to his throat. The boy's face was filled with an expression once again, this time one of terror. Sara turned to me, "One last chance." I looked at Sara and stood my ground, "If you think doing terrible things like this makes you any better of a leader, you're wrong. You and I both know you don't really want to hurt him. I still remember what you told me, how scared you are deep down. You wouldn't take his life." Sara stared at me for a while, seemingly embarrassed, flustered by what I said. She looked around the room for a quick second until she turned the knife to the boy, signaling she was gonna actually stab him.
Something in me knew I had to protect him. I jumped up off my knees and charged Sara, freeing the boy from her. We both fell over the other side of the desk. The twins rushed to both of us, pulling me off Sara instantlyAs they were pulling me off Sara, she did the unexpected. She punched one of the twins right in the face, "Get the fuck off of her! She wants to fight, let her. She's mine." She backed up off of me and put her fists up ready to fight. She let me get off the ground to do the same. Once we were both up, she didn't hesitate to throw a right hook at me. I ducked under the hook. I took the opportunity while I was in the position to tackle her, bringing her to the floor. I found myself on top of her in the perfect position to strike. For some reason, in this moment, my mind flashed back to the dining hall, how sad her story was, how much she went through. I couldn't help but feel that she only acted this way because of the emotional toll her past has taken on her. In this moment, I saw myself in Sara. I couldn't hit her. She took this as an opportunity to hit me with a right hook from the floor, knocking me off her instantly. I felt the bone from her knuckles right against my cheek. I didn't get a moment to focus on the pain because Sara jumped on me immediately, hitting me with a medley of punches. I couldn't help but defend myself. I hit her with a left hook, then a right, knocking her off of me instantly. She got back to her feet and began to hit herself in the head. She began talking to herself out loud, "No, no, no!! What the fuck are you doing?! We're wasting time!!" She began to hold her forehead in anger.
Just at this moment, Mrs. Shelly came bursting into the door, "Sara! Just what in the hell is going on in here? I can hear you from across the hall!" Mrs. Shelly looked at me. There was a mark on my mouth from when Sara had hit me. "Look, you know I trust you, but whatever the hell you're doing in here isn't the way. I know you think these people are evil, but they're kids for Christ's sake. Just, this isn't what your father would've wanted." Sara's eyes began to water as she put her hands on her hips and looked to the floor, "I'm sorry, no, no, you're right." Mrs. Shelly continued, "You said it yourself, we don't have much time. I suggest letting this girl get herself cleaned up and sitting down with them. I'm sure we can all come to an agreement." Sara nodded her head quickly out of embarrassment. I started to realize that maybe Sara wasn't all the way there in the head. Mrs. Shelly looked at me, "Come on, sweet pea, let's get that mouth cleaned up."
As I walked out of the office with Mrs. Shelly, I turned around and looked at the boy. He smiled at me and mouthed the words, "Thank you." This made me smile. In the nurse's office, Mrs. Shelly talked to me as she cleaned my lip. "Don't mind Sara, she's normally well, normal. She's just stressed about this next hour." I looked at Mrs. Shelly, "Yeah, no, I understand." Mrs. Shelly continued, "Between me and you, I really worry about that girl. She hasn't been the same since her parents." I looked down at the floor. Mrs. Shelly continued, "I love the girl with all my heart, but I think it's time to stop all of this. Sweet pea, I'm gonna get you two out of here."