The Leaves are Silent

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Parker was an interesting character. To almost everyone else she came off as stand offish and cold. An almost 'don't talk to me' attitude. She'd never admit it but I knew it was all an act. It was just her protecting her heart from being trampled on. She kept her feelings heavily guarded unless it was to show anger or disinterest. The latter being on show more often.

Our friendship was a weird one. I was the quiet, shy one who was clumsy and bumbled over her words. I deterred her image of the 'cool rock chick.' But that was the thing with Parker. She didn't care. As long as you were real she'd let you in. Then when you got to know her you realised she was a massive nerd with a big heart. She was also infuriatingly stubborn and opinionated.

This was becoming increasingly more evident the further we drew away from the camp. She was fuming, and looked to be more angry than I was. I could practically see the steam coming out of her ears as I lingered a few paces off, not wishing to be the subject of her wrath. It was only after we passed both of our tents that I realised she had an actual destination.

I followed behind her, letting her lead the way with her angry strides. We eventually came to the East wall which, as usual, was empty. It was then Parker stopped trudging forwards and began to pace back and forth in front of me.

I approached her how you would a caged animal. With caution.

"Hey Parker, lets calm down for a sec and think of what we're going to do." I spoke holding both hands in the air in a surrendering fashion.

At this she turned and pointed an accusatory finger at me,

"You need to tell me the truth. I need to know the truth right now."

My eyes widened and I feigned innocence,

"What do you mean?"

"Lily, don't play the fool. I know something's been up since you came back. With Ian too. What happened those two days before you came here, to the camp? I know it's something that's still going on. Something that has to do with the white building."

I stood shocked for a moment. At times I had forgotten how intelligent Parker could be. She would go under the pretence that she was of an average mind but she bared a great intellect. I gulped and stared down at my feet. She was one of my closest friends and I struggled to tell her. I couldn't understand what was wrong with me. I wanted to tell her but there was like this clog in my chest that prevented me to do this.

And it was so heavy.

I sighed and rubbed my hand across my forehead in frustration. I then looked up to meet Parker's pale blue eyes. She was scrutining me in an almost judging way. Although I know she didn't mean to come across this way, I felt as though I was letting her down due to my inability to express myself.

"The-there's a professor." I stuttered out, glancing around wildly as if he was gonna just pop out of nowhere, "and he's teaching Ian and I to do this mind stuff." I managed to whisper out at the end.

Parker stared at me blankly. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish for a moment, and then she narrowed her eyes at me in an intimidating manner,

"That's not a satisfactory answer at all. Like not one bit. How the hell was I supposed to understand that?"

I went back to staring at my feet, frustration at myself beginning to mount. Even when I was a child I used to keep all my thoughts to myself. It would makes sense in my head but when I said it to anyone else they would look at me weirdly. Eventually I just stopped telling people what I thought. But then went it came to telling people something important it was like all the words washed out of my mouth. And even though the Professor infuriated me with his condescending stature he was certainly right about one thing. I was the definition of reserved.

I felt tears sting in my eyes as I struggled to string my words together. This wasn't even the worst thing I had kept secret from my friends. There was the incident from a year ago that still hadn't left my lips.

I don't even know why I hadn't told them about the Professor. It's not like it held great importance to me. Or maybe it did. I wasn't great at assessing my feelings towards things. It protected me from being overly hurt by stuff but it also left me numb in situations where I needed emotion. And eventually all that void emotion just adds up and its ends in this massive mess. Meaning a total breakdown.

"For God's sake Lily, just tell me."

"I'm trying!" I practically spat at her.

She stepped back, not expecting my harshness. She seemingly decided to give me a moment to grasp my thoughts because we both stood silently. Neither moving.

I took a shallow breath before I answered,

"The reason the Dictator took me was because of the way my mind works. Yes to you it may seem that my thoughts are just babble but there's a structure to them that the Dictator finds interesting. He likes the way I evaluate people and situations. I don't know what he wants to do with me specifically but I'm guessing he wants to use me as some army tactic."

"As for Ian," I continued, still staring at my feet, "I'm not to sure. When he stepped out on the day they took us the Dictator saw something in him. Apparently he sees loopholes in situations but I don't really know. It hasn't been made clear what he can do."

At this I looked back up to see Parker's reaction. She seemed to be contemplating and then it was like she snapped out of it and she stared at me curiously.

"Why was that so hard for you to tell me? I mean, it wasn't like this massive secret." she said, placing her hands on her hips in a placating manner.

I shrugged and spoke the most honest answer,

"I don't know. I don't understand myself most of the time."

She nodded at this, understanding finally lacing her features. She turned her head to the side, her dark brown hair falling across her face while she surrendered herself to her thoughts. Soon her head snapped back to meet my gaze, an elusive smile forming on her face.

"I have a plan. We're going to find out what this thing that's supposedly going to kill a bunch of us off is. And we're going to this by sneaking into the Professor's office. Now."

##########################################################

Hey guys, I know this was uneventful and stuff but it was kind of a filler chapter. Plus I kind of wanted to go into more depth of my characters as I felt I hadn't really developed them so yeah. Anyway if you liked this please vote or comment, I really appreciate it :) byeeeeeeeeeeee :)