Blank Slates

Chapter 14

 She looked up and down from him to the small clock she was holding in her hands and back again. Kairo had visited her every day for however many days had passed, occasionally bringing with him a small gift or random item along with her daily meal. That day, he had brought in a small clock that she could hang on the wall. The ticking was loud and the clock itself was old and rickety, but at least she could know how much time passed.

"Why...why are you doing this?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "First the slate, then the flower, then this."

He shrugged. "Just wanted to make your stay more bearable I guess."

"How long will I be staying here? Will it be a long time for me to even need all of this?"

He shrugged again. "I already told you. I don't know about those types of things."

She sighed. "Alright. But thank you anyway." She stepped away from him to quickly hang the clock on the wall before settling down on her usual spot on the floor with him following suit. She pulled her knees up to her chest and he did the same, leaning against the wall next to her and copying her movements.

"Aye, I'm sorry I can't be of more help," he said, frowning. "I know it must be rough to be stuck in here for all this time. You must get pretty bored and lonely."

"I think there's too much on my mind for me to be bored, but I admit that it is strange to be alone for such a long period of time."

"Were you always with people back at the school?"

She nodded. "Yes, usually. For the most part, I always traveled with my partner, my roommate, unless I was personally called to do something elsewhere."

"Like what?"

She picked at the edge of her shirt. "If I broke a rule..."

He noticed her demeanor visibly become grim, so he reached out and touched her arm gently in an instinctive attempt to provide her some sort of comfort. Immediately, he felt her tense up, so he quickly pulled away. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to breach that topic."

She pursed her lips, looking down at the ground. "Please don't make me talk about it."

He nodded, feeling a strange pain in his chest that he couldn't quite explain. "I understand."

Fiddling with her fingers, she quickly changed the topic. "How is she doing? My roommate, I mean."

"Well," Kairo replied, tilting his head. "She's been rather difficult. Haven't been able to really talk with her much at all to be honest."

"Why not?"

"Well, lemme ask you this. Was she a good student back at your school?"

She looked over at him curiously. "An excellent one. But why do you ask?"

"I figured. She sure seems like a textbook Blank, knowing all those anti-Insurgent scripts by heart and refusing to even listen to a word I say. Hell, I don't even know her name. Uh, number. I mean, whatever you wanna call it."

She was silent for a moment. "Should I not be talking to you like her? Maybe she has a right idea..."

His eyes widened. "Oh no no no. You're faring a lot better than her with the way you're behaving, trust me." She frowned, and he could tell that her distrust was slowly creeping back in. He knew he had to do whatever it took to suppress those feelings and push as far away from her mind as possible. "Since she's being difficult, I don't visit her as often, and she doesn't get all the things you get like better food and things to do."

"So, all this is a reward for not being difficult?"

"Kinda, I guess."

An unexpected feeling of dread began to wash over her, and she pulled her knees closer to her chest, curling into a small ball. What if she was doing the wrong thing? Should she be resisting him and the Insurgents with all her being just like she had been taught? Had she said too much already? The lessons that had previously been drilled into her mind began trickling back in slowly. Insurgents attacked and killed innocent people. They caused chaos and violence and were trying to create anarchy by overthrowing the government that was trying to protect its people. How could she be helping them? She felt sick to her stomach and couldn't even look at him.