Burning Gold

Part 2

Rue

Screams echo through the walls. Well, they are mine, but they still scare me.

Pain knocks me on my knees when the door of the metal box opens. A man comes in and a wraith is in tow behind him. The man makes a hand signal and the black orb comes near me. I start to scream, the thing wraps itself around me and pain is all I can feel.

My blood shot eyes meet the guards he smiles at me, he has no mercy. He makes another hand signal, the wraith comes off me, but it's aura is still waying me down.

"You will answer the questions I ask," he says, his voice stern, but nothing I haven't dealt with before.

"No," I choke out. Clutching my body tight afraid the wraith will come back.

"Fine, have it your way," the man says, he makes another hand signal and the wraith is back on me, I scream and scream. The wraith stays on me.

"Fine," I scream out. The wraith leaves me on the ground. "What do you want?" I scream at the man

"Answers" he says, this time he lets his real authority out in his voice, he is not a guard, something more.

"No," I say again, of course the wraith comes back, knocking me back down to the floor.

"Yes," he says smiling at my misery, "what is your name?"

"No," the wraith squeezes the life out of me harder. "Rue." I let in, I mean it's not like they don't know who I am already.

"Good," the man praises, I growl at him, the wraith lets go, but stays beside me. "Do you know who Skylark is?"

This one I am more than happy to answer. "'Yes," I say smugly, "she is the mastermind of your sad, sad attempt at a city."

Now I remember who this man is, he is the so-called leader of the world, but everyone knows that there is someone else making the discussions.

He glares back at me, "I suppose you know Skylark then."

"Yes," I say, no longer afraid of the wraith staying close to my side.

"Well, she has a new work position for you," the man starts.

I interrupted him, "I can't have a work position, I'm not even a citizen."

"Yes that's true, but it is a secret Capitol job."

"Oh great," I mutter under my breath. Most of the people that were rebels or knew about them got Capitol positions and never came back.

"When do I start?" I ask halfheartedly, really I'm asking how much longer I have.

"Skylark will come take you to it in a few days," he answers. He calls the wraith back and turns on his heel. He pauses in the doorway of my cage. "Sorry I never introduced myself. I'm Reagan."

Skylark

"Reagan," I say to him as he walks into my office.

"Yes?" He asks. He pushes his black hair out of his eyes as he turns to one.

"How did it go?" I ask him, he comes to stand at the edge of my deck. He glances down at the papers. Quickly I grab them up. They are confidential, even for the so-called king of MY city.

Reagan's eyes darted back up to me. "Good, the wraith helped a lot. Got a few answers out of her."

"What did you ask her?" I question him.

"Just a few things, who she is, if she knows who you are, I also told her you have a work position for her," he looks thoughtfully at the desk, "I think she knows."

Jayla

Rue has been gone for a week now. It still hurts to think about it,the day she floated away. I have a feeling where she is, and she most likely won't make it home for dinner.

With that thought a tear runs down my face. I see through shattered glass as I work. My silent cries send shudders though my body. I can barely see the ground in front of me to plant the crops.

I carefully dug the hole and slid the crop in, I missed a few times before I was able to plant it.

I push the brown earth over the plant and whisper a verse to it, asking for life and for it to grow without dying.

The rest of the Rebels were taken away when Rue was, now it's just me, Chase, and five new arrivals that came from the city a few days ago.

"Jayla?" Someone comes up behind me.

I wiped the tears from my face. I cleared my throat, not turning to the voice to answer afraid they would see my red eyes and tear stained cheeks.

"Yes?" I ask. I keep trying to plant the crops.

"Umm, I was wondering when we will have lunch?" I immediately recognized the voice, it's the youngest of the Rebels, he is only seven. He was towed along by his sister and brother, afraid to leave him behind even though he did not want to leave the comfort of the city.

"I told you yesterday, Echo, at the moment we don't have enough food to have 3 meals a day, but if you are about to die of hunger you can go raid the kitchen," I answer him, at first his eyes fall and then they seem to light up as he turns on his heel and run towards the Provisions building. I laugh under my breath at his appetite.

I never understood why some people bring the ones they love out to be Rebels when they did not want to come. Some of them would try to rat us out, but they all disappeared before they actually got around to leaving. I only have a thought about where they went. An image of a Rebel we lost a year or two back floats into my brain. Wren was the most devoted Rebel I've ever seen. She eliminated anyone who posed a threat to our rebellion. She had a sly fox face, red hair. She was dangerous if she got on your bad side.

"Jayla," Chase calls from the other field. My head whips up and I look in his direction.

"Yah?" I yell back, standing up, stretching my stiff back and legs.

"Can you come here?" Chase yells back. I turn to his field and jog over.

"Yah, is something wrong?" I say when I get to him.

"Maybe," he says motioning to the dirt, ''there are shrubs and dead bugs everywhere, "look, these are the crops we planted last week,they are all dead. There are also a lot of dead bugs and mice that seemed to have eaten the crops. What do you think it is?"

"I don't know. But I swear if Skylark has poisoned the rain, I will lose it," I glare at the sky wanting to scream and curse Skylark.

Skylark

As I look out on to my world I don't feel pity for them. I only feel hatred. I don't care if they burn and die. I don't care if they beg and plead for forgiveness, though it's not like any of them have or will. I don't want them to join me. I don't want them to come back, but they are dying. I should help, but I can't. I used to be able to love, now I am nothing. Nothing.