the light in the shadows

Rose

Rose

"How could I have let that happen?" I asked Iris. "If I can't heal a cut, how would I help in battle?"
"Rose, you need to stop being so hard on yourself." Iris told me, tired. Neither of us could sleep because of what happened with Kage.
"How can I not be hard on myself, Iris? All I want to do is be helpful but if I can't heal anyone, how will I help?"
"You can still fight." She pointed out. "And you still need practice with your power."
"But after what happened last time... I just don't want to lose anyone else."
"I know hun, I know." She said, wrapping her arms around me. "None of us could have helped, she was too far gone."
"But she was my sister, Iris, she was everything to me."
She sighed. "Maybe we should get some sleep, you look like you need it."
"Ok," I mumbled. "Good night."
She squeezed my hand and walked off to her tent. I was grateful for Iris, but sometimes she reminded me of my older sister, Arial. I still don't know why she did it. I still ask myself why she went with the others, the Toxin. Their names are all the original names combined, Tori, Oliver, Xayah, Ivan, and Nova. They have a group of ten, two more than us including Kage and Lux.
They believe that people with powers should overthrow every one without powers. They think 'normal people' should be working as our slaves. They have been around for a long time. Some of them are probably around twenty by now.
We just want to live in peace with everyone, powers or not. We were just outcasts looking for a home. Our parents were either killed or left us. We just want to feel loved.
The Toxin were friends of ours before, but when we disagreed they started yelling and telling us we were wrong. One day they said that they had an idea to take over the town. We said they were crazy and went our separate ways. At least that's what Leo and Mateo said.
When my sister was eleven and I was nine, my parents found out we had powers. She could bend light making her invisible while I had the power to heal. Our parents had a very high social status they didn't want to lose so when they found out they threw us out into the forest. They must have faked our deaths because the next day there was a newspaper flying in the wind and we looked at it. We flipped through the pages and found an article from our parents saying how sorry they were for our deaths and that we would be greatly missed.
One day we stumbled upon a campsite, we were exhausted and decided to take a rest. We don't know how long we slept but when we woke up Leo and Mateo were sitting by a campfire and welcomed us.
All seemed fine until one day we were attacked by the group, they said 'come with us and we won't hurt you.' That night Ariel seemed quiet, she was almost never quiet. This wasn't the scariest thing that she was doing. She was hiding away in her tent and only came out for meals.
The next day she told me to go to her tent at sundown. I thought this was suspicious but she was my sister so I went. She had a grim look on her face when she looked up at me. She was wearing a black cloak and black leggings.
"Why did you need me?" I asked, sitting down next to her.
"I've thought about it, and I'm going to do it." She said with a blank stare.
"Do what?" I hesitantly asked.
"Join them." She plainly stated. At first I didn't know what she was saying, but then horror creped on my face. She wouldn't, would she? "I think we both should. They said they wouldn't hurt us if we joined."
"No! Have you forgotten what Leo and Mateo have done for us? They took us in and welcomed us! How can you just not care about that?" I snapped.
"I do care, Rose. I just want us to be safe." She pleaded.
"What do you mean safe? Did you see how they attacked us? They're monsters!" I tried to reason with her, tears forming in my eyes.
"What if the people we live with are monsters? Why would the others attack us if Leo and Mateo didn't do something?"
I was speechless. I thought I could trust her but she just turned her back on me.
"I'm going, if you're coming then pack your stuff." She calmly said.
"So now you expect me to come with you?! You expect me to turn to the enemy? After everything Mateo and Leo have done for us?" I had tears running down my face.
"I just want to protect you, Rose! I don't want you getting hurt!" She snapped, I could see a tear rolling down her face.
I was taken aback. Protect me? Since when was protecting me taking me to the enemy? "No! I'm not going with you! I can't leave Leo and Mateo!"
She looked hurt. "Fine, I didn't want you to come anyway." She told me,  grabbing her bag and walking out of the tent into the darkness.
That day was the worst in my life. After that Mateo and Leo never brought her up, like she was never here.
After a month or so we found Iris in the woods, she had a broken wrist. She was really shy and quiet at first but after about a week she started to talk a lot more and  was a really nice girl. She is my age and we are dating now.
After a couple of weeks the TOXIN attacked again. There were six of them but they still lost to us. I saw a girl in a black cloak like the rest of them and she got a dagger thrown at her. It hit her right above her knee. She fell to the ground and they all ran away carrying her. As they carried her away her hood fell and I saw a familiar face, it was...Ariel.
That night I cried my eyes out. I couldn't sleep, and at the time I was nine so I didn't know if she would survive. Mateo isn't the comforting type. He tried really hard but he just wasn't able to do it without feeling uncomfortable.
"It will be ok, she will be ok." Leo told me.
"What if she's not?" I countered. The conversation went like that for about an hour before Mateo told me to try and sleep. All i thought was that i could have helped, i could have saved her from even going to that side. If i would have tried harder she might still be with me, comforting me, making me laugh.
All I want is to find my parents and sister and reunite with them. If i could do that i might be able to get Ariel to come back. That's been my dream since I was nine years old.
I decided to try and sleep, I needed it. I haven't been sleeping the best, I've been having nightmares. Every night I would go to sleep and see my sister. She would be lying on the ground and yelling for help. She was cut up with bruises all over her face. I would run over to her desperate to help but when i got over to her she would be fine. She would say 'I'm sorry, Rose, but I have to do this.' She would get a dagger magically out of the sky and before she could stab me I woke up.
I screamed, I didn't realize I fell asleep. I lived through that nightmare once more and I had a feeling it wouldn't go away anytime soon.
"What's wrong, what happened?" Mateo ran in asking frantically.
"She-she was there." I started crying. "She was hurt."
"Hey, hey it's ok." He came over and hugged me. "It was just a nightmare."
He knew what happened, he rushed into my tent two times in the past week because of this nightmare. He was my best friend, and longest friend. I never had any real friends because my parents homeschooled my sister and I since they didn't want their social status ruined by us fooling around.
I Cried on Mateos shoulder for a couple of minutes but soon I got tired and my eyes got heavy. I told him he could go back to his tent.
"Are you sure?" He asked.
"Ya I'm fine." I sighed.
"Ok, see you tomorrow." He left and I went to sleep.

The next morning we all got up and went into the forest to gather food. I took Mateo with me because knowing me, I would get poisonous berries. He knew a lot about the wild, I mean he has been in the woods longer than all of us.
"Rose?" I didn't realize he stopped walking about two yards back.
Confused, I asked, "What? Why'd you stop?" He was looking at the ground next to an old oak tree.
All he said was, "Look." His hand trembling, he pointed toward the trunk of the tree.
I walked over carefully not knowing what he was pointing to. Scared, I glanced over to where he was pointing. I was thinking of the worst things that could happen, a skull could be there or maybe a very dangerous animal. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw on that tree trunk.
I sucked in a breath. The TOXIN's symbol was carved into the trunk.
"W-what happened? Why is this here?" I stammered.
"I don't know." He said blankly. "I've never seen it carved like this before."
I had the urge to touch it. It looked as if it was a button untouched for a long time. I reached out to try at least to push it.
"What are you doing?" Mateo asked. I ignored him.
My curiosity overcame me, I reached my shaky hand out to the symbol.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Mateo asked, but I ignored him.
My fingers brushed the middle of it and I hesitated for a second. What was I about to do? It could do absolutely nothing, or this could be a trap. I risked it, I pushed it before I could second guess myself again. It sank into the tree but nothing happened. We both waited in silence for about thirty seconds, then I heard a click.
"Did you hear that?" I whispered.
He nodded. We both looked around. I saw what looked like a... a hole in the ground? I slowly creeped toward it and Mateo followed.
There was a ladder leading down to some sort of bunker.
"Should we go down?" I asked Mateo.
He looked at me as if I had three heads. "Are you crazy?" He whispered hissed.
"What? It's dark down there so they probably aren't in there. And I have a flashlight." I said waving my flashlight at him.
He hesitated for a second. "Fine, but only for five minutes. Then we're out of there."
I rolled my eyes. "Fine, you're no fun."
"Oh I'm fun, I just don't want to die." He said looking into the dark bunker.
We sat there for a second looking down.
"Well?" He said. "Are you going to go?"
"I thought you were going down first."
"You're the one who wants to go in there."
"You're older."
"You're younger and more agile."
"You're just too scared."
"Fine, I'll go first." He said looking into the dark once more before starting to climb down. "And for the record, I'm not scared. Now turn on the flashlight."
I shined the flashlight down the hole. "How does it look down there?"
"Dark. Very, very dark." His voice quivering, definitely sounding scared.
"Ok, I'll come down now." I hollered.
I threw the flashlight down and started to climb. The wood was cold and dusty. My hand slipped and I got a splinter in my palm. I couldn't see it but it felt bad.
Finally I got to the bottom and Mateo was looking around with the flashlight. Wow, I thought. This place is huge