Beyond Our Control

Chapter 8

 What happened to your knuckles? They're all bruised and bloody." Annika asked her as they pulled the wheats from the plain grass field.

"I don't know, I woke up and they were like this." Kenna lied, although she was a convincing liar.

"Maybe you sleep walk and you don't even know." Annika chuckled.

When Kenna returned last night the sun had already started to rise. She quickly sneaked off into her bed, and fell asleep. When the morning wakeup bell rang, she had no energy, her head and body worn out from everything that had happened last night.

She yawned. "When are we going to be done pulling these wheats? Don't we have enough of them already?" Kenna felt her back ache as she bent up and down several times.

Gibson laughed. "Kenna, that was your twentieth yawn today. Was it really that hard to sleep last night? 'Cuz you look tired."

"Yep," she gave a fake yawn to be sarcastic. But she didn't sleep well, because Dr. Novak made her go all the way to see her.

"Gibson's right, you do look tired. If you're not feeling well, I can go ask Ms. Edmund to give you a break. I'm sure she would understand."

"I'm fine, let's just get this work over with." But even as she said that, she wished to go back to her cottage and rest.

The wheats were rough, and they had to pull it carefully from the roots to not damage it. After picking each one, they dumped it on the wheelbarrow they brought with them. It's tiring work, and without enough sleep it was a hard task. When she woke up this morning, she was really hoping to be assigned to some less physical jobs. At least she's still in the same group with Gibson and Annika.

And one moment when Kenna wasn't paying much attention, she pulled one wheat carelessly. The roughest part of the wheat cut her palm open, blood dripping out. But at this point she was too tired to even care about it.

Until Annika noticed her bleeding. "Oh my gosh, Kenna! You're bleeding!" She dropped the pile of wheats she collected onto the floor and reached out for Kenna's hand to take a look.

"It's alright, Annika. It's only a small cut." Kenna groaned, the hot sun making her more irritated and tired.

"Are you kidding? It's a pretty deep cut, Kenna."

"It's really not a big deal." Kenna pulled her arm away and bent down to pull more wheat.

"Um, I don't think so, Kenna. I'm a few feet away and I can tell that cut isn't pretty. And those knuckles don't look so great either. You really need to get checked up." Gibson added.

"You guys are overreacting." Kenna laid her other unharmed palm on her forehead, blocking away the bright sun.

"Gibson, you keep working, I'm taking this girl to get some help." Annika forced Kenna away from her work, pulling her as they walked away.

"Seriously Annika? You get to take her? Don't you think your poor, tired, brother should do the honor?" He whined.

"Ugh, shut up and go back to work, I'll be back soon anyways."

It took a few minutes to walk back to the cottages, the field they chose to work at were a little bit far. Kenna hated any kind of attention on her, even though she did need some rest and something to help with the pain for her knuckles and palm. Plus, she didn't feel like she deserved it. She doesn't deserve their kindness here. And she doesn't deserve to be helped, she should just leave herself the way she is, let herself bleed. Maybe if she bled to death, it would be a solution, not having to worry about anything anymore. But if she did that, it would be selfish, because then Lina would die.