The Love Club

Chapter 3: Where? (Penelope's POV)

What is the meaning of life? No one seems to fully know, which is why I consider myself so lucky to have found the answer to that question at an early age. Of course I cannot speak for everyone, but the meaning of life for me is, and always will be, to serve and protect the peace of this nation and enforce love onto those encompassed around darkness.

My dear Papa is the assistant of our Lord, and my Mama is His secretary that handles all the paper work. I was blessed to have been able to meet our Lord in person (well, he was wearing a mask and stood behind a mosaic glass, but it's rare for anyone to be in such proximity anyways) so it has inspired me to become a member of the official Love Club just like my dear parents. I'm in training at the moment, but I swear by all means that I'll be working side by side with our Lorde when I'm older.

The Love Club Trainees' (or the LCTs as I we all call each other) numbers have been skyrocketing this past year, which is exactly why I need to do something to stand out amongst the rest of them to prove that I'm capable. I snuck into my father's office and went through the list of juveniles that were going to be released the following September to see if any of them stood out to me. My goal was to follow one of them around and supervise to see if I can catch any of them red handed. This way, when presented in front of the Lord, I may manage to convince him that these juveniles can't be released at an age as early as 18, it's quite too soon. I want to make him change it to at least 22, because all immature tendencies tend to get worn out by then.

I found one girl under the list of people getting released in late September that really stood out to me. Lucy Moretti. She intrigued me as she was the only one in the list specifically that had therapy for all her life. She's a psychopath. I was bound to catch her do something, right?

So I followed her all night.

From the moment of her release I stayed close in proximity to her. I saw her turn a corner to go through a dark alleyway. Quite suspicious. In all honesty, she seemed like such a sweet girl trying to pet one of the stray cats and all, but I just can't trust anyone with a juvenile record like her.

When she got on the bus and sat on the backseat, I moved up to the front to watch her from the reflection of the driver's window. It was quite late, not many people were on the bus so I didn't have anyone blocking her. I could see her expressions clearly and it was easy for me to watch her every move.

I kept my hand on my gun in case she wanted to pull some bullshit, but Moretti was a relatively predictable client, I wasn't exactly worried.

I had basically jinxed the fuck out of myself at that point, because I never would have even expected for her to commit murder suicide.

Just talking about death is an incredibly taboo subject in this nation, so watching someone attempt it completely blew my mind. I do admit to thinking about death on occasion, I must admit, even if it is quite sinful for me to say. I did my best to avoid thinking about it's inevitably in spite of fear, but I realised that the only way to overcome it was to make peace with it. I promised myself that no matter when it happens or how it happens, I will be completely willing and prepared to die at any moment, as long as my sacrifice serves a willingful purpose for this nation and the LC. With all of that mental preparation, during the actual fall I didn't feel scared but rather, prepared.

Surviving the fall was honestly a miracle; never would I have imagined getting out of it alive. Our limp bodies seem to have followed the outflow of the dam, all along the river, and shot onto the shoreline of one of the nearby islands, where I regained consciousness. If I had known how long we had been unconscious, I would at least be able to calculate how far along the coast we had floated along, but there is no way in telling so, therefore I am unembarrassed to say that I have absolutely no idea where we possibly could have been on the map.

While being completely lost in the middle of nowhere isn't bad enough, I now have to help save a crazy psychopath of a girl who hasn't even been able to format a proper sentence since we've met. Not to mention she stole my first kiss! May the Lord bless me, this is going to be a tough journey back home.

* * *

Why does the Lord curse me like this?

It hasn't even been 24 hours since we our arrival at this island and she has already proved to me of her uselessness.

Watching her painful attempts to communicate with me was already bad enough, but after watching her trip over her own legs I had given up on her. She was hopeless, I had no choice but to lead her.

I went up to one of the nearby trees and broke off two of the branches. I laid them out into the sand in a X shape far enough out from shore for the tide to reach.

"Here." I said crossing my arms, "I'm marking the part of the island with this so that we know that this is the place we got washed onto. If one of us gets separated, look for this X and wait for the other here. You understand me? You're a pain in the fucking ass but I don't want to have to deal with finding you when your dumb ass gets lost. "

She put her hands in the pocket of her jeans and nodded, anxiously biting her lip; I noticed a couple drops of blood staining them. Her perfectly styled hair had become ruined after the sea salt, so no matter how many times she tried to brush her hair back, her bangs constantly fell in front of her eyes like a curtain. She only seemed to peek out from behind them when she was looking to see my reaction on something.

I crouched on the sand and drew a circle.

"I'm very tempted to walk along the circumference of this island but I know that's not what's most important right now. We need to find a drinkable water source first. I don't recognise this type of curve of land on Bailiwick, so I really hope we're on the more inhabited side on Enclava as it'll be easier to get home that way."

Lucy bent down to draw a smaller circle next to mine. "There's so many other tiny islands surrounding Enclava and Bailiwick though. We could be on Atollia for all I know, the island more up north. Or we could be on the Western Chain! They have a bunch of tiny little islands there that we could be on. Don't get your hopes up too much."

I looked up at her, "is this one of your I.D. symptoms?" I asked.

She peeked out from behind her hair and blinked at me in confusion. "Are all of you guys just this negative?" I continues, "I've only read about you guys in textbooks but Lord be damned, yours is chronic. Even after all that therapy and LCR treatments it just doesn't seem to go away now does it."

She looked down into the sand and started drawing doodles in the sand. "Of course the treatments aren't effective" she said with a faint smile, "because they aren't trying to fix us."

That didn't make sense at all. Why would the LC have multiple rehab centers for the mentally challenged if that was the case? Why would they spend so much money on treatments?

Shifting uncomfortably in my lack of response, she cleared her throat and began to explain.

"I mean, why would they bother trying to fix people they know are hopeless? I'm sure they'd much rather spend all that money into improving the quality of life in Bailiwick."

"What are they talking about when they say they're 'treating' you then?" I asked, and I was taken aback when she let out a quiet laugh.

"You've gotta meet Red. He can answer that question for you. Maybe you can help me get him out of there when we get back"

I was incredibly intrigued, but before I had the chance to ask any more questions she got up.

"Let's go inside the forest, there has to be something on the other side of it that'll give us a clue as to where we are."

The LC always stresses that in every given dilemma, figure out the 6Qs. Who, what, when, where, why and how. So far, these things remain unclear to me: where are we? How are we gonna get home? Who is Red? What is The Love Club's motive? When will justice be served? 

Until I find the answers to these questions, I refuse to die.