Wire Fence

Chapter 5 - The Stranger's Meeting

Chapter 5 - 

"Elyse? Elyse, please. Please, please, please stop screaming," Dawai begged. I had backed into a corner of the room, my eyes never leaving the woman and what I assumed was her child. The child was now clinging to his mother's leg, and she was nervously smoothing his hair. Dawai was getting closer to me, ever so slowly, as if I were a rapid animal, "Everything is going to be alright. They mean no harm."

I bit my trembling lip and stared at the strangers. They were Outsiders; no doubt about it. Dawai had Outsiders inside his apartment, hidden away from the world. They didn't belong here. I didn't belong here. I belonged in my house, listening to the lockdown siren as the Leader's men searched for these two Outsiders. I was meant to be sitting next to Rowan and Pilot, Rowan's arms wrapped around me and my arms wrapped around Pilot. 

"Let me leave," I commanded, still refusing to meet Dawai's eyes and instead focusing on the woman and her child.

"I'm not stopping you. Believe me, I'm not stopping you. But I want to know that you wont tell anybody about this before you go."

"Dawai, please let me out. Please keep them away from me and let me leave." 

Dawai took my hands in his and pulled me towards him. Although I fought to distance myself from these strangers (they were still a good distance away from me even when Dawai pulled me closer to himself, but no distance was good enough), he refused to let me go and wrapped his arms around me. I collapsed as he clung to me, holding me ever-so-tightly. "You don't have to be afraid. They mean no harm. Honestly."

"Please just get me out of here Dawai," I cried, burying my face into his chest even though I still felt too horrified to take my eyes away from the woman and her child. 

"Just promise me something first, Elyse, and then I'll walk you out of the room and out of the building. Just promise me something."

I looked up at him with tears streaming down my face. He brushed some hair away from my face and looked down at me with concerned eyes, "Promise me that you won't tell anyone about what happened here today. These are good people. They don't want to hurt anyone. I trust them, and that means you should too. If you tell anyone about them, Elyse, they'll be as good as dead. I'll be as good as dead for keeping them here. Please, just promise me that you wont tell anyone about them."

"But why, Dawai? Why are they here?" 

"If you stay-"

"No."

"If you stay," He continued even after my attempt to stop him, "I'll explain everything to you. Right here and right now. Though, I don't know how much of it you'll actually understand." 

I glanced nervously at the woman and her child still frozen a few feet away. The woman now had her arms wrapped around the little boy, and she was staring at me in such a way that I believed she was reading my mind and invading my soul. I shivered and look away with great struggle, back up at Dawai.

"Outside," I commanded.

"What?"

"Tell me everything. But tell me somewhere else. In the basement."

Dawai agreed after a moment of thought. He left the woman and her child alone in his bedroom, locking both his bedroom door and the apartment's front door. Quietly, we stole down the stairs and past closed bedroom doors. The working adults in the building had already left, and the children and remaining adults were still probably sleeping. We were more quiet than we actually needed to be, but I refused to be any louder. I didn't say a word and barely took a breath until we were behind the closed door and down the steps of the basement.