Deck of Cards

Day 45- Ava

Four of spades- working in the field all day

Ava's POV

When the plan crumbled I expected to see Sally or Scarlett in tears constantly, it was their usual reaction to anything. I was right in one sense, they did cry but not for long. In fact it was them the next morning who started the conversation about what to do next, which replaced the gentle sniffling that came from Hannah and Jen.

"What do we do now?" Sally spoke up, placing her orange juice down on the table with a small bang causing Jen to jump and Hannah to rub her eyes.

"I suppose we go with their plan," I said quietly, hoping that Sally wouldn't completely flip out at me for being so negative.

"We can't do that, we have family. Friends. Each other," Scarlett spoke with so much passion I was taken aback by her level of commitment considering how distant she was usually.

"We don't have friends," Jen replied disgust; the tension in the room was thick.

"She has a point," Sally piped up which surprised me since their friendship was no mystery and by the glare that Scarlett gave her showed how that friendship had taken a slight wobble.

Silence filled the air and I awkwardly nibbed on a burnt piece of toast while the rest of the people exchanged mean glances. Standing up, I tucked my chair in loudly to make a point and I walked out to the computer room which had been like a small sanctuary.

Turning it on, I found comfort in the whirring noise that it emitted and I leant back in the chair trying to calm my whizzing mind that was still overheated from the small argument. I knew that it would lead to a lot more, that somehow it would become a huge part of life. Soon we would all be tip toeing around each other because all of our past friendships had been lost.

Opening Google up I checked the news first to find that our names were, for once, not plastered as the main headline. Instead there was a story about a fire at a warehouse that seemed to get all the attention; I was glad to not see my face every morning. Scrolling through articles dazedly I flicked through theories about us being taken again or that we had died, these mainly stemmed from our disappearance from the face of the earth.

Opening up a new browser I found my fingers searching up Anna's name, something I had stopped doing for a while. She was gone, there was no point letting her dig around my brain and letting the memories come back despite hours of suppressing them. I hadn't found much, she was just another missing person with a normal life. Just another statistic.

"Ava," I heard a voice whisper behind me, and I spun round to see Scarlett's tear stained face poking out from behind the door.

"What's wrong?" I whispered back, not really sure why we were being so secretive.

"Can I talk to you?"she mumbled, her voice almost child-like.

Looking wistfully back at the computer screen, I had hoped for a bit of time to just relax and emerse myself in the internet but one look at Scarlett's face made up my mind. I would have to be selfless and do the right thing.

Nodding, she walked in tentatively and sat down on the chair next to me; her face was red and she sniffed every few seconds.

"What's up?" I said cheerily, hoping to release the sadness that hung in the air around her.

"They hate me," she cried and dramatically threw herself in my arms and began to weep. Awkwardly I patted her back, hoping that she would leave once she had cried it out. I really didn't want to comfort someone when I had my own problems to deal with.

"No they don't," I lied to her, hoping that she couldn't hear the wavering of my voice. I could tell that they all were beginning to slowly turn on her, I could tell that this morning wasn't the last of arguments directed at her. It was her that couldn't accept that the only way around leaving this place was to go along with whatever they told us to do. The small space was beginning to feel more like a jail than a safe haven.

She lay there for a while before thanking me profoundly which did make me feel bad for lying to her but there was no way around it. If I told her they did she would only cry more and feel worse. The prospect of something happening to split up the group was however  daunting and made me shiver slightly, despite our differences we could all connect on a more divine level. It was like our souls had been intertwined and couldn't be untangled by something something as small as an argument.

Suddenly the idea of moving away from them became one of little importance to something that sent fear through my blood and coursed through my veins. I couldn't let the others just settle for surviving in secret. That was the moment I felt very sick. We couldn't be apart, it would be like cutting us open and leaving us to bleed.