Taken

Chapter Thirty One--JEREMIAH

When a servant settled me into a nice room, I sunk into the bedspread and watched as she scurried around the room making last minute preparations.  “It’s okay,” I said, and I saw in her averted eyes that my voice surprised her.

          I could tell she was young, not older than twenty-one, and when she turned towards me, I saw she wouldn’t meet my eyes.  She was pretty, in an old fashioned way, and I said, “Seriously.  The room is perfect.”

          “Oh.” She looked at her hands, saw the folded towels.  “Are you sure?” She fumbled over her words awkwardly, like she had never spoken to a boy.

          “Yes. Why won’t you look me in the eye?”

          “I’m not allowed,” she replied hurriedly.  “Would you like your bath water started?” she offered, and turned her back towards me.

          “I can do it,” I said carefully, still wondering why she wasn’t allowed to look me in the eye.  I rose from the bed, crossing the room to her and tapped her shoulder.  She jumped away as if I’d touched her with a branding iron.  “Sorry,” I mumbled, but she turned around.

          I held out my hand. She looked at it, then shook it, but it was quick.  She had soft, dainty hands.  “I’m Jeremiah,” I said.  “And you’re...?”

          “Sir, I really shouldn’t—” She was stopped by my hard look.  “Hallie.  My name is Hallie.”

          “Hallie.  Now we’re friends.  And you can look me in the eye.”  I waited, but she didn’t.   

          She didn’t even reply, instead hurried into the bathroom and started the water, curtsied, and left.

          Moments later, I slid into the warm water.  The tub was filled almost full now, up to my neck, and I turned it off.  I closed my eyes and breathed in the smell of the pure water.

          “How did I get into this mess?” I thought aloud.  My old clothes lay in a crumpled pile where I had stepped out of them.  A crisp new button up shirt and dress pants lay on the counter and I crinkled my nose in disgust. 

          No way I was going to wear those, so I reached out of the water and scooped my dirty clothes up, soaked and cleaned them, and then draped the sopping pile half in the window, half out, so they would dry.

          When my skin was pruned and shriveled, I lifted myself out of the old four legged tub and dried off.  I wrapped the towel around my waist and returned to the bedroom, combing through my pack until I found a clean change of clothes. I slipped on my pants just in time before there was a knock on my door.

          I opened it, and there stood the servant girl, glancing into space somewhere over my bare shoulder.  “General would like to speak with you over tea.”

          I nodded to her back, for she had already turned on her heel and headed back down the deserted corridor.  I finished buttoning up my old and worn shirt and proceeded down the long hall after her. 

          As soon as the study door clicked, I found myself in the same situation as earlier.  General met me with a smile and a mug of tea and I sat and smelled the sweetness for a while before I dared to take a drink, making sure I couldn’t smell a hint of any poison.  It wouldn’t do me any good though, because I didn’t know what poison smelled like.  It did, however, calm my nerves a bit.

          “You needed to speak to me?” I asked after a while of silence.  He had been studying me like some kind of alien and it was making me uncomfortable.

          “You aren’t wearing the clothes I sent for you.”

          “They aren’t really my style,” I said honestly, since there really wasn’t any point in lying.  “I’m sorry.”

          He dismissed this with a wave of his hand and sipped the hot liquid in his cup.       “That wasn’t the reason I needed you.”  There was a pause before he continued, “I still get the vibe you don’t quite understand why I don’t like kids. Why I need them gone.”

          He drummed his fingers on his mug and I shifted in my seat.  “No, I don’t understand.”

          He twisted a picture around that had been sitting on his desk and I saw a boy about the same age as me, with emerald eyes and brown hair.  I could detect a hint of sadness softening the General’s own green eyes and I immediately knew this was his son.  But as fleeting as the sadness was, it was quickly replaced with bitterness as he said, “My son… He was killed.”

          “I’m very sorry,” I said automatically, as anyone would do in this situation who didn’t have the words to comfort him.  I just sat there gazing as he swallowed his tea and finally spoke.

          “He had everything going for him.  He had good grades and he was the starting quarterback for his high school team. I gave him the keys to my truck and a grocery list his mother had written.  He never came back.”

          He let the effect of the words to sit in the air as I silently held my tea.  I hadn’t taken one drink since he started talking and I waited for him to keep going.  I hadn’t realized there was a history to the General, didn’t know he had a family.

          “He was shot dead on the bread aisle, by some punk kid who needed to be in a mental hospital, not by himself with a gun. Well, I say by himself.  There were about four other kids with guns doing the same thing.  They were in a gang and nobody ever knew their intent because they were dead too when police got to the scene.  Wouldn’t it be nice if there were no kids to do that?  It would clear up so many problems.”

          “What will you do once the adults start having kids again?”

          “Don’t question me,” snarled the General, all cruelty returning. “I can have you gone from here in the time it takes to lift your little pinky from that mug.  I suggest you keep your trap shut.”

          I glared at him then, all sympathy gone.  This man had major problems.  Kill out all the kids just because yours was shot by some psychotic maniacs?  It just didn’t make any sense.  We sat staring at each other, fuming, for what seemed like ages.

          “I don’t understand you,” I breathed, breaking the silence. 

          “Not many do,” the General replied, flashing his cruel smile.  “Anyways.  Even though you just got here, you better pack up what stuff you got out, because we leave right now.”

          “What do you mean?  Now?” I asked, my stomach twisting into knots.  I knew what he meant.  I knew exactly what he meant.  There could only be one reason for everyone leaving, and his reply confirmed it.

          “I’ve got some kids to exterminate.”

          I felt dizzy all of a sudden, even though I knew this was going to happen.  I wasn’t ready for it, not so soon, not the same day.  I set my mug on his desk and stood.  I planned to head back to my room, but his voice cut me short.

          “Oh and I wouldn’t dare think of escaping.  Denny, Haven, Sarah, and Ladd wouldn’t benefit much from that.  Sarah and Ladd already will die, for they didn’t come to me to fight for me.  I’ve already sent soldiers for them.  And the little girl, I have some uses for her.”       

          “How did you know about them?” I asked, but I could barely get the words out before I was sick in the wastebasket beside his desk. 

          “I know everything, I thought I already made that clear.”  I heard his cruel laugh, pictured his evil face in my head, and couldn’t stop thinking about anything but keeping Denny safe.  I loved her more than anything, she was all I had, and when I rose back up I became bolder than I ever had been.

          “You won’t hurt my girlfriend.”