The Chapters

Chapter Twenty-Five

I find Isak huddled up alone on the roof, right next to the stairs leading down. He doesn't look up when I open the door or when I sit on the other side of it. He just remains silent, his face buried in his arms.

It takes five minutes before I find the words to say.

"I - " I take deep breathe before trying again. I can't let my voice shake. "I'm sorry, Isak."

His voice comes through muffled. "Why? You didn't do anything."

"That's why I'm sorry."

"Why?"

Why? But I just said why. "I should've done something. To stop it."

"How?"

"I don't know."

There's a sniff and a silence before his quavering voice comes again. "Why does everyone keep dying?"

I don't know what I'm supposed to say. People are dead because the Death Towers were chasing us. The Death Towers were chasing us because I have a connection to the Author. I can't tell him that, though.

So I don't tell him anything. I sit there, at a loss for what to do, while Isak remains in a silent curled up ball beside me.

"Are you feeling alright?" I venture after a while.

"No."

Well, I don't know what type of response I was expecting.

"Karla was up here with you, wasn't she?" I try again. "She talked to you about it?"

There's a long silence before I get another answer. "Too many people are dead."

"... Yeah."

"Why did they have to die?"

"What do you mean, 'have to die'?"

"People always die for a reason, right?" Even though his face is still down, Isak's voice is now clearer. "Like some people die so others can get away. They save people by dying. But there were people who weren't doing anything that died, too."

"I think from our side, they didn't have to die at all," I say after a minute of thinking. "But for the Death Towers, they were in the way and had to be eliminated."

"But we were running away."

I think back to what the Omega that had stabbed me had said. "We were running toward them, too. Our whole group was headed to the Death Tower Kin."

"But they kidnapped people."

"I know they did, that's why we went to save them. But the Death Towers didn't want that, so they killed the rescuers."

"Why?"

I take another minute to properly formulate an answer. "Some people don't need a reason more than the fact that they want to. They just do it without thinking."

Isak gets quiet again. I think he's turning the idea over in his head. Even after living outside a Kin for most of their lives like most of the North Titanium Kin has, I don't remember hearing of senseless killing ever occurring. That might be due to my memory, but there's always a reason people have been killed; to threaten others, steal their food, have a place to sleep, it's all about survival or power.

In a way, that's the source of the killing this time, too, but I don't think I should go that far in detail about it for Isak. We're all worn out enough as it is.

"You know what we should do?" I ask as I stand up. Isak doesn't answer, so I continue on my own. "Sleep."

"I don't want to try sleeping. And it's the middle of the day. "