Sergio is coming back?
The joy in those four words is quickly replaced with worry and apprehension. Is he hurt? Does he still like me?
The whiteboard flashes behind my eyes. Focusing on the photo of the president with the red pen over his eyes and a new thought enters my head. When will we have to go out and kill my father?
The director moves away and I hear boot sounds. A few pairs of stomping boots and another being dragged. I walk out, trying not to be seen by anyone. I think the trick is to make it look like I belong there.
If people see me they don’t comment or stop me. The footsteps seem louder and to be speeding up. It hurts but I have to keep a steady pace. If I let my heart rule my head I’ll blow my cover.
My steps, though slow to me, bring me to the door just as three figures arrive. The two on the end are holding the middle one up.
All three are male but the end two are big and bulky. Both have buzz cuts, their hair shaved so closely to their heads I can’t tell if they are blond are brunette. Their uniforms of a pressed white shirt and black trousers strain against their thick muscles. Scary and intimidating, which I guess is the point.
“Is that Sergio?” I ask not even fight to keep the worry out of my voice.
“Yes Miss Stone,” the man on the left answers, he’s easily the most human out of the two.
Sergio lifts his head and I can see how much the movement hurts him. His face is all messed up and there are patches of hair missing. Stubble covers his chin and I see black eyes and his split lip. When he smiles at me blood dribbles out of the side of his mouth.
I drop down in front of him and wipe away the blood. I’m gentle, barely even touching him, but he still flinches.
“Who did this?” I don’t bother keeping the anger out of my voice but I do try to keep it gentle. Seeing him like this brings out my protective side.
“Dra…gon…ov,” he spits out, blood staining his lips.
I look up at the guards, not bothering to hide the emotion in my eyes. Everything is blurry as tears cloud my eyes and it’s almost as if I take on Sergio’s pain as my own.
“He needs medical help,” I say completely ignoring the fact that they’re bigger than me and I’m supposed to be keeping a low profile.
“We were just about to take him to the medical wing,” there’s a gentle rebuke in that sentence as well as a thinly veiled order for me to move out of the way.
I step to the side and the guards carry on, the toes of Sergio’s boots scrape across the ground. His arms are thrown over the guards’ shoulders and they have to carry him.
It’s even harder to pretend to be disinterested now that I’ve actually seen him but I end up outside a long room filled with beds. Sergio is placed on one of the far ones and a woman in a nurse’s uniform fusses over him. He looks strangely vulnerable lying in the bed with the covers tucked up to his chest.
I’m just about to go in when something heavy lands on my shoulder causing me to jump and snarl.
“It’s only me,” a voice I recognise says.
“Oh hey Kotey,” I reply and turn back to Sergio.
“I came as soon as I heard,” Kotey rests his hand on my shoulder again and squeezes comfortingly.
“It was Dragonov. Why do they hate each other?”
“To tell you the truth I don’t know.” Kotey sighs and follows my eyeline to Sergio. “But I know it’s serious.”
YOU ARE READING
Project: Hero
Teen Fiction"You might be a killer, but I don't think you're a monster." The government has taken over the nation in a totalitarian state. But there are a select few who stand in its way. And that is those with the moon Tattoos. Each possesses a strange power a...
