The Captive Life of Samantha Roberts

Chapter 8: Breaking Out

I felt a light brush of a hand on my forehead as I tried to sleep.

"Justin, if you do not stop messing with my hair while I am trying to sleep, I am making you leave." I said.

"I'm sorry Samantha. I didn't mean to wake you. There was a hair on your face, and I thought you would be more comfortable if I moved it." A soft voice said. It wasn't Justin.

My eyes fluttered open to see William sitting in Justin's chair.

"William? I'm sorry. I thought you were Justin. What are you doing in here?" I asked.

"Justin asked me to stay with you because he had to fix something for Bobby." William said.

I looked for Justin's mind, and I saw him trying to figure out how to get Emily out of here.

"So William, I don't really know much about you. What was your past like? How did you get here?" I asked.

"Um, I was one of the first people here at the island. I brought myself to The Manipulator because I was afraid of myself. My powers made me feel dangerous. I had a pretty average life before I got here. I lived with my father because my parents were divorced. I was an only child. I had pretty good grades in school. I liked to read." He said.

"How can you stand being so nice to everyone, and how do you always flow the rules so easily?" I asked.

"My father was very big on obedience. He would get rather mad at me if I didn't do exactly what he said. I guess I am nice to people because I don't know what the have been through. They could hate themselves. They could love themselves a little too much. You never know anything about them until you get to know them. I think I follow the philosophy don't judge a book by its cover because I try to treat everyone pretty much the same way." He said honestly.

I felt bad for William. He's always so honest when everyone around him lies and tricks him. I felt really bad about what we were about to do.

"William, I think your honesty is amazing. I wish I could be like you." I said.

"Well, I wish I could be like you, so I guess we are even." He said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You're so brave and courageous. You stand up to The Manipulator, and you fight for the people you love. I could never do that. I guess I'm saying that you are strong." He said a little embarrassed.

"Strong? I'm anything but strong. I'm weak. I cry all of the time. I always feel so tiny and insignificant. I'm not strong enough to do the right thing, or tell people the truth." I said.

"Crying doesn't make you weak. You are not weak at all. You're amazing... I mean..." I stopped him.

"I'm not amazing. If you knew all of the horrible things I've done, you wouldn't think that." I said.

"Justin knows, and I positive he thinks you are amazing. I also think that if you have done a whole bunch of terrible things, you must be pretty strong because I couldn't tell." He said.

"That doesn't make me strong at all. It makes me good at hiding things, but I've done some pretty horrible things that Justin doesn't know about. I would tell him, but they don't really have any relevance to him. I just don't want him to think I'm keeping something huge from him or anything, but I have done things that he doesn't know about." I said.

"Samantha, I don't want to argue with you. That's not something I enjoy. I especially don't want to argue with you while you are like this, it makes me feel bad." William said.

"Okay, I'll drop it." I said.

"Do you need to rest more?" He asked me.

"No, I need to stand." I said.