Ultramarine -- REWRITTEN

Eleven. [h.s.] -- REWRITTEN

          She still slept when I arrived, her cheek firmly pressed against the thin pillow and hands curled into soft fists next to her face. She lied on her stomach and her lips moved slightly as she dreamt. Minutes passed with me staring and her peacefully dreaming away.

          Until it wasn't peaceful.

          I noticed her forehead glimmering in the light with a thin layer of sweat beginning to form. Lines appeared on her face as the muscles tightened, knuckles growing white. Her eyes became squeezed shut while mine were the opposite. Confusion wandered up my spine, wondering what could've possibly happened for her to become tense within seconds. She groaned and I could see her eyes flickering back and forth underneath her eyelids. I could hear her breathing, pained and quick. Was something medically wrong? Had the experiment done more damage than previously thought?

          I unhooked the monitor from the wall, ready to message someone that something was wrong when she inhaled sharply. I looked up from the screen, seeing her widened eyes that flickered across the room as she laid on her stomach. She took deep breaths and lifted her upper body on her elbows, rubbing her face with her hands. She ran her fingers through her hair, gripping the strands as she tried to regain steady breathing. Still carefully watching her, I set the monitor back onto the wall.

          "Are you all right?" I asked slowly, my fingers touching the edges of the glass monitor. She glanced back at me with a startled, disoriented look on her skin before nodding, turning back around before sitting up and taking a deep breath.

          "Uh, yeah, sure, it was just a nightmare," she said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. I only nodded, turning around to face the wall and telling myself that I shouldn't care. I couldn't. There should be no mercy for the prisoner. Meanwhile, she grumbled meaningless complaints about how sore she was, how much the food sucked, and how boring it was to sit inside all day everyday. Then, she had directed the conversation toward me. "You didn't lie yesterday."

          "What are you talking about?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows as my gaze stayed directed toward the blank wall in front of me.

          "When you said that we make our own food. We do."

          Then, a burning, forbidden question, a ghost that breezed behind me.

          "Why? Don't you get sent food?"

          "Sure." I could imagine her shrugging. "But they don't send enough. Our population has far exceeded everyone else's."

          "Do they know this?"

          "Yeah, they just don't care. They're not going to send extra food to a forgotten section," she chuckled blandly. "So we plant and grow our own food. Anyway, have you figured out how to get me out of here?"

          I sighed and rolled my eyes, "remember our deal? I'm not going to help you until you give me enough reasons."

          Then it was her turn to sigh.

          "Fine. You want reasons why I should get out of here? I'll give you a few, but you have to actually turn around and look at me while I'm talking, because it's weird talking to your back," she grunted. I spun around and faced her, who was sitting on her cot and leaning against the wall. "I need to get out of here because I'm young. I have my whole life ahead of me. I've done nothing wrong but kept information from the Association, which, frankly, isn't enough to imprison me in my opinion. A weekly kidnapping and interrogating is pushing it, if you ask me. Second," she huffed, sitting taller and crossing her legs. "I'm their leader. It's my job to protect my section and make sure that everything is running smoothly. Without me, it's most likely complete chaos. Third, I have no plans to destroy the Association or whatever, to be completely honest. My worry is my section and keeping our freedom. So whatever they find in my mind about 'taking down the Association' is basically completely worthless since it'll probably never happen in my generation. It should and will happen eventually, though, I'm not doubting that whatsoever.