Eadlyn Selects

Pinball

A warm body nestles into my back. I stir, and the body presses closer. 

Jumbled thoughts bounce around in my head: I'm in a pinball machine, pinging off one knob to the other to a trap door to a coiled spring to a zigzag maze. I can't get out. I'm forever going to be in this game, bouncing off obstacles, reacting, under glass for everyone's entertainment. Bells ring. They become piercing alarms. Which morphs into a human scream.

The raw pain of the scream brings me to full consciousness. I sit straight up. My mouth is open, my throat dry and tight.

It's me. I'm screaming.

I clamp my mouth shut and realize that I am in my parent's bedroom. My hand rests on a warm, solid body. I gasp and look down, half expecting to see Kile. How crazy would that be?

Osten. It's my littlest brother, curled into a tight ball, mashed against my hip. He blinks sleepily, but I brush a drifting lock of hair off his forehead and shush him back to sleep.

He returns the favor, mumbling, "Shhh, Eady, bedtime now." 

I tug up the covers and tuck them over his bony shoulders. He reminds me so much of Ahren, with his dark brows and constant energy. But for once he's still and resting. Somehow Osten found his way to my parent's room and decided to snuggle up to me since they were nowhere to be seen.

Pretty early for him to be in bed. I check the clock.

Five am! I slept that long?

I feel my forehead. Normal. How could I have been out for a full seven hours? I remember waking up and sitting next to my father, listening to endless briefs about the invasion. We checked over lists of valuables gone missing, and a shocking list of staff and Selection boys gone missing, apparently voluntarily. Then I recall sitting in a long meeting with Dad and his top advisors. No one asked me much and I said little. The opposite of normal.

I had hastily thrown on a simple dark pants suit and pulled my hair back in a bun, no make-up. I was hardly the version of myself they are used to seeing. After the marathon of meetings, I wandered back to my parent's room and basically passed out.

What a weird dream about the pinball machine.

I sit next to my brother for a good long time, thinking about how I want today to go. I usually dive right into a day, forthright and eager.

I keep thinking that I want to change. Well, it starts now. I got through yesterday as best I could, but in the back of my brain things were already churning.

Dad wants the castle to go back to normal as soon as possible. I'm to pick a new room today, or order the remodel of my old room. I'm supposed to make an appearance on TV for the Selection, eliminating at least one boy and giggling over the remaining ones. I am not sure this is a good plan, but Dad says putting on a lighthearted, united front is important. Let the people see that their revolt was taken in stride. Meanwhile, we try to figure out what changes to make to the system to prevent any more attempted coups.

Kadan sat in on the meetings. He said little, but I saw him scribbling away in his darn notebook. Full of ideas. I had a legal pad and a pen that looked pristine at the end of the sessions.

I walk over to the alcove where Dad and Mom have a discrete work station. I log in, check the breaking news—downplaying the riots, up-playing the Selection and the new housing initiatives that Kadan suggested yesterday. Give them something, he said. Improve something to show we care, while we think of deeper changes to make.

Impulsively, I email a request for the security crew and a handful of maids to move my things to the room nearest to Osten, where the nanny used to stay. It's small, close to both my brothers and my parents, and I think it has an east facing window toward the courtyard. Natural light for my sketching.