Love Is Moons Away

Chapter 4- New beginnings

My heart pounds in my chest. This woman's makes me feel like committing to all the stupid little things I've done. Her voice snaps me back to attention.
"Miss. Rose, I am President Lockhart. You are here today-"
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I have some questions first," I interject. Her mouth forms a thin line, and nods for me to continue.
I'm surprised at myself because I barely interrupt anyone for I believe it to be rude. I proceed though, because I got a large amounts of questions. AF.
"What is this place? What are you the president of? Why am I here? Am I in trouble? Are you going to return me to my parents?" I ask in a rushed voice.
"This is Base Lauren. I'm the president of the secret societies of gold and bronze necklaces. You're here because Shane wants to help you, but no one else wants to. I'm not sure if you're in trouble, it depends on how this calling today goes. If you do not pass, you will not be returned to your family," she answers just in the way I asked.
I have to pass this test. If I can't be returned, that means I'll be killed or kept in a cell my entire life. The  I'll never find my other half. I set my shoulders in the most confident posture ever, prepared to go down with a fight.
"State your full name for the court, please."
So it begins.
....................................................
"Final question."
My back was getting tired, and I wanted to just lie down, and take a long cat nap. But, I set my shoulders for what felt like the millionth time, and prepared myself for the question.
"What is your goal?" President Lockhart questions.
"My goal?"
"What do you desire at the end of your journey?" She waits expectantly for my answer. But even I am not fully sure why. 
"I guess, it's that I'm tired of feeling the cold. And I think I deserve to know why someone who is my true love, doesn't want to know me," I whisper. Tears are lodged in my throat. "It's also the fact that I'll be dead if I don't find him."
"What was that, Miss. Rose?" The president inquires. I realize what slips my mouth and go into shock.
"What was that, Miss. Rose?" The president is nearly shouting. I gulp and start to explain.
"There is a new law being placed. It's states if you are eighteen years old, and have not found your other half yet, you become silenced," I announce.
Gasps collect around the room. Murmurs spread, and voices yell out.
"Miss. Rose," the president yells above the noise. "Might we discuss this matter more privately?" I nod my head, and I am escorted out of the room.
We come to a bare room, with a large mahogany desk. I'm sat at the side clearly meant for guests. Shane sits beside me, and I glare at him.
The president sits on the other side, oblivious to my discomfort of sitting next to Shane.
"Miss. Rose, how do you know of this law?" She asks quietly.
"My brother, Timothy, he works in the government. He was telling my parents, and asking them to go find my soul mate. Since I'll be eighteen in seven months, and that doesn't seem like a lot of time, I set out on my own," I explain, trying to use my tied up hands.
President Lockhart see's my hatred for the rope binding my hands. She gestures to Shane to cut the knots. He pulls a pocket knife out of his boot, and flips it open. I flinch away.
"You scared of knives, viper?" Shane asks, letting some ice drip into his tone.
"A little. I cut myself really bad with a knife once," I whisper, the memory making its way into mind, making me hate myself. Shane sees the self loathing, and his expression lightens up. He gently grabs my hand, and cuts the ropes. I rub my wrists, that are raw from the moving my hands nervously.
"Miss. Rose-"
"Please, call me Anthia."
"Very well. Anthia, what is the exact date the law takes place?"
"It takes date on December twenty seventh."
"And you are sure?" I take a moment. Am I sure? I only heard my brother talking about it. Does that mean Tim thought it could happen, or was for sure that it was going to happen. I have to trust my gut on this. And my gut says this is one hundred percent true.
"Yes. I am sure." She nods. And whispers something into the ear of the man standing next to her.
"Shane will you places take Miss-I mean Anthia-to her room," Shane nods, and gestures for me to get up. I nod to the president, and walk out the door.
Shane quickly catches up with me. He soon is ahead of me. His strides are humongous. While mine are hamster strides. But I catch up. Despite his long stride, his pace is slow. Mine is extremely fast.
"Viper, why do you walk so fast?!" He asks, making me slow down. I wonder if I should open up. I decide this won't affect anything.
"When I was younger, mean kids would tease me, so I walked really fast to get away from the words," I explain. Shane stops completely. I stop and look at him.
"Didn't you have a brother, or a friend to beat these kids up?" He asks, confusion in his eyes.
"My brother never knew, and my friend-Gray-he didn't live near me until we were nine. So he was never with me when I got picked on," My words slowly fade away, until I was speaking almost inaudible. Shane frowns.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For kidnapping you,"
I smile. "At first I was really mad. But I understand now, and I forgive you,"
Shane has the largest smile upon his face. I laugh, and start walking again.
Shane leads me to a luxurious room. My room back home was nice, but it was small and always cold. This room had red carpet that felt like heaven itself. There was a bed double the size of mine. There was a vanity, that seemed to tower over me. It looked like it was made for Royalty itself.
Shane sat down on the bed, making himself comfortable. I look in the corner and see my backpack, shoes and sock, and cry out with joy. Never have I been more relieved to see me bag. I suddenly realize my hand is wet. Blood. The wound has opened even more. Shane notices as well, and sits me down on the bed.
He grabs a first aid kit from the vanity, and unwraps the makeshift bandage. He grabs a needle and threads it. He pours antibiotic liquid and I scream out in pain. He quickly numbs it with a shot so I won't feel anything. He pulls the needle through my skin, and flinch though there is no pain.
After he is finished, he bandages it for good measure. He looks me straight in the eye, and ask me point blankly.
"Are you alright?"
"I haven't a clue if I'm alright. My entire world is being turned upside down, and I'm not sure how I feel about it," tears make their way down my pale face. Shane grabs my hand.
"I think you're going to be okay. Because you're the one who took the step to change your world. And you've seen so much already, and imagine what more you will see! It's all going to be okay," I keep crying, but it's turned into happy crying. I lean my head on his shoulder and he lets me stay there for the next hour.
I must have fallen asleep, because when I wake, I'm tucked under the covers. I look over and see Shane sleeping in the armchair. I smile and get up. I walk into the bathroom and gasp when I see myself.
My hair's a rat's nest, and my complexion is green. My make-up is plastered on to my cheeks with sweat. My mascara is smeared around my eyes, making me look like a rabid racoon.
The mirror is really high up. Are all the people here giants? I have to stand on my tippy toes just to see the neck down. I shake my head at the attempt, and peel of my clothes. They have hardened from sweat. I shiver as the crack off my skin.
I turn on the shower, and let it warm up. Once the water is warm enough, I jump in, and let the water coat me in a luscious stream. I feel myself thaw. I shampoo my hair, dirt washing down my back.
I lather soap over my entire body. And for the hell of it, I shave my legs. I remember the first time I shaved. I made Gray feel legs, and I still do this day. Or more like I used to. By the time I've finished showering, the water is lukewarm. I shut the water off, and step out.
The cold air hits me like a brick. I dry off with the fluffiest towel ever. I go to grab my clothes and realize I didn't grab any. But then I notice my backpack in the corner. It has a little note laying on top of it saying: figured you'd want to take a shower when you woke up so i put your bag in here ;) - Shane
I smile, and dig through the bag, pulling out another pair of leggings, and a long sleeve shirt. I brush my hair out, and put it in a bun so it won't stick to my face. I walk out of the bathroom, and find Shane sprawled on the floor. I plop down next to him.
"Why are you on the floor?" I joked. He opens his eyes, and looks at me, then the chair behind me.
"Hm. I must have fallen off the chair. That takes my heavy sleeping to a whole new level," I nod, and spread out near him.
"Tell me about yourself," Shane asks, curling into a little ball. I chuckle at how he's made himself tiny. I tell him about my parents, my brother and his wife and kids. I tell him about Gray, and his girlfriend, Raine, who lives in France. I tell Shane about the mean kids at school.
Eventually my throat is so hoarse from talking. But I can tell Shane has one more question. I can see him word it, and reword it in his head multiple times. Finally, he gets the question out.
"How'd you get this scar?" My sleeve has risen on my arm, showing the long scar on my right arm. He points to it, looking at the clean line. My eyes dart to the scar, using the excuse I always use.
"I was trying to cut and apple, but I was holding it weird so the knife sliced my arm open. It was pretty bad," I explain, hoping he believes the fib. Shane nods, and pulls back his own sweatshirt sleeves.
"I have cut from slicing apples, too," he shows me the scars on his arm. They are clearly self harm marks, but he's playing along. When he looks into my eyes, I can see that he truly knows how I got that scar.
"How did you know?"
"First of all, your a terrible layer. And, that's too clean to be an apple cut. Lastly, apples in India are naturally, by mother nature, in slices. And the skin peels away without a knife. So there is no possible way," he explains, counting things off on his fingers.
"I was really depressed for a while because during sophomore year, there is this giant dance. And peoples other halves come from across the world. And I didn't have a date, so I didn't go. And it's really depressing hearing people talking about for five months," I whisper, tracing the scar.
"What did your parents say?"
"They never really knew the whole reason. I told them I was trying to cut open a package, and they totally believed me. But I think they subconsciously knew,"
"They just didn't want to believe it," he whispers. I nod. I shake my head, realizing how depressing this is.
"Tell me about your life," I laugh, poking his belly. He groans turning away, to prevent another belly poking.
"Girl, it's 12:30, I don't want to tell you my entire life story," he groans. I hit his arm.
"I told you mine, now you tell me yours. Fair is fair, mister!" I use my sternest voice, to show that I'm not backing down.
He looks at me, and at the ceiling, and then back at me. He rolls over onto his side. I lay down from my sitting position. He look me in the eye.
"Alright, but not past one," he says shaking his finger at me. "I need my beauty sleep, viper." I nod.
"Let me serenade with my sad life! I was of course, abandoned at birth due to my necklace-"
"How did you live? Don't they inject gold and bronze necklaces with poison of some sort?" I inquire, curious of his survival.
"You see, until fifteen years ago, they had different ways of disposing of us. Everywhere is cold due to the refreezing. So their disposal was to place them outside to freeze to death. But the society roamed about the streets to gather the children. So I was retrieved, and raised in the society.
For years I was raised in the society as an orphan. The president's daughter was a good friend of mine. The president saw our friendship and took me under her wing. They became like the family I never had.
Jailee was the president's daughter. Both of our other halves, we thought they had died. We were each other's closest friends. But one day I felt my necklace get warmer.
Warmer and warmer it got. I was sixteen when he came. His name was Edward. Jailee got jealous that I found happiness, and we grew apart. But I had Ed, so I was happy.
We were in love. Much in love. Everything was better. We got married as soon as we turned eighteen. We were so happy. We even decided to adopt three years after our marriage.
But I lost him. The government sometimes kept our people, and experimented on them. We were helping kids escape and the guards were close behind. Eddie knew we weren't going to escape without a distraction. And he was that distraction.
He died saving us. And for me, I went rogue. I became the known criminal you all here of."
I don't know what it is, but I can't make myself stop crying. Shane though, shows no emotion. He wipes the tears off my face. He picks me up in a bride's cradle, and lays me down in the bed.
When I wake again, I discover it to only be two hours since Shane had laid me down.
I creep out of bed, and grab a light robe. It dangles and clutches at my feet. I walk out of the door with a candle in a little dish.
I walk the halls, marveling at the artwork I have never seen. I run my hand along the walls.
My hand must have caught against a button of some sort, because a door gives away.
There is a warmly lit passageway. I wonder if I should go in, or to go back to my room. My curiosity wins the better of me though.
Taking a deep breath, I push the door open all the way, and enter the corridor.