The Prince of Arc - Part I

Chapter 6 - Borders: Home of Skylar Rains

6.

I woke up to see our room still dark. I turn my head so I'm facing Cam and the rest of the room. My eyes move to the window. For some reason, the whole window was blocked off with a big piece of cardboard. I see light coming off the sides of the cardboard. I get up and lift it off the window to see broad daylight. I see a clock above the window. It's actually 11:15.

"Cam," I walked over to him to wake him up. "Wake up, was this piece of cardboard on the window last night?" I ask, holding it in front of me.

"I don't remember, it was dark." He says, rolling away from me to put his back to the light.

"Well get up, it's already 11:15."

"Is Henry still here?" He asks.

"Oh yeah, Henry!" I say, running out of our room, then outside. I look over the edge of the concrete wall. There's no car. "He's gone," I shout, walking back into the house. Why was there cardboard in front of the window?

"So this was covering up the whole window? When did it get there?" I see Cam look at me, holding the cardboard. "Did Henry put it there?"

"Why would he do that?"

"Well, he was acting weird last night..."

"He's a special agent, they always act weird. And he told us he was leaving. And he gave us time. If he didn't want us to get up early enough to catch him before he left, he would have not told us. We would've slept in. We did sleep in."

"Well we don't have our suitcases."

"We'll be fine till he comes back," I say, turning away from Cam. The kitchen here is just a bunch of old, worn down cabinets. "Are you hungry?" I ask.

"Yeah," Cam responds, walking out of our room. I search every cabinet to find nothing but dust bunnies and peeling paint.

"Looks like we are going to the market for breakfast," I say, turning away from the empty cabinets.

"You got money?"

"Yeah, I told my mom to put some in my pants." Reaching into my pants pocket, I pull out the cash I have.

"Ok, let's go."

We walk out of the house and down to the street. Guessing the direction of where the market is, we choose to go back down the hill Henry drove up last night. Once we get to the bottom, we are able to smell the food of the market, and decide to follow the scent. Eventually, we see a bunch of people gathering in a big opening in the middle of our neighborhood filled with tents.

As we approach the tents, I notice everyone looks like they haven't bathed in a long time. Everyone besides Cam and I have either dirt on their face, clothes, or belongings. Everyone too notices the difference between how Cam and I look and how they look. They all quiet down and glance our way.

And we end up attracting exactly what we need to avoid- attention. The tension of their stares only grows as we come closer to the tent with vegetables.

"Derek! Marcus! Over here!" A female voice calls from somewhere behind the starrers. "I told you I was working the clothes tent today! Why are you guys by the vegetables?" I am able to find where their voice is coming from and I turn to look in its direction. "Ok people, how do you expect them to find me if you're all blocking their view? Come on now, move along." And with that, everyone goes back to their own business. Once they all move out of the way, I see a stranger that looks like all of the other citizens here waving her hand towards Cam and I. She looks to be in her mid 40's because her darker hair has some strands of gray in it. She must be another agent, I think grabbing Cam's arm and walking towards her. He follows my lead and walks in her direction too.