CHAPTER 2
“What?” she asked incredulously, staring up at Tom.
He smiled at her. “Oh come on now, what did you think was going to happen when two snatchers caught you? They weren’t going to give you a slap on the wrist and send you on your way, that’s for sure. So what did you do?”
She glanced back down at her feet, drawing her knees into her chest. “I don’t understand.” She replied, burying her face into her hands.
Tom frowned. “Well you must’ve been doing something wrong. What was it, stealing bread? Out after curfew?”
“But,” she started, eyes starting to well up in her eyes. “I didn’t do anything!”
He sighed. “Fine. If you’re not going to tell us, then so be it. So what’s your name, girl?”
She glanced back up at him. “Skyla.”
“You got a last name Skyla?”
Skyla shook her head.
“Okay Skyla, welcome, pick a spot on the floor and get comfy.”
She glanced around the room at the people huddled in small groups, some talking, some fighting and some trying to get a little bit of warmth out of the tiny fire going in the corner of the room. There were about 20 people crowded into the small room, mostly young to middle aged men. Skyla noticed another young girl huddled in the corner, a scared expression in her eyes. “Who’s that?” she asked Tom quietly.
“That’s Kayshana. She got caught trying to steal bread for her family. She’s only 9, but she knows how to look after herself. Trust me, she doesn’t need your help.”
Skyla glanced down at the ground. Light coming from the tiny window, just underneath the roof bounced of a small piece of metal sitting at her feet. She bent down and tried to grab it, but the burn along her palm screamed with pain. She hissed through clenched teeth and pulled her injured hand into her body. She picked up the piece of metal with her other hand and realised that it was a small, mangled pendant. Her stomach twisted as she recognised it as something that a girl from the orphanage used to wear everywhere. She rubbed some of the dirt off the heart shaped metal work pendant as it brought back unwanted memories.
The 7 year old Skyla sat up as she heard the stairs creak. She pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders as she peered into the dark. “Who’s there?” she called out, wishing that no one would reply and that it was just the old building moaning in the wind.
Her heart leapt into her throat as another girl appeared in the doorway, finger pressed against her lips. Her breathing began to slow down when she recognised the girl as Claire, one of the older orphans.
“What are you doing?” Skyla whispered quietly as Claire made her through the massive room and over towards the window.
“I’m getting out of here.”
The younger girl’s eyes widened. “But the sun is down, its way after curfew.”
Claire spun around to glare at the girl, fire in her eyes. “I don’t care; I can’t stay here, I don’t belong here, something that a baby like you that’s always been here can’t understand!!”
Skyla flinched back at the insult and tears started to well up in her eyes. “But, the snatchers-“
“I don’t care! I’d rather go to the fights than stay here!” Claire screamed, tears beginning to stream down her face. She pulled open the window and stepped up onto the ledge. She jumped out and the next thing Skyla heard was a thump as Claire landed on the ground. Skyla run over to the window and looked out, but the girl was already nowhere to be seen. All the colour ran out of Skyla’s face when she heard a male voice sneer. “Well look at what we have here, a little kinta girl out after dark.”
“Get off me!” Claire’s determined voice said.
“Make him,” a second male voice jeered.
Skyla had slowly backed away from the window until she reached where she had been laying and where the blanket was still lying on the floor. She sat back down on the ground; tears still coming silently out of her bright green eyes. That was when she heard the first scream.
The engraved words on the heart seemed strangely familiar to Skyla, but she couldn’t quite work out what they meant. She slipped the chainless pendant inside her pants pocket and glanced back up at Tom who was giving her a weird look. “What?” she asked cautiously and flinched back when he reached out to her.
“It’s alright,” he said, gently taking her hand. “I just want to have a look at your hand.”
She slowly unclenched her hand, the burn twinging slightly.
“Wow,” Tom said, looking at the burn. “That’s bad and quite recent. What happened?”
Skyla opened her mouth to answer, but the door that she came through earlier opened and a woman walked into the cramped room. The room instantly fell quiet as everybody looked up at the woman with curiousness. “Well?” she prompted and a younger man rushed forward and handed something to her. She smiled and took a bite out of the loaf of bread.
Tom leaned over to Skyla and whispered into her ear, “This is a woman who comes here if something big has happened to the kinta. We have to pay her in food and in return she tells us what has happened.
“Okay,” she started, putting the rest of the bread in her pocket. “There was a fire last night at the kinta orphanage at the edge of the slums. No survivors and the buildings pretty much gone too.”
Skyla felt all the colour drain out of her cheeks and her legs suddenly felt weak. She collapsed to the ground, her other burns spreading pain throughout her body and drew her legs up into her chest. “No…” she whispered, glancing over to the woman, questions on her lips, but the space was empty. The woman had already left.
Tom placed his hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
“There all dead. All of them.” Tears had begun to stream down Skyla’s face and she didn’t make any move to wipe them off. She looked up numbly at Tom as he took his hand away. “Come on,” He said, offering her his hand.
She tentatively took it at let him pull her to her feet.
“Let’s get you cleaned up.”
