Fight For Life

Chapter Three: Missing

"Gem, Gem, where are you?" I look wild, running through the eerily silent room. Ok, ok. Gem is missing. Gem is missing! Oh my God. Oh my God. What am I going to do?

Ten Minutes Ago:

A breeze follows me through the door, and I blow on my hands. Thank God Gem always has a cup of hot chocolate waiting for me these days.

"Thank you so much!" Waltzing into the kitchen, I'm singing. I love Gem so much, right after hunting, when a cup of cocoa is running through me. There isn't an answer, what? The room is dim, with a still silence sitting stagnent. As always, the room is spotless, there isn't a speck of dust, but for whatever reason there is a certain emptyness. "Gem, haha. Very funny. You can come out now." Sometimes Gem likes to scare me like this. She'll hide, and laugh, while i basicalley have a heart attack.

"Gem, I said come out now!" Wow. No cup of chocolate, sister playing a prank on me. This is just not my day. "This isn't funny. Gem? Gem?" OK, well this isn't right. Gem never keeps the act up this long. I wander around, letting my footsteps reverberate through the corridors. She isn't here.

This brings us up to around when you came into our story.

I'm frantically calling, I must sound hysterical. Honestly I don't know what to do. How do I go to neighbors and say I lost my sister? That would get us reported in a heartbeat. I can't do anything, so I'm just staring blankly into space, when the door creaks open. I know its Gem, or a governor here to take me away. How do they already know about us? I'm frozen in place.

"Hey." Its Gem, thank God. She's home and alive.

"Where the heck did you go Gem?" I can't help it, I'm already yelling. How could my sister just leave me here? She could have died!

"Aurora, calm down!"

"How am I supposed to calm down? I came home and you were gone! Do you have any idea what was going through my mind? We're you mugged, beaten, kidnapped, tortured?" Okay, so maybe all that is just a tad extreme, but seriously! Anything could have happened to Gem.

"Well, obviously I wasn't," annoyance colors Gem's voice, which is only serving to incense me more.

"Oh, really, now. So where were you?" My voice is coming out fast, angry. "Why are you avoiding the question?"

"I'm not! Aurora chill!" Gem still hasn't answered the question. "If you must know, I was at a friends' house."

"Oh, so who's this 'friend'" I roll my eyes, emphasizing sarcasm on friend.

"Why? You don't think I have friends? Well, news flash! Just because you don't have a life, doesn't mean I don't!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" My hands are on my hips, I definitely have a life! Don't I?

"Let's see," Gem's ticking off her list on her fingers, "Your day: wake up, go hunting, come home, sleep. I'm not seeing a friend anywhere in this." She smiles, she knows she's won. I instantly deflate, she's right. I don't have a single friend anymore because it was a necessity for life. I don't want to lose to Gem though, no one dreams of losing to their little sister.

"Well, well.... hunting is what feeds you, so stop complaining! And..." I try to add some fevor to my words to make her feel bad, "that's not the point! The point is.... you didn't tell me where you were going!" Even to myself, this sounds like a ridiculous demand, like someone trying to revive a dying battle. I'm not her mom, I'm her sister. Even when mom was here we never had to tell her where we were all day, everyday.

"If you must know every miniscule detail of my life, I was at Rosalinda's." Cold enough to freeze me further, Gem's voice scares me. I'm shocked at how much my sister has grown in the last month, she sounds like an adult in a child's body.

"I need to know Gem, if I'm going to keep us both alive." This is when I see the crack in Gem's armor. Thick tears start to pour down her face as she runs to her room. She doesn't want to think about the other option, of dying.

"It's like I'm not even free anymore. You're just like the Royale." I stand, stock still. Her words hit home. Am I just as bad as our government?