Chapter 15: At Death's Door

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Our last hope was gone, and a few days later we were racking our brains. It was July 29, and Chris was scheduled to die in two days. After Ruler's announcement yesterday, these next two days promised to be worse than they were already going to be. I'll give you a hint, though. He kept his promise.

The strangest thing, though, was that through all the commotion, Chris somehow managed to stay calm, never crying or shouting, or completely breaking down. Which is crazy since that's all Melanie has been doing since she officially found out it was mandatory for her to watch Chris' death.

Why, yes, ladies and gentleman. Ruler has thought of a way to make an already nerve wracking and sorrowful day even worse. It was bad enough that watching was an option, worse that it was mandatory.

It happened the day before. Ric and I were hanging in the Penz quietly, careful to avoid any obvious signs that Supernaturals were in the Penz. We were sitting in my masking taped corner, trying to think of a way to help Chris. Because it was a unanimous decision that we were not just going to lethim die. No matter how many times he insisted that trying to save him 'wasn't worth it', or 'completely impossible'. He was Ric's best friend. Melanie's brother. And part of my everything. There, I've admitted it.

I'll admit that Ric, Chris, and Melanie are everything to me. They are literally all I have, and I refuse to let anyone or anything take any of them away from me. Not even the all-powerful Ruler. Chris won'tdie. He can't. A world without Chris would be so...cold. And hateful. Chris brought life and hope and joy into a group of wary humans. He brought light and knowledge into a couple of poorly misinformed Supernaturals. He even helped to get a pretentious werewolf to open his eyes a little wider (with my help, of course). A world without Chris is a world unimaginable.

So we all refused to imagine it. Everyone except Chris of course. And it was as Ric and I were plotting all kinds of crazy ideas (become nomads or make an underground utopia only two of them) that the door to the Penz opened.

Normally, this was no big deal. Even with stress of our outlaw living, humans came and went all the time. The fact that it might be a Supernatural was pretty much nonexistent during the day when they had their own lives to live. And since it was so close to execution day, Hill and Bill had been reassigned.

So Ric and I were completely unprepared for the sudden silence. We looked up from our paper of horribly impossible ideas, and followed the direction of everyone's gaze. It was familiar too. One I hadn't seen in a long time. It was a gaze full of hate, and distrust. It was the gaze they had first turned on Ric and I that night we stopped by for Chris' birthday dinner, that night so many weeks ago. I hadn't see it since they decided to trust us, and seeing it again made me wonder what could have caused it again.

Despite Ric's protests, I stood up to get a better view of the open door. There, in the halo of light cast by the afternoon sun, stood Selene Bloodz. Bloodz was her vampire surname, of course, but she'd never looked so much like a vampire as she did that moment. There was something fierce and determined about her. Her eyes were searching and when she saw me, standing by Ric in a corner, she walked over, completely ignoring the hateful glares of the humans she passed.

"Sly, Ruler has ordered a meeting in the town square. All Supernaturals and their Assignments are to come, it's mandatory." she said once we were in earshot.

It might have been petty, but it bugged me that she was the one to tell me. Normally this stuff was broadcast over the speakers that were wired through the city. Everywhere except at the Penz, of course. But I put that to the side and asked her, "How did you know to come here to tell us?"

"Well, I ran into Bones, who was on his way to tell you himself, but I figured you'd rather hear it from me." she answered, which was true. I wondered how Bones knew, and why neither of them had turned us in as law breakers, but those weren't the most pressing questions. "When does it start?" I asked.

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