A Portal To Truths...

Hide In Places and Seek The Truths

Looking around the Inn, there wasn't much to tell. It reminded me of a Bed and Breakfast with a homely comforting feel, but not enough to relieve me of the anxiety I had. We may have escaped that chase, but it wouldn't be long before another arose.
Petra zapped her eyes around and panicked "There's nowhere to hide!!" This was strangely out of character for her.
Milo took a deep breath and turned around and stared at us. He spoke louder than the commotion that was happening outside "So before I take you two further, I want you to swear to an oath. You must swear to never reveal what I am about to show you"
The way he spoke was with such calmness and senerity, that it was like he had almost forgotten that you know WE WERE BEING HUNTED DOWN.
Calm Jesse. You're supposed to be the hero.
Oh who am I kidding? A hero would've fought back there and you ran off like a coward.
"What?!" Petra exclaimed, distancing me from my self depressing thoughts.
"Do you swear it?" He asked.
"Look Milo are you gonna help us or what?!" I groaned. I was too agitated by now.
"Only if you swear it!"
"Fine I fricking swear it!"
Petra watched me wide eyed but concerned for a moment (I noticed from the corner of my eye). Milo nodded.
"Okay, that'll do" He tilted his head to the left and nodded at a man in a tux "Fellipe!"
From behind the counter, Fellipe pulled a lever. I turned back to see the wall dissapearing to reveal... A secret hideout?
Clever.
"Right this way!" He guided me and Petra inside before the doors momentarily shut behind us. This place was impressive - we peered over the balcony to see a fairly decent sized amount of people working with various materials with lots of crafting tables. Milo announced proudly "This, is Build Club"
He continued on "Everything you see are resources that my people have built or uh obtained"... Stolen, basically.
"Man, can't be easy to come by some of this stuff"
Well no shit sherlock Petra, they're living the sky. I restrained from rolling my eyes to instead reply to Milo "It's a cool hideout."
He frowned slightly for a second "It is not a hideout" He smiled "It is Build Club - You see, a long time ago I was just a citizen of Sky City like any other and I wanted to make a community garden. So I put in a petition for a dirt block and mercy me! It was granted. But in my excitement and haste to build it, I accidently dropped my block and it fell right off the edge. Into the void"

Wow. The way he was telling his story with such conviction, I would've almost felt sorry for him. I mean, sure it's sad you lost a dirt block but that is not the worst thing in the world you can lose - not by a long shot. But I guess that was just the agitated side of me kicking in. Thinking of the Amulet again had reminded me of Reuben. Well not reminded. He was always there, the thought of him just took more of a dominant role in my thoughts.

"For my crime.. I was tossed into the Founders dungeons.."
"Wow. Sounds bad."
Oops. I sounded too facetious there. Petra noticed and cleared her throat "Um, Jesse? Mind if I have a quick word?"
I wanted to say yes, I did mind. But I needed something to relieve me from the story before I got myself too wound up. Milo nodded "I shall meet the both of you down there in a second" He walked off, leaving us alone up on the balcony.

She stood in front of me, with her arms folded. Instead of her usual moody scowl when she knew something was up, she looked more worried.
"Jesse, we need to talk"
"I know that's why you pulled me aside"
Was that not obvious? She furrowed her brows in slight annoyance with me.
"Yeah but- well actually that's what I wanna start with. What's up with you?"
Seriously?
Was she SERIOUSLY going to ask me that? I almost scoffed.
"Well I mean, we're basically trapped in here, hiding from some pesky guards and an obnoxious founder. Oh and also the one person who thinks he can beat us at everything!"

I couldn't mask this anger anymore. Keeping it all inside did not help - it made it worse. And maybe now was the brinking point of explosion.
"Come on Jesse, we've been in worse situations than this. We'll fix it, we always do."
"You mean, I fix it. Like I always have to do. And always fail."
Okay that sounded too dramatic. She shook her head "I didn't realise you were that competitive Jesse. More so than me."

Was she not getting ANYTHING?!
"Oh yeah, because you have me all figured out don't you-"
"What?"
"-you, you think you can just near enough break me and then reappear and act like everything is okay after a month of abandoning what are supposed to be your "friends" in this stupid heroic order and then think you can critique me over a problem, that the mighty Petra might find minescuele but what others find a huge problem!"

She stared at me. Now she really didn't have me figured out. A few people at the top of the balcony noticing my shouting. She looked from side to side before whispering

"Jesse.. In case you have forgotten, I didn't want to abandon you all but you - YOU gave me no choice. I am sorry that I couldn't give you what you wanted and I am sorry for being the person that I am, but don't make me out to be the bad guy here because I am not."

Her words crushed me. They made my heart ache because deep down, she was right. But my pride was too strong and my emotions were too bitter. I snapped "No, you're not the bad guy. You know, you blame Ivor for everything that he does, but in reality Petra he is just like you. Cocky, arrogant and hot headed. But at least he has feelings and decency for people around him."

I began to walk away to find Milo again when her words stabbed me in my back like a knife.
"I'm the bad guy because I don't have feelings for you?"

(</3 hi, note from the Author. Thanks for the love on this fanfic! Don't worry Jesstra fans, things will change.. or won't they? ;))