Eternal Flame

Chapter 7

Jackson

The place erupts into conversations as soon as the mystery girl walks out of the Dome with the sobbing boy in hand. Strangers are talking to each other as if they are friends and not enemies, discussing the identity of the girl. It isn't until the guards threaten to shoot that everyone starts quieting down. Kids return to their stations, and the Dome goes back to only having silence as their fear in this enclosed space.

I'm about to go back to my station when Taylor reaches for my arm. She gently tugs me to the opposite direction- to where the suspension glass lies, broken- and for some reason, I don't resist. Kyle follows us, silent as we near the pink and purple pieces of glass that now lie on the marble floor. Liquid is spilled onto the smooth ground, and a small object lies within the puddle.

I bend over to get a better look at the object that used to be encased in the colorful glass, but as soon as my eyes are focused on the tiny shape of the item, I jerk back, losing balance and teetering on the heels of my feet for a second before Taylor tightens her grip on my arm, steadying me.

I'm afraid to look at it again.

"What the hell..." Kyle breaths out, his voice barely audible.

I force my eyes to examine the object once more.

In the puddle of liquid is a creature made out of metal, like a figurine. The head of a creature to be exact. Its features are menacing but sharp and dangerous at the same time. It has a mane, like a lion, strips of black like a tiger, and the shape of its head is like a horse.

But the eyes.

Its eyes are shaped like an owl, large and round, and just like an owl, it has a look of a predator: deadly. The color of its eyes are a disturbingly dark shade of jade, staring back at us with such intensity it feels as if it might come alive at any second and pounce because it has been in that glass for so long. Too long that it wants revenge on those who imprisoned it in there, revenge on the bystanders who stood there, staring at the little head of a poor creature. The eyes give this thing  a whole new definition of scary, and that's what originally made me drop it back onto the ground, as if holding it might somehow endanger myself.

Now that my eyes are trained on the creature, it cannot be teared away from it. I keep staring at its eyes, the shape and colour and intensity of it.

But then Taylor speaks, and it takes me a lifetime to break my eyes away from the little creature that used to be a captive in the pink and purple glass.

"I've seen it before," she whispers, and I wonder why we feel the need to stay as quiet as possible around our new discovery. "I've seen it on one of Burton's soldiers."

I am puzzled at the familiarity of the name, but then remember. The prime minister, sometimes called the official for short. Of course. No one calls him by his last name, but always Mr. President, and it has been said so many times that I have almost forgotten he has a name.

"It was like a pin," Her eyes are focused on an invisible spot on the wall as she continues. "He was wearing it on his arm. It was a pin that held his left arm's sleeves upright and rolled up. The pin was so tiny and similar to the one on his right arm it's impossible to identify unless you look close enough."

"Interesting, but are you sure it was this  creature?" Kyle asks softly, then as if surprised by his own tone of voice, clears his throat. "I mean, you said it was small."

Taylor looks back at the head and nods. "the eyes are unforgettable."

I am suddenly aware of her hand gripping my biceps, and her body is shaking slightly.