The Caste - On Hold, major edits and title change.

Chapter Three *Edited*

"Corvus, can you hear me?" As the neon light of the signs on the old buildings shone brighter along the alleyways, Ardelia realized how long ago Corvus left the slums to Belle Isle. He should have returned hours ago.

"Two and a half hours left until curfew; we are running out of time. Corv, if you miss curfew, there will be hell to pay!" The whole slum would pay, and their punishment would be her and Corvus' fault.

She sat in front of her tent, playing with the brass buttons on her corset top that concealed a transmitter in the top button. His lack of response sickened her. The echo of barking dogs and children at play did nothing to ease her fear.

I hope that transmitter I hid in your sunglasses is working. Fuck, I hope the Caste didn't catch you...

"Corv, please answer me," Ardelia yelled into her chest.

No answer came back to her.

Awesome, they caught him, and they will come for me next... Camlin is going to kill me. I guess I need to tell him what I talked our thiefly friend into doing.

Camlin would be pissed, and Ardelia knew he would ground her again, but she was getting used to that. She was an innocent troublemaker and often found herself in situations she seemed to stumble upon. This time, she had been the cannon that shot out the trouble bullet.

Camlin was much older and wiser than she was. He had taught her the ins and outs of the mechanical world and had taught her how to hack. She valued his friendship and had a profound respect for her mentor. Friendship was an understatement. Camlin had become her father over the last ten years. He had found her crying, sitting alone in front of her parents' shack, their murdered bodies lay behind her, covered in their own blood and feces.

Ardelia was nervous about what Camlin's reaction would be when she told him what Corvus was doing. He would know what to do, he always did. Camlin bailed her out of all of her mistakes.

Ardelia walked down the back alley behind the Joe, checking to make sure no one was watching her. Many of the poor were in their tents tending to their families, sleeping in the alleyway or old abandoned cars. An old man with a newspaper over his face was sleeping inside of a blue dumpster, and the stench made her gag. The smell reminded her of her parents, lying cold and dead... She reached in to check the old man for a pulse.

"Hey!" He sat up, grabbing her arm, his fingers dug deep into her flesh.

"Sorry, I was checking to see if you were all right," Ardelia said, trying to pull herself away from him.

The old man let her arm go. "Lying little bitch. You were just checking to see if I was dead so you could steal my shit." He stood up and climbed out of the dumpster.

"You have nothing to steal. Besides, it smells... Who would want it anyway?" Ardelia snapped, rubbing her arm where the old man had grabbed her.

The old man mumbled as he walked away, looking for another dumpster to sleep in. He climbed into the dumpster and flipped up a dirty middle finger at Ardelia.

"Nice, I know I am number one!"

"You tell Camlin to keep his brat in line before something bad happens to it." The old man sat down pulling trash around him like a blanket.

"Whatever," Ardelia waited for the old man to settle into the dumpster.

When she was certain he was no longer watching her, she crawled behind the dumpster on hands and knees, pressing herself against the wall of the old arena. Ardelia struggled as she lifted the rusty manhole cover that led to Camlin's secret lab. She climbed inside like a person on a mission, missing half the rungs on the wall. She fell to the floor of Camlin's lab with a crash.