A Million Pieces

Chapter 14

Hi guys! Sorry for not updating regularly. I have plenty of time on my hands in the next few days so hopefully I will have another chapter by the end of the week. Hope this chapter is good!

The next day went like a breeze. I mostly stayed in the room Aurora let us sleep in. When I wasn't there, I was in the library I found when I was wondering around. It wasn't big, but there were a lot of books in the room. I took a few back with me and read for most of the day. Both Izzy and James tried to get me to eat, but I wasn't hungry.

I was just finishing another book when a knock came at the door.

"Zoë?" To my surprise, it was Aurora's voice that came through the door. I struggled into a sitting position.

"Come in." The cracked open slowly and she stepped in. She flicked on the light on the wall next to her. I had a small lamp next to me for reading light.

If I had expected Aurora to come sit next to me, I was wrong. She stayed where she was.

"Is everything okay?"

"I should be asking you the same thing." Her voice was uncharacteristically worried and firm. I sighed and remember what I promised myself.

"I have an injury and haven't been up for much walking.  Actually, I was wondering if you could have a look at it for me. I saw a medical certificate in the kitchen."

An unreadable look crossed her face.

"Okay. I didn't think anyone would have seen that. It's really old. It was my mothers, actually. She taught me what she could." Now she crossed the room and sat down next to me. I realised it was the first time she had brought up her parents. "Show me."

For a moment I just looked at her. I couldn't help but notice how little she looked like Hayden.

Slowly, I unraveled the bandage I had out  on after yesterday.

When Aurora saw it she gasped.

"Oh, Zoë! What on earth happened?" I paused. I hadn't actually thought about what I would say if she asked me that question.

"Um, I-it was......" she raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I didn't really notice it when I first got here, but it was there. I think it happened at the......" I trailed off, and she knew what I meant. She said nothing, just got up and left the room. I sighed and leaned back on the bed. I could help but think about when James had told me he had seen mum and dad. It was the first time he had seen them. He had described them as animals. They looked like animals. They behaved like animals. They weren't my parents anymore. If they were, I now I would have more if an education, not just the reading and writing lessons I got from the prison when I was little. They stop tutoring you when you got to seven years old.

That day seemed to have changed something in James. Since then he had never asked about them, spoke about them, and didn't want to leave the cell. He had been more mature, in a way too.

Aurora coming back into the room broke me out of my head. She was holding a large medical kit. I recognised it from the prison. They had them around at times.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to have to put salve on it. That should help with the pus and swelling. It's also going to hurt, a lot." She looked at me and I saw the question in her eyes; are you okay with this? I nodded. She turned away and opened the medical kit with a loud crack. Inside were small draws, all of which were visibly full of small bottles, bandages, small packets and medical tools I didn't recognise. Aurora shuffled around in the box for a moment before pulling out bandages, fluffy white balls and a bottle full of dark liquid. She opened the bottle and poured some of the liquid onto the white balls.

"Ready?" She asked. I gripped the bed and prepared for the worst.

"Yes."

**********

Despite being on the other side of the house from her room, which he was grateful for, Hayden could still hear her screams. He figured she had gone to his half-sister to get help for her toe. Still, the screams were unnerving him, and for some bizarre reason, he wanted nothing more than to go to her. He still had no idea why he felt the way he did. He hardly knew Zoë at all. And her and her siblings had been here just short of a week. He hardly ever saw Isabelle and James. He didn't even know if they still remembered he lived here at all. He never went to eat with the others and Aurora had given him an earful about his manners.

"You are being so utterly disrespectful!" She had yelled at him. "They are broken and lost, probably traumatised from spending their lives in a high security prison! And you just act like you don't even care all the time!" He had been so tempted to yell back that he didn't, but that wasn't true. Some part of him believed Zoë's story; why else would they have been in a cave, alone, at night, and wearing prison clothes. He hadn't let on that he had recognised what they had been wearing.

A knock at his surfaced him from his thoughts. It surprised him. The knock came again. Reluctantly, he got up off his bed and put the book he was holding down. His room, as always, was dimly lit, but he knew his way around. The knock came once more as he stood at the door. He flung it opened and gasped with surprise. Isabelle and James stood in front of his door, Isabelle's hand still raised slightly from knocking. He recovered himself quickly, and his face changed from surprised to his normal look, annoyed, bored, and just said 'go away'.

"What?" He said impatiently. James dropped his eyes and took a step back behind Isabelle. Isabelle, though, stood taller and set her shoulders, as if determined not to be fazed by him.

"Aurora sent us to you. She needs your help." She said, her little voice was firm, but he could hear the fear underneath.

"Why? I thought she was with-" He choked. He sucked in a breath of air, unsure of himself.

"Why?" He said again, firmer this time.

"I think she needs you to get something. She is trying to help Zoë but I don't think she has the right thing. She needs something. Please, Hayden. For Zoë." She looks at me, and in her I see a small Aurora. Determined, but worried about a sibling. One of the only things she has left in this world.

"Fine." Her face lit up.

"Come with us. They are in the room we are sleeping in." She turned and began to walk away. I was glad, too, as she couldn't see that I winced when she said the last thing. More than anything, I didn't want to go to the place Zoë slept. Isabelle saw my hesitation.

"Come on!" She called. I could just see James in front of her. Reluctantly, I stepped out into the corridor and shut my bedroom door behind me. I tired not to focus on my surroundings on the way there, as not to remember it. I focussed on the cold stone beneath my feet instead.