Breaking the Chains

Chapter Three

The room kept getting cooler and cooler after every passing second, and Riley was getting frustrated. She hated silence, and whenever it came she'd usually sing to distract her from what mess came before she got all alone. Her eyes shut and she leaned her head back against the wall, and as thoughts only focused on Alison, Riley completely forgot about the guy chained up in the room.

One of her hands made their way to the other's wrist and she felt for the thick indent that was once there. She felt only three lines, and she knew exactly how she got them, but if anyone asked, she was supposed to say she did it to herself.

Slowly, both of her hands returned to each side of her and she felt the nervousness around her sink in like every other time. There was things she could say, and things she couldn't, but sometimes it was hard to know which was which. Hesitantly, as if she had lost all safety without singing, she opened her mouth and let out her beautiful voice her parents would listen to during choir recitals when she was thirteen.

"Don't you dare look out your window, darling everything's on fire," her soft voice vibrated on the last word of that part, and though whenever she smiled in the past whenever she sang, an emotionless frown stayed glued on.  The room around her seemed to echo her voice ever so slightly as she continued in her quiet singing voice, and no thought of the guy came to mind as she did.

Eli almost jumped at the sudden noise, but it was so quiet he had to almost hold his breath to hear it. He let his thoughts take him away as he listened to the girl's soft voice carry across the room.

"The war outside our door keeps raging on." Ah, he had heard this song before.  Some of the people he hung around had sung this song. Actually, there were a lot of singers back home. They said it was for entertainment because they were bored, but he knew they just loved to sing. The younger ones liked to sing songs they had heard around and Nona had sung often when at home.

Nona was like the village's granny; she was greatly respected and was extremely wise. Though Eli wouldn't exactly call it a village as it was much too small for that, more like a hamlet. There were a couple of old buildings but mostly everyone slept together in the large office building they had turned into a house. There were several rooms as well as kitchens and bathrooms. He shared a room with four other guys who he could even consider his own brothers. It felt more like a large family, though very few were actually related by blood. The building used to be owned by a company that made cashew labels for cans and boxes, just cashews. It was very strange actually and he wasn't surprised when they went under.

Nona told stories of when she was a little girl. Her parents were part of a group that took over the area, since it was mostly abandoned anyway, and now years later there were twenty four people, well twenty six if Marmie had her twins while she was away. Some of the adults had jobs and earned a steady living, though many young teens like himself had settled to stealing and pick pocketing. He had started when he was quite young, following the lead of the older kids as he learnt. Now he was one of the better ones, as many of his seniors had moved on to make an honest living. Eli was young, barely seventeen, he wasn't ready to settle down and have a family, though he guessed first he'd need someone to actually settle down with. He wasn't planning on living his life alone, he'd just never found someone he was interested enough in to start anything.

The girl's singing softened down and eventually faded, mixing in with the comfortable silence. Suddenly he was struck with a thought. 

"You're stuck here too." It wasn't a question; he knew now.

The comment sent Riley to complete silence. Her eyes shot open and immediately she stared at the guy in fear. No one was supposed to know that, it was something that was instructed for her not do tell. Her hands slowly began to shake as the fear bubbled up inside of her to the point where she just wanted to puke.