Nada's Escape

13 - Poisonous.

"It was lovely of Percival to organise the table and the food." Liza, the second initiate, nods to Macie's decrepit sponsor. My stare brushes past the honey wood table without expression, mapping the position of each Huntsmen.

The rest of the congregation sits in the sun outside the marquee at the dinted folding tables that serve Seven's inmates for all their meals. I managed to score a seat far from Finley but unfortunately slap bang in-between Macie and Penny, leaving me eye to eye with the cold ceremony leader.

He pours me a glass of pink lemonade and I assess his hostage potential. If he goes to the loo maybe we can ambush him, so long as I can get that message to Amy and the three musketeers. I ignore the gracious babble at the other end of the table and fake smile at the ceremony leader.

"Only if you have some." I try to match one of Macie's sickly-sweet smiles. He remains disapproving but lifts his glass in a half-toast before bringing it to his lips. That's right, keep drinking, while I just duck off to organise this ambush.

I take one long gulp to satiate my thirst before I stand and my chair clatters to the ground behind me. As the whole courtyard stares at my unsubtle escape I glare at the useless dainty thing. My face flushes with embarrassment despite myself. I right the chair and storm off to the toilet block. Sure enough, munching on stolen croissants I find my fighters, the only sane people around here.

I whisper my hasty plan, grinning for real at the fiery looks on their faces. Energy and action is our forte.

Leaving the toilet block, Finley's eyes are glued to me and I grit my teeth. With a plan of action in place my mind is clear. I know what Finley's been trying on me the last couple of days and I am not going to let him distract me anymore. I return to my seat to see that the ceremony leader is refilling his glass. Good, I smile secretly.

"Why are you smiling like your about to trash something?" Macie whispers in my ear. As I turn to reply an amused smirk greets me.

"Some people have more to smile about than others," I reply, maintaining the smile.

"You should have sat with Finley," she replies, loud enough for the whole table to hear. Finley, like a gentleman, pretends not to hear. I have several barbs on the tip of my tongue when I'm interrupted by a thump on my right.

Macie is out of her gilded chair before I can even turn around, lifting Penny's face out of her cake.

Macie gives the table an apologetic smile, "Time for a trip to the ladies room." She helps a stumbling Penny out of her seat and turns to me.

"Nada?" She commands. I blink for two seconds as they stumble back into the sunlight. Then I understand. I stand, catching my chair before it tumbles over behind me, and jog after them. When I get a good look at Penny's face I understand a bit more. Her normally caramel skin is almost as pale as the cream smeared across her forehead and a green sheen glints eerily at me.

"What's wrong with her?" I ask as we get into the toilet block, Penny stumbling against me. Macie meets my eyes over Penny's head. She looks haunted but in control.

"I don't know. It could be poison." I feel my eyes widen. No, surely things like this happen to normal teenage girls all the time?

"Maybe she just fainted?" I pose.

"And maybe she drank too much of that lemonade without eating her food." Macie retorts. I feel Penny heave in my arms and hear her groan. The thought of the lemonade doesn't sit well with me. Surely not.

Then sick splatters from Penny's mouth onto my shirt, newly borrowed. I almost shriek like a worm. It is a sticky clear, green and fluoro yellow mess that hangs like torn taffeta from the hem, dripping onto my legs and the floor. Penny collapses onto her knees and I suddenly have the foresight to grab her arms and drape her over a sink before she retches more of her stomach into the world.

"Okay. Okay." I say, trying hold my breath and speak at the same time. "That looks like lemonade. And that only happens when you have a severe stomach bug."

"So poison lemonade." Macie confirms, hurriedly scraping Penny's hair out of the way. "You'll need to hold her hair back. Like this. I need to go and warn Liza."

"Wait- you can't leave me here like this." I protest.

"I can. You're covered in vomit." She says as she sweeps out of the bathroom. Penny's heaving takes a break and she closes her pained eyes against the wall tiles. I turn on the tap, trying to wash the smell from the air and my clothes.

The more I watch the vomit refuse to let go of my clothes, the more the poison story doesn't make sense. Who would want to poison Penny? She is already as enthralled as a vegetable, already sworn to be entirely loyal to the Huntsmen. She is like a butterfly in a cage. What is the point of hurting that?

Penny is everything I desperately want to avoid becoming. Macie has spunk, in her way, and Liza is only a 12-year old girl playing dress-ups, but Penny is irrevocably enthralled. The effects on her brain and personality won't wear off, probably ever. She lives in a permanently lobotomised state thanks to too many visits spent staring into the eyes of that Huntsmen boy. Henry may act contrite now, saying he couldn't help it, but that's not an excuse I can accept. Not with such drastic consequences.

No. There's no reason any Huntsmen would target Penny. It would make more sense if a Huntsmen wanted to poison me. I've caused a lot of trouble in Seven since I arrived and I'm nearing my termination time. It makes sense to get rid of a desperate rebel.

So I must have been the target. The Huntsmen leader had poured my glass himself. Thank god I'd only taken one sip. The Huntsmen must be immune to the poison though, the leader had been practically chugging the stuff.