Watchers

Chapter 28: A Tale of Two Needles

Daniel finishes his story and by the end of it, Sasha feels like crying. She throws her arms around him and he sits like a stone, much more uncomfortable with her sympathy now than he had been in the dark.

Then she releases him and asks, "Do you think we should go downstairs? It sounds like everyone else has already left their rooms."

"What do you think is waiting down there for us?" he asks, and the question fills her with dread so much more than she expected it to.

She suddenly misses the days of waking up with her fingers and toes numb, worrying about Watcher drones discovering her in the back of a parked car or in a seldom-used alleyway. They seem like simpler times after going through the gauntlet of Father Gary's mad house only to find herself here.

Melody comes into her mind again, and Sasha quickly pushes her away. She says, "I don't know. Staying up here probably won't do us any favors, though."

"I want to start looking for a way out again," Daniel says as he gets out of bed. His hair is sticking up at odd angles and they both slept in their clothes. He adds, "I know Francie thinks it's impossible, but there's a door around here somewhere."

"I just wonder what's on the other side of it," Sasha says. She watches Daniel go over to the dresser along the opposite wall and pull out a drawer.

"There's a whole wardrobe in here," he says, pulling out a fresh pair of jeans. "I bet you've got clean clothes in your room, too."

"Yeah," Sasha says. She climbs out of bed and knows that this is a hint for her to clear out, but the idea of being separated from Daniel doesn't sit well with her. She barely knows him but he's all she has in the world right now.

Daniel seems to guess the reason for her hesitation and he says, "I'll meet you in the hall in five minutes, okay?"

She nods, then goes out of the room, pulling the door shut behind her. The hallway is empty and she can hear the other contestants downstairs, the same as yesterday. She goes to the door with her name on it and her heart rate ratchets up as she closes the door, leaving it open just a crack because she's afraid to latch it.

Sasha finds a pair of jeans and a sweater - the first two things in the top drawer - and changes into them as fast as possible. Then she goes back into the hallway, where Daniel is already waiting for her. She finds a little comfort in the fact that he must have felt the same way about leaving each other, and then they head downstairs.

Everyone is milling about, eating breakfast or watching television or chatting with each other, and there's a slight air of restlessness in the house - they're all living in limbo.

Taylor is sitting on the couch beside Erica - there's no more use in pretending like they don't know each other - and he cocks his eyebrow at Daniel and Sasha as they reach the bottom of the stairs. "You two sure slept in."

"Are we supposed to get up at a certain time?" Sasha asks. She's thinking about the numbers on the wall in the Elimination Room, wondering how many eyes are on them right now via the cameras that are located in every corner of the room.

Taylor doesn't bother to answer, but Francie comes over and is her usual chipper self as she says, "You can sleep as long as you want, but for the sake of your popularity with the audience, you should make an effort to get up and go about your day."

"Our day," Daniel sniffs. "What exactly does that entail?"

"Anything you like," Francie says. "There's the pool, the kitchen, we have yard games and a billiard table-"

"So we're just supposed to hang out all day like we're on vacation or something?" Daniel asks, cutting her off.

Francie spares a quick glance at the nearest camera, which is over Sasha's right shoulder, and says, "You're supposed to spend the week making sure everyone loves you before the next Elimination Challenge, otherwise it's going to be another hard battle for you."

"How do we do that?" Sasha asks, but Francie shrugs.

"If we knew, someone would have won by now," she says. "If I were you, I'd keep playing up the budding romance thing you two have going on."

Sasha blushes and thinks about the kiss they shared in the Elimination Room. Nothing that took place in a room where someone was sentenced to death should have the power to make her respond this way, and she feels shameful for it as Melody's face reappears in her mind. Then she shoves it away again and takes Daniel's hand.

"We can do that," she says. "Right, honey?"

"Of course, pookie bear," Daniel says.

Francie gives them a sad look and says, "If you can't do better than that, you're going home."

Then she goes into the kitchen to make herself a bowl of cereal, leaving Daniel and Sasha to figure out their day.

They spend the morning trying to act normal - there's a lot of hand-holding and it feels awkward at first, not only because they've known each other less than a week, but because they're on display for the audience like animals at a zoo. They play a few rounds of billiards just to pass the time, and every time he walks around the table to pick his next shot, Daniel whispers things to Sasha in the hopes that the cameras won't pick up his words.

He says, "The door to the outside must be in the Elimination Room - Melody was forced to stay there when the challenge was over, and that's where it makes the most sense to extract her."

Sasha shakes her head as he lines up his shot, and when he's done - a scratch - she says, "It can't be in there."

"Why not?"

"Because there's no hope inside that room," she says. "The only way we're getting inside that room is during an Elimination Challenge, and that's when they're watching us the closest."

"I know that's where it is, though," Daniel says. "It has to be."