The Ordinance

Chapter 11 - Natalia

Before I start this chapter, I want to thank you for coming this far! I'm really excited to share this one with you guys (;
Also, I *strongly* urge you to comment after you finish. Tell me what you think as you were finishing, and tell me what you think of Jackson and Natalia. <3
Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading my story and happy holidays too!

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Natalia walked out of the solitary room having absorbed what Isabelle said, but her mind also being somewhere completely different. Having to answer Isabelle's questions had brought painful memories to the surface once more, but she'd had to do it. She couldn't let Jackson be captured, or worse - killed. She walked up the stairwell just like she had the day before, her heart beating fast and angry, sad thoughts coming to her mind. She just wanted to shout - at everyone, everything.

She sat down suddenly on the step closest to her. She registered that Jackson was sitting next to her too. A look filled with a million different meanings passed between them. He put an arm around her, but that made her even more frantic.

The light seemed to get dimmer around her. She could feel her heartbeat in every part of her - it wouldn't stop. Her hands were shaking badly. She willed them to stop, but they refused. Her breathing was shallow. The air felt thinner even though the elevation hadn't changed.

She looked at Jackson, pleading with him to make it stop, but he just held her tighter.

The Renegades.

Their Leader.

Murder.

Witch.

Servant to the Crown.

She was sitting on her bed, wiping tears from her face. A shorter, shaggier Maxon was standing in front of her.

"She CHOSE to leave, Natalia!" He screamed.

"She wouldn't," She wept, letting her tear fall freely now.

"Come to terms with it, Natalia! She left us! She left her people behind, too! She doesn't even deserve to have children!" He threw up his hands, shouting.

"Shut up, Maxon! You KNOW she loved us!" She shouted back, standing up across from him now.

"Obviously not," he said under his breath.

Her eyes widened and she threw out her hands. A searing arrow of fire breached the space between them, and Maxon fell backwards in an attempt to dodge it.

"Knock it off, Natalia!"
"GET OUT!" He stood up and looked at her, dumbfounded. "I said GET OUT!"

Her arms burst into flames, and the silk of her nightgown started to burn. Maxon stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

She sat down on her floor and continued to weep. She didn't bother trying to put out the flames, they wouldn't hurt her anyways.

She watched a tear splash onto her floor, and remembered that her mother had given her the nightgown as a twelfth birthday present.

It was almost two months later now, and the leaves had begun to fall off the trees in the courtyard. She was walking in circles around it with Lakeland jogging happily beside her.

Suddenly, a high-pitched whistle blew for a count of three seconds. Lakeland took off running in the direction of the woods; that was his command whistle. He reached the end of the courtyard quickly with Natalia trailing behind at a slightly slower pace. At the outskirts of the courtyard was a fence as tall as Natalia, with woods just beyond it. No one had ever climbed it before, but with another blow of the whistle, Lakeland jumped the fence like a racehorse.