X-Marks: Rising Shadows

Same

It used to be I could walk anywhere and see someone.

Someone I knew. Someone I could talk to.

Now, it was hard to find anyone. Even a stranger.

I paced around the empty halls of the dorms and walked the green floors that led to nowhere. I knew I wasn't going the right way. But, if I would just walk a little bit longer, a little bit further, I would find someone. Anyone.

The rooms began to blur behind me. I couldn't keep up with myself. In one moment and a smack to the chest, I lost my breath.

The rugged thread of the carpet burned my cheeks, and a hand pulled me up from my arms. I lifted the curtain of my hair away from my eyes, and let in the harsh light of the hanging lamps above.

Mat held a deflated bag of orange colored chips. The rest were on the floor or had found a nest in my hair.

"You trying to make more a mess for your boyfriend, huh?"

Boyfriend, if you could call him that, I thought to myself as I struggled to remember the last time I had even seen Nate.

"No," I said and dusted off the crumbs from my head, "I'm trying to, nevermind -"

"What?" Mat said and pulled back, "Think I don't know something?"

"You haven't understood a thing about me since the day I met you," I said and struggled to stand.

"Evee," Mat said and lifted me from the ground, "Did you ever want anyone to understand you?"

I stared at him, feeling for once exposed in front of him like I was a magician with nothing left in my bag of tricks. Mat was dumb, but not clueless.

"Yeah, well maybe cause I knew better," I said and looked at the numbers above the doors.

I was closer to my dorm than I thought.

"Well now, you have your chance," Mat said and began to follow me to my dorm.

"Okay," I said and continued to walk, "Your mom and you. I bet it's been just great since you found each other."

"Yeah, it has," Mat said, "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Well maybe it isn't the same for the rest of us," I said and stopped walking to cross my arms.

"I said it's been great," Mat said and stopped to face me, "But I didn't say it's been easy."

"Then, what's the difference?"

"You think I know my mom more than you know your Dad?" Mat said, walking with the hall against his back, his eyes on me, "I had my questions. Do you really think your parents were the only ones who had to choose?"

"You have a sister?"

"Not a sister," Mat said with sadness in his green eyes, "A brother."

"So they chose you to go to the center instead, didn't they?" I said, feeling my heart numb at the thought.

"Not exactly," Mat said and smirked, "I thought you knew better."

"I guess I don't," I said and smiled with him.

"She didn't choose," Mat said, " The Allies did, my older brother wasn't fit for donations."

"What do you mean your older brother wasn't fit?"

In all my time in the center or with the travelers, I had never heard of a child being unfit for donation. I was too young, but even my father was able to bypass their rules.

Mat reached down and gathered the bottom of his pant leg to show his leg. I had never noticed how much thinner this leg was compared to his other.

"It's the same thing my brother had. My father had it too. Gen said it's something to do with my family. Flesh doesn't form right or something. Starts in one part of the body and moves elsewhere as we get older. Lucky for me, she said they can cure me. As for my father and brother," Mat said and paused as we reach my dorm, "They didn't have such luck or time as my mom told me."

"I guess," I said, swallowing the lump in my throat, "I don't know better."

Mat laughed, "Well, one time out of ten counts for something I guess."

I laughed with him. The sounds of our awkward cackles colored the sterile hall. I had never felt so exposed. Never felt so ashamed and here I was laughing with almost the last person I wanted to see today.

Mat stretched his arm out to the keypad of my door and placed his bracelet on the lock letting the door click open.

"Hey," I said and looked at my door, "You're not supposed to be able to do that, are you?"

"Maintenance privileges," he said, "Let's me get into any dorm or room I need, not without monitoring but, hey you never know might come in handy."

"Have you told anyone else?"

"Who's there to tell?" Mat said and looked around the empty hall, "It was only chance, I found you."

"Mat?" I said, as walked through the door, "Does anything feel different here?"

Mat looked down and pinched my arm tenderly, "As long as were marked, no use trying to be the same."