Rebels

Ch. 7

Jack awoke from something hard colliding against his stomach. He found it was Lyla who had thrown an empty bottle of rum on him. Before Jack had a time to speak, Lyla beat him to it. "Did you drink all of the rum?" Her voice was high-pitched, and Jack noted that she looked furious.

Jack sat up and took in his surroundings. He recognized that he was on the same couch as before, in the same room, and in the same house. Jack grabbed the bottle and set it down on the ground next to the couch. His limbs were stiff, and his arms were burning from the previous hard labor he had had to perform. "How low do you think I am?"

Lyla turned and walked past the kitchen table, opening the bedroom door. Inside was the bathroom, and also inside Lyla found her brother passed out on the floor.

Jack stood, stretching his arms out. He found that Arin had awoken and was already on his feet. Jack walked towards Lyla, wanting to see what was going on. He caught a glimpse of Luca and wrinkled his nose. Immediately Jack could pick up the foul smell that drifted from him.

Arin noticed not the state that Luca was in, but rather, a device that looked like a black pen. Only, the difference was that a small red light blinked continuously in the center. Arin cocked his head to the side.

Lyla stepped forward and picked up the device. She cursed under her breath. She shoved the device into her pocket and slammed the bathroom door shut, enclosing the three of them in the bathroom together.

Jack immediately felt out of place. "What are you doing?" He asked toward Lyla.

Lyla ran a hand through her knotted hair in a frenzy. "You both should leave."

"Why?" Arin asked, beating Jack to it. Jack himself didn't know what was going on. One moment he was sleeping, the next he was hit by a bottle of rum, and then here he was. He frowned. He shouldn't have wanted to stay at Lyla's house. He knew he'd get too comfortable. Now it was time for him to leave.

Lyla scoffed, beginning to pace. "Don't be so idiotic. I mean it, though." She suddenly stopped moving and looked at Arin and Jack with such stillness that Jack thought she was paralyzed. "You two need to get out of here."

Arin cocked his head to the side, demonstrating that he was confused. "Why?"

Lyla looked at him in dismay, pulling the device back out from her pocket. "You don't know what this is?"

Before Arin or Jack could respond, Lyla answered for the two of them. "Right, you're both freshly imported from wherever poor city you came from." She held out the pen for Jack and Arin to see. "This is a monitor. It is embedded with a small camera that monitors the household of Lyla and Luca Grant." All the while, Lyla spoke so fast that the boys could barely keep up with her. "If you do something wrong, the government comes for you."

A loud crash sounded from somewhere within the house, followed by heavy footsteps. The three of them stood there in silence, until a pounding sounded at the bathroom door. "Open up!" A man with a rather high-pitched voice sounded. Jack forced himself not to laugh at the man.

In Jack's previous city, he had never had one of the monitors Lyla had just spoken of. This was advanced technology to him. It was then that he had a sudden curiosity to find out what city he was in. Surely he had never heard of it, for if he had, he would've travelled here and stolen items in this city much sooner. He wished he had known of this place before. He could've gotten better money off of the things he would've stolen.

"Household of Lyla and Luca Grant. Ages eighteen and twenty-three. Luca Grant is in violation of the law." There was a hesitation before the man on the other side spoke again. "We know everything, Lyla. Open up, and we'll take him to where he needs to be right now."

Jack was too busy focusing on the man's voice to realize what Lyla had been doing. When he turned back around, he found that she was nowhere to be seen, along with Arin and Luca. He began to panic. He realized why the officials were there and where Luca needed to be. They were there to take Luca to prison. Before he had time to process any information further, Lyla removed a small square cut-off plank from the ceiling. She motioned for him to come up into the ceiling, where she was now kneeling.

The pounding started back up at the door, or so Jack assumed. He couldn't identify if it was the man on the other side creating the noise or his own heartbeat inside of his ears. He stepped beneath the square hole above his head anyways, and jumped, wrapping his fingers around the ledge. He strained to pull himself up, for he could still detect the numbness coursing through his arms. Through some adrenaline rush that his pounding heart had created, he managed to pull himself up, sitting now in the hidden second floor to the house. The ceiling was low; so low that Jack had to sit with his back slouched in order for him to not hit his head on one of the beams.

Lyla grasped the wooden cover to the hole and gently placed it back together; like snapping in a puzzle piece. As soon as she did so, the three of them could hear the door being pounded open. Heavy footsteps trailed beneath them, and for a minute they were followed by silence. Then, Jack could detect the sound of footsteps retreating. He was finally able to breathe, but yet again he was reminded of how he was being kicked out by courtesy of Lyla.

Arin sat a few feet away on his heels, alongside the still unconscious and dead-looking Luca. Lyla noticed Jack staring at her brother, and she sighed. "It's going to be a few hours until he wakes up." She drummed her fingers against her legs, avoiding eye contact with Jack and Arin. "I guess you two could stay for a bit. You know, just to help me with the slug." She referred to her brother.

Jack smiled on the inside. He knew he could now get comfortable without any worries of getting too attached to deluxe living for now. He also knew that he could steal a few items with Lyla being too distracted by her brother to notice. Yet, he refused to show his smile, because he knew the day would come where he'd have to live out on the streets again.