The Taken

33

The girl jumped up like a startled kitten.

"Introduce yourself! We have guests," Sawyer blurted.

"Um- I- Uh..." She looked around frantically for support, but no one dared to step up. Sawyer let out an overly dramatic sigh of disappointment.

"Everyone, this is Aalimah, she takes stock of all our food, supplies, and even children." He laughed at himself. "Orla! Step forth, please." Sawyer said, speaking like some kind of emperor. He called out the children like they were his subjects.

A girl with red shoulder-length hair stepped out of the bubbling mass of children. She was covered in bruises, scrapes, cuts, bandages, and had a mean looking face that could rip you in half with a single stare. She folded her pale and freckled arms, placing them on her stomach, scrunching her face to look as angry as the Grinch.

"Orla, what do you have to say?"

"Hi," she said, just to make Sawyer upset. Sawyer gritted his teeth together and rolled his eyes at her, trying not to scold her.

"Orla is our main troop leader. During a battle, she leads our fighters and knows exactly when and where we should strike our enemies. She's a wonderful asset to the team." Sawyer spoke like he was reading a synopsis in a museum, and he'd be lucky if Veronica didn't start snoring.

His kids were just as confused as Jake and the rest of them. Sawyer had taken them in so quickly, but Ramona was very suspicious, Sawyer wasn't acting at all like a reasonable person would, he was acting rather childish. Making this whole situation his own little game that he could manipulate and twist to his perfect fantasy.

Aalimah broke away from the awkwardness and tried her best to mingle back into the gang of kids, she failed miserably, and they would push her back in front of everyone, and she'd whimper in response.

"And thirdly, Aeris!" he shouted with open arms. "My favorite by the way," he put a hand on his cheek to cover his mouth from his kids so they couldn't hear him and only the others could, like how a stereotypical schoolgirl would do to gossip with her friends. Sawyer didn't even try to be quiet; he wanted to let everyone know.

A child with hair in all shades of maroon walked timidly out of the crowd. She wore a black knee length skirt, paired with black and white striped knee-high socks. She was heavier set and looked about five feet tall. She waved with the shyest "Hi," her other hand behind her back.

"Aeris here acts as a counselor to the children, and she notifies me whenever we have an issue of urgency here at the market," Sawyer said steadily. He took a quick little glimpse at the newcomers and gasped wholeheartedly - without the heart - when he saw the state of Veronica.

"My goodness me!" he was on the brink of shrieking, "Veronica you look awful, what happened? Aalimah, fetch Veronica some new clothes! What are your sizes dear?" Sawyer could switch from an arrogant 'king' to an animated 'caring' mother quicker than a fly.

"Anything's fine," Veronica responded cooly, looking at Aalimah with eyes that said, "I'm really sorry."

Sawyer smiled, pleased with himself as if he did something tremendous.

"Aeris, go show these kind children around the market and introduce everyone else, please. Oh, and have Ezra interview them as well, we need their backgrounds. Take me to my quarters, Alice."

His quarters? Jacob thought. This is literally ridiculous.

As soon as Sawyer finished talking, everyone else began squawking like birds and shuffling to get back inside where it was warm.

"Orla!" someone screamed. A girl ran to the group of scrabbling children and took Orla by the arm with an iron grip.

"They're here," she said, eyes wide and full of panic. She was visibly shaking, probably from panic rather than the cold. Orla took in her two words, and she started to shut down.

"They said a week," Orla said in denial. Aeris came to her side and consulted them; she too went whiter than a ghost as they spilled out their worries.