Republic of Omisha

Chapter 34: Sebastian

  Sebastian has no desire to keep the rebels presence unknown to his parents so he introduces them to his parents at their sit-down dinner. They know Eliza, who makes up an excuse for visiting her hometown. He introduces Lance and Shiloh. Thankfully they are both under twenty and look about Sebastian's age.

They weren't exactly sure where to go from there. What should their next move be? They decided that in two days they will break into the escape room and Eliza would broadcast her message to all of Omisha. They were going to finalize the plan in the morning. The wolf will be a diversion attacking the arena instead of protecting them because of how few there are. Before if the team got caught they would have replacements, but now they need to divert their captors attention elsewhere in order to give them a fighting chance to succeed.

Evening has rolled around. Lance and Shiloh get the spare room and Eliza is bunking with Sebastian. "I can take the floor." He kindly offers her.

"No, I couldn't take your bed away from you." Eliza replies.

"Well, I won't let you sleep on the floor so I guess we'll share my bed." He sees Eliza freeze at his words. He was in no way trying to win her back. She is his best friend and he will always take care of her.

Eliza nods. They both climb into the bed with their own blanket. Eliza fell asleep quickly. He brushed her beautiful brown wavy hair out of her face and told her good night before falling asleep himself.

He wakes at dawn to the moans of Eliza. At ties it sounded like she was biting back a scream. He rubs to wake her as gently as he can. She jolts awake with a small scream. Sebastian jumps back.

She calms her breathing enough to say, "sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's okay, are you?"

Eliza shook her head. "Just a nightmare."

Sebastian shifts closer to her. "But does that mean that you are okay?"

Eliza was silent. She stared at the door.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Eliza sighed. Then she took in a shuddering breath. "It was about my uncle. He's a bad man... how he won the trials was by strangling the last competitor with his bare hands... so in my nightmare he-" she muffles a sob. "He strangled my mother." Her hands come to her face as she begins to sob uncontrollably.

Sebastian wraps his arms around her. He whispers to her, "you know I can't stand to see you cry. Eliza, then, enters his embrace. She holds him tightly, but he doesn't care. She could squeeze the life out of him and if it made her feel better, he would let her.

Once her tears subsided, Sebastian speaks again. "Do you need anything?"

"As much as I would like to say that I need you right now, I actually think that it would be better for me to go on a walk and clear my head.

Sebastian lets his arms fall onto the bed and he nods.

Before Eliza gets to his door he just has to ask. "Eliza?" She turns, her expression emotionless. He hesitates to ask. "Did your Mother tell you anything in your dream?"

Eliza nodded. "She told me that I could do it. I can save everyone, and she told me to do it for her."

Sebastian thinks silently for a few minutes, "But we're not saving anyone by telling them the truth."

"You're not having second thoughts about being in the rebellion, are you?"

"No. No! It's just that-"

"Stick to the plan. Complete the mission." Eliza snapped, her eyes narrowing on Sebastian.

He watched her leave the room. She doesn't even know how beautiful she is, how elegant she walks, or how commanding her presence is.

Sebastian turns to the window. Some daylight is shining through, but the sun hasn't fully risen yet.