The Island

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

~Tillie~

The sun was hot, but I wasn't sweating from the heat. I was sweating because Zain was in pain, and if I missed with my arrow, if I shot the wrong soldier, he would die. An image of the frozen-over Ice Phoenix flashed in my mind and I felt Kirklyn settle beside me, his worried eyes flickering over my face, over my twitching jaw as I clenched my teeth. Every one of the steps the leader took towards our friends took to long, my hands going clammy. If I missed-

No.

That word clanged through me. An act of defiance against the devil on my shoulder. The leader finally reached the group, and I could hear my own heartbeat pounding in my chest, against my ribs, threatening to break them.

"Well, it looks like we finally got your attention," the man said. Not a man, I realized, but someone eighteen. The serum had transformed us. It made us comfortable with torturing and killing each other. Sure we're high school students, some of us hate each other, but I don't think we were being serious when we said we'll kill someone who did us wrong.

"You got our attention the second you decided to attack innocents," Tina said

"Who gave you the power to decide who's innocent"

"The people here are innocent, our brother is innocent," Hanna said pushing past her sister and stalking close enough to him to spit on his nose,

"Is he though? He did things, the others did too, nobody is truly innocent"

Nobody is truly innocent. I saw the dagger glinting in his hand, angled towards Hanna's stomach.

I knew my arrows destination.

And I let it fly.

The arrow hit his hand. Kirklyn murmured my name under his breath, followed by a creative string of curses as he jumped down to the alley. My arrow hadn't just hit his hand, it went through it.