The Lady Darkness

Chapter 6

Pushing open the building door, I cautiously take a step outside. I wish that I can say that everything is miraculously OK, but that would be a lie. There are bodies scattered all over the ground, most of them are the bodies of those who had attacked us, but some of them were not. The building that was on fire is now nothing more than a smoldering pile of ashes. There are trees uprooted and look to be tossed from there they had originally been growing. The people milling around seem to be not injured to gravely, but they are covered in filth from head to toe.

I feel the little girl slip her hand into mine as she comes and stands beside me. I see the horror and tears in her eyes as she takes in the scene before us.

We take a few steps out of the entrance way onto the now crumbling steps. We make our way to the center of the three buildings or what's left of them. Standing in the center I assess the damage better. The plane, which I had flown in on is now a heap of metal. There are craters throughout the courtyard with smoke tumbling out of them. Trees law strewn over the ground like a hurricane had torn through the yard.

"Ivy! There you are! Are you ok?" Charlie comes running out of the crowd towards me. I barely have time to nod once Charlie reaches me before he pulls me into a bone crushing hug. "I was so worried about you. When the alarm went off I turned around and you were already gone. When the fight was over and I couldn't find you, I thought you were gone, that they had taken you again,"Charlie looks exasperated, tired even, as he says this.

"We were in hiding," I pull away and bring the little girl in front of me. I still don't like physical contact. Coming from prison and then being attacked the next day is all too much for me to process.

"Mary! We didn't know where you were either. We looked for you, but you were not with the rest of the kids," Charlie crouches down to Mary's eye level.

" I was going with them when a man pulled me away. No one was anywhere near me and he was going to shoot me with this electric gun, but then it didn't work," Mary's voice was quiet and small as she says this.

"The gun just stopped working?" Charlie looks confused by what she said.

Mary nods and Charlie looks up at me from his crouching position. He looks as if he has many thoughts running through his head. He stands and takes a few steps back, looking me up and down.

"Ivy, your clothes are a little singed, as if they have been burned. Were you close to any fires?" Charlie has reached over while he is talking and grabs the hem of my shirt where it is frayed and blackened.

"No, I was running to the building when I saw that Mary was cornered by a guy who had his gun raised and I wanted to save her. I wanted him not to be able to shoot her," Why was he asking if I was around any fires? The only fire was the building which is now only smoke rising into the darkened sky. I don't know how my clothes have been burned. Actually glancing down it is only my sleeves that are burned.

Charlie opens his mouth to say something, but never gets the chance because someone latches onto his side and almost knocks him over.

"Charlie I was so worried about you!" a girl with long legs, skinny waist, freckles sprinkled over her cheeks, green eyes and long red hair.

"Leah, I'm fine," Charlie was flicking his eyes between the two of us. Leah pulls his face so that he is looking at her. She runs her eyes over his face, I'm assuming she is checking for injuries. Not finding any she sighs and wraps her arms around him.

"When I couldn't find you after the GE's fled I thought the worst, especially since they brought Ivy back," Lead was whispering this against Charlies chest.

Charlie takes another glance at me before gently pushing Leah away from himself. Why does he keep glancing at me as if I am going to freak out that he is hugging a girl. I don't know him, I may have at one point, but not anymore. I don't own him. Also, why does it matter that I came back? Would Charlie do something stupid now that I'm back?
"Leah, this is Ivy," Charlie gestures to me and gives Leah a small, almost shy smile.

Leah's smile dims a little and she turns to look at me. She makes eye contact with me and gives me a sort of grimace. I know that I don't look the best, I'm malnourished, bruised and just a general mess, but that grimace was one of ' I don't like you, but I'm trying to be polite' face.

"Hi Ivy, I'm Leah, Charlie's girlfriend," Oh well that explains it. She is his current girlfriend and I am a past girlfriend and the only reason, I was told, that we broke up was because I was kidnapped and everyone thought that I was dead. She must think that now that I am back that I am going to try and get back together with Charlie, which is not the case. I have no interest in getting back together with him, I don't know him anymore, I'm a different person now.

I'm not sure what to say, but luckily I don't have to as a static noise plays over the field and a voice follows behind it.

"Attention camp members, please make your way to the mess hall for a meeting." The mess hall? I suppose that if everyone was going to the meeting then the mess hall would be the only room big enough to hold everyone.

Lead grabs Charlie's hand and starts to drag him away in the general direction of the mess hall. Charlie looks back at me, but doesn't make any motion for me to follow. He doesn't want me to follow, he doesn't want me to be near Leah or he doesn't want Leah to be near me.

I look down at Mary who has been silent for most of this conversation.

"Mary will you show me to the mess hall? I don't know the way yet." I get that Leah doesn't know or like me, but Charlie just left me. I just got here yesterday and I know he isn't my watcher or anything, but it would be nice if he would have waited for me.

Mary nods, takes my hand again and leads me towards the buildings. Charlie and Leah are quite a long ways ahead of us now, with no look for of slowing down. I really didn't need to get Mary to show me the way with all the people heading in the same direction, but this way she feels useful and will stay by me until I find out where she is supposed to be, I feel responsible for her.

We reach a building and we follow behind the herd trekking down the hall. When we walk into the hall, which is already half full, we go to the first table we see that is available. Charlie and Leah are nowhere to be seen, which is probably just the way Leak likes it. More people trickle into the room, Damien being one of them. He sees me and we make eye contact, and he makes his way to where we are sitting. He doesn't look like he just came out of a battle, in fact the only way to tell that he was in a fight was the little bit of sweat that ran across his hairline. He plunks his butt in a chair beside me once he reaches the table and allows his eyes to roam over my face, the same way Leah did to Charlie when she first saw him, as if he is checking for injuries. He must be satisfied with his assessment because his eyes drift away from my face and down to where my hands lay on the table. He reaches over and grabs the end of my sleeves, which are burned and frayed. He must want to inspect it more thoroughly because he pulls my arm closer to his face, he actually brings it to his nose and takes a whiff of the burned area of my sleeve.

"What are you doing?" I pull my arm away, a little creeped out. Is it normal to smell other people's clothes? Especially when they are wearing said clothes.

"That is an electrical burn. I ran into Charlie on my way here and he said you might have been burned by a fire, but this is most definitely electrical, not fire," Damien shrugged while pulling her arm back so that he can continue to inspect the sleeve.

"What does that mean?" I don't see what the big deal is if my sleeves are a little burned. What does it matter if it is a fire burn or an electrical burn.

"Charlie also informed me that you saved Mary and that she said that the attackers gun wasn't working." Damien looks down at Mary who was actually shaking her head no.

"The gun was working, but then it seemed like the power just got sucked out of it," Mary looks thoughtful as she says this.

Damien looks between my face, my sleeves, and Mary. His face is thoughtful and pondering.

"Ivy, based on what I have been told, I believe that you used one of your abilities. You wanted to save Mary so bad that you activated one of your gifts that was laying dormant inside you."