Sakura Eyes

Chapter 28

"Could you stop glaring at me like that?" Jake growled at Catherine.

"Oh oops sorry," she said with a faint air of sarcastic surprise. "This is actually just how I look in real life."

We had all taken a seat on the floor in a circle with Hayden laying on the bed, still unconscious. I was still shaken up from what had just happened and hugged my knees close to my chest. Jake and Catherine were having a stare off contest with each other with dislike etched deep in their eyes; Justin and Tristan weren't looking all that happy themselves as they stared at Curt who avoided everyone's eyes. Yuri was the only one who seemed mildly calm as he just sat there with a blank look on his face.

"So," Tristan said. "Anyone want to explain what just happened?"

Curt glanced momentarily at him before glancing away. He kept looking out the window of the house as if he were expecting someone to come through the door. Jake broke off his glaring with Catherine and turned his head towards us. 

"Hayden's always been a little strange," he responded. "We've always had to look over him more than the others."

"Why?" I asked. "What's so wrong about him?"

Jake hesitated. "It's nothing..."

Justin growled. Jake flinched and quickly turned his eyes towards me. "Well, he...I think...I mean I don't know where he's from. He doesn't talk much."

"But you have your speculations, don't you?" I pressed. "Where do you think he came from?"

"I don't know..." Jake cast a wary glance at Justin as if Justin was about to pounce on him any moment.

"The palace?" I rose an eyebrow.

Jake flinched again and whirled his head back at me. "How...?"

I folded my arms, remembering Hayden's words when he was on top of me screaming. "One of the experiments? Did he escape? Is that how he winded up here?"

"I think so," Jake roughly sighed. "He mutters about the king every night in his nightmares."

"Is everyone here like that?" Tristan asked. 

Jake looked at Tristan solemnly. "Not everyone are failed experiments here. Hayden isn't. He's a successful experiment, but he escaped. I was never experimented on. Curt was never experimented on either."

"I don't get it," I shook my head. "So there's just a mix of you guys in this village? How do you guys just end up here?"

"What's there not to get?" Jake shrugged. "We're just a bunch of orphans who some have met the king and have gotten experimented on and others who haven't and ended up in this village to hide away from him."

"Why don't any of you try to get help and go out?" I asked.

"Who would help us?" Jake snorted. "There are experiments here who have escaped or have failed. No one's going to help us. If they did, the only reason why they would help is to get information of where we are and inform the king so that they get money."

"Are you guys the oldest ones here?" Tristan frowned. "Where are the adults?"

Jake swallowed. "The experiments that the king don't need anymore...they die before they turn eighteen. Without the special food and needs that only the king can provide, they...they die. That's why the king kills them off at his kingdom. But some manage to escape and come here."

The atmosphere in the room grew darker and heavier than ever. The new information swarmed around my head.

So this was why the village was off the charts. They were a village hidden from everyone because this is where all the failed experiments run off to. They don't survive above eighteen. Curt and Jake were both orphans who took care of the young ones here. Hayden was an experiment...a successful one.