Tame The Caged Beast

Chapter 4: Smiling Not Because I'm Happy

The house was small and cozy. There were four bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small kitchen. There was a sink where well water was pumped, an ice box, and cupboards high and low. Alden and Nicolai were cleaning and I was in the kitchen cooking. I was flipping the meat on the skillet, making sure it gets cooked but not too toasty. Burned but not charred if you know what I mean.

It was silent for no reason but then Alden piped.

"I'm going for a walk, you guys wanna come," he said his black eyes looking worried and nervous.

He put away what he was doing then he was ready to head out the door.

"Yeah, we'll come. Hold on," Nicolai said closing his book. He wasn't going to let any of us go out alone even if we were within the safety of the wall. There were just people you couldn't trust. Pedophiles and creeps.

I followed Alden and Nicolai. I blew out the fire and covered up the meat so that it wouldn't be covered in flies when we got back.

It was late evening and the sky had turned that ominous purple grey pinkish color. It was beautiful. It was the only thing I could ever call beautiful in this cage of granite. Nicolai walked behind me and Alden was in front of me walking on the stone wall five feet up that separated a flower garden.

It was a while but I remembered the flowers my mother used to grow. It wasn't a big garden but she had tulips, daisies, petunias, and my favorite camellias. She had pink ones and red ones and even the rare white ones. She didn't have them in a special order but the way they were mixed was so beautiful. I remembered the bouquets I would create and give to her and dad. No matter how many flowers I picked the garden would never get smaller.

"The flowers are pretty," I murmured breaking my gaze from the flower garden.

Nicolai looked at me and wondered what I was talking about. He stopped in his tracks. I kept walking with this plain look on my face. My hands were clasped behind me. He just stayed there in the center of the sidewalk staring at my back.

We were a mess. A blonde boy with a broken smile. A pale girl with sunken features and a pretty boy with a not so pretty past.

Alden had come to the end of the wall. He looked at the ground beneath him and jumped the five feet down.

He was tall but grotesquely skinny. The top of my head barely skimmed my chin. He had a baby face but he was the oldest. Nicolai and I were only about a year younger than him.

I was what you would call average height which was what i guessed about five five and Nicolai was taller than me. He was just an inch or two shorter than Alden but had broader shoulders and leaner muscle. How he had muscle i will never know.

Out of the three of us Alden smiled the most. I guess he hoped that his smiling would make of smile but sadly that didn't work. He was very persistent kid if I had one word to describe him. He was also the peace keeper. He never took sides but tried his best to make us get over the arguing ordeal.

We probably did an entire loop over the market before deciding to call it quits.

Inside the walls of Maison were six districts. The whole place was shaped like a five pointed star. Walls divided each point. We were in the southwestern point. The third district.

The Northern point was the first district. The Northwestern point was second. The Southeastern was the fourth. The Northeastern was the fifth. The center, which was shaped like a pentagon was the sixth district and it was the wealthiest. That was also where the head family and Royal Regime lived.

The districts each had their own Regime but the Royal Regime was prepared for anything. I mean anything. Flood. Famine. Epidemic. Pandemic. Apocalypse. These people knew their stuff. No one from the outer points would ever dream of going to the Center. That's how snobby and uptight they are.