The Pariah

"May the odds be ever in your favor." ---Suzanne Collins

Mia Hart was tired. She now knew how her brother felt. The weight of the world was on her shoulders. She had to succeed or her life would mean nothing. Nick would die, he would be a bloody mess on the floor. She would join him, and be another dead girl with no name. No one would care if she was gone. No one would notice her pitiful departure from this world. At least, that's what Griffin's been telling her.

For the past two weeks, the routine had been the same. Mia got up, she shared a few words with the boys, before they were all brought to the library and each were put to work on their individual projects. Mia was in charge of the maps. She had to listen to all of these strange tapes, sometimes with languages she didn't know, and plot the origin of the tape on the map. Mia didn't really understand how this helped anything. Cataloging all of these different countries that they already knew hated Armonia was stupid to her. But, her opinion wasn't welcome. The marks on her back showed that very clearly. Mia was expected to keep her mouth shut, and she was expected to behave. Any lip would be met with a punishment, any failure to perform would be met with a punishment, and Mia was punished often.

Mia knew she was punished so much because Griffin hated her. He would find any reason to take that leather belt to her back. She expected daily beatings now. For the first few days, she would cry. She would sob her little heart out, but soon she found a way to leave her body during the beating. Sure, she would still cry but it wouldn't be as bad. She wouldn't be as exhausted afterwards which was good, because she needed that energy. Griffin worked her harder than any of the other kids in the program. She got very little sleep. She was lucky to get five hours at most, most nights she got two or three. The boys got at least five hours and ten at most. Mia could work with ten hours of sleep. But, Griffin claimed that she was slower than everyone else and that's why she had to work well into the night. Mia called bullshit.

Mia Hart wasn't oblivious no matter what her brother thought. She noticed a lot more than she let on. She knew she was very intelligent. She knew she was probably smarter than every one of those boys put together. She knew Barbaots wanted something from her, and he wasn't getting the full package so he was pushing Griffin which in turn took that anger out on her. Mia knew how the cycle worked. She just didn't know how to please Barbatos. She did her work, and she stopped trying to ask Griffin for things by day four of this new setting. This map thing seemed pointless to her. Listening to a bunch of people talking in languages she didn't understand wasn't helpful. Sure, she could pick out certain words and recorded those down for further study so she could get a little ahead of the game, but she wasn't a linguist. Just because she had a crazy high I.Q, didn't mean she could just become fluent in any language she wanted.

"What time did you get in," one of the boys called Mia's attention from his bunk in their room.

Mia glanced over at Liam, he was Sam's brother. He looked a lot like Sam but had curlier hair and dark brown eyes. She had seen Sam once or twice, she knew he had been here a long time and so had Liam. Liam didn't blink an eye when Griffin drugged her into the room on day one as she was screaming her head off for her brother. He didn't flinch when Griffin pulled off his belt and began to beat the shit out of her. It wasn't until Griffin left when Liam silently helped her off the floor and sat her on his bottom bunk before ordering one of the other younger boys to get a wet towel.

Mia knew Liam was a lot like his brother. He was quiet, serious, gentle, and was the leader of the group. Mia could never tell if Liam was joking because he was always so straight faced. Liam was a very good artist, she knew that's what his main job was. He had to sit there and draw maps which she would then analyze and match with the vocal tapes. He also drew pictures for Barbatos, he would send Griffin with a special note just for Liam and Liam would slave over a picture until it was perfect. She was jealous of Liam's talent, because Nick had the same one. Nick could draw, but he would never let anyone know it. It made her mad that Liam got to show his talent and her brother couldn't. She did like Liam though, he was nice and was willing to have a discussion with her. He wasn't able to keep up with her in intellectual conversation so it was sometimes hard for her to have a full conversation with him, but he was nice and nice was hard to come by these days.