Silent Knight

Chapter Seven

"STOP!" I hear my mother's voice yell. "THAT'S ENOUGH! I'LL TELL YOU!" she cries. My head is pulled out of the burning flames. I am thrown on the floor, and I begin coughing hysterically, trying to get the smoke out of my lungs.

"Where is it?" Mr. Crimson demands. My mother is sobbing as she tells the man where she had hidden the research. "Good,"

"I'm sorry, sweetie," my mother sobs. I try to get up, to run to her, but I am kicked back down. This only makes it harder to breathe. I reach a hand up and touch my still burning face. I wipe tears off of my cheek before coughing into my hands. It feels like the air can't make it to my lungs.

"Okay, Crimson," my dad says. "We told you. Let us go," his voice is close to breaking. Mr. Crimson begins to laugh. Before I know what is happening, he pulls out a pistol and fires a round right into my father's gut. I try to scream, but the world starts to go black due to the lack of oxygen in my body. My mom cries out in pain as she watches my dad's body go limp. I can see blood dripping out of his mouth.

"You monster!" my mom screams. I hear another loud noise, but I can't see what is happening. Suddenly, I am being dragged out of the room. I open my eyes once more to look and see my mother looking a lot like my father did. A pile of their blood mixing on the concrete floor, slowly going down to the drain that was in the middle of the room. Then everything goes black.

I woke up with a jolt. I looked over at the time and saw that it was five in the morning. I had an hour till The General was expecting us to be ready. I quickly brushed the tears from my eyes, took a deep breath, then jumped out of bed and into the shower. It was probably the worst shower I'd ever been in. The water pressure was way too weak and colder than the North Pole, making the start of my morning even better.

Once I was out of the shower, I changed back into my suit and went down to the mess hall. It was quiet. It looked like I was one of the first ones there. The only other person in the room was Morathi, who was way too focused on his laptop to notice me walking into the room. I grabbed myself a plate of the breakfast mush and went back to my room to eat. While I was walking down the hallway, I passed Alexander as he made his way to get breakfast. He glared at me, but when I glared back, he quickly looked away, giving me the impression that he was still intimidated. I smirked as I went into my room.

When I was done eating, it was about six. I heard The General's heavy boots as he walked down the hallway. He began pounding on all the doors.

"Time to go! Your asses better be up and ready!" he yelled as he made his way down the hallway, sounding like a stereotypical boot camp counsellor. I quickly put my helmet over my head. I was ready to go. I opened my door and locked it behind me, being the first one out of my room. The General looked at me and smiled,

"Morning!" he chirped as if nothing had happened last night. I nodded in return. Everyone made their way out of their rooms, and The General motioned for us to follow. Once again, I remained in the back of the pack, which was okay as everyone was keeping their distance from me this morning. He led us back to the conference room that we were in the day before. Everyone sat down in the exact same seats.

"Not going to chain me up, General?" I asked once I sat down.

"Do I need to?" I shrugged. Beside me, Morathi was looking scared out of his pants again.

"You can relax, kid," I said, "I'm not going to kill you." He nodded slowly and relaxed a bit into the back of his chair, lowering his shoulders. "Yet," I mumbled. He sat straight back up, and I laughed. Alexander glared at me, so I glared back, and even with the mask on, I think he got the message and scoffed. The man really didn't like me, I wondered how long these glare offs between us were going to continue.