The Differents | ✓

T H I R T E E N

A soft tapping on the door of my room brought me out of my thoughts. The sun was setting, painting the sky with deepening shades of orange and pink and spilling rich golden light onto the bed and floor. I got up from where I was sitting at my desk, making feeble attempts at finishing my work, and slid open the door. I was greeted by Sniper, who squinted momentarily as his eyes adjusted to the golden light streaming in from outdoors. Upon seeing me, he glanced down the hall in both directions and then looked me straight in the eyes.

"Listen, Arthemis. I don't know if this is such a good idea anymore."

It took me a moment to place what he was talking about. "You mean running away? I thought you had been planning this for ages."

A door opened at the end of the hall and a brutish boy with dirty clothes stepped out and headed toward the bathrooms. Sniper glanced at him and whispered through his teeth, "I know, but I'm starting to think that it's not a good idea. What if we're caught?"

I frowned, crossing my arms across my chest. "That was never an issue before. What changed?"

The boy came out of the bathroom and went back down the hall again. Sniper waited a moment for his door to close again and then slipped effortlessly through the threshold of mine. "Close the door; I don't want people hearing." I pushed the door closed and sat back down at my desk, waiting. He glanced around my slowly darkening room, taking in its details.

"Whatever it is you're here to say, do it quickly," I told him. "Who knows what they'll do if they find you in here?"

He sat down on the edge of my bed, making it creak a little under his weight. "That boy earlier, the one who died, made me rethink things. What if the same thing happens to us if we're caught?"

"Sniper, are you telling me that you're going to abandon this plan after so much work has been put into it? Just drop it into the garbage and continue on with the same old boring ways?"

He looked pained. "I don't want to, but I think it's the right choice. If you still want to go on without me, you can, but I think we should forget this ever happened."

My chest tightened. "You're crazy. I can't just pretend like we never found this, Sniper. And what if this is our only chance? What if this is the only chance we'll ever get? You can just turn your back on it, you'll regret it."

"I don't think we should talk about this anymore." Standing up, he headed toward the door and put a hand on the doorknob. "I'm sorry, Arthemis."

And then he was gone.

I turned back toward my desk and put my head on my hands. What now? While the death of the Mask whose name I still didn't know had pained me, it had acted as somewhat of an incentive for me to keep trying. If I wasn't doing it for me, I was doing it for him, as a way to avenge his death. But it seemed that it did the exact opposite for Sniper, scaring him into complying with the Core's rules. I wanted to continue with the plan, but if I didn't have him with me, would I be able to?

Yes I would, I told myself. I had started the plan without him and I would finish it without him. If he wanted to waste away in this prison of a home for the rest of his life that was his choice, but I wanted more to my life, and I was just about capable of achieving it. The Masks thought they had prepared us for everything, given us the necessary skills to be Normal, but what they didn't realize was by making us strong and agile, they had given us the capabilities to do things that they might not have planned. I knew I was strong, and that with a little bit of learning, could probably fly a plane sufficiently, too. Screw Sniper -- I never needed him anyway.

The following day was just like any other. I attended my classes, where I took notes I thought were necessary for my escape. I ate silently in my corner in the dining hall, watching people mingle about and quarrel over food. I avoided Captain and Bear, and tried not to look at Sniper either. I was on my own again.