BEFORE
The boy sat in the corner of the canteen on his own.
His chair had wheels on and his lunch box was red and he wore white. I liked white and he looked lonely, so i went over to sit with him.
"You'll get boy germs Rhea!" Evangeline shouted, laughing. We sat with a bunch of girls on our lunch table, I did not like any of them, any apart from Evangeline. I liked Evangeline before the dark sickly cloud began to form around her body a few days ago.
"Not just boy germs, you'll get what he's got, you'll get dead legs!" and the whole of the lunch table laughed like hiyenas.
Hiyeinas are horrible animals, they laugh when they kill and people who kill do not deserve to laugh.
She smiled, mocking me like others did when i told them things, the cloud around her grew thicker the longer i stood there.
I took a deep breath like I had always been taught, closed my eyes and walked over to the boy.
"Hi," I said and i sat down next to him.
He stared at me for a few moments before returning to his lunch box. His eyes were grey.
"I dont like her," the boy said, pointing at the back of Evangeline's head with his fragile finger.
I shook my head. "I dont either, not anymore."
He shrugged and peeled an orange, offering me a piece.
I popped the juicy segment into my mouth.
"Why do your arms work but your legs dont?" I mumbled, gesturing toward the black chair he sat in.
He shrugged again, "Dunno".
"Thats weird,"
"You're weird, I see you in class and you do things.. theyre not what everyone else can do."
I thought about it for a second, "I know," I said, poking his leg, "watch this".
I kept my finger tips on his knee and i thought about the white cloud which hugged the boy's whole body like Evangeline's did, accept this one was friendly, this one was pure and positive, this one wanted to keep this boy safe. I closed my eyes and hummed to the cloud, willing it to repair itself.
The boy didnt say a word, he sat there in silence while I hummed quietly, watching me with a blank expression on his face as I opened my eyes.
"Try and wiggle your toes," I said.
He looked at me, his face now dripping with doubt.
"Go on," I whispered.
He closed his eyes and his foot twitched, just as his eyelids sprung open again, his face full of excitement. "How?" he whispered, moving his foot up and down giddily.
"I dont know, I cant fix you all," I said, my face suddenly turning red and i began feeling guilty that I had let him feel what he could not have, but not one bit of happiness seperated from his face as I said it.
"I havent felt my feet since I can ever remember," he laughed, his foot slowing down its movement as I stood up. The bell for class rang loud, echoing in my ears.
"I'm Eryx" He said, holding out his hand in the way I see adults do.
"Rhea", I said, taking his hand and shaking it, laughing.
Eryx's cloud embraced my hand as I walked away to my class, pushing Eryx's chair along infront of me.
***
I woke up sitting upright and breathing heavily, startled by the old memory turned into a nightmare.
Groaning, I turned over onto my chest and pulled the tiny watch from underneath my jacket which I used as a pillow, peering at it through tired eyes. The glowing digital numbers lit up in the darkness, proving it was 3:15am.
My mind raced in sync with my throbbing heart beat and i allowed my fingers to run along the sides of the cold metal bunk bed, onto the lumpy stuffed duvet cover they called a 'matress'. They placed themselves on the prominent scars on my neck and my fingertips lingered over the healing marks. My mind was screaming warning and fear at me; I needed to leave again, this time for good, and i needed to leave before anyone knew I had gone.
I quietly dropped from the top bunk to the cold stone floor with bare feet, dragging my rucksack down with me.
I stuffed my fleeced blanket inside the bag ontop of what i considered to be my valuables and pulled out my old black nike trainers, slipping my feet into the padded shoe and crouching down in darkness to skillfully tie my laces.
"You off again kid?" A deep but frail voice whispered, making me jump and almost fall backwards.
I could just make out his old wrinkled face in the pitch black, grinning a gap toothed smile from the bunk beneath mine.
"Pete!" I whispered harshly, punching his arm as he chuckled, amused by my stealthy behaviour.
"Be careful kid,"
I rolled my eyes and grinned, although I knew he couldnt see me, "always am," I replied, "might not see you around, this time."
"I'll see you 'round some day locks, just get far away this time," Pete sighed, tugging on the stray blonde curl which had escaped my poor excuse of a ponytail and patted my hand in a grandfatherly gesture, stuffing something into my palm and rolling over before I could protest.
Whatever it was, I stuffed it into the front pouch of my rucksack and hesitated for a few seconds before weaving my way out of the maze of sleepers all dreaming in their assigned bunk beds.
Like pigs for slaughter I thought to myself, as i reached the end of the long hall-like corridor and leaned against the plastered wall.
There was a huge steel door at the end of the room, padlocked and security coded from the outside and the only window was in the corner, about a meter by a meter in size and roughly five meters above me and one meter below the ceiling, also security coded.
I remembered the large steel beams running from one end of the ceiling to the other and how the guards always come to check on us every hour, on the hour.
I tucked my stray hair behind my ear and tried to think up an escape plan; I had fourty five minutes till the next guard check and my heartbeat was still beating fast.
Damn i didnt want to do this again.
