This Is My Town

Chapter Four ~ Kiara

Kiara didn't even know how she had gotten herself standing in the middle of a fighting arena with nothing in her hands but an iron dagger. It was past noon now and she was just heading home to prepare for seven o'clock when a vicious woman a few years older than Kiara stepped in her way and accused her of working with Pandora. Kiara knew she was being absurd and just wanted an excuse to pick a fight with someone - anyone - but Kiara just so happened to be the unlucky one to get the hit.

"This woman," the girl with the raven hair shouted from the centre of the arena to the hundreds of other people gathered around the two girls on the high stands, "has been conspiring with the enemy! She has made connections with the foul beast that has driven us from our freedom! She must be slain so we have a chance at beating the mighty Pandora!"

"Whoa, hold it right there!" Kiara announced loudly, looking around with her bright red eyes wide open, filled with astonishment. She was, if you couldn't already tell, quite astounded, and mightily offended. "Back it up a moment," Kiara continued, holding her arms up to calm the crowd. "Now, where in all the Gods' names did you come up with that idea?! My name is Kiara, my parents are dead and I live off the edge of town. I stay home all day because of my condition, and I buy food from a man called Caelian who delivers it to me to last me a few weeks and he comes back when I run out. I am completely poor, I have no friends apart from Caelian, and he is barely my acquaintance, and this is the first time I have been in the city for a long, long time. I have been trying to avoid it because of Pandora, and I am not siding with something so horrible and despicable. She is the spawn of the devil and I have not seen her face in my lifetime. These... these accusations that you have against me, are completely insane! You people are insane!"

"Right..." the woman with the black hair mused. "So if you buy your blood from the man who delivers it, what were you doing in the city this morning, hm? We know Pandora usually comes out at night, so why is her little spy coming through in daylight?"

"Caelian was killed by Pandora while I was sleeping!" Kiara exclaimed. "He delivers my food! I have none, so I came to get some so I can keep living! And in case you have not yet noticed, I have a condition that forces my body into a paralysed state from eight in the evening to eight in the morning. How can I possibly be working with her if I am out cold when she kills?"

The raven haired woman narrowed her eyes. "We have got spies of our own, you know," she announced. "We have had reports of... unnatural murmurings, coming from your little abandoned shop off the city, and they say you have been in contact with her. If this is true, and we know it is, then you have lied to the whole of Montilo with your foul-mouthed talk of having a condition. Those things do not make you special, you know. They make you weak. They make you different from everyone else, and they make you vulnerable. We know you do not sleep, Kiara, and we know you keep in contact with her."

"Do not be absurd-" Kiara tried, but the raven haired woman cut her off with a hand held high in the air, silencing everyone else once more as they began to raise their voices.

"Silence!" she roared. When it was quiet, she continued. "Kiara, you are a disgrace to our kind. Caelian's death was on your hands, as was the death of everyone else who has fallen under the trap of befriending you to get this information to Pandora. Caelian had a conversation with you the last time he delivered your blood, did he not? He told you that a group of us have been forming a rebellion against Pandora; Caelian and myself included. He asked for you to join, as a test. You see, I told him everything our spies have uncovered about you, Kiara, and I told him to test you. But you refused to join, and a week later, he has died. You reported back to Pandora during your 'condition' time, did you not? You told her about our rebellion, and now I will kill you before you can report back to your precious mistress one last time!"