Note: I rewrote this chapter with the intention of changing from first-person to third-person. If you catch any errors, please message me! Enjoy!
When Sam Pelekai stumbled across a body while on patrol, she thought she was having another nightmare.
Of course, she’d been wrong. It was really there. Both her and her friend, Tana Sato, had leapt back in surprise and brandished their weapons and preparing to attack. They were both frozen in place, holding up swords they’d been trained how to use, shaking subtly. The boy did not move a muscle. Sam only then began to notice he was injured. He had a nasty gash across the side of his head. It was split open and still bleeding. He must have been unconscious or, perhaps, dead.
“It’s… a boy…” Tana mumbled, still stuck on the fact that the girls had found the body of a boy. Truthfully, neither one of them had ever seen a boy before, though the girls at the academy – including themselves – often made up farfetched stories about getting locked in battle with one of them while on patrol.
Sam couldn’t figure out what he was doing there. The Creatures didn’t exist in these woods, so it made little sense for him to have been attacked by one of them. Of course, he could have been attacked by one of the other girls on patrol – but this seemed highly improbable, as well. The girls at Madam Luna’s Academy and Military Base were well trained – when they strike, they strike to kill; not maim. They don’t leave bodies battered and half alive, sitting out in the woods, at the mercy of nature. It was savage, and unlike Sam’s fellow soldiers. It couldn’t have been them.
Then, it hit her. There was only one possibility – the boy must have been betrayed by his own kind. It made perfect sense. In school, she’d learned boys were savages. They were corrupt and power hungry; it wasn’t such a mind-boggling idea that they could turn against one of their own. In that moment, Sam knew what she had to do.
With her friend still unmoving, Sam returned her gun to its holster and fished out her Medicine Strips – thin, bland-tasting, square-shaped strips that offered temporary relief from pain, and halted bleeding – from her bag and, against Tana’s complaints, pressed one against the boy’s tongue, watching it dissolve.
“Starfire!” Tana complained, angrily. “What are you doing? What if he wakes up?”
“That’s the point, Tigress,” Sam responded. The importance of code names on the battle field was undeniable. In this war, names were power. A slip up could mean the lives of a person’s entire family.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we have to help him,”
She was silent for a brief moment, her mouth agape. “You’re crazy, he’s a boy! He’s—,”
“—The Enemy, I know.” Sam finished, turning to face Tana. “But maybe this one isn’t. He was clearly betrayed by one of his own. Maybe… Maybe he’s not like the others.”
Tana shook her head defiantly. “No, Sam, they’re all the same.” She glanced over her shoulder apprehensively. “What are you going to do with him, now?”
“Well, we can’t just leave him like this,” Sam reasoned.
“I don’t like where this is going.”
“We should bring him with us,” Sam decided.
“No!” Tana exclaimed, in disbelief. Her voice dropped low, afraid of being overheard, “You're insane. You've totally lost it. You think bringing him with us will help him? You might as well be dragging a Jew into a Nazi camp, Starfire. Are you even thinking? Madam Luna will have him killed before he even enters the building. Then, she’ll kill us for treason. Do you want to die at sixteen for treason?”
“She doesn't have to know,” Sam tried. “We can sneak him in through the southern entrance, and then hide him in our closet. Just until he’s okay, then we’ll let him go. It’ll be like he was never there.”
“Starfire,” Tana's voice was dark and serious, her eyes fearful, “He isn't some injured rabbit you can nurse back to health and then set free again. Look at him—“ She gestures accusingly to the clothes he was wearing. “—He’s a soldier. A murderer. He’s going to wake up in the middle of the night and slaughter us all – or betray our location – or –,”
“There’s blood on our hands, too, Tigress!” Sam shouted back at her. Her voice betrayed her, cracking and making Tana's expression soften, just a little bit. She ignored it and continued, “Does that mean we deserve to die, alone in the cold, too?”
“Saving one life isn't going to wash the blood off your hands.” Her head is tilted down, her bangs shielding her eyes from view. “Especially if he goes and kills everyone.”
“We’ll take precautions.” Sam tried to solidify her tone. She reached forward and grabbed the boy’s arm – his skin was ice cold, she silently worried that he’d been outside, unconscious for too long – and slung it over her shoulders. His head lolled forward. “I'm doing this whether you like it or not, T. Now, are you going to help me or just stand there?”
The colour in her face had long since drained away, except for the blush of pink brought on by the stiff, winter air. Her dark eyes examined Sam earnestly, as if she was genuinely trying to figure out whether her friend had lost her mind or not. As usual, she had her thick, dark hair pulled back into a tight bun – like all of Madam Luna’s girls, including Sam, did – and her lips pulled into a thin, critical line.
“You’re doing this because of your dad, aren't you?” Tana's voice comes out small and curious, so Sam knows she isn't bringing it up to hurt her, or scare her away from her decision. Sam ignored the question. She stood up, standing the boy up with her and, with only a brief moment’s hesitation, Tana stepped forward to support his other side. His head fell forward between them and their eyes locked through his dark, dishevelled hair.
“Sneaking an enemy soldier into a high security military base,” Tana grumbled as they dragged the boy’s body along, “what could possibly go wrong?”
“I have an idea about that,” Sam said, her breath crystallizing in front of me. They'd been walking for several minutes, and could already see the outline of the base over the trees. “Angelfish should be working in security right now… And she does have the biggest crush on you…”
Tana blushed furiously. “If you’re suggesting I flirt Angelfish out of the room while you turn off the –,”
“”While you turn off the guards,” Sam corrected aptly. Surrounding the building, several hundred mechanical guards stood on watch. Same had seen them in action before, and it wasn't a sight she was eager to see a second time. “Just for a brief second – so I can pull the boy up to our window…”
“You really are crazy!” Tana huffed, “Do you have any idea how defenceless we’d be?”
“Only for a second!” Sam pleaded, “A second is all I need.”
After twenty more minutes or so of persuasion, Tana finally caved, though not happily. They neared Madam Luna’s Academy and Military Base – code named the LAMB – and watched it with acute fear. Sam’s stomach felt bottomless for a few moments – if they got caught, the higher-ups wouldn't even wait to hear what the girls had to say. Sam’s sweet talking abilities would prove to be useless as all three of us had holes drilled right through our skulls by the mechanical guards.
“This is a bad idea,” Tana said for about the millionth time. The other girls must have still been out, because the yard around the building lacked its usual groups of two or three milling about. It was completely empty, except for the cameras that watched every last square meter and, of course, the guards.
Sam gave Tana a gentle nudge and made sure not to actually say anything for fear of her voice betraying her again. Her friend nodded aptly and sped off. Sam watched her emerge again from the main path, the cameras latching on and identifying her before returning to their usual surveillance pattern, scanning the snowy yard. The guards didn't bother her. She entered the building without any trouble.
Sam laid in the snowy grass behind a bush for what felt like ages, her heart beating painfully against her chest. She turned to the boy She had slung over her shoulder and, in an attempt to divert her attention from what she was about to do, She examined him. From this angle, he appeared to only be sleeping. Some of the colour had returned to his face, thanks to the medicine she’d given him. His golden brown skin stood out boldly against the winter snow and his bountiful, dark eyelashes fluttered gently against his cheeks, almost as though he really was just asleep. She could see his eyes darting back and forth behind his eye lids, and she wondered what he was dreaming about. She wondered if, like everyone here, he had nightmares.
Suddenly and without warning, his body stiffened. His eyes flashed open – dark brown yet frighteningly bright – and one word escaped his lips, “Evil.”
She threw him off of her and jumped to her feet, finding herself standing several metres away from him. She watched him frightfully from a distance as his body convulsed violently and the same two words flowed from his mouth, “Evil… Evil… Hatred…”
“…Must get away… Must get away…” He said after a few moments, his head turning from side to side.
“Hello?” She tried to talk to him, “Are you... awake?”
Almost as if triggered by the sound of her voice, he fell still once gain. His eyes closed and he continued on in his sleep-like state. Sam didn't move...
Until she heard voices. It took the sound of three girls making conversation – walking through the woods, probably on patrol, as well – to remind her of what she’d brought him here for. Her head turned to the cameras, which were now tilted down. The guards, similarly, had frozen in place. Their usual red eyes were now dimmed, as if they, like the boy, had fallen asleep. Tana must have succeeded.
Sam had to act, but suddenly, she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. This boy was awake… right? No, that’s stupid, he was clearly having a fit of some sort – a seizure, maybe – what if he did that while in their bedroom closet? What if he made a racket so loud, they got caught? Then, a new thought pierced her head like a bullet – what if he died in their closet?
What if this all ended in vain? Disposing of his dead body would be next to impossible, and Sam and Tana would be killed for sure.
She didn't have time for this. She didn't drag his limp body all that way and convinced Tana to break the law for some boy – some soldier, some possible murderer– neither of them knew only to get cold feet right when she needed to be brave the most.
In one swift move, she seized the boy’s sleeping body and ran out into the open with it slung over her back. She leapt onto old footprints already made in the thin layer of snow and made sure his feet didn't drag. The group of girls she’d overheard must have stopped walking, or gone in a different direction for some reason, because they hadn't entered into the clearing. She made it to the wall of the building and whipped out a favourite tool of hers. She wrapped the belt portion around the boy, trying to keep him off the ground, and shot the hook up to one of the window ledges – the one she knew belonged to my room.
The cameras were still off. The guards were still asleep. The girls hadn't appeared. Sam held onto the boy tightly and pressed a button on the belt. Slowly, they began to rise. It was torture, whipping her head back and forth, watching the cameras and the guards to be sure they didn't turn on again, and watching the yard to make sure no one showed up. Regardless, she kept watching – back and forth, back and forth, back and forth – until the belt stopped moving up. They’d reached the window. Sam, with hope and the feeling of success pumping through her system, climbed in hastily and yanked the boy in after her, his body fell to her feet.
She felt a white-hot rush of relief flow through her body. She did it. This actually happened. She smuggled an unconscious, enemy soldier into Madam Luna’s academy. She saved his life and, potentially, doomed everyone in the building.
“Sammy?” The sound of a voice made her gut feel like it was freezing over, the previous explosive feelings sinking into her gut before draining out through her feet.
“Hey, Kitty Cat,” She slowly turned to the tiny brunette with the big, brown eyes, who was watching the scene in confusion. She supressed her growing panic and smiled warmly.
“Who…” She squinted at the boy, unsure what to say. Of course. Kallie was too young. Sam felt relief wash over every last inch of her – she hadn’t gone through training yet. She didn’t have Madam Luna’s message – about boys and how horrible they were – engraved so deeply in her mind.
“Do you wanna know a secret?” Sam asked, trying not to sound as frightened as she was. She closed her curtains, careful not to leave an ounce of her room exposed. “It’s top-secret soldier stuff. If I tell you, you have to swear not to tell a soul.”
At this, Kallie’s eyes brightened considerably. Any suspicion or apprehension she had was no more, “Yes! I swear!”
“I don’t know, kitty,” Sam continued. “It’s really, really serious. If you tell someone…”
“I won’t!” She’d abandoned her crayons and notebook on Sam’s bed and threw herself on her sister, clutching her uniform in her meaty little hands. “I swear, Sammy! I won’t tell a soul!”
“Okay, okay,” Sam hushed her, kneeling down so they could be face to face. “Don’t be too loud, you might wake him up…” She watched him out of the corner of her eye. If he had another fit, he might just send Kallie running and screaming. “I found this boy bleeding in the snow. You know what a boy is, right?”
Her eyes widened considerably. “He’s a… boy? But Madam Luna says –,”
“Right,” Sam nodded, fervently. “Which is why she can’t know.”
“But boys are… dangerous.” She furrowed her eyebrows, her voice sounded unsure.
“According to Madam Luna,” Sam told her. She placed both of her hands on the tiny girl’s shoulders and squeezed, hoping her words would be enough to have Kallie question the brainwashing she’d already begun going through. “But not all boys are. I mean, it’s impossible, don’t you think? For every member of a group to be bad people? And this one hasn't done anything wrong, right? Innocent until proven guilty, I say.” Sam hoped she didn’t sound like she was trying to convince herself.
Kallie still looked skeptical. Her large eyes flickered from the boy back to Sam, then the boy, and then to Sam again. “Are you going to be in trouble?” Her voice is small now. She’s beginning to grasp how serious the situation is.
“Not unless people find out, which they won’t.” Sam lifted a finger up to her lips. “Can you keep this secret, Agent Kitty?”
She gives Sam a half-hearted smile. Sam can see that she’d scared her a bit, but she supposed it was better to have Kallie slightly scared, understanding the importance of her secrecy, then thinking it’s all some game and letting it slip through her lips. “For you, of course, Agent Starfire.” Kallie nodded in agreement.
A smile tugged at Sam’s lips. “We’re going to nurse this boy back to health, and then he’ll be on his way. It’ll be like he was never here. Right now, as discreetly as you can, I need you to round up some extra pillows and blankets from the laundry room. If anyone asks –,”
“I’ll say we’re making a pillow fort!” She supplied, smartly. Sam was going to suggest Kallie lied and told people that Sam was ill, but her idea was more plausible.
“You’re thinking like a true agent, Kitty Cat.” Sam nodded, encouragingly, and Kallie scampered out of the room with one last, quietly apprehensive glance at their new guest. Then, Sam was alone.
He was still asleep, in a heap on the floor at Sam’s feet. She removed his boots and uniform, leaving him in an under shirt and boxers. She slipped under her bed and began prying at one of the floor boards. During room sweeps, the Heads of each sector only glanced under each bed very briefly, to assure the girls weren't hiding anything. Sam had never seen them check floor boards before. She finally managed to rip it loose, just enough to stuff the boy’s clothes in, and then fixed it back into place, looking like it’d never been touched.
She squeezed back out and watched the boy for a few moments. I wondered if he would be grateful when he woke up, or if, instead, he would be angry at Sam for what she did. Like dragging a Jew into a Nazi camp. Maybe that was exactly what Sam did.
The door flew open and her heart nearly stopped, but it was only Tana, who quickly slammed it back shut.
“Oh my, God,” She said under her breath, crumbling to the floor, her back pressed against the door. “You actually did it.”
“Kitty knows,” Sam told her immediately.
“What?”
“She won’t tell anyone.” Sam added, quickly. “She’s gone to get blankets and pillows.”
Tana nodded, but looked fearful. "If they catch us, they'll kill Kitty, too."
“We won’t get caught,” Sam said, though Tana’s point had done its damage. Sam was putting, not only her best friend, but her little sister in danger. Then there was the unspeakable fear that this boy would wake up one night and mercilessly slaughter everyone in the hall. Countless people would die because Sam decided to try to be the good guy.
“For a potential killing machine, he looks really peaceful.” Tana observed, sounding almost as though she was warming up to him. The injury on his head had stopped bleeding, though Sam knew the effects of the medicine she'd supplied him with earlier was only temporary. Soon, she would have to risk stealing some more medical supplies. She tried not to think about it.
Kallie returned soon, her arms piled high with blankets and pillows. She plopped them down on the floor, smiling brightly. “Good?”
Sam shook her head, “Too many.”
She frowned at me, “Yeah, duh. We have to also make an actual fort.” She pointed to the corner of the room, behind Tana’s bed. “To throw them off.”
Tana shook her head disbelievingly. “Your sister is like a trained criminal.”
Sam grabbed some of the blankets and pillows and made a make-shift bed inside the closet. With Tana’s help, they transported the boy into his new, small room while Kallie began setting up her fort.
“There’s no turning back now,” Tana said to me.
"Believe me, I know," Sam tried not to visibly shudder, watching the strip of light across the boy's face grow thinner and thinner as she closed the door. Sam wondered how he'd feel when he woke up, with no clue where he was, in almost complete darkness.
"What happens if he wakes up while we're at school?" Tana asked, reading Sam’s mind.
"I can fake sick for a few days to watch him," She answered. "And then you--,"
"And just repeat that cycle until they get suspicious and search our room?" said Tana, critically. "We can't spend more time than usual in here at all, or we'll attract attention."
"He can't wake up alone," Kallie whined from inside her new fort, eyeing Tana and Sam sadly. "He'll be scared. He might run off."
"Oh, God," Kana said, panicky. "She's right. He might leave the room."
"We'll leave him a note," Sam said finally. "We'll staple it to his shirt. That way, when he wakes up, he'll know to stay put."
Kana grabbed a pen and a piece of lined paper, scribbling down: DO NOT LEAVE THE CLOSET IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE LIVING.
"That sounds threatening, Kana…"
"Good. The scarier it is, the less likely he'll be to defy us." She opened the closet door and flinched at the sight of him. None the less, she leaned over, about to staple it to the front of his white under shirt before pausing. "Maybe we should put some actual clothes on him."
"I think I read somewhere that boys don't like wearing girl clothes." Kallie said.
"Boy’s clothes, girl’s clothes, what does that even mean?" Kana rolled her eyes. "They're clothes."
In the end, we elected to leave him as he was, half dressed and fast sleep in our closet. Tana stapled the message firmly against his shirt so it would be the first thing he saw when he awoke, whenever that was. With some persuasion, Kallie returned to her dorm (several levels down, since she wasn't in the same year as them) and Kana and Sam turned the lights out at curfew. Typically, They didn't follow the rules exactly to a T, but they figured that, with their new guest, they couldn't risk angering the guards into keeping a closer eye on them. That night, she was plagued by a new nightmare. The sleeping boy was being hanged, his eyes -- somehow both dark and bright at the same time -- gazing at Sam, pleadingly, but she was powerless to do anything. I couldn't help but think that maybe, if I played her cards right, this nightmare, unlike all the others, didn't have to become a reality.
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