XI

The poor boy was losing a lot of blood from a nasty bullet wound in his leg.

"It's ok, I'm not gonna hurt you." You cooed softly. "Don't shoot me, I'm going to help you." You said slowly advancing towards him as if he were a frightened animal.

The boy seemed to realise that you meant no harm. Still weary of you, he hesitantly placed the rifle down beside him.

Crouching down at his side, you looked over the wound on his leg and reached into your med pouch, taking out painkillers, antiseptic and a bandage.

He winced but kept his cries in as you patched up his leg.

Moments after he swallowed the pain killers, he pushed himself up, leaning on his good leg. He seemed happy, glad and thankful, as if he'd just been given a toy he had always wanted. Was his life really that horrible? Obviously it was since he was around the age of eight and knew how to shoot a rifle.

A child soldier...

He grinned and began to speak in a language you couldn't understand. Was he thanking you?

"I-I don't understand you..."

He shook his head and sighed. Patting his chest with the palm of his hand, he spoke again.

"Saleem. Sa-leem." He said as clearly as he could.

His name.The boy was telling you his name. You sighed and gave him a smile showing you understood.

Mimicking his actions, you said,

"(Name)."

"(N-Name). (Name)?" He imitated, trying the new word out on his tongue. You nodded, telling him he had it right.

He grinned back at you.

Your eyes flew open, your body drenched once again in a cold sweat, and your breathing laboured. Tears stung your eyes, but you blinked them back.

You felt sick with guilt as you squeezed your eyes shut only to see the little boys face again. You only felt worse as you felt your dry tongue and desperate thirst.

    "Wow, you look like absolute hell." A familiar australian accent said. You looked over to the female standing by the cell entrance, looking at you with a fine raised brow. You groaned, falling back into your pillow wishing for sleep to overtake your mind again. 

    "What time is it?" You asked, your words muffled by the soft material.

"9, and I'm not surprised that you slept in. From the way you crawled in last night, I'd say you could at least use a week to sleep in. You looked like a cat that had dragged up and down the motorway." 

You thought Fang's choice of words was strange but said nothing of it. 

"Oh and I brought you breakfast since you were too busy to come to the mess hall and get your own. You owe me. Oh and by the way that punk, Maqui was it? And the other guy. They were looking for you. Oh and also, there will be an announcement in a few minutes about count up, don't be late." 

"Count up?" You questioned.

"Yeah. Every so often the leaders need to make sure all the prisoners are here, in case someone has tried to escape and yada yada. So they line us up outside in the courtyard and check our number." 

"Oh..." You trailed of, not really interested anymore. "What time?" 

"They'll say in the announcement. Anyway eat up or leave it, I don't really care. See you round rookie." Fang grumbled as she left the cell. 

You let a small smile pull at your lips. 

Fang always put up a tough act but you could tell she was a softy deep down. You were thankful for the food and water she had brought up to you too. 

You did your best to swallow down the 'lavish' and 'delicious' meal down your throat and gulped down the welcoming water at a steady pace. Although the food was foul on your taste buds at least your stomach no longer felt hollow.

Making your way slowly to the main courtyard, you yet again felt the familiar feeling of being watched. Of course everyone in the facility was watched closely, however this was a different feeling. In fact, you felt as if you were being followed.

Anger began to bubble up inside of you. What was it, with these people trailing you and watching you like puppies and hawks?! Get some other toy to play and mess around with!

You made no sign to show that you knew you were being followed, only continued as normal to your destination. 

Upon arriving you saw the endless messy lines of practically all the inmates of the prison. They were separated out into three large lines, one for each block. 

You stood behind a brunette, someone Fang had pointed out to you on your first day, though you couldn't quite remember his name.

He looked pale and fairly worn out, with dark bags below his eyes. In fact, you wouldn't be surprised if he had fainted any second.

You felt the need to ask what the matter was. 

No (Name). Keep a low profile remember. Its none of your business.

"Hey, are you alright?" You asked quietly, wanting to keep the conversation between the two of you only. 

Yep, just completely ignore the logical side (Name), way to go.

He turned giving you a confused look. Had you really just asked him what the matter was? Did someone actually care about his wellbeing for a change? He almost laughed out loud at the thought.

However Noel could see the genuine look in your undoubtedly pretty (e/c) eyes. Were you really a convict? You looked too small, puny and innocent to even hurt a fly.

If only he knew...

He watched you silently for a moment before answering, "Hn...Yeah, got no sleep thats all." 

As they were calling out numbers, again, you felt eyes on you. Of course you were surrounded by a large group of people but it felt the same as before. A weird feeling. You were so caught up in your thoughts to realise your number being called out a second time. 

With a quick jab to the ribs you glowered at the perpetrator, Noel, who only sent you a worried look. 

"Inmate 472."

Your cheeks flushed in embarrassment, looking down at the ground desperately wanting to disappear.

"Here." You called out. 

"Inmate 473."

"Here!"

"Inmate 474."

"Here."

"Inmate 475."

...

...

"Inmate, 4. 7. 5!" The director yelled out louder.

No reply. 

Curious glances were passed around, each looking at one another suspiciously. It seemed as though this one imate was missing. 

"Where is 475!?" The guard's voice bellowed out. Silence fell upon the courtyard like a foggy mist. No one dared speak. 

"You have 5 seconds to show yourself or you will receive punishment!"

You leaned closer to Noel, who tensed slightly at the contact, a dusting of pink coating his cheeks. 

"What's the punishment?" You whispered quietly. 

"Either they make you clean up the corpses of those who have tried to escape near the entrance or 50 lashes." Noel answered simply. 

"The first one doesn't seem to bad." You said indifferently. Noel gave you a confused look which you merely shrugged at.

"One." 

"Two."

"Three." 

"Four." 

"Fi-."

"Wait!" A voice shouted from behind you. All eyes turned to the owner of the voice. It belongs to a blonde boy with pale blue eyes, couldn't be much taller than you and innocent looking, but you knew otherwise. 

"Speak scum!" The guard shouted right in the blonde's face once he stomped his way over. 

"475 and I share the same cell. He, never came back last night. He's been missing since." He confessed, eyes never backing down from the guard's burning stare. The guard looked furious at this news, 

"And you think it wise to tell me this now!? I should punish you too! Perhaps you're an accomplice." He accused. 

"Oh back off, he's told you all he knows." You blurted out. The two heads turned to look at you with wide eyes. You were more surprised at yourself more than anyone. Your hand had almost flew up to your mouth in shock. 

Noel looked at you with wide eyes, disbelieving of your confidence, but were also filled with admiration. 

The blonde boy also couldn't believe you stood up for him. Oh you were gonna get it now.

You kicked yourself inwardly. 

The guard stared at you with rage in his expression and stalked up to you. 

"What are you going to do, little girl?" He sneered up in your face just like he had done with the other male. A pathetic show of dominance. You decided to pick your words wisely, remembering that you were in a prison, and had no power here. 

"Nothing, just voicing my opinion, sir." You answered lowly. 

He glared at you for a moment longer, wondering what to do with you. Until he gave up, for now.

"I won't forget this." He hissed, spitting on the ground in front of you, and storming away to finish the lists. You stared at his retreating form with a soft glare. He's going to get what's coming to him. 

You let out a breath and groaned as the counting of numbers continued. 

Stop involving yourself (Name). 

You hadn't realised the blonde boy still hadn't taken his eyes off you, wondering why on Pulse you would stick up for him. And then it clicked. 

He remembered that face of yours. Very clearly. 

The count up had dragged on slowly and painfully and it had finally ended. 

Ace, the blonde boy you had stuck up for had planned to speak with you afterwards but failed to catch up with you in the masses of bodies that all lumbered around going back to their desired activities.  

You found yourself wanting to hide away from everyone, which meant going back to your cell and beating yourself up in a corner for how you couldn't keep your fucking mouth shut. 

You stopped suddenly. The familiar feeling of being followed creeping up on you once again. Was this a trend in prisons? To stalk and follow people around secretly?

"Show yourself." You demanded coldly.

"Oh nooo, I've been caught! Too bad!" A voice that belonged to a young girl, said aloud with fake sadness.

You turned to see a blonde girl much shorter than you, looking to be in her early teens. What on Pulse was such a young girl doing in a prison? Her blue green eyes glinted with mischief and dark humour.  

"I'm surprised you haven't ventured down below yet, (Name)." She giggled childishly.

Your eyes narrowed dangerously at the bubbly girl. 

"How do you know my name?" 

"I know a lot more than your name, in fact I know things even you don't know. I'm Lu-mi-na." She said with a less than kind smile.

The girl had taken note of your reaction to when she mentioned 'down below', well, she hadn't managed to stir a reaction from you at all, which must have meant you knew nothing of it. 

"Oh my~ So you haven't heard of the special containment level I take it? Wow, you really are so ignorant of this place!" She clucked her tongue, her eyes sparkling with amusement. 

Your eyes narrowed at the girl. 

Special containment level?

"So what?" You said, clearly wanting nothing to do with the blonde. She was a troublemaker, you could tell. Just by watching the playful slyness whirl in her eyes. She didn't look older than 15. For what reason would someone as young as her be in for?

"Oh please! You must be a tad bit curious to what goes on down below." She chimed.

Yes, you were. Not that you would admit it to her however.

"No, not really." You replied in a careless tone. Tired of the meaningless conversation, you carried on back to your cell where you could read or sleep in peace. 

It ticked you off slightly as you heard the girl's skipping footsteps follow behind you tauntingly. You ignored it as best you could, passing by the upper level of the currently empty fighting pit. Or so you thought.  

A sudden girly laugh came from behind you, making you sigh and turn back to the noise. Your brows furrowed in confusion as you saw no sight of Lumina behind you. 

"What...?" You whispered to yourself. 

"Awww hahaha such a confused look on your face (Name)!" A twinkling voice came from thin air, putting you on edge.  "So you seem like a capable girl. Well....Otherwise you wouldn't even be here." Her voice snickered. 

What was with this girl? A figment of your imagination? 

"So I'll make you a deal, (Name)."

"Why would I be interested in anything you have to offer?" You snapped losing your patience with this girl. 

Ignoring your words she replied with, "If you can come out of this alive, I'll tell you everything I know about the Special Containment Level."

Her words turned eerily dark and threatening, making your breath hitch slightly. 

"Come out alive from what?" You questioned warily, eyes scanning your surrounding for any trace of the mysterious blonde girl. 

A cold whisper of air fanned over you ear, and a voice sharper than a knife and quieter than a moth made you flinch suddenly, "From this."

A pair of unseen hand pushed you with impossible force, sending you over the pathetic railing and towards the ground below. 

You landed with a painful thud, your vision blotching out for a mere second from your head colliding with the blood stained floor.

Looking up you saw Lumina had reappeared grinning down at you playfully, swinging her legs back and forth from the railing childishly.

"I wouldn't lie there too long if I were you!~" She chirped. And she was right.

The sound of a deep threatening growl caused you to freeze and your heart to leap into your throat. Scrambling from your position on the floor you turned to face a pair of burning yellow eyes...

AAAAWWWW SNAP! You guys must hate me for leaving you hanging on that cliffhanger there! Current mood: Feeling Evil 

I still feel like I have ruined the story the last chapter T_T

I'm seriously sorry to keep all you lovely people waiting for so long pls forgive meeee!!  

And I wanted to quickly thank you those who helped me find Your/(Name)'s number lol that was embarrassing for me hahaha. As I said I would dedicate a chapter each to those who helped out everyone that commented really<3 -Rikki