How would I have felt, thinking that my parents would stay with me, then them vanishing into the blue and leaving me to my own devices? Betrayed for one. Heartbroken for another. Angry for yet another. And scarred on the inside for life. 

"That's- " I begin.

"Don't talk to me about them," spits Amisha. "Those good-for-nothing, cowardly, selfish people who would rather leave those they loved behind rather than protect them. It was their choice to bring us here!" The dams break and she dissolves into a round of passionate sobbing.

I stare helplessly as Seamus and Anton move over to comfort her, but I can see their own pain reflected in their faces. Is that what happened to me? My parents leaving me when I was too small to remember? 

I dredge up every single recollection I still manage to hold onto.

Nothing of my parents.

The sun slips below the horizon.

Darkness makes the Room even scarier than in daylight. The thunderstorm I had created has subsided, but it feels like I'm back in the Downs. Jumpy, tense, terrified of what night might bring. 

Amisha takes the first watch. Tears fleck her eyes like sparkles of tempestuous dew. She sings something soft, something sad, but my brain's too preoccupied to catch anything but the tune...

La, la, la,

La, la, la, la, la,

La, la, la,

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la,

La, la,

La, la, la, la, la, la,

La, la. . .

My dreams are haunting and terrifying. First, I can only watch, paralyzed, as Hataki and Desna are killed and their bodies ravaged. I'm in hysterics and nothing changes. Then, in the way of dreams, I'm back at the home, except that there is no home. The ground begins to crumble beneath my feet and as I run, the faster it crumbles, taking me with it.

Down, down, down into nothingness. . .

"Ersline. . ."

My eyes fly open at 200 km/h as I slip a dart into my blowgun. Short, shallow breaths rack my chest as I wildly aim the opening, trying to get enough air into my lungs to blow, then stopping as I see who it is.

"Anton."

"You're awake."

Way to state the obvious, thanks.

"And trembling."

Okay...not so obvious.

"I am?" I ask. My voice quavers and is so ridiculously high-pitched that I sound like I swallowed Seamus's Voice-Changing. Then I look down at my hands and find them shaking. "Oh. Oh yeah."

"You cold?" he asks. I lift my head and see him looking at me with a funny expression on his face. 

"I- um- yeah."

He chucks me a rough blanket woven out of grass. "Here."

"Thanks."

The blanket helps with the cold, at least, since I actually am cold, but even so, I still tremble like crazy. Hataki. . .Desna. . .how could I ever abandon them? 

My parents obviously didn't have the heart to care for them. Leaving us alone, too little to remember when, to face the world. . .do I really want to kill myself now? It would just make me as heartless as they were.

"Scooch over," Anton says, patting the ground next to him.

The overwhelming desperation pushing its way up through my throat is so unbearable that I nod. Carefully, as though afraid to wake a predator or to trigger a booby trap, I inch my way over to him. I'm still shaking but he doesn't care. Instead, he jumps straight to the point. "Who actually are you?"

Okay. Um. Why is he asking me this? Why would he want to know? And. . .

Who am I?

I don't even know.

So I tell him the basic facts. "My name is Ersline Alflexia Faverlow, I'm 13 years old, and as you know I have two sisters and unknown parents-"

"I know all these," he says dismissively. I don't question his claim. "But I want to know about you."

I blink. "I. . .don't quite follow."

"Look at Amisha," he says, indicating her with a jerk of his thumb. Following him, I glance over and see how her impetuous cover had vanished like mist, leaving behind a broken, frightened, brittle girl. "Get it? That's how she really is, underneath all her masks of arrogance and haughtiness. Scarred. That's who she is. A scarred girl who puts on a fake front to hide it."

"And you know this because. . .?"

"Trust me, I lived in the same part of Sylvanium as her. We grew up together." He looks me up and down. "The question I'm asking you is, who are you, underneath your masks of confusion? Because I bet you can't be Miss Where-Do-I-Go in normal life."

"Well-"

"Figure it out. Take as long as you need. Tell me when you do figure it out." He shoots me a wink. "I'm going to sleep now, my guard's over."

"Okay."

I stare as he grabs another blanket before he flings himself onto the ground, and falling asleep almost immediately. 

I sigh as I lie down onto the ground, covered in my blanket. My head hurts from thinking about 'who I am', and I've gotten no further than what I told Anton. As I heave in another breath, feeling like every breath I take could be my last, I notice something. 

An unfamiliar scent. Laced with the smell of smoke and. . .what is that? lilies? Yes, lilies. Smoke and lilies. An unusual combination. I look round, my eyes uncooperative; see the source.

Just off in the distance I can make out a thin spiral of smoke rising through the air like a lazy jellyfish.

The pain in my chest has reduced to a slight throb, so I push myself up and off the ground. Each step I take is a slap to my sole, pricked with pebbles as my worn shoe finally gives up and falls away. How amazing. Now I'm barefoot in this pebbly, rocky place.

Gradually I make my way across some spiky green plants that seem intent on imitating swords. As my foot touches them I wince as tears of pain spring into my eyes. Blood streaks their fronds red as cuts sting and burn into my legs. I don't dare to stop, though. If I do, who knows what would happen?

Eventually I make my way out of there, but enter the bramble patch. Brambles- why brambles right after swordgrass? Ughhhh. Thank you, Room. Thanks for torturing us. 

I glare at the thorns on the brambles, because they seem to be smirking at my discomfort. I want to tear them right off their branches; well, I would, if it isn't for the fact that they would rip my skin to shreds if I did. 

Yes, whoever designed this Room is a complete jerk.

After the brambles is a field, and in the field is the smoke's source. Carefully placed footfalls are what I use to sneak over the soft green grass. I single tree stands in the middle, sticking out like a polar bear in a desert. I creep forwards, over to it, and hide behind its trunk, out of sight. Then slowly, cautiously, quietly, I edge my head around.

I snap back as soon as I hear movement.

Something's coming.

Coming my way.

Crack. A branch snaps.

It happens as fast as a mantis shrimp can punch.

Someone appears out of nowhere and forces me to the ground, just as the dawn light breaks over the horizon.

************

I catch a glimpse of dusty-blonde hair like moonlight on sand and see a pale, thin face hanging over mine as my assaulter pins me down with her legs. Reflexively I reach for my blowgun, only to find that they're being restricted by her grip. Because this is a girl. Obviously.

Something in her taupe eyes flickers like a lightbulb as she sees my face. My breathing is as short and as shallow as a tiny rock pool. Technically, she's unarmed. But on her hands, there are one-centimeter-long nails on each finger - a natural weapon.

I force my lips into what I think is a smile. "Hey. What's up with you?"

"What's your name?" she hisses, like she's afraid of being overheard.

"Ummm....Ersline Faverlow?" I make it a question, because for real, who she is is the real question here. "You?"

Her lips twist. "Call me Coral."

"It's not your real name?" I ask.

"Why would I tell you whether it is or not?" she asks, raising her eyebrows.

"Are you an Arnisse?"

Coral's face hardens. "I was. Once. A long time ago. And I'm still getting catapulted back into this hellhole."

"What the- what ?"

Coral's an ex-Arnisse?

Then that means. . .

"Yes," she spits. "Even if Arnissess survive, they're still put into a rotation of who goes into the annual Room, one at the time."

The realization hits me.

If I survive. . .I would be part of that rotation as well.

(Ok guys I think this is the longest chapter I've written in like- FOREVER XD and I have a little question for you: who do you think will die? (Yes, ppl will die, I'm making veryyyy sure of that XD ok ignore my freakishness XD Comment and vote if you liked it, pleaseeeeee...Soph -> out!)