Saorise woke up and cried again for the third time that night. Her sobs weren't loud, but they were enough to pull me out of my bed to comfort her. Again. I dropped from the top of the bunk bed, took two steps to her bed, and plopped down next to Saorise, who was balled up and hugging her pillow.

  "I can't sleep," she said.

  "I can see that."

  "The scary people might come," she said and tightened her grip on the poor pillow.

  "They won't get you," I said absentmindedly, saying whatever would calm her down, and patted her head. "Go to sleep."

  "I don't wanna," she whimpered.

  And I don't wanna argue with you anymore, I thought and mentally banged my head on the wall. Please, please, sleep.

  "I'll stay here until you do, but you gotta sleep," I said and yawned. "It's already twelve."

  She stared at me with a sad face for a good minute before flopping onto the bed, still clutching the pillow. The teddy bear she'd been hauling around was on the ground, so I picked it up and switched it out with the pillow.

  "You know, it's easier to sleep with your eyes closed," I said, putting the pillow under her head.

  Saorise ignored this, opting to keep her eyeballs wide open. "You're not scared?"

  "Not at all," I said, despite the sudden knot in my stomach. It was possible that those crazies would chase us here. They chose to attack my dad, after all.

  Or maybe not so crazy, since they beat him. Her fears were justified, but she didn't need to know that.

  I did my best to put on a reassuring smile or at least something that didn't scare her. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. Just try to sleep."

"Okay," she said and shut her eyes. "But you have to promise to keep me safe."

"I promise," I said, a little relieved I didn't have to lie again. I was fully capable of protecting a small child from crazy people who killed my parents.

  The knot came back.

  "Pinky promise?"

  "Yes," I said and linked my finger with hers. "I promise I'll do everything I can to keep you safe. Now sleep. Please."

  I waited for a good twenty minutes for her to drift off. This small, sleeping thing and the other one, though slightly bigger, were the only ones left from my family.

  Come what may, I wasn't going to break my promise.

  I started to climb back onto my bed a little hand tugged on my leg, nearly causing me to scream. It was like those horror films Jean forced me to watch, and I was too chicken to say no. I looked back slowly, berating myself for jumping to stupid conclusions. There was no psychotic child, or tiny monster, or ghost, or rabid humanoid, or chimera trying to eat me. . .

  Just Ryder, who probably woke up when Saorise cried.

  "Can't sleep?" I asked, resigned to the fact I was not getting a good night's sleep.

  Ryder nodded, and I sprung off the ladder, landed with a thump, then plopped down next to him. "What's wrong?" I asked.

  The boy moved his mouth but no words came out. Apparently, he felt he communicated everything perfectly, because Ryder shifted so that his head laid in my lap while he fell back asleep.

  "Stay here," he whispered, barely enough for me to hear it. His voice was quiet and soft, like a kid's, which made sense since he was a kid.

  "Yeah," I said, being grateful he didn't ask me any questions like Saorise. He'd sense I was lying before I even said anything. My hand patted his head to assure him that I was still there.

  When the snoring started, I assumed it was now safe to move the grenade without him waking. I eased him out of my lap and onto the bed, though his head was at the wrong end of the bed, and finally got into mine.

  I figured I didn't need to sleep next to him after he kicked me out of bed that first night. 

  The clock read 12:33.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

  There was nothing like the experience of trying to pull a stubborn brat out of her bed in the morning when she did not want to get up, especially at seven in the morning.

  "Saorise, get up," I said for the fifth time. "Up! Time for breakfast."

  The girl covered herself with the covers, head and all.

  Ryder stood off to the side, rubbing the grogginess out of his eyes, and watched me struggle to pull a little girl out of bed.

  Why was she even winning the fight?

  If she weren't going to get up on her own, I'd have to do it for her. I picked up the kid off from the bed, sheets and all, then set her on the floor.

  "Look, you can't be acting like this all the time," I said and pointed at the set of clothes near the door. "Get dressed, and we'll--"

  Saorise head lolled off to the side, and she was asleep again.

  "She's sleeping," said Ryder, speaking at a normal volume for the first time in the last few days.

  "I can see that. " I rubbed my temple, both to ease my own tiredness and to come up with another plan.

  Eh, she didn't need to change.  Her bedclothes were okay, just an oversized t-shirt and shorts, but they'd do. I had a hard enough time trying to wake her up, let alone to change her. 

  I picked her up, meeting little resistance on her part. "Okay, let's go," I said, taking Ryder's hand.

  Without Saorise awake, the walk to the cafeteria was relatively quiet (besides the noisy...soldiers? Come to think of it, I didn't know what they were). Ryder didn't speak the entire way there, but he glanced every now and then at me.

  "Something wrong?" I asked.

  "How come you don't carry me?" he asked, giving me a hurt look.

  "Because I don't need to,, " I said, letting go of his hand to mess with his hair. "You're a good little kid that doesn't make me carry them."

  "Oh." The look on his face told me he was not satisfied with my answer.

  "But I'll carry you later if you want," I added quickly.

  Ryder smiled a tiny smile and nodded his head, which I assumed was his way of saying thank you. I smiled in return, happy that he was feeling a little better.

  That feeling soon disappeared. At the cafeteria, we were served three bowls of whole-grain cereal, no sugar. Ryder and Saorise, who had awakened in time to eat, detested it.

  There was no way I was going to deal with this. "Eat your food," I said, giving them the do-it-or-else look. "And no buts."

  They knew not to mess with me when I gave them "the look". Grudgingly, the two shoveled the nasty slop into their mouths, complaining in their own ways. Ryder made faces whenever he scooped it up, and Saorise blew a raspberry at the bowl before saying, "Ew."

  No one could blame them. Even the other workers and doctors were making faces at the food. A patient a few tables away from us even spit the slop back out, thoroughly ruining my appetite.

  Thirty minutes later, all three bowls were relatively empty. Done with breakfast, the three of us made our way to Ms. Raxyn, the doctor who was doing our last round of assessments before we left the compound to go to Steven's place.

  It was the same things they had been doing the past few days. Electrodes measured electricity levels; blood tests measured nanobyte count; lengthy questions measured our mental health.

  After an hour of poking and pricking with her infernal needles, Ms. Raxyn released us to the waiting room (which was really part of her office. The real waiting room was an extension of the hallway)--the only problem was we waited there for eight stinking hours with a few breaks for lunch and the restroom.

  The boredom even got to Ryder and Saorise, who promptly took a nap at around the sixth hour. The two nestled among the stuffed animals on the couches, sleeping far more peacefully than the night before.

  They looked cute and all, but the two kids left me alone in a room full of toys. Just toys and a few pieces of furniture. Even though I played with them whenever they asked, it wasn't like I enjoyed playing with stuffed dinosaurs and colorful blocks by myself.

  So when I took Mr. Teddy Bear and started throwing him up in the air, it was out of boredom, not amusement.

  The girl who walked into the room did not understand that.

  "Oh. I wasn't expecting this," she said, just as I caught the plushie.

  We met eyes, with me flat on my back and holding a plushie and her standing straight and tall.

  "Um, hello?" I said and sat up.

  She stared at me, and for a moment, I thought she would leave the issue alone. Again, the girl had different ideas. "Ha! You're playing with stuffed animals?" she said, trying to hold in her laughter.

  "I don't do this usually," I said, feeling my cheeks flare up from embarrassment. That came out wrong. . .

  "So you do this more than once?" the girl continued while her own face grew red from the laughter.

  "No!" I said and hurriedly chucked the doll back to Saorise. It landed with a thump near her face. "There just isn't exactly a lot to do here."

  "That's a good point, but it begs the question. What are you doing here? It's part of the kid's psych ward, and you--" she motioned at me "--are obviously not a child."

  I held up one finger. "First, Ms. Raxyn has more patients than just small children. She isn't just a psychologist." The second finger went up. "Secondly, I'm here with my little sister and brother."

  "Ah, I see."

  "And I am not here of my free will," I continued, feeling the need to make that clear. The heat in my ears didn't fade for a while.

  "I see," she said, still amused judging by the smile on her face. "Anyway, I'm looking for a guy named Chael. I guess you're him?"

  "Yes."

  "Ms. Raxyn wants to see you. I'm Deryn by the way," said the girl, holding out her hand. "Figured since I know your name, you might as well know mine."

  Isn't Deryn a boy's name? I thought as I shook her hand. With my initial embarrassment wearing off, more questions came to mind. And she looks like my age. What's she doing here? Normally, teenagers weren't allowed in the compound for no reason.

  Up close, it was easier to see that her eyes were the same pale blue as mine. That answered my question.

  A thunder child, from the Academy maybe? But why's one of her eyes darker than the other?

  "Heterochromia," said Deryn.

   I blinked twice, then realized I was staring. "Ah, sorry."

  "It's cool. I know it's not that normal," she said and waved it off. "Ms. Raxyn is in her office, the real one."

  That would be the office across the hall, which was outside the room. 

  "Oh, I can't leave the kids here alone," I said, glancing at the sleeping munchkins.

  "I can watch them while you're gone," she said.

  Lesson one in child care. Under no circumstance should one leave children under the watch of strangers, even if she seemed like a nice person despite her teasing--which I hoped was teasing and not full-out insults.

  "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't know you," I said and waved my hand in the air to go with my apology.

   Deryn stared at me yet again, only instead of laughing, her face displayed all the signs of an are-you-serious look. "You know, the place is right across the hall," she said slowly, probably thinking I didn't know where everything was.

  Well, I did. 

  "Yeah, but I can't just leave them here," I said, "Gotta watch them."

  "Look, I'll leave the door open," she said and sat down on the couch. "And I'll stay right here until you get back, so no harm done. I'm not going to do anything."

  I stood there for a minute and considered the offer. As long as the doors stayed open, if anything happened, I could get there quickly. I didn't think she was up to anything shady anyways since whoever was allowed in here was screened.

  "Fine," I said and took one last look at the kids. "But don't do anything."

  "Yeah, I won't do anything. Not even touch the toys," she said teasingly. She was just like my friend Jean, who messed with me often, but it was less feminine (for obvious reasons) and usually involved jokes that didn't involve my pride.

  Instead, they involved my lack of social skills, which was apparently different than social manners. 

  That brought up my response to Deryn. "I don't usually do this."  I cringed at the thought of my terrible wording. There were loads of other ways I could have handled that, but no, I had to dig my own grave. 

  Shaking the thought from my mind, I headed for the door. I turned one last time to check on Saorise and Ryder. At this point, Saorise had grabbed Mr. Teddy Bear, and Ryder had his face plastered onto one of the dinosaurs. Deryn was waving me off. "Thanks," I said to the girl.

  "No problem," she replied, then urged me to go by shooing me away with her hands.

  I opened the door, leaving it ajar, and walked the five steps across the hallway to whatever meeting Ms. Raxyn wanted to have with me.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Please vote and comment if you enjoyed this~