I Am A Monster

I Am A Monster : Chapter 41

Chapter 41

I find Dylan eating in the main room in the cafeteria, conversing with Amari.

I get some pancakes with syrup from the "lunch lady," along with a glass of orange juice. I bring my plate and glass over to Amari and Dylan. They're sitting across from each other. Dylan's talking with his hands. I sit down next to Amari, sliding my plate and glass on the table, and eat slowly, listening to their conversation.

"My brother was caught first," Dylan is saying. I look down at my pancakes, my fork prodding the one on the top, averting my gaze. Every now and then, Dylan tries to steal a glance at me, but I continue to prod my pancakes with my fork and avert my eyes. "He was twelve," he continues. "Well, we were twins. Both of my parents were already dead, of course--my mom was killed when they burned our house down, and my dad was killed trying to buy us time to get away." He's silent, letting it sink in. He blinks quickly, looking like he's batting his eyelashes, before he continues. "I looked for him for two years. When I was fourteen, they caught me snooping around one of their bases, looking for signs of my brother. I was reunited with him when I was sixteen, when I was moved to a different base. Thankfully, we don't look too alike, so they didn't know we were brothers. If they did, they never would have put us together; we would have worked together too well. We managed to get out, but then they caught us when we were running away. He told me that if he died, I keep going. And...he did." Dylan puts his head in his hands.

Amari pats his shoulder comfortingly. "It could be worse," she says, but she sounds doubtful. "My parents are both dead, too."

"But you have a brother," he points out, wiping the back of his hand across his eyes, which are beginning to get teary.

Amari is silent.

"You know, we all lost family," I tell him. "I lost my parents, too."

"You both have siblings!" he cries, shooting to his feet. "You don't know what it's like...to lose so much family...to be alone...."

Leaving his half-eaten waffles on the table, he storms off, wiping his hand on his face constantly.

Amari stares after him and sighs. Then she turns towards me. "Did I do well?" she asks.

I stare at her, confused. "What?"

She sighs again, this time a smaller sigh. Then she says, "I can't find it in me to be sympathetic."

I laugh weakly. "Me neither."

"Well, I gotta do--wait, what's the date?"

"Um, December tenth, I think."

I've lost track of the date. But I think it's December tenth.

Oh my god. The prophecy.

"Okay, well, see you at Raid Duty," she chirps. "We're raiding a castle at five."

"What time is it?"

She checks her watch. "Six fifty," she says. "See ya."

She jogs out of the room.

* * *

I'm munching on an energy bar that the king has offered me, listening intently.

"Due to the fact that you are doing both Guard and Raid Duty," he's saying, "We have changed things a bit. This has never happened before. You will do Guard Duty when you are asked, Raid Duty when you are asked, and you have free time for the rest of your time."

I nod, rubbing my wrist, which still has a cast. I lean carefully back in the chair, extremely aware of my wounded stomach and back and broken wrist.

"Are you alright?" asks the queen, leaning forward in her seat and examining me with her cold, clear blue eyes.

"Fine," I manage, looking down and fiddling with my thumbs.

"Bree, you look like you've been in pain recently--"

"I fell," I blurt. It's a lie, but it's the first thing that popped into my head.

"You fell?"

"Well, I have these weird vision things from time to time, and I fell--" I lie.

"Visions?"

"Um, yeah, Jacob helped--"

"That old fraud!" interrupts the king, shooting to his feet, his look angry.

"Sweetie," says the queen sweetly, putting a restraining hand on the king's shoulder, "Bree hasn't finished her story yet. No need to jump to conclusions."

The king, looking like he's just swallowed a lemon, sinks back into his seat, his muscles tense.

Thinking of Professor Trelawney as Jacob, I continue warily, "Yeah, he said...well, nothing really."

"Ha," says the king.

I know I'm lying, but it feels bad and good at the same time. Good because it's the king, and I don't particularly like him. Bad because if he catches me I'll be in huge trouble. But he can't know Scarlett knows all of these things. That's her place to tell him, not mine.

"Wait," I say, pretending to backtrack. "No, I went to Jacob for something else. For the visions...well, I can't tell you their name."

The king's nostrils flare. "Why not, Jones?" he demands.

"I don't like to be called Jones," I say, giving the attitude right back to him. "And I think they should tell you. It's not my place to--"

"Bree, tell me!"

"No!" I say angrily. I can't believe he's being this demanding. "Go find out from someone else."

He looks like he's going to shoot to his feet again, but instead he takes a deep breath and gives me a painful smile. "Please?" he begs, clasping his hands together.

"I already heard what I needed to hear," I say, lying the half-eaten energy bar cautiously on the table as if it's dynamite. "I'll leave now."

"You will not--!" starts the king, but the queen cuts across him.

"Go," she commands, her eyes cold and her expression hard and impossible to read. "Now."

I don't need any more than that. Without looking back, I sweep out of the room and nearly bump into Dylan as I close the door, who's standing right behind me.

"Dylan!" I say angrily, putting my hands on his chest and pushing him away before pushing past him and getting into the hall.

"What?" he asks, irritated, clearly offended. "What did I do?"

"What did you do? My god, Dylan! You were eavesdropping!"

Although his cheeks get a pink tinge, he still denies it. "I was not!" He glares at me.

"I'm not fighting with someone who's so much younger than me."

"I'm sixteen!" he protests.

"And I'm--" I pause for a second, missing a beat.

"Yeah?" says Dylan. "Are you too stupid to remember your own age?"

"My memory was taken!" I explode. Without giving him a second glance, I run off, hoping to bump into Amari and explain (in detail) what a jerk Dylan is.

But what's really getting at me is that I turned eighteen four days ago, and I didn't even notice that I'd never gotten a single vision about my birthday.

Thinking of birthdays makes my mind burst into a bunch of colors. I feel the sound of Dylan's footsteps on the floor, but before I can do anything, I sink to the floor. My eyes close as if of their own volition, and as I'm sinking into the memory, I have a vague feeling of someone shaking my shoulder vigorously.