Breaking Dawn

Chapter 02: Fell

Chapter Two: Fell

          The last thing I remember is Clive carrying me in his arms as we run from what could have been the most horrifying creature we've ever seen—well, not that I've actually seen the whole of it, but that's at least, how I imagine it to look like. That is now the most horrendous moment of my life, and now, as I sit on my bed, looking outside through the window, I contemplate again about the best excuse I can possibly provide to my father, for he will surely ask what Clive  and I were thinking when we came to the Horrence. I fear he himself might bring me to the Peace Council to be punished for breaking the Law. But it's been six days now, and I haven't heard anything from my father yet.

          "Why isn't he asking?" I ask my brother Hynce, who is lying beside me, busy reading the same book he's been reading for eight months now.

          I pore over the light post outside and its pale yellow glow, and realize that it's already evening. I gently turned to Hynce and shoot him a look of curiosity.

          "What?!" he says, gawking. He closed the book and put it on the table beside the bed. He brushes his bangs up with his hand, revealing a 2-inch scar streaked across his forehead. 

          "I don't know, and I don't want to ask" he adds, bearing a tone of sullen irritation.

          "I almost died" I say, pulling up my shirt up to my chest to show my scrapes and wounds that are almost healed beneath the bandages.

         "Well, lucky you" he says flatly, touching the book as if going to open it again, only he doesn't.

         "He was never that quiet!" I insist. I drop my feet on the floor, about to stand, but soon realize my ankles are still aching. I gaze aside at Hynce, instead.

         "Clive said you were teary-eyed—almost crying, when you saw me—

         "I thought you were dead!" Hynce subtly snaps, rising to his feet, about to head to the door, but soon falls back to bed. I hear him take a heavy breath.

         "Who wouldn't cry seeing his brother covered almost entirely with blood?" he asks, and this time he says it like he means it. I know my brother—he never has that sweet side—I know he is, only never that expressive. I remember the times I got into trouble in the academy and he was there to protect and defend me. Sometimes I wish he's like that even at home, because everything changes back here—all the fuss and heated arguments about who should do this and that, about who gets the bigger portion of the meat, among so many other petty things. It frustrates me, sometimes.

          "So tell me, why did you go there—in the Horrence?" he changes his tone to his usual exasperated voice. He shoots me a sharp look that demands urgent response.

          "I wanted to know if there really is light—the kind we've never seen and felt before" I say, meeting his gaze with a suggestive look I know he will easily figure out what about.

         "Sunlight" he says under his breath. "And look what your persistence served you—you almost died little Mr.Rendler."

          "There was sunlight, there! We've seen it—Clive and I—"

          "Shhh" Hynce cuts me short, his index finger crossing his lips. He points his hand outside the door where I hear dad talking to someone.

          "I just came by to let you know about the Council Meeting at the Governor's Hall, tomorrow" says the voice which I recognize to be Mayor John Rendar's. He is the administrative leader of Fell, Salvation's busiest and probably, wealthiest quarter. Fell is situated strategically in the middle of Salvation Ground, about twenty five hectares in size carved around the borders of smaller yet more populated quarters, and home to almost a seven hundred people. They say Fell lies directly under one the three major pipes, to which about a hundred smaller sub-pipes are linked.