The Dark Side of the Wall

FIVE

Matthew

Hannah and I sit by the fire. Two squirrels are roasting above it. The flames lick at the exposed meat, as though hungry to eat it itself. Hannah's 'friend' – Taima – sits next to her. Her eyes are wide, focused solely on the meat I'm slowly rotating over the fire. A mall droplet of saliva is hanging onto the corner of her mouth. A troll could come barreling through and I have a feeling she wouldn't move a muscle.

There is a fluffy feeling coating my own mouth. The smell is pulling all my hunger pangs up from the bottom of my stomach. The sizzling of the meat sounds louder than it should. Like the whole forest is still and waiting for the meat to finish cooking.

I look over at Hannah and she seems to be the only thing in the whole clearing not focused on our meal. Even with her dirty looking brown hair, and the scar that glides smoothly along her right cheek – I can't help but see her as beautiful.

I have a feeling the moon thinks so too, with the way it shines through the trees illuminating her beauty even more. She look's up at it, the light turning her blue eyes into deep blue lakes.

Smoke burns my eyes forcing me to blink. When I look over at the fire, I see our squirrels starting to burn. Damn fire eating away at our food. When I look up again Hannah is looking at me.

"Don't burn it," She has a scowl on her face. "So what's this grand plan the rebellion has anyways?"

I can feel a heat rise on my cheeks from her scolding me. A scowl forms on my own face in an attempt at hiding it. "We're going to assassinate President Callas."

"And the vial?"

I take a moment to dig through my bag and pull the vial out. I reach over to hand it to her.

"Look at it closely," I say as she takes it from me. "Hold it up to the moonlight."

She does as I say. The light that shines through is a faint blue.

"It's poison. A special poison that very few people know how to make. It can only be made from a rare blue seaweed only found in Stoneshaw Bay. It's rarity is the reason it's so expensive and why we need to keep it safe."

A disappointed frown tugs at the corner of her mouth. "Not what you where expecting?"

"No..." She says with a sigh. She looks into the fire for a few beats before continuing. "I'm just a little shocked. There is this big rebellion plan and it revolves around this small vial of poison... It just seems so..." She ponders for a moment, looking for the right word. "Stale."

My eyebrows raise. "Stale?" I do nothing to stop the laugh that escapes me.

Her voice breaks through my laugher and I quiet myself enough to listen. She wears that scowl once again. "What?" She protests. "The rebellion wants to assassinate the president and all you guys come up with is poison? I just thought it might end up being something more complex and intricate."

I look back at the squirrels to make sure they're cooking well. The smell now fills the whole campsite and the meat is golden brown.

"Why do something complicated when you can keep it simple and get the same results?" I can't help but chuckle. "We're rebels, we do rebellious things. We're not stupid."

"So what is the actual plan then?" She asks.

Her eagerness ignites that excitement in me once more. The same feeling that set fire for the first time when I met her blazes hotter than before. She stares at me intently and I stare right back. I search the deep pools of her eyes for what could have possibly given me a new rush of life.