Her Compound

Chapter 21

The first thing that I noticed of the boy were the dark brown curls all over his head and then his dull, tear-filled, green eyes. As we had entered the room, the boy who couldn't be anywhere over fourteen hastily wiped at his cheeks and eyes, and then dropped his shaking hands back down onto his lap.

I could feel the shock emanating out of Willow and Matteo who had followed Zack and I into the room. They both stared wide-eyed at the boy and every once in a while, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Matteo turning his head to glance at Zack who was behind me with his hand still on my lower back.

"I'm sorry," Zack whispered into my ear, his warm breath tinkling my skin. "I forgot to warn you guys earlier."

I swallowed against the lump in my throat and took a deep breath as I willed my tears not to spill from my eyes.

I couldn't believe how replaceable we were. Logan died only yesterday, and now he was easily replaced by this boy. It was like Logan had never existed.

"Alright, well I'll give you all some time to... get to know each other," Zack said as he took his hand away from my back and walked over to the propped open door.

I watched him take the thing he had used to keep the door open and place it back into his pocket before he turned back to us.

"I'll see you all early tomorrow. Be sure to get lots of sleep, and Wyatt," Zack turned his head to look at the boy, "I want you ready as well. I will be taking you with us and then handing you off to Alex at breakfast. Okay?"

The boy nodded his head, his brown curls bouncing with the movement.

"Alright, have a goodnight."

And then Zack was gone. The door shut behind him, leaving the place to fall into silence, the only sounds being our soft breaths and the small air vent in the corner of the room.

I didn't know what to do.

I just continued to stare at the frightened looking boy, his messy hair and hunched over shoulders as he tried making himself smaller than he already was.

Willow finally made the first move, taking a few small steps towards the boy.

"So, your name is Wyatt?" she asked him.

Wyatt nodded his head and then turned his green eyes to Matteo and I. Willow noticed the movement and smiled as she stopped in the middle of the room.

"Well this is Zoe," she gestured to me with a wave of her hand, "and this is Matteo." She did the same motion for Matteo who was standing next to me before tapping her chest. "My name's Willow."

Wyatt took a deep breath and glanced down at his hands, then spoke up for the first time since we'd seen him. "Are we going to die?"

Willow turned around to look at us for a split second before looking back at Wyatt and shaking her head. "No, not here."

"But..." tears welled up in his eyes. "They killed Elias, and Izzy... and Will."

I swallowed down the lump in my throat and sat down on my bed.

"They killed lots of our friends too," I spoke up with a hollow sounding voice as I looked up at him. "But you do know why they had to do it, right?"

Wyatt's bottom lip wobbled and I could see a few of his tears slipping from his eyes, coating the light grey of his shirt a darker shade.

"There's monsters that are going to kill all of us," he responded.

I chewed on my lip as I nodded my head and looked down at my limp hands in my lap. "Yeah... yeah there are."

I didn't want to lie to him and then him not being prepared for what was to come, but it did send a sharp pain to my heart when I watched another wave of tears splash down his cheeks into his lap.

We all fell into silence, not knowing exactly what to do or say. Matteo and Willow both joined me on my bed and we waited. A few moments later, I looked up from my hands and at Wyatt to see him wiping away his tears with the back of his hands.

"Have you seen one of them?" he asked through a few shaky breaths as he pressed the palm of his hands against his thighs.

I knew he was talking about the Feymon and I shook my head. "No, not yet. We only arrived here a couple days ago."

Wyatt's eyes widened just enough that I was able to catch the movement. "Which place did you come from?"

I was about to open my mouth to tell him, but Matteo beat me to it.

"Ace's place. The big ugly man with the shaved head."

"Oh," Wyatt nodded and glanced towards the door, "that's where I came from too."

"Really?" Willow's eyebrows raised.

Wyatt nodded his head again. "Yeah."

I stared at the boy, pity overwhelming me. We had been in that exact position. We had lived through the same touture that this young boy had to go through.

I wanted to stand up, hoist myself up next to Wyatt, and give him a hug. Tell him everything was going to be okay. Tell him that I was going to protect him, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him.

But I wasn't going to make that mistake a second time. We all know what happened the last time I had made a promise like that.

It ended up in watching Logan die.