The Claiming

Chapter Ten

I ignore him.

"There's a way to prove whether a mirror is true or not. Something about the reflection..."

Alec shakes his head. He obviously thinks I've gone mad. Have I?

I touch the mirror with my fingers, hoping the movement, or maybe the visual will jog my memory. I can't remember that trick...

"Wait, Belle? Isn't there supposed to be a space between your fingers and the reflection?"

That's it. In a regular mirror, there will be a space between you and your reflection, but in a one-way, there is no space.

"How do you know that?" I ask him.

"When I was little, my mom used to hold me up in front of the mirror at home and make sure I knew that the little boy staring back at me was me. Of course, I knew it was me, but I just liked leaving my finger prints on the mirror." Alec reaches out and covers my hand with his on the faux mirror. "I always remembered that little space between me and the other me because I always wondered what was in between. It drove me crazy."

I look up at him with a small smile, but then I remember the task at hand—what's behind this stupid mirror? I have a guess, and I'm pretty sure I'm right.

"How can we get this thing down?" I ask as I begin to pull on the edges once more.

Alec opens one of the draws and begins shuffling through his belongings. He named this drawer his junk drawer yesterday while we were unpacking a little after dinner. I see now why it's called his junk drawer... there's a bunch of random crap in it.

From somewhere amongst his miscellaneous belongings, he pulls out a hammer. A. Hammer.

"Alec, what the—"

"Watch out," he says, pulling the hammer back in preparation.

I back up into the doorway of our room, holding onto both sides of the doorframe. Alec swings the hammer into the mirror and it crumbles, revealing a niche in the wall. He places the hammer on the surface of the dresser and peers into the hole.

"Belle..."

I stumble back into the room, careful of the pieces of mirror on the ground. I grab onto his free arm before I fall into him. When I take a look into the hole, my teeth clench together. "Oh, my goodness..."

A camera. A video camera pointing directly into our room to get the whole view. No words can describe the amount of disgust I feel at this very moment.

I reach for the hammer in Alec's hands, and grasp the handle. "Whoa, what are you doing?" he asks in shock.

"Give it to me," I say, frustrated.

Alec rips it away from me and holds the hammer above my head. "Belle, calm down," he says.

"Smash the camera," I say as I start to back up. My hands cover the top of my head, my fingers curling around strands of my hair. "Please, just get rid of it."

"I can't do that," he says. He opens the drawer and places the hammer delicately back into its place. When he closes the drawer, he looks up at me in concern. "Belle, stop. You're going to step on the broken pieces."

I don't stop, though.

How could someone do this to us? Invade our privacy like that? No wonder the society knows we haven't consummated our marriage—they've been watching us every night, waiting for someone to take their clothes off. How is this right on any level? How? Does anyone else know how ridiculously invasive this is? Who's the perv who has been watching all the newlyweds... do stuff?

I feel stinging on the bottoms of my feet, and then a sharp pain. I gasp and then let out an anguished squeal as I topple over onto the floor in the middle of the mirror pieces.

"Belle!"

Alec hurries to my side, forgetting about the remnants of the one-way mirror on the floor. He picks me up in his arms with ease and carries me out of our room. I hug his neck, trembling.

I grew up believing one day I would be free from the Facility.

I am.

But I've never been free from Bayfell.

***

Alec bandages my feet as I lay on the sofa crying. Yeah, I'm a wimp, but you try dealing with bits and pieces of glass sticking out of your feet. Not fun.

"All done," he says as he finishes wrapping my left foot in gauze. I sit up and swing my feet to the ground, careful not to put any pressure on them. I can't believe I was stupid enough to step on the shards when I knew all too well they were there. Maybe the shock had too strong of a hold on me.

It still does.

"What are we going to do?" I say in a broken voice. I lean my elbows onto my knees and cover my face.

Alec sits next to me and wraps an arm around my waist. "What we have to," he says with a sigh.

I look at him and rub my tear-filled eyes. "Alec—"

"Belle, I know you're not ready, but what other option do we have? You'll be sent to the Lower District! I don't want you to be taken away from me."

I sit up and let out another sob.

Alec turns my face with his hand to look up at him. "Belle, I hate this as much as you—that our privacy has been invaded ever since we've been married, probably our whole lives. But realistically, what can we do?"

I shake my head. "I didn't want our first time to be this way! Forced by Bayfell—how romantic is that? I don't want the government to be watching us. I want it to be just you and me alone."

Alec takes my hands. "I want that, too."

"Why can't we take the cameras away?"

"Because we'll probably get in a ton of trouble for messing with 'government property'."

"Alec, we're government property."

He cups my cheek with his hand. "You're right, but we can't let them know that we know. We need to keep each other safe, and to do that, we need to lay low. And also, they need a way to know we've consummated our marriage. That's why they have the cameras, I guess..."

I bite my lower lip. "We're trapped, aren't we?" I whisper.

Alec kisses my forehead somberly. "We alwayshave been."i