This Is War

Chapter Seventeen: Pure Fire Inside

Dedicated to the lovely girls of Dem Fangirls for being so amazing, supportive and kind to me <3 means a lot girls, love you all <3

Also this is not my best work but I'm sick so cut me some slack aha XD

[ S A M A N T H A ]

"You seem stressed."

"Thanks." Charlotte mumbled

"You know what I mean."

"No I really don't." She said, still hunched over her new desk. She'd been in here for three days now. It wasn't like the training hall wasn't amazing, it totally was, but Charlotte seemed to be even more of an introvert since all of her gear had been dragged in here and out of Dad's office. Getting the generator and all it's parts up the narrow ladder had been a challenge, but thanks to Harry's ingenious idea of using ropes to just pull it straight over the barrier of the lift, it had made it into Charlotte's hands. She'd certainly been taking advantage of the new studio, spreading her stuff from one end to another withing twenty four hours.

"You just spend loads of time in here," I explained, "Don't you get bored?"

"I don't have a choice. I got bored two days into it, but I have to keep working, there's no way around it."

"That doesn't sound fun. Why don't you take a break? You can come train with Cass' and I?"

"Honestly Sam, I'd rather stay here for another week than start training." She hadn't looked up from her work the entire time, even when i accidentally sent a stack of metal cluttering to the floor.

"Training's fun." I said, confused by her answer, "-And it's good for you and it'll help when we come to getting Mum and Dad and everybody else back."

I didn't like mentioning Mum and Dad. It sent an unfamiliar shiver down my spine and sent me spinning into a wave of nausea. I'd tried my best to avoid just thinking about them and what could be happening to them right now. Were they hurt? Would they be tortured? Would they be killed before we reached them? I couldn't imagine my parents dying very easily, they were both strong fighters with high pain tolerances and drive to live. They would take death as a last resort, only if their bodies finally gave in and over ran their overwhelming power to continue living. But in that scenario, in such an evil, horrifying place where they'd most definitely suffer, would they stay as strong as they once were and last until we'd reach them?

"I'm not the fighter kind of person." She muttered.

"We all are, if we train hard enough."

She snapped, "Sammie can you drop it? I'm not training."

"Sure." I was blunt. I tried so hard to be friends with Charlotte, I really thought she was cool, but no matter how nice I was or how many times I offered her company or invited her to hang around, she ignored me. I understand that I am younger than everyone else, but i understand enough to be friends with the older kids at least. I wasn't asking to become besties, all i wanted was someone to care enough about my existence to be nice to me.

Not caring anymore, i walked out of her studio. Leaning against the barrier post, i stared down over the training hall where everybody else was. Natalia was boxing intensely, beads of sweat rolling down her reddened face. Most of the others were working together, practicing their swings while Justin hovered, giving helpful tips and instructions to improve their combat. They seemed to be stronger now, all working together under the watchful eye of somebody who actually could teach us.

I slid down the ladder, being greeted by Cassie who was trying to show Liam the pattern to the six drill Lee taught us. It was an odd feeling to demonstrate my skills in front of the older kids. It seemed to be the only time I could get their attention in a good way. But even then, it usually struck jealously in them, like they only cared to watch for the sake of learning what we could do to learn to do it better than us. Every time I went from feeling pride to resentment, know it only ruined my reputation with the ones I idolised more. This was one of the reasons why lee never wanted anyone to know of our training until we were old enough for it not to strike anger or jealously in anyone. He wanted others to want to learn from us and be proud of us instead of feeling jealous that we were trained by Lee and could execute skills they couldn't so young.