INCENDION

2.

Her parents were the ones who turned her in. Her mother was resilient but her father didn't hesitate.

They were frightened by her. A six year old child.

I stooped down to her height and smiled at her.

"What happens if I say I just want to sit?" She asked with such a tiny tone, like if she were to be heard they'd have her neck.

I gave her a warm smile. "They would think they have actual power over us," I told her.

She squinted her brows at me. "But they do," she said.

I shook my head. "Don't believe that."

The music changed and I gave Amoriel a coy smile, thankful that she couldn't read my mind. I picked her up and spun her around going with the rhythm of the music.

Watching her frown turn into laughter was so precious.

She didn't even get to be a child.

I understood her completely. I used to be her.

I tried to place her on the ground stably but even I was dizzy, so we both fell to the ground, laughing and trying to make the best out of the moment.

There was good food, at least best I've had in ages. And I finally had my first cup of wine.

I tried to take Amoriel with me. She didn't have to feel like she didn't belong. She didn't need to feel like she was alone. I was with her in this.

"Rae!" I heard someone call my name. It was Zin and she was running over to me already. When she leaned in to whisper, I already knew it wasn't gonna be good.

"Volt found a way," she said, and I already knew exactly what she was talking about.

"A way to get himself killed," I concluded. Not wanting to hear more, I began walking away.

"I'd advice you come with us, Rae," she suggested.

That definitely caught my attention. "You're going with him? Zin, they will gut you and feed you to the Dratians. You heard the man-"

"Since when did you care about surviving?" She asked, eyeing me up to down. "Either way at least we'll get to be free from--"

"Aaaaaaah!" Amoriel's scream was heard.

She was just right behind me.

When I turned around she wasn't. Instead I saw a crowd of little kids just by the corner, surrounding her. And they weren't prisoners like us.

Which meant this was bad.

I ran over to them with Zin right behind me. "Hey! Get off!"

A little part of me wanted to snap their little heads off their neck, but I managed to get them off her calmly.

They. Were. Cutting. Her. With a knife. Her whole right arm was bloody.

I turned to the one with the blade and she smiled at me so innocently. "I just wanted to see if she would heal."

And the other kids laughed like this was a joke.

"You're insane," I said, picking Amoriel up from the floor and walking back to our section.

No one was going to attend to us. She was in pain, but she wasn't going to die so it was no one' problem.

The rest of us prisoners gathered around her, trying to console her.