Treacherous

Eavesdropping

Blaise put his hands in his pockets as he stood in front of me, not looking at me. "We're not complete monsters here and I hope that by taking you to see your family, you can see that and we can finally move past all of this shit. If we can't get you to focus on trying to learn how to defend yourself, then Luciano will have you killed and cash in on the bounty."

I put the lozenges down on the table, picking at the tape on the box. "I didn't ask for any of this. I just don't see why I have to go calmly with you guys whenever I didn't choose this. I mean, why shouldn't I be rebelling? Why shouldn't I be questioning everything that is going on? I don't even understand half of this myself."

Blaise nodded. "Luciano asked me the same thing." He took his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms over his chest. "He didn't know why you weren't rebelling, either, why you weren't madder than what you are. To be honest, I want to know the same thing. I would be utterly pissed if someone did what we, rather I, did to you."

"I don't want to die," I muttered, looking up at him. "I really do not want to die, so why rebel?"

He shook his head. "You need to stand up for yourself, Galina. I don't know why you won't."

Neither did I. I had let these people walk all over me from the start. On that first day, I had vowed to find out the truth about what was happening with my father and why it was that I was so special. I had failed to do that. I had learned what the rumors were saying, but they were just rumors. Where did I go to find the truth, though? It certainly wasn't in the Roses. I was going to have to branch out, even if it meant I had to find a way to get out of the Roses.

"Galina?" Blaise asked softly. I turned my attention back to him. "What's going through your mind?"

"Nothing," I replied, straightening up. I wasn't a fighter yet, but I could surely figure out a way to outsmart one person. "When do we leave?"

x.x.x

I slept after Alex and I finished organizing the supplies. When Blaise woke me up, the sun was starting to sink below the buildings. I quickly ate the food he left for me. As I ate, I listened as he and Lilah shouted at one another behind his closed bedroom door. I didn't know for sure what was going on between the two of them, but from the sounds of their argument, Lilah wanted something that Blaise didn't want to give. What it was, exactly, neither of them said explicitly.

I wiped my hands on my pants and stood up, gently closing my own door. I had slipped an old, rusty scalpel out of the supply room. I secured it in my boot, taking care to put a piece of thickly folded cloth between it and my leg. Rather or not the blade could do serious damage, I didn't know and I really didn't want to find out, either.

With my personal knife tucked securely in my other boot, I leaned against the wall and waited for Blaise. I could see a little bit of the city through the cracks in the plywood. It was always shocking to look at the half-burned, half-abandoned city when it had once thrived with life. The city that never slept. Now, it was a city that barely lived. I didn't know what the other cities in the country looked like, but I had a pretty good idea that they all looked just about the same.

Rumor had it that it was the countryside that was extremely dangerous. People killed and then asked questions later. They were so short on supplies that they had to do whatever was necessary to survive. If that meant killing someone who was just trying to find a place to sleep, then so be it. Everyone was fighting to survive.

I sunk down into a crouch and watched as a bug crawled across the floor. Maybe I was stronger than I thought I was. The death of that woman didn't bother me as much as I thought it would have. I mean, Jasper had shot that drunk without hesitation, but there had been something about the death of that woman that had been different.