Culling

Part III • Chapter XXI

If anything, Luke's face fell even more. "I know that." His blue eyes shone as he spoke. "Nobody deserves that. Sang, when someone has something bad happen to them, it is in no way a reflection on them as a person. Bad things happen to good people. People like you too."

No, he didn't understand. I had broken the rules so many times. So many things that had happened were my own fault...

"Nothing that has happened to you has been your fault." Luke's voice sounded firm now, darker. "Like nothing that has happened to me was my fault. Don't take on that weight." He paused for a moment, considering, before his eyes drifted behind me.

It was then when I realized that we weren't alone in the room.

North was with us, I could smell his rich, musk scent in the air. And I wondered how I hadn't noticed it before.

When we lived in the apartment, I had learned that he was a light sleeper. He had caught me many times when I tried to sneak around in the middle of the night. The fact that Luke and I had been able to have a discussion — and that he hadn't woken up — was a testament to how exhausted he was.

I wondered how far the boys had traveled throughout the arena to find me. Did they take any time to rest or take care of themselves at all? I owed them all so much...

Luke, apparently confirming that North was still asleep, leaned in closer to me. Our noses were almost touching now, and I could feel the warmth of his sweet breath caress my cheek as he spoke. "North was the one who rescued me." His voice was barely a whisper as he spoke. "But I've never told anyone what happened. Or how I even got there in the first place."

It took a short second for the words to register, and when they did I gasped as my eyes flickered to his own. "What?" Why was he telling me this? How could he even talk about his experience so non-nonchalantly? He sounded so matter-of-fact right now.

But then I realized while he was talking to me, he was also mentally preparing himself for the memories. I wanted to tell him to stop, that he didn't need to tell me anything, but he continued.

"My petty officer turned me in for testing. He was my commanding offer for a few weeks before that, and he became angry at me after a training exercise." Luke's voice sounded far away as he spoke, and even though his eyes had met with mine, I knew that he wasn't seeing me. "His ability was persuasion. He was ambitious. Normally he had the seamen recruits to do stuff for him — things that he should have been doing himself. Dangerous missions and the likes. Men are disposable, especially the recruits. I played along for a while, acted like the others.

"People knew about my ability, but never really understood the extent of it. Usually people in my family can only resist illusions, or certain types of mind control. But not everything. One day I refused to follow his orders, and that's when he realized that he couldn't control me. It was discovered that no form of mind-control or manipulation worked on me, and they wanted to learn more. They wanted to know if there were limitations to my abilities, or if they could recreate them, for defense."

I knew for certain now that while Luke might have been physically here, in body, but at the moment his mind was far from being with me.

"I'm not going to go into the details, much." Luke said softly. "Because I'm not sure what you might remember, or if they did different things to you. I hope so, but if I'm wrong, I also don't want to trigger anything for you. But, as for me, I'll be ok. I'll be here when or if you want to talk. About anything. I will help you through this."

"Luke." I could barely say his name as visions of what he must have suffered flashed beneath my closed eyelids. I could only imagine the pain and fear that he had gone through in his life...