The Duns

Hurt

Chapter Twelve

Catherine

Though it was thoroughly deliberated over our drive, announcing it on the table, both Peter and I sounded like fools- and we knew it. The plan we made was practically useless and we just had two days to come up with something new.

That same day, 11:23pm

My eyelids feel surprisingly heavy, and I can't sit up straight, my entire body now leaning helplessly on Peter's chest, delaying any practical work unless one counted his warm fingers running through my hair and my parents' intensive glare doing nothing to stop it.

We have been working our mental health to the edge, our physical side having abandoned us a while back. There is no concrete idea still formed yet, just chits of paper thrown into a cap.

My mother gets up abruptly and walks over to the floor where we are settled, "you should get to bed now, Catherine. Don't think we're letting you off school tomorrow." What!!? Didn't they understand the kind of risk I was in- already a much stalked 'human' by the Oi Alloi?

I sulk, opening my mouth to 'bicker', but Peter spoke up first, his hand resting on the floor, "she's right Cathy. You can't miss school. It would only make the Oi Alloi increasingly curious." He pauses and murmurs something indistinctively to himself, then said out loud, "not like they're already reporting the fact that I let you into my house, and that you stayed and that now you know your parents are here."

I yank up when he says that, my senses suddenly alert. I look him straight in the eye, "they'll find you; you know." He looks away, unresponsive. I frown, then turn his chin towards me, "and then what will they do?" He doesn't reply. But he knows what they will do. I get up, unexpectedly furious. "They're going to kill him, right?" I say to my parents.

Mom comes towards me in a gentle manner, her hand held out to me. I slap it down, "He's going to die, isn't he? They'll torture him! Won't they?" I look around, aghast. No one seems to care!

Peter slumps deeper into the wall, refusing to acknowledge anything. Dad sinks his head further into his palms. Mom reaches out once more. "And then you think it's safe to send me to school?" I ask the walls, blaming them because I have to blame someone.

No sound. I pull out a chair and drown in my sorrows. Then Dad perks up.

"Honestly, Regina, I can't believe I'm saying this, but what Cat's saying makes sense. They'll start Peter's period of torture by first hitting him where it hurts the most, and since Peter doesn't have any family- " Peter snarls softly from his corner. I positively glower at him from across the table. What was wrong with them? My desperate father continues with a sorrowful face, "they'll capture the next thing closest to him- Catherine."

I want to disagree with him, but what he is saying is genuine. They'll kidnap me. From school. I force the thought away, but it keeps returning addictively.

I let go, then, giving in to my furious will to sleep. I roughly remember Peter lifting me up, hoisting me over his shoulder, placing me on the bed. It brings back an aching memory, which is just a few weeks old now, only making my father's words even more visible in my mind. I remember, blindly, the feeling of the bullet hitting me some time back.

But I let it all go. And the next thing I know, it is morning.

-

I pour some milk into my bowl of cornflakes, watching it slush around and mix with the other. After I had fallen into my slumber, the three of them had decided that none of us must step out of the house until we have formed an effective, fruitful plan to get to the bottom of this confusing dilemma and then, hopefully, solve it. I chuckle to myself. It all sounded so simple.