The room kept getting cooler and cooler after every passing second, and Riley was getting frustrated. She hated silence, and whenever it came she'd usually sing to distract her from what mess came before she got all alone. Her eyes shut and she leaned her head back against the wall, and as thoughts only focused on Alison, Riley completely forgot about the guy chained up in the room.
One of her hands made their way to the other's wrist and she felt for the thick indent that was once there. She felt only three lines, and she knew exactly how she got them, but if anyone asked, she was supposed to say she did it to herself.
Slowly, both of her hands returned to each side of her and she felt the nervousness around her sink in like every other time. There was things she could say, and things she couldn't, but sometimes it was hard to know which was which. Hesitantly, as if she had lost all safety without singing, she opened her mouth and let out her beautiful voice her parents would listen to during choir recitals when she was thirteen.
"Don't you dare look out your window, darling everything's on fire," her soft voice vibrated on the last word of that part, and though whenever she smiled in the past whenever she sang, an emotionless frown stayed glued on. The room around her seemed to echo her voice ever so slightly as she continued in her quiet singing voice, and no thought of the guy came to mind as she did.
Eli almost jumped at the sudden noise, but it was so quiet he had to almost hold his breath to hear it. He let his thoughts take him away as he listened to the girl's soft voice carry across the room.
"The war outside our door keeps raging on." Ah, he had heard this song before. Some of the people he hung around had sung this song. Actually, there were a lot of singers back home. They said it was for entertainment because they were bored, but he knew they just loved to sing. The younger ones liked to sing songs they had heard around and Nona had sung often when at home.
Nona was like the village's granny; she was greatly respected and was extremely wise. Though Eli wouldn't exactly call it a village as it was much too small for that, more like a hamlet. There were a couple of old buildings but mostly everyone slept together in the large office building they had turned into a house. There were several rooms as well as kitchens and bathrooms. He shared a room with four other guys who he could even consider his own brothers. It felt more like a large family, though very few were actually related by blood. The building used to be owned by a company that made cashew labels for cans and boxes, just cashews. It was very strange actually and he wasn't surprised when they went under.
Nona told stories of when she was a little girl. Her parents were part of a group that took over the area, since it was mostly abandoned anyway, and now years later there were twenty four people, well twenty six if Marmie had her twins while she was away. Some of the adults had jobs and earned a steady living, though many young teens like himself had settled to stealing and pick pocketing. He had started when he was quite young, following the lead of the older kids as he learnt. Now he was one of the better ones, as many of his seniors had moved on to make an honest living. Eli was young, barely seventeen, he wasn't ready to settle down and have a family, though he guessed first he'd need someone to actually settle down with. He wasn't planning on living his life alone, he'd just never found someone he was interested enough in to start anything.
The girl's singing softened down and eventually faded, mixing in with the comfortable silence. Suddenly he was struck with a thought.
"You're stuck here too." It wasn't a question; he knew now.
The comment sent Riley to complete silence. Her eyes shot open and immediately she stared at the guy in fear. No one was supposed to know that, it was something that was instructed for her not do tell. Her hands slowly began to shake as the fear bubbled up inside of her to the point where she just wanted to puke.
"No I'm not," Riley shuddered out of her shaky voice. Her nerves only spiked up after that and her heart beat increased just a little bit. Suddenly, she grew scared of the door flying wide open just to reveal the person she was scared of. She bit her bottom lip as she dropped her eyes to her hands that were now relaxed on her lap, just to see that they were trembling violently. She hated to lie to anybody, it was one of the only things she couldn't stand. As she thought that to herself, nearly forgotten memories flew up into her mind.
When she was around ten, she found her mother's old records from when she used to sing on stage. She listened to them and would dance with her younger brother, who was three and a half years younger than she was. He dealt with bullying ever since he started school because of how he couldn't speak properly and how he had one glass eye.
Their parents hated to see him get bullied, so they kept moving him from school to school, and when it just got too hard to handle, they moved to a completely different area with a different variety of schools. Since her parents were so busy packing and unpacking day and night, Riley was the one who had to take care of her little brother.
They didn't have a TV or any electronics, so even if they wanted to play video games they couldn't. But Riley wasn't interested in those kind of things, and neither was her little brother. They'd usually play catch outside, have water gun fights whenever they could in the summer, and when it was winter, Riley would pull her little brother on a sled just to have a blast listening to her brother giggle. When the days got too cold or too hot to enjoy, they'd relax inside with either homemade slushes or hot cocoa.
And when it was bedtime for little Matt, Riley would turn on the record player and dance with him to their mother's voice while a violin and piano played in the background. Then, when Riley tucked him into bed, she'd sing him a little lullaby to send him to a deep slumber.
When Riley turned twelve, her parents got new full time jobs, which meant they weren't going to be around as often as Riley wanted them to be. She slowly fell into a hard time with them not around, but she still had her brother and it was enough for her to be okay. Every night she tucked him in and sang him a lullaby, he'd sing along. He couldn't speak properly, but his singing voice was beautiful. Riley would sing with him every day as they danced, painted or whatever else they did together.
And as Riley remembered all of that, she realised how much she missed them. Her thoughts eventually slowed down and she was left with her head hung low while tears poured out of her eyes, and she tried her very best to not let the guy hear her cry.
Eli kept quiet when he heard the fear in her voice. He was right, there was no doubting it, but suddenly he wished he wasn't. He froze when he heard a quiet whimper across the room. She's crying now? He wanted to comfort somehow, he hated it when the kids back home cried and he now felt the same protectiveness coming over him. He tried but he could find no words to comfort her, so he sat in silence and listened to her smothered sobs.
After a few minutes, the crying died down to a few sniffles. He took that opportunity to ask the questions that clouded his thoughts. he didn't know which to ask first; afraid if he asked the wrong one it would trigger another crying fest.
"I'm Eli. It's pronounced ee-lie. Eli. Got it?" He was trying to make light of what just happened and change the subject. "Some people call me Ellie sometimes and it really bothers me. You're not gunna do that, right?" He heard her chuckle and grinned. He could work with this. "Anyway, I really hope not because the last person that called me that got their shoes filled with worms."
Riley just couldn't help but be slightly amused. First she felt ashamed because she cried in front of somebody else, which was something she never really did before. She finally knew his name and hearing the stories of others pronouncing it wrong made her chuckle mostly in her head, but occasionally they'd slip out. Just for fun, she decided to say something in a joking tone.
"Okay, Ellie," she said in a soft voice as she glanced up to him. He still had that little grin on and it made her smile. It seemed as though he had a talent at making her feel better, even through the black darkness in her mind.
Riley seemed to see his real personality leaking through, which made her seem relieved somehow, and it made her wonder when the last time she really allowed herself to shine through like that. She was terrified to say anything about herself, even little facts or her name. Maybe in the future she'd allow it, but for now she just sat against the wall with a little smile on her face while she looked at Eli with his grin.
The room filled with a comfortable silence. The chained up boy was unable to hide the expression from his face. He was glad he wasn’t alone, and even more that the other captive was talking to him. Even so, Eli had questions that were bothering him. Why was she taken? Where were her chains? He hadn’t missed the way she turned the attention off herself. She hadn’t offered her own name, and though his curiousity was growing he knew it was deliberate. He didn’t mention it; several run-ins with being too nosey is what got him in messes like this before. Instead he settled for a less personal yet still a question on his mind. Cautiously he asked the captive “When is she coming back?” It was clear who he was talking about, but after several seconds of uncertain silence, he opened his mouth to clarify his question. He paused when he heard a long sigh across the room.
“I don’t know.” That was the only answer Eli received, and he assumed she would stop there, but after another sharp intake of air, she continued quietly. “Sometimes she won’t leave me alone and keeps checking in on me every couple hours or so bringing food, but sometimes she leaves and I don’t see her for days.” At the mention of something to eat, Eli’s stomach growled. It struck him that he hadn’t eaten since he’d been taken a good two days ago and the gnawing at his stomach suddenly intensed.
Before he could allow his mind to wander, the girl spoke up again. “Don’t worry; she won’t let you starve to death. If she wanted to kill you, you’d be dead by now.” Though he was sure that was meant to be taken as a comfort and relief, he couldn’t stop the gnawing feeling crawling inside the pit of his stomach. This time though, it wasn’t from hunger.
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Okay...so I don't have much to say here but here it goes...
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Peace out Secrets and God bless you all!
-S