“Why are they burning my picture?” she asks, a cold sweat breaking out on her forehead. The boy looks away from her and paces back and forth in the room, the squeaking floorboards keeping his mind from formulating some type of plan of escape. “What are they doing?” she asks more forcibly, walking over to the boy. She grabs him around the wrists and he stops to look at her. She’s so beautiful. Her clear brown eyes are frightened and endearing; she’s completely terrified and still stunning. He reaches up to her face and strokes her cheek. He’s only known her for a few days, and already he’s more attracted to her than any other person he’s ever met.
“Do you remember my name?” he asks the girl. She stares at him, her mouth opening slightly so that it hangs open as if she’s frozen.
“Your name is Cedric,” she answers, “You are the son of the Secretary of the Mayor.”
“And you are Jaselle, daughter of the Mayor.” They stare at each other. Jaselle notices that Cedric’s eyes are burning with light and pain. “You have to run, Jaselle,” he says, his voice rough and certainly too old for his young age.
“Where will we go?” she asks. Cedric grimaces and pulls away from her, stepping away to the other wall. “What’s wrong?”
“You have to go,” he says. The sound of a shattering bottle out in the street makes both of them jump with fright. They can’t make it out together.
“Why aren’t you coming with me?” Jaselle whispers. Cedric turns around to face her and runs his hands through his hair, spreading the dirt from his palm onto his clean blond hair. He walks the steps over to her, grabbing onto her shoulders and looking down to her face.
“Because you need to get out of here,” he says, “Those men, they’re looking for you next. When they burn a picture, it means they’re about to go on a hunt for that person and kill them. They’re going to kill you. They haven’t burned my picture yet, so they’re not after me. You need to get away from here. Do you understand?” Jaselle nods and blinks away tears, her eyes stinging from the pain. She doesn’t want to go out alone. She doesn’t want to go out without Cedric.
Cedric lets go of her shoulders, turning back to the window. Through the scratched surface of the window he can see the men are still standing in a circle, perched around the still in flames picture of the girl standing behind him. If he can just distract them long enough to make them go the opposite direction as Jaselle, then maybe she’ll stand a chance getting somewhere else where they can help her. The chaos here couldn’t have spread out to the other towns and villages. She’ll be safe somewhere else.
“Come on,” Cedric mutters, moving away from the window. He grabs a pack he stole from the body of a dead woman and starts to fill it with food. He grabs some battered fruit and places it in the pack, and then he reaches for the few bottles of water and milk he salvaged from the town after the riots started. The small pack doesn’t hold much, but she should be able to survive on what he’s placed in it for a couple of days before she reaches another village. At least he hopes she does.
Jaselle walks around the room, her footsteps a lot lighter than those of Cedric, and she finds a torn shirt. She looks at it, examining it from different angles in the air, and pulls some loose strands on the shirt that close up the holes. Cedric stares at her, surprised.
“I took a class on sewing,” she said, “Here, wear it; it’s cold outside.” He extends his hand and grabs the shirt, their fingers touching for a split second before he pulls away from her. He slips his arms through the shirt and buttons it up, glad for the protection. He smiles half heartedly at Jaselle, gesturing towards the hallway.
Jaselle walks ahead of Cedric, keeping her tread quiet as she walks down the hallway and to the stairs leading to the first floor. Cedric helps her on their way down the stairs, steering her from the trick steps. It’s dark in the house; there hasn’t been electricity since the riots began the day before yesterday. Cedric feels around on the rough railing of the stairs so he and Jaselle won’t fall. They reach the base and Cedric helps Jaselle put on the sack.
“I’m going to go around the back of the house so they won’t know I was in this particular house. As soon as I’ve led them away from here and you can’t see us anymore, I want you to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. Don’t look back or listen to anything that’s happening with us. Just keep running. When you reach the factories, go between the alleys; they’re scared of them. There’s a particular factory, the one that used to make all the toys for the children’s festival, go in that one. Go straight through it; don’t stop. Just go straight through it to the doors leading to the train station on the other side. Once you get to the train station, there’s a control room just to the side of the third port. Pull all the levers down except the last one. Keep that one halfway. The train will get there in ten minutes when you’ve done that. If I’m not there when the train is passing by; just get on and leave. I don’t want you to wait for me.” Cedric stares into her brown eyes and sighs heavily, his voice cracking over the next few words. “The train won’t stop,” he says. Jaselle opens her mouth to speak but Cedric puts up his hand to stop her. “Jump onto the train and grab something to hold on. The train will keep going until you reach the next city over and when you do, jump off and ask for help.”
“You better be there,” Jaselle whispers, “You have to.”
Cedric places his arms around her and they hug each other. He breathes in her scent, a pleasant one when all he’s smelled is smoke and blood for the past two days. The feel of her dress and skin and hair is so silky against his skin and he wants to hold onto it forever. But he can’t. He has to save her life and that means he has to let her go.
Jaselle presses herself more into Cedric’s body, willing herself to feel his warmth if it’s only for these last few moments. Oh, how much she wishes to kiss him. She wants to hold him in her arms, keep him there forever and never let go. This boy has saved her life once and now he’s going to do it again. He’s always like her, she’s known this. And she’s always liked him. He killed his own mentor, Mr. Jameson, for her. Although Mr. Jameson was trying to kill her. She hopes badly that Cedric will meet her at the train station. She won’t leave without him. She wouldn’t stand knowing she left and he was still alive. Jaselle pulls away from Cedric and holds his hands in her, stroking them with her fingers.
“Please, make it back,” she whispers. Cedric only nods and lets go of her hands, staring one last time at her. Jaselle doesn’t turn to look as Cedric leaves. He goes around the back of the house and the doors shut closed quietly before she looks out the window and sees the men look toward the end of the street.
“Hey!” a muffled shout sounds from down the street. All the men start running towards Cedric and Jaselle waits. She sees them turn the corner and opens the broken door. It’s time for her to run.
A/N: Well, I think it's going pretty good. Review if you want, even if it's just to say it sucked or it was good.
