Young Writers Society

There were quiet voices making their way to her ears. She recognized them; they belonged to Sam and Zeke. The urge to get up and go on with life had never been as strong in her as it was at that moment. Her friends had come for her; although Zeke wasn’t exactly a friend, but he did help them get out of Agathi so she figured she could at least trust him a bit.

She decided to try and speak. Maybe she’d be able to let them know that she was going to be okay, which might be a complete lie, but it would make her and them feel better. But once she tried to force the words from her mouth, she was exhausted and slipped back into unconsciousness.

He was there again, sitting on the edge of her bed. He looked more sullen than ever before. There was always a smile on his face, but the past few days had proved that sadness was indeed an emotion that he had.

“You’re an idiot,” Akia said, crossing the room to her desk. “I’m done feeling bad for you. I hope you didn’t come to look for sympathy, ‘cause you’re not gonna get it from me.”

“They took my powers,” Rhys said, his voice so quiet that Akia barely heard it. The news surprised her, but she wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. He had come to her too many times complaining about how unfair his life was. She was done with it. He had brought it all upon himself after all.

She didn’t respond as she set down her books and rearranged her homework neatly. She knew that Rhys was waiting for her to respond, to tell him how bad he felt and how she was going to help him get his powers back. He’d have to go to someone else to get that response.

Rhys didn’t speak for a while and the room was silent. Akia figured that he had given up on the subject and she decided to start on her homework. There was a lot she had to do before she headed off to complete her shift in the royal guard. She never understood why they had homework anyway. Why couldn’t they just practice magic and be done with it? All the kids in her grade were twelve, only a few years away from being official citizens of Vertfay.

“Aren’t you gonna say something?” Rhys said, finally speaking up.

Akia put down her pencil in frustration and turned to face him. “There’s nothing to say. Rhys, you killed innocent people. You destroyed nearly half of a world! What kind of response does that deserve?” He looked hurt by her words, but she didn’t care.

“I’m sorry.”

“I could care less,” Akia snapped. “It’s not me you should be apologizing to.”

“But it was just an experiment! I didn’t mean for things to go so wrong!” Rhys had sat up now and he was facing Akia, talking intensely, as if he was desperate for her to understand. He didn’t know that she already understood and that there was a part of her that felt bad. But she wasn’t going to admit that to him; he had killed hundreds of people. That’s not just something you can overlook.

“I don’t understand why they don’t just give me a chance,” he said, his voice getting louder as he spoke. “My experiments are important! I can create a spell that can make everyone live forever! No more deaths, no more mourning; just life. They don’t want that from me?”

Akia knew that Rhys was just trying to get her to shrink back, give up the argument. But she wasn’t about to give him that.

“Your experiments are just that, experiments. Nothing has worked yet, Rhys, nothing!”

“Well one is about to! Now that I know where I went wrong, I can restart the experiment, make it work again; the right way. And no one has to die.”

“What happens if you get it wrong again? You gonna wipe out an entire world this time? You gonna wipe out your friends?”

Rhys looked at her, disbelief painted all over his face. “You don’t believe in me,” he said slowly. “That guard training must have really brainwashed you. You’re thinking like them.” He spat out the word ‘them’, as if it were a rotten taste in his mouth. Akia shook with anger.

“I am not brainwashed. I think for myself. And what I’m thinking now is that you’re the one who’s brainwashed. Those friends of yours back in Agathi are convincing you of things you would’ve never believed in before now.”

“I thought you were my friend,” Rhys said, shaking his head slowly. “But now I know that you’re just like them, just like the people who think they own me and can tell me what to do.”

“Who are you even talking about?!”

“You! Reese! The Othir! King Jacob. All of them. The leaders of these worlds have no right to treat me or anyone like that. I should be able to perform my experiments without the fear of getting told off.”

Akia stood quickly, fire burning in her eyes. “You can’t just go around doing stuff like this, Rhys! Your actions have consequences. And if you don’t stop talking right now, I’m going to report to King Jacob that you have been jumping between worlds and let him deal with you!”

She hadn’t realized she had gone too far until it was too late. She slapped both of her hands over her mouth as if that could fix it. But the words had already come out and the damage was done.

“I—I didn’t mean that,” she said softly, trying to apologize. “It just slipped right out.”

“No, Akia, it didn’t. You meant what you said and I’m sure you’d say it again if you had the chance. It’s obvious whose side you’ve picked. Now it’s time for me to pick mine.”

Akia watched helplessly as her friend walked to the door. When he reached it, he turned to face her and growled, “The next time we run into each other, it won’t be a nice meeting. Watch your back, Akia.”

She gasped again once the memory faded to black, the same pain running through her body. She was getting tired of it all. Why was it that these memories were resurfacing? The pellets must have messed with her mind.

Sam and Zeke were still standing somewhere close by, but their voices had been joined by someone else. The new voice belonged to a girl. She was talking fast and Akia could tell that she was desperate.

“…all my fault!” the girl said.

Falyn. Akia thought. Who else could it be?

She wanted to call out to her, tell her that she didn’t have to feel so bad about it. Falyn, whether she believed it or not, was a hero. And she didn’t realize that she had done exactly what Akia had wanted her to do. At the time it seemed stupid; but now she realized that if Falyn hadn’t brought Akia through with her, everyone would be lost. Akia was the only one who knew where to go and why they were there. Sam only knew bits and pieces of the story, not enough to go off of. She was their only hope.

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For the LMS contest. Word count: 1,234