Chapter Three

My eyelids felt like they were made of concrete as I tried to pry them open. When I was finally able to force my eyes open I was met with nothing but plain white walls. They weren't just any walls because upon close study you could make out the tally marks countless people had made.  I could even see some I had made over the years accompanied by my initials. This was the punishment room.

Whenever somebody broke a rule, they would come here and face their punishment. Punishments consisted of staying in this room all by yourself with nothing to do until The Town deemed you learned your lesson. Town rules were rather extensive as well. Of course, there was a rule book, but anything a town official considered a crime was treated as one.

A feeling of panic made its way into my chest. The last time I had been here for two weeks. After that I had sworn to myself I'd never break any more rules. So much for that promise.

Just as I was about to get up, the women that addressed us before the mental ability test walked into the room.

Her face was void of emotion when she spoke, "I assume you know why you are here."

"Yes ma'am," I answered quietly, although I was sure she didn't need confirmation.

"So then you also realize that by doing as you have you have broken rules thirteen and six," she stated looking at the clipboard I now realized she had.

I did know for a fact that I had broken rule six. Rule six stated that no violence of any kind should ever be carried out on Townlands. I had certainly broken that rule even though my actions were out of self-defense. I didn't know if that would change anything, so I didn't mention it. But rule thirteen? No, I couldn't have possibly broken that rule because I wasn't the one that started the fight. This woman had to be wrong.

"No," I started. "There is no possible way I broke rule thirteen. Rule thirteen is; Any intentional harm of others will result in severe punishment. But I didn't start the fight ma'am. So with all due respect, you are wrong."

I could see the wheels turning inside of the woman's head. She seemed almost conflicted by what I had said. I was just praying that she believed me.

"Your punishment should be a month in here you know," The woman said walking over to me. "However, I believe that you are telling the truth. I also think there is something you should know. There is something different about you Evelyn Rose Harley. You may notice soon, but I wouldn't advise you to get too curious. The Society is always watching."

A feeling of uncertainty crept through me at those words, they sounded like a threat. It could have been me being dramatic though.

"I would advise you to keep good company," The woman began again. "Alistair should steer you in the... correct direction." The woman studied me for a minute more."Be on your best behavior, dear."

With that, the woman called two large men in. They were both at least a foot taller than me, which intimidated me. The men flanked me and led me towards the door.

We walked out into the seemingly endless hallway, silently.

"We are going to lead you to your room."

I turned to see the man on my right speaking, he had bright orange hair. He was the shorter of the two, but it didn't make him any less scary.

I nodded, "Sir, do you know what time it is?"

The man on the left looked down at his watch, "It's eleven-sixteen at night."

I mumbled my gratitude and thought of what the woman had said. She was oddly cryptic and that scared me. It was almost like no adult could give me straightforward information. I couldn't begin to think of what she meant when she had said The Society was always watching me. Obviously, they were judging out tests, but it didn't feel like that's what she meant.

"We're here," the orange-haired man spoke.

I smiled at him and walked into the plain room The Society insisted we stayed in. We weren't allowed to go home for reasons concerning cheating, so we all got our own room for the nights we had to spend here. The room was small, but I guess it had to be for the building to be able to accommodate everybody. It had a bed, a dresser with the clothes they provided, and a small bathroom to the right of the room.

I shut the door to the room as soon as the guards exited. I didn't need anybody else coming in here tonight, but I did need to find Alistair. I guessed he would be on the other side of the building because of his last name. Although, with all of the crazy things going on here, there is no way to be sure. So, step one of the plan had to be finding Alistair. Then we could discuss what had happened earlier and the craziness with the woman.

I stood up and suddenly felt how full my bladder was. I must have been unconscious for a long time.

"Okay," I muttered to myself. "Maybe going to the bathroom is step one."

I walked into the bathroom and turned to the small mirror to take the elastic out of my hair. Having my hair up was the style I preferred, but it hurt my scalp after a while. I hissed at the small tug as I yanked the elastic out of my thick hair.

"It took you long enough," a voice said, making me jump.

A grinning Alistair leaped out from behind the shower curtains, as I placed my hand over my heart in an attempt to slow down it's beating.

When I was calm I said, "We have a lot to talk about."

He feigned a grimace, "That's never a good sentence."

    I gave him a bored look and he seemed to understand that I didn't feel like joking around. Honestly, I was scared. I wasn't quite sure what that woman wanted, but I was sure it wasn't good.

We walked into the main part of the room and sat on my bed. I was suddenly super nervous to tell him what happened. I didn't want him to think I was a monster.

He gave me an encouraging smile, "Why don't you tell me everything from the beginning? I know this wasn't your fault, so I want to know what our excuse is when we kill him."

"Alistair!" I exclaimed.

"I'm kidding," he assured me. "Well, maybe"

I laughed, "I meant I was offended you thought we'd get caught."

His eyes widened before he started laughing, "I thought we were being serious Ms. Harley."

I sighed, I couldn't push off telling him forever. He was just as much in this as I was.

"So I was walking out of the bathroom," I started nervously. "Then I walked into this blond-haired, tall guy I had never seen before. He started yelling at me, so I tried to explain that it was an accident. He said some, um, bad things to me and then he spat in my face." My voice quivered as I remembered how scared I was. "He was holding my wrists tightly, so the only thing I could think of doing was elbowing him. I did, but the first time it didn't work so well. He grabbed me harder and threatened to break my arm-"

With that Alistair lightly grabbed my arm. At that moment I realized I hadn't checked to see that I was okay. There were big bruises on wrists and covering my right arm. It didn't look very good at all. But why didn't the woman do anything about it? They were supposed to help everybody.

"We should get you to the infirmary," Alistair said, sounding angry. "I can't believe they'd interrogate you before making sure you were okay." He shook his head, "Tell me the rest first though."

I was worried to tell Alistair, but I needed somebody to know the truth.

"Well, when I heard and felt my arm breaking it was like something in me turned on. I don't know how or what, but it felt weird. It's hard to explain, but it felt like a part of my brain, um, woke up." I paused before continuing. "I elbowed him in the face and then punched him in the stomach. I could have gotten away then. I could have stopped, but I didn't. I kept going."

I looked up at the ceiling and shut my eyes tightly, "Why did I do that? Maybe they should have kept me in the punishment room for a month."

We sat in silence for a moment before Alistair spoke, "I think you did what you had to. I'm just sorry I wasn't there to help, not that you needed it."

"Thanks," I said, bringing my gaze back to him. "Not just for this, but for taking a chance on me."

"I don't regret it one bit. Who wouldn't want a crime-fighting friend like you?"

Before I could even think, I pulled Alistair into a tight hug. Hugging was never something that I liked but it felt like the right thing to do in this situation.

"And she gives a killer hug," he said in fake amazement. "What can this girl not do?"

I smiled and pulled away from him.

"Believe it or not, I can not sing at all," I said.

He raised his eyebrows, "Good to know."

"Oh yeah," He exclaimed. " I forgot to tell you, but after they drugged you the jerk got up and was fine. The whole thing was an act, but let's just say he didn't stay standing for long."

"What did you do?" I asked worriedly.

I didn't want Allistair to get in trouble because of me.

"Don't worry about it, I didn't get in trouble. Speaking of trouble, how did you get out of it?"

I didn't know how I managed to get out of my punishment, but maybe he could help me figure it out.

"Well, they said I broke rules thirteen and six. I disagreed about breaking rule thirteen and the woman seemed to think I was right. She took away my punishment and said something weird. The woman said I was different." I looked at Alistair hoping he knew more.

"Shit," he mumbled under his breath.

He ran his fingers through his lengthy brown hair and looked kind of worried. The fact that he immediately knew what I meant made my anxiety increase tenfold. What did Alistair know about all of this? I mean, I know his sister was chosen, but you weren't supposed to have contact with your family if you were chosen. This just didn't add up.

"What?" I asked hoping he would elaborate.

"Well, um, I don't want to scare you but-"

"Spit it out, Al!" I snapped, immediately feeling bad for it.

Alistair let out a frustrated sigh, "Fine. I had a friend that was older than me. Apparently, something like you said happened to him. Long story short, he ended up banished."

I suddenly wished I hadn't forced Alistair to tell me after all. Why was I so stubborn? Where do I even begin to process that? Was I going to be banished? My breathing began to get heavy and rapid.

"That's what I thought would happen," Alistair mumbled.

I continued to panic. I had tried my best, what had I done wrong?

"He wasn't banished just for being different if that's what you think," Alistair spoke. "I think it was more of what that caused him to do. You're different than he was, Eve. He wasn't what you would call stable. You will be fine. I promise."

My breathing slowed, maybe I would be okay. Alistair pulled me into a hug and we just stood there for a while.

"I'm so glad you're okay," he mumbled into my hair. "I know I haven't known you for long, but I was so worried. When I saw your head was bleeding I almost lost it."

I nodded as I pulled away from him, "I think we should get some sleep soon. But for the record Al, I'm glad you're my friend."

A megawatt smile covered his face and his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. He looked incredibly handsome when he smiled. It was like his smile was contagious as I began to smile too.

"Goodnight Eve," Allistair said, pecking me on the cheek before walking out of my room.

My eyes grew wide and I could feel my cheeks heat up. I never blushed, so this even surprised me. 

Speaking of the devil, Alistair walked back through the door. If he noticed my blush he didn't comment.

"Why are you back?" I asked, confused.

"Wow, warm welcome," he laughed. "But I'm back because we forgot to take you to the infirmary, and I am certainly not letting you off that easy. Your arm looks awful and should be looked at."

He looked determined, so I knew this wasn't up for discussion.

"Okay," I said stepping over to his side. "Also, please don't do anything else stupid for me. I don't want you to get in trouble for nothing."

He seemed genuinely confused by what I had said. There was nothing to be confused about though.

We were about halfway to the infirmary before he spoke, "I would beat that guy up a thousand times over if that means they wouldn't touch you again. I don't know what or who made you think you don't deserve somebody to protect you, but you're wrong. So if protecting you is stupid then I must be the king of the idiots."

I wasn't sure what to say to that. It wasn't like I didn't appreciate what he did, I just didn't want him to get in trouble because of me. Although, maybe this was what having friends was like.

"Thank you for being there for me," I said, causing him to smile again.

I was beginning to think all this kid did was smile. I wanted to talk more but were we at the infirmary. We walked in and I noticed quite a few people in there. Groans of pain and screams could be heard. I wondered what happened to cause this, but I didn't have much time to wonder before a nurse came up to us.

"What do you need?" The nurse voiced.

She sounded pretty annoyed, but I knew it was only because of the amount of work she had to do.

"Show her your arms, Eve," Alistair voiced.

I pulled up my sleeves to reveal my battered extremities. The nurse gasped at the extensiveness. I saw the realization in her eyes as if she knew who I was. I guess that wasn't that far fetched seeing that news about the fight had probably spread fast.

"I think my right arm might be fractured, but the other one is just bruised. I don't know though." I said.

The nurse nodded while writing something down.

"She also hit her head really hard. It might be a concussion," Alistar added.

I had forgotten about that, but I did still have a headache. I guess having a thousand different things on your mind made you forget a few things though. I was kind of surprised that Alistair remembered. I mean not even just about me hitting my head, but about going to the infirmary period. Having somebody actually care about me was nice.

"I'll find you a bed as soon as I possibly can. Right now it is very busy here though, so it is going to be a while. I guess it's a good thing they give you a day off in between tests this year. They have been more demanding than in other years. Until then, please make yourself comfortable in the waiting area." The nurse spoke quickly.

I didn't know that we got days off this year but judging by what the infirmary looked like, I could tell we needed them.

"Let's go sit," Alistair said, moving towards the chairs.

I followed him and soon we were sitting in rather uncomfortable chairs.

"I wonder what happened to all of these kids?" I wondered aloud.

"Me too," Alistair agreed, raking his fingers through his brown hair. "I guess the mental ability test is different for everybody though. Maybe they went crazy and hurt themselves. I heard that's not uncommon."

"That's awful," I all but shrieked. "Maybe these tests aren't the best way to do this.'

"Yeah, " Alistair sighed. "It's tradition though, and you know how well The Town changes traditions."

I laughed, "Not very well at all."

Alistair smiled before saying, "Judging by the abstract painting that addresses us this morning, I don't think about change often."

My eyes widened and I looked around to make sure nobody heard. I don't think they did, but the nurse coming closer to us made me nervous.

"A bed just opened up," she said grimly.

I saw the stretcher with a lifeless body roll out. I gasped. It wasn't anybody I knew but it still bothered me that somebody was dead because of these stupid tests.

"Hurry up before I fill the bed with somebody else." The nurse snapped.

I could see Alistair visibly tense. I was starting to get the feeling he wasn't too fond of being bossed around.

"We get it, thanks." He fired back.

I could tell he reined himself in and for that I was thankful.

We walked down the rows of beds. Rows of people crying and screaming. I tried to hide behind Alistair a bit so I didn't have to look, but I couldn't help and notice a special somebody. Too bad he noticed me too.

"There's the little bitch I've been looking for," he said smirking.