Vagrancy by Stacey Mac

Author:Stacey Mac [Mac, Stacey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-27T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Tilly sits on my bed, my cards in her lap. I gave them to her when it seemed like making eye-contact was an insurmountable task. Now, she shuffles them slowly, dropping most of them onto her legs. I lured her here under the pretence of a game, but we are yet to deal.

“Do you want to see? I think the photos are the ones that used to be in your locket. I remember when you told me that your locket used to have pictures of you and your sister.”

“Yeah, they are the same photos. And no, thank you, I already know what they look like.”

I nod. Stuck again. So far in the last fifteen minutes, this is the most I’ve gotten her to say. “Tilly, I have to ask about Julie.”

This makes her look up, and I notice the moisture in her eyes. “How do you know her name?”

I reach into the burn bag and clasp the tiny baby face. “It says so on the back of this,” and I turn it over. “Is there someone at home with her?”

Tilly shakes her head. “They won’t let me go to check on her either. I already asked. Flint told me that the council will send around someone to check on her, and they’ll bring her some rations and water every week, too…but….”

“Yeah,” I nod. “But…” But they won’t. But no one will bother. Plenty of orphans in Galore. The very young ones often die.

Suddenly Tilly’s sweet face becomes animal-like, and she punches the mattress. “It’s so unfair! Why won’t they let me go see her?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know, Tilly. I’m really sorry.”

She doesn’t say anything, and for a while she shakes with rage and her face becomes redder with each passing second, and I’m afraid she’ll explode. But then, the colour disappears completely, her tense arms become limp and she sags, her face falling onto the bed. A wracking sob escapes her, followed by another, and another. I am thankful that the dorm is empty but for us, because a display of crying like this would result in a certain amount of bullying from my fellow initiates.

I don’t know what to say to her. I don’t know how this feels, to have your insides torn up and to still have to live. I watch her break, again and again. I can’t stop it, I can’t slow it down, and I become angered that the powers that be can do this to her, and not have the decency to finish her off, too.

I don’t know how to help her, or how to get her to quieten, so instead I just hold her. I wrap my arm around her shoulders, and absorb every shudder that wracks her body, as though I can take some of it away.

*

In the second week of weapons, we follow the same routine: we gear-up in the Compound’s armoury, trudge out into the snow and shoot what we are told to shoot. Sometimes it involves more red crosses, sometimes its live animals (rabbits, squirrels, etc.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.