The Unsame Ones by Stephanie Skeem

Author:Stephanie Skeem [Skeem, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: violin, music, urban, creativity, futuristic, postapocalyptic, dystopian, fitting in, clique, part of the group
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Chapter Ten

In Pieces

The next night, I came back at the same dark hour I always did, excited to see what Blade had accomplished with the tools I had given him. I had a new flashlight in my possession, stolen from the same place I had stolen everything else.

The watch was still draped around my neck, hidden under my shirt, and the knife was still in my pocket---two unsame reminders that could not be ignored throughout the day. They were things that made me pause in my work and catch my breath, first in fear, and then in a strange kind of insubordinate glee. I hated that I liked the feelings creeping inside me.

Once near Blade's cell, I half expected to see the violin, new, shiny and as beautiful as when I first laid eyes on it. But what I saw when I peered in his cell that night, was not at all what I had expected.

"What have you done!" I cried, hardly able to contain my anger. I leaned my head close to the bars, my eyes wide with horror. He had the violin completely disassembled in pieces all over the floor. He leaned over his work, completely absorbed in what he was doing, like a vulture picking apart bits and pieces of bones on a rotting carcass. The longer I stared, the angrier I got. He had completely destroyed the violin and any trust I thought I might have had in him.

He leaned over his work, muttering in low tones, as if he was talking to the violin. He paused and looked up, and stared past me, as if he hadn't seen me at all. He was a lunatic after all. His gaunt figure, and his hollow cheeks, added to the effect. I was furious at myself for entertaining the idea of unlocking his cell, for ever thinking he could be trusted with a knife!

"What are you doing!" I snapped. "You've destroyed it!"

"Shhh!" he hissed. "Not so loud."

I pointed to the mess around him. "But..."

"Stay calm. This is how you have to fix some things. Especially broken things. You have to take them apart in order to put them back together again."

"But it's in a million pieces!"

"Not a million pieces, only several," Blade stared at me as if I was a small child that couldn't understand his deep wisdom. Then he turned back to his work again. "I'll put it back together, I promise."

I folded my arms, scowling. "You better."

"Still don't trust me, do you?"

"Uh...no."

He waved his hand at me as if to shoo me away. "Relax. Don't look at me like that. I told you I needed to take it apart. Besides, you're the one who broke it in the first place."

"I didn't break it!" I shouted. "I buried it. And I didn't think you were going to literally take it completely apart!"

"Well you thought wrong."

I stared down at him, simmering with anger, completely overwhelmed by this new level of wrath growing inside me. Where I thought I couldn't feel any more infuriated at this stranger, my anger expanded anew.

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