Chapter Four-Icy and the Warden
"This is so goddamn stupid!" Mack hissed as she threw another shovel of dirt out of her hole. "What's the point of digging stupid holes in the stupid heat with guys who are just plain stupid?"
"Who you callin' stupid, girlie?" Squid demanded as he leaned against his shovel.
"They guy who chews on a toothpick like its tobacco."
The toothpick in his mouth snapped in half as he bit down hard on it and looked over at her with a hard glare. She just glared back before she turned and started to reach over to take a sip of water from her canteen. She stopped and looked down at the creature before her before she let out a scream and jumped back.
A chorus of "What is it?" and "What's wrong?" came from the other members of D-Tent as they rushed over. Once they looked in some of their faces paled as their eyes rested on a yellow-spotted lizard.
"Did it bite you?" Twitch asked.
"How many spots does it have?" Zigzag asked.
"Who cares how many spots it has? It's just looking at me funny with a huge row of teeth," Mack responded as she backed up to the edge of her hole. As the lizard prepared its jump at her, two strong hands grasped her arms and yanked her out of the hole.
"You ok?" Shorty asked as she touched her sister's hand.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Mack responded as she shook slightly. She looked up at Zigzag and muttered, "Thanks," as a shadow of a smile crossed her face.
"No problem, girlie," he responded in his southern drawl before he went back to his hole.
"Who ya calling girlie? I swear if you call me that again you will die a horrible death!" Mack growled as she tried to charge towards him but her twin held her back.
"The only way that can happen is if someone looks you in the face," Squid said with a sneer. "They'll die from lack of oxygen when they scream."
She checked to see if her hole was empty before she dared to start digging again. Something about that sentence triggered a feeling of hatred and pain to go shooting through her body as she suddenly stiffened. A vacant expression was in her eyes as she stared across the vacant desert. Her hands turned into fists as she remembered when it all started, back when she and Glare were nine and Shorty was only two.
-Flashback (Mack's POV)-
I sighed heavily as I stared at the math problem that was on my paper. I had been staring at it for the last hour. And there's a rule in my house: if you don't finish your homework, you can't do anything else. That includes watching tv or eating dinner. That rule alone made me a lot thinner than most girls in my class because I was never able to eat anything. Sometimes Matt would sneak me some food, but I think my dad was catching on to him because he made sure he had finished all of his food and hid the leftovers.
"Mackenzie, I need you to do the dishes," dad said as he walked into my room.
"Sorry dad, but I have to finish this math problem." I responded as I tapped my pencil on the desk.
"I'm sure it's done and you're trying to find a way out of doing the dishes. Now come on," he said in a little bit more firmer tone.
"I'm seriously stumped on this problem, dad," I said as I turned around to face him. He raised an eyebrow as he clenched and unclenched his fists. He walked over and snatched the piece of paper off of my desk and looked at it.
"This problem isn't that hard."
"Well…to you it may not be…but-"
"I'm not paying your school that much money just so you can be stupid!"
"I-I'm not stupid. It's just hard-" I stopped in mid-sentence as I felt the sting of his slap on my cheek and my head snapped to the side. I didn't dare move as I panted heavily, trying to keep the tears from falling. But that hurt a lot.
"Don't give me that shit! I knew from the start that you were a stupid kid! I don't even know why we kept you! You're brother is smarter than you! And he's your twin! What, were you born with stupid genes?"
"If I was, I probably got it from you."
SMACK! That's what I get for speaking before thinking: another hard slap to the all ready tender cheek. I bit my lip to keep from crying out.
"Don't you dare talk to me like that again, you little bitch!"
I didn't say anything as I stared hard at the floor. I heard his footsteps move towards the door as I began to sigh with relief. My eyes widened as I heard the door close and lock. The next thing I knew my head was being slammed against the desk as I tried to hold back tears, but it was getting a lot harder to not break down.
Finally I let out a sob as I was grabbed by the neck. My dad's hand started to tighten as I grabbed at his hands and tried to pull them off, but he was too strong. My air way was cut off as I tried to scream. As I opened my mouth I was punched in the nose and I heard something crack.
He tossed me onto my bed as blood dripped out of my nose. I tried to hold it but he forced one arm behind my back and held one by my wrist. He pulled out his lighter and held it under my palm. Before I could scream he pressed a pillow over my face as I began to kick frantically, the pain shooting from my palm and up my arm.
Removing the pillow he grabbed my neck once more and lifted me into a sitting position. He turned my head in the direction of my wrist as he turned my arm over. Kneeling on my palm with his knee, he used his free left hand to reach into his pocket and pull out a switchblade. Sobs escaped my throat as he dragged the blade across my skin. A thin line of blood seeped out as he shoved me hard. He punched me in the side for good measure before he walked to the door and opened it.
"You tell anyone and I'll hurt the kid," He growled before he slammed the door shut. I glanced at the clock and saw that it was 11:15.
'Please god. Let me survive this night.'
-End Flashback (Normal POV)-
"Hey chica, it's lunchtime," Magnet said as he squatted by Mack's hole. She looked up at him as she shaded her eyes with her glove. Sighing, she placed a foot on the wall in front of her and pushed off, doing a back flip. She pushed off the other wall and landed on her feet in front of him. He had a look of awe on her face but she ignored it as she went to get in line behind Glare. She pulled off her fingerless gloves and stuck them in her cargo pockets as she yawned.
"You got any blisters yet?" X-Ray asked as he inspected her hands. "Hey girl, your wrists are bleeding." Mack pulled back her hand as she shot him a death glare. She then turned her attention to the bandages that were on her wrists. Sure enough, blood had soaked through the bandages on her wrists. She moved it around and hissed in pain when she felt the wounds reopen.
"Damn it!" She growled to herself as she looked up into Dr. Pendanski's smiling face.
"How's your hole coming along, Mackenzie?" He questioned as he handed her a sack lunch.
"I'm almost done. I have about 1 ½ to 2 feet left," she responded as her fingers twitched as she felt the blood drip down her palms.
"That's good. Do you need anymore water or anything? If you need it, just let me know." He stated, the smile never leaving his face. Mack eyed him suspiciously before she smirked and said in a cold voice. "I need you to go back to your tent and take the rest of the crack you're on so you can stop smiling at me like that and treating me like a weak little girly girl…oh. I'm sorry, I just described you. Don't take offense to that."
The boys howled with laughter as Mack went back to her hole. She sat at the edge with her feet in the hole before she brought up her wrists to her face. She slowly unwrapped the bandages to inspect the damage. The cuts on her wrists were bleeding freely and she used the rest of the bandages to sop up and stop the rest of the bleeding.
"What happened to you?" Zigzag asked as he sat down next to her.
"Oh, I just hurt myself with the shovel," she lied smoothly as she balled up the bandages ad stuck it in her pocket.
"Mind if I try something?" He questioned. She just shook her head as he told her to hold out her arms. She did so as he ripped the hem of his shirt and started to wrap them around her wrists tightly. Once he was finished she flexed her wrists to check if she would bleed again.
"Thanks dude," she said with a small smile.
"The cold hearted one smiles!" He exclaimed in surprise as a smile tugged at his lips. "You know for twins, you two aren't much a like," he stated as he nodded in Glare's direction as he talked to Shorty by their holes.
"We get that a lot. People automatically think that we have to act the same. They don't understand that we can be twins but can be completely different at the same time."
He nodded in understanding before he took a bite out of his apple. They ate the rest of their lunch in silence before they went back to their holes. The rest of the time the boys started to talk about their homes and their families to pass the time. Zero was done in the next hour. He spat into his hole and started to drag his shovel back towards the Camp.
"He's all ready done!?" Shorty's voice came from her hole.
"He's the fastest digger out of all of us," Twitch told her as he drummed his fingers on the shaft of the shovel.
"He's a mole, I think he eats the dirt," Squid said in a serious voice.
"Moles don't eat dirt," X-Ray pointed out.
That soon got the boys into an argument on whether or not worms moles eat dirt. 'Boys and their immature arguments. How the hell will I survive this?' Mack asked herself as she pulled her fingerless gloves back on and continued digging. As the day went on the boys slowly started to finish digging. It was X-Ray, then Magnet, then Zigzag and Squid, then Twitch, then Shorty, Mack and Glare, then Caveman.
As the twins started to cross the lake back to the Camp they were interrupted by a shout. The twins turned around and Matt's jaw dropped like a trap door as a girl walked over to them, a snow blond haired boy in tow. The girl's eyes were flashing dangerously and Mack sighed as she leaned against her shovel as she asked, "What do you want?"
"We heard that there were other twins in this Camp and we wanted to see if the suspicions are true," the boy said as he slapped a hand over the girls' mouth before she could say anything. "This is SpitFire and I'm Smirk."
"I wonder how you got the name SpitFire," Mack muttered sarcastically. SpitFire made a face but turned to Glare with a raised eyebrow.
"You ok, dude?" She questioned. He nodded and closed his mouth as a sheepish grin crossed his face.
"I'm Glare and this is–" Matt started.
"Yo Glare! Icy! We're headed to the Wreck Room!" Zigzag called.
"And this is Icy," he finished.
"We were headed to the Wreck Room ourselves. You up for a game of pool?" SpitFire asked, her eyes trailing over to Mack aka Icy, She noticed a look of challenge in SpitFire's eyes and a smirk crossed her face.
"You're on. Get ready to lose, SpitFire," she said as she brought her shovel up to her shoulder and whirled around, almost hitting them with the blade.
"Oh no she didn't!" SpitFire growled and raced after the girl.
"I hate it when she's like this." Smirk groaned.
"You're not the only one. Let's hurry before they rip each others eyes out," Glare suggested before they ran after their sisters. Once they got to the Wreck Room, panting, they noticed that there was a crowd around their sisters as they played pool. They shoved through the crowd and watched their sisters' frustrated faces as they played. Finally, the eight ball was left and Icy missed her shot. SpitFire aimed and hit the cue ball, sinking the eight ball.
"You owe me shower tokens," SpitFire said as Icy glared at her.
"Way to go, girl," an extremely muscular boy said as he patter SpitFire on the shoulder. The grip on SpitFire's stick tightened before she swung it around. There was a loud cracking sound as it connected with his head and broke in half as the boy fell to the floor.
"We're in deep shit," Squid muttered as blood started to come out of the boy's head.
"You stay here and make sure he's ok, and I'll just–" Icy dropped her pool stick and started a mad dash towards the door. Right as she opened it Mr. Sir walked in. He took one look at the boy and the frightened look on her face. An evil smile crossed his face as he said, "Follow me. I think a visit to the Warden is in order."
'What the fuck!? I'm in trouble and I didn't even do anything wrong!' Icy asked in disbelief.
"She's not coming back anytime soon," Magnet said as he shook his head slowly.
-------------------------
"What do you want Mr. Sir?" The Warden demanded as she opened her front door.
"This here girl has caused some trouble. I heard shouting coming from the Wreck Room so I went to look. This girl here attacked a kid from A-Tent. He was bleeding pretty badly so I brought her here for you to deal with," he responded.
"What the hell gives you the idea that I hurt that dumbass?" Icy demanded. "Although he probably did deserve it," she added under her breath.
"Mr. Sir, you brought her here because you can't handle a girl?" The Warden asked slowly.
"Well, I just thought–"
"Excuse me? It seems to me that you didn't think at all if you can't even give her a proper punishment."
"But I didn't even do anything!" Icy growled.
"Just like you didn't stab that little kid in the grocery store?" The Warden shot back. A pang of guilt surged through Icy's body as she fell silent.
"That was an accident," she hissed.
"Just like you were sent here by accident."
Icy stayed quiet as she glared at the floor, her hands balled into fists. Her fists began to shake as blood roared in her ears and they drowned out The Warden's and Mr. Sir's words as she tried to keep her anger in check. She was finally able to leave the Warden's cabin with a cleaning punishment: she had to clean the dishes everyday for the next two weeks. When she told the boys of the tent her punishment they cringed at the harshness of the punishment.
"It could be worse," Caveman told her.
"How can anything be worse than having to clean the dishes?" Icy asked him.
"You could have had to wash Pit's clothes for him," Squid responded as he started to laugh. The other boys laughed along with him as Armpit shoved him off of his cot. He landed on the ground with a thud and that got Armpit laughing.
"All right boys, lights out. Time to go back to your tent girls," Dr. Pendanski said as he walked in.
"Night guys," Shorty said as she stretched and yawned.
"Night," they chorused as the girls left.
"Hey Glare, you never told us why you were sent here exactly," X-Ray said as they climbed into their cots.
"That's because I didn't do anything." He responded as he rested his head on a pillow.
"We were all sent here for a reason."
"I know. But believe it or not, I'm the one who's innocent."
