Author note: Sorry for the long pause, exams were keeping me busy. Fortunately, I've passed all of them so I'm still alive.

Chapter 21 = Clara Yari

Where am I? Her head was spinning. Then, a flicker in her mind. "Where's Dana?"

The memories of the test were all gone.

"What's this, a prison?!" She shouted facing the corridor, scared.

"No, it's not." A voice came from the top bed. "It's the Red Een, welcome to your new room."

Rachel turned her head and pouted her lips. "Clara Yari."

The brunette, who was sitting on the top bed, nodded her head. "So… you remember me." She smirked and blinked an eye.

"Yes, unfortunately." Rachel said, annoyed. "Have you seen Dana Tickens? She's done the test with me."

Yari scrutinized the redhead's worried expression with her big brown eyes. "Who's Dana?" She got off the bed and approached her.

"She used to sleep in the fifth room… she was always with me during daytime activities."

"I don't know who you were friends with outside the eighth room. There were too many children and I simply didn't give a damn about most of them." Clara abruptly said. However, when she saw Rachel's eyes darken, she added. "Has she passed the test?"

"I… I don't remember…"

"If she has passed it, she'll be here… somewhere."

Rachel massaged her aching neck. "I mean… she's agile and smart. I'm sure she has passed it…. Why can't I remember anything about it?"

"It's quite normal, actually. Most children faint after the test… Michail Weyn is the only person I know that has endured the shock. Well, in his own way…"

"Have I lost consciousness too?" The redhead was baffled. "Wait… Michail Weyn is here?!"

Clara put her hands in front of her chest, showing Rachel her palms. "Wow, calm down! I can't answer so many questions this early in the morning. Let's eat breakfast first."

A fit of rage clouded Rachel's judgement and she violently grabbed Yari by her t-shirt. "ANSWER ME!"

The brunette remained completely calm. "I suggest you let me go. You know you're going to lose if you fight me and besides, I don't want you to. We're on the same boat, roomie."

The redhead let go of her. "Tell me everything you know. Please."

Clara sat on the bottom bed and sighed. She wasn't in the mood to talk, as always, but she was well aware of what Rachel was going through and she didn't want to hide the truth from her. "When did you do the test?"

Rachel started pacing back and forth. "The first of May."

"They brought you here tonight: today's the third of May." Yari threw a glance at her roomie. "You don't have three days' worth of memories."

"How is it possible?!"

"Last year I experienced the same thing. And… the reason is… as simple as devastating." Clara saddened at the thought. "They kill whoever fails the test." Her voice became thin and breathless.

The redhead's eyes widened and she shook her head. "No. It's not true, you're lying! They would never do a thing like that!"

"I'm not a liar. I've seen them shooting five of my peers in front of me. The amount of blood…" Clara was reliving the past year as if she were a third and helpless witness of the massacre. The child's ice-blue irises were motionless, frozen in time. "The Reds… the adults… are monsters!"

The Reds are monsters…. The Reds are monsters. It sounds… familiar. Who told me that?

"But… the Reds are our family. We are Reds. I can't believe they would kill us, it doesn't have any sense!" Rachel was about to have an emotional crisis.

"We have been blind all our life. By the way" Clara tried to reassure her. "if you think that Dana has passed it, I'll help you find her, ok?"

"You'll help me, uh?" Rachel looked at her with a skeptical grin. "Before or after you'll brand me?" Her tone was sour and ironic.

"You have always thought of me and others like Michail Weyn as your enemies, but in reality we'd only helped you become stronger. Each one of you."

Rachel raised a brow. "How so?"

"You rebelled against the wrists' cut and you were more motivated to learn how to fight, while the others who accepted them learnt to respect their leader. Now, I want us to fight side by side and help each other out!"

Rachel started to mockingly laugh but the tears that escaped her eyes were not of amusement. "I woke up with a pain in my heart…It's unbearable." She confessed thorugh hiccups. "I'm so scared that something might have happened to Dana…" She covered her wet face with her hands.

Clara said nothing and silently stared at her roomie.

Suddenly, an adult in a red military uniform got close to the room's metal bars. He was holding a rifle in his right hand, while in the other one a food tray. He opened the tray slot and gave it to the children. "A dish for both of you." He said and then left.

Yari stood up to grab the meal. "Finally!" She commented. "I am starving!".

Rachel dried her eyes with the side of her hand and sat on the bed. "Why has he brought it here? Shouldn't we eat in a mess hall?"

The brunette sat beside Rachel. "No, we spend most of the day here. They call us out only when we have to attend our classes."

"Why?"

"Perhaps, they are aware that we hate them, even if there are some kids who believe that the Reds are right and that only the strongest survive. Haven't you asked yourself why they only give us one plate? They want us to fight each other for it. I've seen children die of hunger as they were weak and feared their roomie." She put the plate between her leg and Rachel's. "But I'm not like them. I'm smarter and we have to stay together if we want to survive."

"What if Dana is with someone who doesn't allow her to eat?" Rachel's voice quivered.

"It's simple. We beat the hell out of him… or her." Clara said, while she was biting a piece of bacon.

The redhead smiled for the first time that day. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me. I want you to join our battle squad." Clara handed the last piece of bacon to Rachel. "Eat! You have to be strong in here or you'll be useless to me."

Rachel obeyed and chewed the meat, mesmerized. "it's wierdly gummy…" She sighed. "What squad?"

"What did you expect?" Clara cleaned the corners of her mouth with a napkin. "We call ourselves malatkì. it means hammers in Russian. We are the survivors of the eighth room. Andrej Makov is our leader, Toni De la Vega is second in command and then there is me, Michail Weyn and Anna Goethe."

"… and I was hoping to never see anyone of you again…" She hesitated. "No offense."

"You don't know it yet, but we are your best friends now."

"What about Frank Cesaro and Tom Smith?" Rachel blood went cold. Deep down she knew the answer.

"They're dead. Tom didn't pass the test while Frank was killed because he refused to kill the target during a mission."

"WHAT?! I don't want to kill anybody! Neither would Dana!"

Clara was about to wolf down the remaining breakfast but she managed to suppress her urges and placed the plate on her roomie's lap. "One day you'll be forced to. Andrej has killed five people, he remembers everything: their faces, their pleas… Michail has committed two murders… he's going nuts."

"Have you ever thought about escaping?"

"Yes, but it's impossible. Just after the test they put a metal device inside our neck. The Monk told us that it gives us substances that make us stronger. However, she forgot to mention that it also pinpoints our location. They always know where we are."

Rachel placed her finger on her aching neck. "How do you know that if the Monk hadn't told us?"

"Some of us tried to escape during a mission but they found them and killed them."

"What if I try to remove it?"

"You'll bleed to death."

"…that's brutal." Rachel stood up and tighly gripped the metal bars.

"When can I meet the other… ma-?"

"Malatkì." Clara stretched her body. "Sometimes the Reds bring us all together in a large room: the Megalos. There, Guardian Stone makes incredibly long and boring speeches, so you'll have a chance to speak with them."

"Why is it so important for me to join your group?"

"Because everyone has to belong to a team. If you don't choose it by yourself, the Reds will choose it for you when they'll send you on a mission."

"When?"

"In a year or two."

"Aren't there solo missions?"

"Yes, but they're very dangerous. If you're alone nobody can help you. Frank died because he refused to assassinate a White Rose during a solo mission, so they had to kill him. Instead, in a team mission any member can kill the target. Usually, it is Andrej Makov that takes the shot. But it isn't always true: there are times that they attach a microcamera to our vests and they decide who has to pull the trigger!"

Rachel tightened the grip on the metal bars. "What if no one wants to kill the enemy?"

Yari approached her and mimicked a gun with her fingers, pointing it towards her roomie's head. "They kill you." And shot. She touched her temple with her two fingers. "Me." She shot another time. "And anyone else in the team."

"Bastards…"

"Do you know what I dream of?"

Rachel shook her head.

"I dream of cutting Guardian Annabelle Joy into tiny little pieces."

"Would you really have the courage to do it?"

"Yes, there's no doubt in my mind."

Rachel frowned. "How? We're too little now!"

"It doesn't matter, I'll wait." Clara's steely resolve quickly earned the redhead's admiration.

Rachel looked through the metal bars but she couldn't see either the beginning or the end of the corridor. "Where are you, Dana?" She thought.

"You'll see her at your first lesson, if she's still alive. In the meantime, I'll ask around for her." Answered Clara as if she could read her mind.

If she's still alive… what if…? Rachel tried to get rid of the thought that was emerging in her mind. "When does the first lesson start?"

"I don't know, The Guard will call you out when it's time." Clara threw herself on the bed. "I'm sick of talking to you."

Rachel was left alone with her fears, so she crouched down, crossed her arms and waited.

Seconds were eternal,

And time was beyond endurance.