CHAPTER 3

After that event everything became harder. We were forced to wear heavy armour, it's weight making it more difficult to keep up with our training, making us more clumsy when we sparred, weapons had also become heavier, and when they managed to reach our bodies it hurted to a point that we didn't think it was possible. We were only fed once every three days, no matter who reached first in the race. In the second time it was a woman. Her eyes looked to the sky, she didn't even seem to know what happened as uncle Morrison cut her neck in a single motion and her life faded. At that point we were salivating hard and Keira even with horror in her eyes couldn't help but eat, after all she didn't want to die. Aknor on the other hand didn't. Even if everyone could hear his stomach growling at him he still didn't want to feed knowing that the only source was a human being.

That afternoon he fainted in the middle of training and uncle Morrison took him somewhere. We didn't see him in the next 2 days.

In that time we couldn't help but worry, we even thought that he was dead, that we would never see him again. In the second night he went missing I actually cried, his stubbornness had costed him his life, but he seemed so convinced, he couldn't even look at Keira when her lips where painted with the blood of the woman. That idiot, he couldn't think of his own survival for once. He couldn't fulfil our silent promise to get out of here alive.

In the third day we ended our race and we finally found him. He had a knife in his hand, there was another woman tied in the floor, she had tears in her eyes as Aknor kneeled, hushed her, holded her hand and then he buried the knife in the woman's chest fast, right in her heart. We all watched the scene, covered in the metal of our armours, but we knew that something had changed.

"Aknor, is that you?" Dimitri asked, as if he had seen a ghost.

"Yes, sorry for disappearing…" He turns and I can see his eyes, they look at us as if they weren't watching us.

"Are you ok?" I ask as I approach him and let my covered hand rest in his shoulder.

"Now I am, but I'm starving…" he simply says, going back to the corpse of the woman and finally eating. I can't help but feel that he has faced something horrible to suddenly accept this. When there are only bones left Aknor puts his armour on and he joins us in the sparring. There's something odd, he doesn't seem to feel so much pain as we do when he gets hit. But our collective surprise with his changes costs Keira to get her knee to bend in the wrong angle with one of Aknor's attacks. She screams in pure pain, tears rolling out of her eyes, we all stop sparring and go towards her. But uncle Morrison blocks our way.

"Continue sparring until it gets dark, I will take care of her." He simply says, as he takes her little form in his arms, just as he did with Aknor.

"Where are you taking her?" I ask, starting to doubt of his intentions. Even if we are family he's way more twisted than any other grownups we have seen here, not that we have seen many though.

"I said, continue sparring." His voice is cold, menacing, imposing. I cower and don't dare to ask more, but I feel that when Keira comes back there will be something different.

After training I finally get out of my armour and stretch my limbs. I'm covered in sweat and definitely more tired than what I was before we wore this. I look at the moon, bright in the sky, giving us some light to see in the darkness of the night. Then I hear some metallic noises behind me and turn to see Aknor approaching.

"We probably won't see Keira in one or two days. But don't worry, she'll definitely come back." He simply says.

"Do you know where Uncle Morrison took her?"

"More or less, but that's not important." He says while he takes out his armour.

"What did he do to you?"

"He didn't actually do nothing to me, it was others, but I'm talking too much…"

"No. Tell me." I say, starting to hate that we simply don't know what is going on.

"I can't. Really. You'll understand one day." He pats me in the head and then leaves. But I can't help but be more nervous. One day they are going to get me. But I won't let it happen without putting up a fight.

And as Aknor said, Keira didn't appear until 2 days later. There was definitely something different in her. Elisa, Dimitri and me could tell that there was definitely a change. Aknor wasn't really worried, but we were, and the next days we were tense, trying not to fail at anything, trying to get to know what was done to them, but they did not say a word. I couldn't help but hate the situation. Why so many lies? What terrible thing were they hiding from us? Every night I tried to find a different hiding spot, in fear that when I was sleeping they would take me and do whatever they did to Aknor and Keira. I went to the darkest and smallest place I could find in this ruined building and curl myself into a ball, hoping not to get noticed and to see the light of another day. And yet, in the darkness of the night I heard steps. I sensed that someone was watching me. Sometimes I saw eyes in the darkness and then they just disappeared. Am I going crazy? Or is this fear going to consume me?

For seven days we lived in tension, watching carefully. At the seventh day Dimitri attacked Keira out of the training to try to get some answers. But she just dodged and immobilised him until he calmed a bit before releasing him, telling him that one day he would understand. I just wished that they already told us, to finally relief us from this constant tension.

That night I went and found another hidden place to sleep. I reached to the second floor of the building, but I was too tired to keep looking, so I went to a place I already knew. A little room, with no windows, there were some spider webs in it, but I didn't mind, just made myself comfortable in the cold floor and balled up before closing my eyes. Several hours passed, but suddenly I woke up as something touched my arm. My eyes shot open and I tried to go away from that sudden contact, confused and breathing fast. In the darkness of the room I barely saw anything, but there was someone else.

"Hey Felios, relax, it's just me."

"K-keira…?" I'm breathing hard because of this sudden night surprise.

"Who else could I be?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I was wondering, why you are in this place, all alone, and switching every day, just that."

"I just… was looking for a… better place to sleep." I lie, I don't want her to know that I have fear. But my words don't sound confident and I'm shaking a bit, for I can only hear her, but not see her.

"But there are bugs in here, and no light to wake you in the morning. Come with me, I know a better place." She says in a happy tone. For an instant I relax, after all we have to take care of each other, is just normal that she offers this.

"Ok." I relax and follow her to the doorframe, illuminated by the scarce light of the moon. I see her getting out, smiling a bit, and I follow her. As soon as I get out someone pounces at me and throws me against the floor and grabs my wrists together. My mind doesn't understand what's going on as I see that it was Aknor and then uncle Morrison appears, his black clothes making him more imposing and my heart starts beating faster and faster in fear. I try to escape, try to hit Aknor with my legs, but all is useless.

"NO! YOU WON'T TAKE ME! NO! NO! NO! NO!" I scream with all the energy that I can, struggling to get out of this, but then Keira's fist meets my jaw once, she's no longer smiling. I taste blood in my mouth. Twice, there's something that has broken. And with the next punch everything turns black and my mind slips into unconsciousness.