Chapter 7
The wind blew over the hills; it interrupted the silence the council had lapsed into. Thomas was shocked, he felt his legs go weak and he was forced to stumble back onto the log. He had already lost so many people, Minho was like a brother to him, and he couldn't afford to lose him too.
According to Brenda's story…it wasn't just him that he would lose – he was going to lose everyone.
He had no idea why.
Brenda still stood on top of the log – surveying the expressions of those around her. Sonya rarely spoke during the Gathering's, and Thomas was surprised when she spoke.
She had tears forming in her eyes.
"I…I don't normally say anything here but…I just can't believe this…" she muttered, her hand hung loosely in Minho's – she loved him, and she couldn't even bare the thought of losing him.
Almost like Thomas couldn't bare the thought of losing Brenda.
She went on.
"Do you have any idea why everyone was killed? I mean we know there was…that Griever that you got stung by but…is there something else that we need to think about?"
"No Sonya, I think we just need to sort out the problem with the Griever's, any ideas?" Brenda asked, sounding way too confident.
No one had spoken to Brenda about the plans to attack the forest tomorrow night. Thomas exchanged a quick glance with Minho and raised his eyebrows towards him.
He shook his head.
"No we haven't yet Brenda, I'm sure we will" Thomas said, trying not to add too much enthusiasm into his voice in fear of making it sound fake.
"Well then…by the looks of the sky it's around 11pm…let's get to sleep"
Before any one could respond to what Brenda had said, she leapt off the log - narrowly missing the fire, and headed towards to her sleeping spot in the distance. She turned round and beckoned Thomas to follow her. This time, Minho looked towards him and raised his eyebrows.
Thomas gave him a quick wink, and ran off to follow her.
His heart was beating fast.
He couldn't believe what he had just heard, more importantly, how everyone had acted towards the news. Minho didn't seem affected by it all – was he okay with the fact that he had just been given a death sentence?
Thomas glanced over his shoulder and saw him lying with Sonya a hundred metres behind them – finding people specifically was hard at night time. Everyone scattered themselves with no real organization. However Minho and Sonya slept in the same place every night – underneath the overhanging willow tree.
Thomas slept with Brenda in the same place every night to.
Only tonight – they were…
Together.
Thomas lay down, moving himself close to Brenda so they were close enough to link hands. They had a soft blanket between them, and they were quick to wrap it around them tightly as the wind continued to blow – chilling them to the spine. This was the first night that they had experienced cold weather this bad.
Thomas only hoped it wasn't a coincidence.
And that tomorrow wasn't really going to be Minho's day for death.
Brenda broke him from his thoughts with a gentle blow into his ear. He turned to look at her, her eyes warming him once again. She leaned over and kissed him, their lips meeting for a couple of seconds before she pulled away again suddenly.
"What's wrong" Thomas quickly asked
"Nothing it's just…" she hesitated
"Well, when I was looking at those graves that I described to you and the others. There was something I saw that I didn't want to say in front of everyone. I even lied to Sonya. But I want to tell you"
"Go on" Thomas pressed
"There was one grave missing, everyone had died apart from one person. The scary thing was though, I saw that one person standing in front of all the graves. That person had a knife in their knife in their hands, with blood slowly dripping from the tip. He killed us all Thomas!"
"Who did – I don't understand?"
"It was Jorge - he did"