Chapter Five
When I open my eyes again I am no longer on the couch. I am also not in the room upstairs. I blink at the slanted ceiling high over my head and the four rising towers of wood surrounding me. I believe I am in Bryn's bed.
I sit up.
I do not know how I got here, and I am alone. As I listen I can hear voices beyond the wooden door to the bedroom. They are muffled by the closed door; indistinct but enough to know that we are not alone. My heart pounds in my chest as I slide quietly to the floor grateful that the boards do not squeak underfoot. I move cautiously to the door pressing my ear to it but the wood is thick—real and solid and doing so does not improve the sound much.
I risk opening the door, unsure what I will do if it is Griss or Dr. Patrice. My stomach clenches for a moment thinking of seeing the expression on her face that sad look of disappointment. Of all the people that have come and go around me while I was at section six; she has remained the longest. She was almost as constant as me. In leaving I must have hurt her very badly. The thought sits heavy in the pit of my stomach; it is uncomfortable to bear so I do my best to push it away.
The voices are not one's I recognize, except for Bryn's. But it is clear after only a moment that they are talking about me.
There are two other voices in the table room. A man's voice and a woman's…maybe more a young girl based on her high pitch and excitable tone. I find myself holding my breath as I listen to what is obviously the middle of a conversation that started a while ago.
"No! Like I told you, she was just standing in the middle of the road at two am! I nearly hit her with my truck!"
"And she doesn't have a name?" The other male voice asks.
"If she does she wouldn't tell me. I honestly think they never bothered to give her a name. And that's probably one of their least horrible transgressions." Bryn pauses, his voice harsh when he continues. "I know I should have taken her to the local station but you know how these things go…"
"You think she escaped from someone's Playhouse." The female voice, sounding scandalized.
"Bastards have them popping up all over the place now, used to just be in the city." The other male speaks.
"And if you dropped her off at a station house they'd just sweep it under the rug like they always do for those rich fucks." The girl snarls the last two words. "Or worse they'd get themselves fucking weekend passes by handing her back over."
"Libby, language." The male voice says.
"Fuck. Fuck, fuckity, Fuck!" Libby answers with gusto, "Those assholes get to do whatever they want! Prancing around like life's one big fucking party while the rest of us starve and scrape by!"
"You're not starving," Bryn's voice cuts in, his tone flat and somehow carrying just an edge of humor.
"No I'm not." she admits and there's a pause. "But only because my big brother risks life and limb as a criminal mastermind to earn a living for his sweet and gorgeous baby sister!" Her voice is fake syrupy sweet.
"Libby, get off me."
"Killjoy." Libby says there's a slapping noise against a hard surface. "I'm serious though Bry! You did the right thing taking the little thing in, Geek's only know how messed up she is in the head…"
"Libby," The one she calls her brother doesn't sound happy.
"No I'm serious! Growing up in a Playhouse?! Fuck, fat grease-pig rich skeezeballs coming in from the city nightly, doing whatever they want to you…" She makes a noise that would seem to accompany a full body shudder and her almost theatrically up-played horror. "I'd run too, course first I'd bust someone's face!"
"Libby, sit down."
"Oh fine, come on, what are we going to do about it?"
"There's nothing to do about it." The other voice says.
"Ethan!" That must be her brother's name I realize.
"She was lucky to get out alive. And as long as she doesn't end up at a station house, there's little chance some jackass is going to snatch her up off the street all the way out here." Ethan says.
"Are you kidding? This is primo hunting turf for Playhouse fodder." Libby grumbles.
"I meant, that it's unlikely the same people would put themselves out looking for one girl."
"Especially when there's a whole valley of fresh meat to choose from, half of who are probably carted off by their own starving families." Libby's tone is sullen, colored with distaste. "Probably had her replaced an hour later, bet the sicko's didn't even wash the sheets."
"It disturbs me that you know all these things," Ethan grumbles.
"What?! It's not like I'm doing it, Jeeze. Relax captain up-tight pants; People talk!"
I wait listening in the cracked doorway to them continue to talk. It is obvious that Bryn believes I have escaped a life of captivity and servitude completely different than the actual truth. But because of that belief he is not willing to turn me over to those who would quickly realize where I was actually from and take me back.
"I thought about taking her to the station house today too," Bryn's voice stops my blood cold. Was he that upset with me earlier? A falling sensation in my stomach robs me of breath.
"What the hell for?" Libby asks.
"She can read." Bryn answers.
"No shit?!" Libby says. "Well hot damn! So what you think some rich prats are missing her after she got snatched off their gold plated doorstep?"
I did not realize my being able to read was such a problem. In section six everyone could read, doing so was not strange, it did not make me stand out. Dr. Patrice herself often encouraged it between tests.
"I would think if some rich kid was snatched off the street we'd have heard about it." Ethan says.
"All the way out here?" Libby asks. "If there was an alert with a reward you really think we'd have gotten wind of it?"
"With how little she knows about everything else I think they may have taken her very young, she didn't even know what the Valley was."
"Seriously? How can anyone know how to read but not know where we live?"
I am not sure what to do, I do not wish to remain in the doorway forever. I am not sure if I will learn something useful by listening though. Although Bryn seems willing to answer most questions I ask without issue, there are many things I had not thought to ask—I did not even realize that for at least a few brief moments the night he found me he considered taking me to the authorities. And again today.
I make a decision, leaving the doorway behind and moving towards the table room.
They do not notice me at first, Bryn is seated at the head of the table with a dark brown haired man that appears his age, and a girl my size with dark locks streaked around her face with a color I know to be impossible on a human's head.
"Do not take me back." The girl jumps when I speak clapping a hand over her mouth and staring at me. Bryn's gaze slides to me and the corners of his lips turn down. "Please," I add because it has worked before.
The girl's hand drops from her face and she grins the tip of her tongue poking out between her teeth. She turns to Bryn something in her expression making him flush even before she speaks. "And you just failed to mention she's gorgeous!?"
Bryn is staring at the ceiling again. He does that a lot. His eyes dart to mine before sliding away.
"Libby, Ethan; this is Charlie."
"I feel like we just ate." I tell him. It is a lot of food to get used to.
"These days you eat good whenever you can," Bryn says. Then quieter he adds, "And you could use a few pounds."
I feel myself frown staring down at my plate. Dr. Patrice was always very specific about my weight, she monitored it closely upping my portions when it shifted too much. But maybe on the outside people are not weighed the same. I am trying to blend in.
I nod slowly accepting his evaluation even though for some reason it stings. "You would know since you have seen me naked." I tell him.
His face flushes and he turns his head away.
"Really?!" Libby leans both her elbows against the tabletop her chin propped on her interlaced hands. "Do Tell!"
Bryn glares at her. His cheeks flushing a brighter red. When I feel my cheeks suddenly heating as well I drop my chin to stare at the wooden tabletop. I do not understand these peoples preoccupation with clothing, but obviously it is a big deal.
"So, we're you naked when Bry found you?" Libby asks ignoring Bryn's expression.
"No, I was wearing clothes." I tell her.
"Libby, perhaps now is not the time." Ethan pipes up when she opens her mouth again without noting the murderous look on their friend's face.
Libby pouts. Dropping her hands back to the tabletop she waves a placating hand through the air. "Fine, fine I'll drag the details out of the little missy while you're gone." She announces winking at me.
My stomach drops. "You're leaving?" I ask staring at him.
Bryn glances at me for a second before his gaze drops to his plate. "Just for a day," he says. "Ethan and I have to take a shipment to the local black market meet up. It's perfectly safe we'll be fine."
I had not thought about his safety. Only that he would be gone.
"Yeah, no worries home-splice," Libby adds her head bobbing on the last word while she grabs another bite of food. "If the market gets raided all they'll do is confiscate our stuff and possibly cane the boys—" she mimes swinging something with both her hands over the table. "No big."
Bryn is glowering at Libby again. I can feel my eyes going very wide.
"Libby." Ethan scolds shaking his head. Then he turns to me. "Libby's exaggerating, they worst they would do is take our stuff. Nobody gets caned out here. If the market is raided the patrols usually just ask for a cut."
"They cut you?" This does not sound better.
Libby snorts. She props her head up on one of her hands again gazing at me over the stretch of wood and I swear her dark eyes gleam in the kitchen light when she grins. "You're just adorable. I think we'll keep you."
"So, Bry is awful closed lipped about where you're from." Libby prods later. "I mean, if it's a sensitive subject…" she adds continuing to run the brush through my hair.
"It is sensitive." I tell her my eyes on the floor. I am afraid if I tell them I am not from this playhouse they will hand me over to someone else. And since I do not fully understand what they are referring too it is probably a subject best avoided, lest I make a mistake.
Libby pauses her hand placed on my right shoulder for a moment. "Hey, I'm sorry. I joke a lot; I guess you could say it's my coping mechanism and whatnot but I'm not making light of what they did to you. Those places are awful. If I was a superhero I'd burn them all to the ground."
I catch her eyes in the reflective glass over the dresser since she is kneeling behind me having insisted after we ate—again, that I had the clothes but not the hair. Since a lot of hers seems to be purple I'm not sure she should judge. "It's alright, I just do not want to go back. I can't."
"You heard us talking earlier." Libby is still staring at me her expression strained—guilty I realize.
"I did not mean to listen."
"No, you had every right to listen. Bryn is a good person," she tells me her fingers sliding through my hair gathering it up and starting to twist it behind my head. "The best, present party excluded," she grins at me in the mirror. "And there is no way anyone is letting those fuckfaces take you back. Not me, or Ethan, and definitely not Bry." She drops my hair again placing both hands on my shoulders catching my eyes in the mirror and shaking me gently. "So don't even worry about it okay?" I nod and she releases my shoulders to twist her fingers through my hair again.
"So…" she says a few minutes later shortly after my eyes have slipped closed feeling her part and twist and work her fingers through my hair. "How about you tell me exactly how you ended up naked with Bryn?"
"You misunderstand," I tell her, eyes still closed. "We were not naked at the same time."
Libby's hands go still and I open my eyes again. Hers are locked on mine in the mirror over the dresser but she grabs my shoulders a second later flopping down beside me so she can look directly at my face instead of a reflection; her own face split in a huge grin that makes her tongue poke out from between her teeth again. "Shut up!" She says. Then, "Bryn was naked too?! This just gets better and better!"
I wait. "Well?!" she prods.
"You told me to shut up." I answer. She slaps my upper arm with one hand rolling her eyes. "It's an expression! Spill!"
I purse my lips. "Ugh, it means details, details! I want details!" She tells me then she hesitates. "Unless you know that bothers you…I uh don't want to make you uncomfortable…"
"I am not uncomfortable being naked," I inform her.
She looks oddly sad for a moment. "Yeah, I guess you'd have to get over that huh?" I don't know what to say to that so I just shrug like I have seen Bryn and now Ethan do, which seems to appease her. I will have to remember that, it might be useful for other conversations.
"I was dirty and needed to get cleaned up, which required me to remove my clothes." I tell her while she nods enthusiastically. "And when I went to find Bryn he was asleep without any clothes when I woke him." I finish.
Libby sits still for a minute. "That's it?!" She squeaks. I nod. "Damn," she tells me moving back behind me to work her fingers through my hair again. "Don't you worry though, by the time those boys get back we'll have you drool worthy!" She pops me gently on the arm again grinning at my reflection over my shoulder. "I have copies of almost every fashion magazine printed Before, and sexy doesn't change! When I'm through with you dudes will be lining up to stab each other in the face for a chance to ask your name." She sashays her shoulders behind me grinning. "Thoughts?" She asks me.
I hesitate for a moment, "You are very animated," I tell her. "And also, a little bit violent."
Her answering smirk could frighten Griss.