Sam walked quietly, keeping to the shadows, staying invisible. His pattern glinted in the sharp light coming from one of the many lights flaring around the place. He was going to have to be careful.
He ran up to the fence. It was electrified, so obviously it was meant to keep away predators. But it could keep out people, too. It was too large to climb without being noticed.
Sam backed away from the fence. The place was crawling with guards. Their eyes darted about, looking for anyone who would dare to cross into the area.
Sam snarled under his breath. How was he going to get in? There was no visible way. He began to wonder if this was such a good idea.
And then he saw it. The tower.
He smiled. He could do it. He could do it. There was a large mountain behind the building. It was perfect for defense, but not so perfect if someone could jump onto the tower…
Sam headed for the mountain. This was going to be a long night…
Anomaly sped down to the forest. It was very quiet, as though the night was holding its breath, waiting to see what she'd do next.
She stopped perfectly. This was where she needed to be. This was what had to be done.
She opened her hand, and the anomaly opened. It was something she'd never told those at the ARC. The anomaly she'd entered, she could open. She'd disabled the ADD, temporarily. It wouldn't see her anomaly, but it would see others. Her eyes were cold as she walked through. There was something she had to do.
Sam jumped off of the mountain, straight to the tower. His hands gripped the metal tightly. There were so many metal strands, weaving in an intricate pattern, creating this… this thing that the people here had obviously worked on for endless hours. But now Sam was going to destroy it. Forever.
Slowly, he climbed down the tower. Once he was at a distance where it would be safe to fall, he jumped down, landing perfectly. He had no doubt he would be killed on sight if someone saw him. But he honestly didn't CARE. Artalis had destroyed him, by destroying her. Now he was going to fight back. Like she had, so long ago…
Sam walked up behind the guard. There was only one, right here in front of the door. He came up behind him and slammed his head with a rock. The man was out before he could do anything. Sam propped him up against the wall, so that anyone looking this way would see nothing wrong. Then, he entered the building.
His first reaction was that he was in some sort of medical clinic. White tile decorated the floors, and the walls were bright, clean, white. Florescent lighting made everything and everyone look worse than they already were.
His eyes narrowed as he searched for a place to hide. It wasn't going to be easy to get out. He knew that.
He saw a man, walking through the doors easily. Sam followed him, keeping out of sight from both him and the guards. His speed was something Rouge Child and he both shared.
He kept behind the man, and realized that he had a pattern on his arm. Sam's eyes widened. Kierto. It had to be.
Sam realized how Rouge Child must have gotten in here, so long ago. That this must be the reason she'd always been so furious with the very city of Artalis. Kierto must have brought her here.
But Kierto wasn't going the direction Sam wanted to go, so he broke away from him, looking for someone else.
He'd thought he'd done it. That he'd managed to get behind her undetected. This was going to be harder; this person was shorter than Kierto.
But they'd seen him. The person whirled around, and Sam was caught. Then he saw her face.
Sam's eyes widened, and his breath caught in his throat. "Rouge Child?"
"Sam?"
Anomaly sped through the desert. She'd been there for a long time. She knew where to go. And she needed to go to Artalis.
Unfortunately, her path led her to the very building that caused her hatred for the city. Her eyes grew cold, and her direction changed. She knew what she was doing, but not why she was doing it. All she knew was that she was going to destroy this building. Forever.
She reached the fence and drew her knife, the one that Kierto had thrown through the anomaly, the one that had landed in her shoulder. She knew what she was doing, and did it before she thought about it. The knife stabbed into the electrical fence, catching on one of the metal wires. She placed one foot on one of the wires, the rubber soles of her shoe conducting the electricity. With all the skill of a graceful Olympic athlete, she jumped over the fence.
She was in.
She found the unconscious guard that Sam had knocked out. She smiled, thinking he was just sleeping on the job. She walked past him and into the building.
She hadn't gotten far when she felt someone come up behind her. She whirled to face him.
Her eyes widened, and so did the man behind her.
"Rouge Child?" He asked.
"Sam?"
"I should have known." Rouge Child's eyes were cold as they locked on Sam.
Sam's eyes widened. "No, Rouge Child, it's not like that! I'm like you! I'm not supposed to be here!"
"Prove it." She snarled.
Sam almost wanted to walk up to a guard and turn himself in, if only to prove to his sister that he was telling the truth. But he couldn't do that. "I…I can't."
"Exactly." She spat. "You were never there, Sam. And you can't change that."
Sam winced. "I'm sorry, Rouge Child."
"That's NOT my NAME." She spat. "My name is ANOMALY."
Sam flinched from her voice. "I'm sorry, Anomaly. So sorry. I didn't mean to…"
"What? Mean to what? Sentence me to banishment? Sentence me to DEATH?" Anomaly's words cut deeper into Sam than he'd expected.
He looked down. "I didn't know they were going to kill you." He whispered.
"But you DIDN'T try and STOP them when you DID." Anomaly's eyes were hard, and filled with pure pain.
"Anomaly, I'm so sorry. I made a mistake…"
"You made a mistake, all right." She snarled. "Your mistake was ever thinking you had a chance at changing my mind. Here's your mistake, SAM. Talking to me, here and now."
Sam tried to speak, but then Anomaly said something that changed everything.
"I will NEVER forgive you, Sam. As long as I live, I will NEVER forgive you. Never."
Sam just stood there as she took off. He didn't say anything. He couldn't.
He ran out of the building. This was Anomaly's job now. He had other things he could do… He sighed. No matter what excuse he made, Sam knew that he was just running away. Running away from everything that he'd done. Running away from the sister that hated him.
He ran until he was home. Once there, he pulled the key out of his pocket. He stared at it for a long time.
His eyes were cold as he placed it back into his pocket. Artalis would pay for what it had done to their family. Artalis must be destroyed.
Anomaly stopped around a corner, tears streaking down her face. Purple tainted the edges of her pattern as she fought for control.
She couldn't think about Sam now. She had a job to do.
She started to run again. Her eyes darted about nervously, searching for anyone who could stop what she was doing.
Suddenly, her pattern began to burn. Purple and black seeped from the edges, drawing inky lines on her face as it drizzled down.
Anomaly clenched her teeth, trying with everything she was not to scream. It BURNED. It was all she could think about.
"Ierto Norktra!" She whispered, clutching at her pattern, trying to cool it down, to stop the PAIN. It was all she could think about. "I failed. I'm sorry. So sorry…"
"You didn't fail, Anomaly." Her father's voice drifted to her ears. "You will never fail…"
Anomaly looked up. She had something she needed to do.
If only to stop the pain.
Sam snuck out of the house. The Council member's key was heavy in his pocket, but he needed to do this. For Rouge… No. For Anomaly. For his sister.
He sped up and ran around the corner. There were no guards out here tonight. He was lucky.
He raced to the door to find that he hadn't needed the key. It was unlocked. The light was on.
Or perhaps he would need the key… Had Sam come any other night, he never would have made the discovery. Had he decided to stay at home that night, and come the next, he would have found that he needed to open the door. He would have found the Law Book, sitting on its small stone, in its perfect red cover with the golden bindings intact and beautiful. Had Sam come any other night, he would not have made the discovery that ended his life.
Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Sam walked into the room, keeping to the shadows.
For there, in the room, was the council member, the one Anomaly refused to name, the one she knew as 'sir.' The one who had placed Sam on the council that night, in the worst position possible, the one that made Anomaly hate him.
And he was changing the Law Book.
The red cover had been slipped off, so as not to receive any ink stains. The council member was smiling to himself, writing another new law into the old pages of the Law Book. The 'unfailing, never-changing' laws were being thrown out. Justice itself was being cast out into the dark.
Sam's breath caught in his throat. When he'd become a council member, he had been sure there were no laws on the particular crime that his sister committed. But, when he'd checked the Law Book, it was all there. His sister's crimes. Her necessary punishment. Everything.
The council member's ears pricked and Sam held his breath, trying not to make a single sound. Finally, the council member returned to what he'd been doing.
Sam tried to turn around. The others had to know. They had to be told. The city of Artalis had to know of the council member's crimes…
But who would believe him? For thousands of years, it had been a fact that the council was never wrong. No one would say it, for generations upon generations. No one even thought it. Until Anomaly came along…
But Sam had to try. He HAD to. There was nothing else.
As he turned around, he knocked into a statue on the small table next to him. He tried to reach for it, but he was too late. Normally, he could have done it. But by the time he'd realized that he'd knocked it over, it was already too close to the floor, about to crash.
The statue shattered to a million pieces on the floor, along with any hope Sam had of showing the city of this man's crimes. The council member whirled around, and saw Sam there in the shadows.
His eyes were wide open, as though he couldn't truly believe what he was seeing. He was caught, and he knew it.
Suddenly, a smile went across his face. "Sam! You scared me!" He crossed over to him.
Sam took a step back. "No." He snarled. "You're a liar! You condemned my sister to banishment… through THIS? What happened to the laws, SIR?"
The council member raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. "Sam, I assure you I was doing nothing I wouldn't do in front of the very city of Artalis." He promised.
"Then DO IT!" Sam snarled. "Prove to me that you're telling the truth! Show the city!"
The council member shook his head slowly. "There's no point, Sam. It's nothing worth showing to them."
Sam's eyes narrowed. "Explain." He asked, but wasn't really going to believe the answer. He didn't care.
The council member smiled. "Of course. You see, over the years, the Law Book gets older, Sam. And with that ageing, the ink fades. Some of the pages themselves become worn down and begin to crumble into dust. We can not allow that to happen. So, I was fixing the book, Sam. Nothing more. I was just placing in the bolder lettering when you came in." He lifted the book slightly off of the table. "See?"
Sam looked at the book. It seemed that the council member was telling the truth, but that could easily have been planned.
But Sam nodded slowly. If he was going to pull this off, he was going to need the council member's trust. He smiled. "I'm sorry, sir. It was a mistake."
The council member smiled. "It's quite all right."
The council member draped his arm around Sam's shoulder, and started to show him out. "These are strange and desperate times, Sam. We never expected to banish your sister; it just happened. Many things are different than they used to be…" He trailed off, as though deep in thought. His hand slid down a little, onto Sam's back.
Instinct saved Sam's life. He whirled around, grabbing the council member's arm and twisting with all his might. The council member let out a gasp, and the knife dropped out of his hand, clattering to the floor with a metallic ring. The council member followed, landing face first on the hard rock floor.
"Things are different, SIR." Sam snarled, then sped over to the Law Book. He picked it up and turned to the other man. "Back then, council members didn't need to stab other council members in the back."
He was about to speed out the door, but the council member was on his knees, quickly rising to his feet. He wiped blood from his lip. "Your family was always interfering." He spat. "Forever in the way! Your sister was best GONE! FOREVER!"
"No one." Sam said.
The council member raised an eyebrow. "What?"
Sam's eyes blazed with an unnamable fury, hate burning in his eyes like a dark flame. "No one talks about my sister that way. NO ONE!"
And with that, he ran past the council member in a blur, knocking him aside. "I'll show them all!" He cried. "They'll see your lies, SIR!"
But the council member had done too much, just to have the book taken from him now. He threw his knife at Sam.
Years of practice had sharpened the council member's skill. Sam cried out and dropped the book to the ground, a knife in his back.
The council member smiled with grim satisfaction, already thinking of the lie he was going to tell. The boy snuck up on me! If he hadn't been trying to steal the Law Book in the first place, this wouldn't have happened… a tragic accident, so tragic…
He walked up to Sam and kicked his body in the side. Sam went limply along with his foot, but otherwise didn't move. The council member smiled darkly and picked up the Law Book. The smile widened when he noticed the lack of blood stains.
He smiled at the boy, then turned around to place the book back in its place. He was done anyway. Sam had stopped nothing.
"Such a waste…" A voice said behind him.
The council member smiled. "Ah, Kierto. You're here. Good."
Kierto looked at the council member. "Was it really necessary to kill the boy? He did nothing to you."
The council member shrugged. "He was going to compromise the entire operation. He was going to show the Law Book to the city of Artalis. I believe it was necessary."
Kierto sighed and leaned next to Sam, pulling the knife from the boy's back and handing it to the council member, who began cleaning it. "You could have thought something up. There was no need for bloodshed."
"Who has that kind of time?" The council member smiled. "It was much easier this way. Now the boy won't face the same fate his sister did. He won't need to become an outcast." He looked at Kierto. "Don't tell me you've gone soft."
Kierto sighed again. "Well, sir, that was why I came to see you. I saw his sister today. At the clinic."
The council member's eyes widened. "What? Is she dead?"
Kierto snorted. "It's hard to imagine ANYONE surviving THAT. You see, sir, she…"
"She what? Spit it out, man!"
"She destroyed the clinic."
The council member's eyes widened, but Kierto kept his voice calm.
"The entire thing exploded. She took out the entire building." He sighed. "But she was inside. There was no way she could have gotten out."
The council member nodded slowly. "How soon can we rebuild?"
"Tomorrow." Kierto replied. "But Rouge Child is dead, sir. Don't you think we should tell the parents?"
The council member shrugged. "Tell them if you must. They should have expected it by now, though. No one can handle that long in the desert outside of these walls. Not even Rouge Child. They know nothing about her changing times."
Kierto shrugged. "Whatever you say, sir."
The council member smiled. "Exactly. Whatever I say." He smirked. "Come in. Tell me what happened…"
On the ground, blood pouring from a wound on his back, Sam opened his eyes. Anomaly was… dead? She was gone?
And she never forgave him…?
Sam struggled to get to his feet, and, after collapsing more than once, succeeded. No. Anomaly couldn't be dead. She COULDN'T. He had to tell her. She was right. It was the only thing keeping him alive…
He started to run, though more lopsided than usual, the grace taken out of his steps. He would at least see the clinic. He had to know. He had to.
"Forgive me, Anomaly." He whispered. "I was wrong, so wrong…"
When Kierto and the council member exited the room, they were shocked to find nothing but a pair of bloody footprints, which disappeared after a short distance. Instantly, they sounded the alarm, and guards were sent after the boy.
Red blood stained the sand and Sam kept running and running…
And running…
