Note: This chapter takes place the day before last chapter :)

Chapter 107- The Well: The Exchange.

-Rhys-

Nine Days Since the Lineup.

"Like this?" I ask Jenny, pulling the string to my cheek and letting an imaginary arrow fly from my bow.

"No," she laughs, shoving me from the stool she's sat on in the training yard. "All the way back. And keep your elbow up."

Ezekiel has been pushing me for the last week, telling me that I must partake in some of the Kingdom's opportunities, and Jenny has become my way out of that. We met through Benjamin — who is head over heels in love with her, despite refusing to admit it. She's a tall and skinny girl, a few years older than me, with olive skin and long, wavy brown hair that she usually lets fall free but keeps secured in a messy bun during her lessons. Since we started a few days ago, she's been teaching me archery and knife throwing. Jerry and Richard have given me a few lessons in things Jenny doesn't do, like sword sparing, but I seem to get along with her better than I do with most other people in the Kingdom. I think it's because we're both missing a body part; her with her leg and me with my ear. I didn't realise how often people ask what happened to my ear until I met Jen, and she didn't. Still hasn't.

"How about this?" I ask, trying again with the bow.

"Better, Rhysie," she says enthusiastically, pushing my elbow up a little. "I think you're ready for real arrows."

I get excited as she fishes me a feathered arrow from the handmade quiver on her back. Leaning forward on her stool to hand it my way.

"Cool quiver," I say. "That a new one?"

"Thanks," Jenny says, straightening it. "And yeah, dad made it for me last night." She pivots on the stool, showing me her back and the brown hide quiver, soft leather tassels dangling from it as she turns. A handful of blue beads in the shape of a flower decorate its surface.

"Why does he make so many?" I ask. "Is he one of the Kingdom's hunters?"

Jenny seems to find that question funny.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing," she dismisses it and her grin. "Dad's not, no. He helps out in the gardens mostly."

"You don't take after him then?"

"No," she hums, picking up her own bow and sinking an arrow into the target.

Bullseye.

"Nice," I chuckle.

"I guess we both take after my Nonna," she tells me after admiring the shot. "She was Indigenous. She used to make quivers like mine with my dad all the time when he was my age. She loved to shoot. Although that was before the fall, so she used guns more often than a bow."

"You said your grandma was," I say. "Not your dad?"

"He was adopted," she tells me, leaning on her bow against the ground. "His roots are in Italy. Mine too, I guess."

Dianne, who's overseeing all the training, comes over and asks me to show her my draw. I do. Firing an arrow I'm handed. It lands in the fourth ring of the target.

I punch a fist in the air.

Dianne hmms.

I run into Ezekiel on my way to lunch. He's walking Shiva through the gardens, where tomato plants grow out of filing cabinets. I spot Jerry a few feet behind, devouring a plate of cobbler.

"Rhys," Ezekiel elates, arms out.

Shiva purrs at me.

"Oh, so you like me now?" I watch the tiger.

"Come now!" The King grins. "Shiva cares for all behind our walls."

"Right," I say, dipping my head. "Sorry, Your Majesty."

"No need for apologies," he says, patting my shoulder. "How are you this day?"

"I'm good," I say, burying my hands in my pockets and rocking on my heels.

"Dianne tells me you grow better with the bow day by day. As sure as the sun rises in the morn!"

"She and Jenny are good teachers," I admit.

The King bids me farewell, continuing on. When Jerry and I cross paths, he's grinning. The cobbler is gone.

"You and Jenny seem pretty tight, dude. Benjamin might be getting jealous."

"Pfft," I snort. "Ben doesn't have to worry about that."

"Oh, yeah?" Jerry elbows me. "Spill."

"Nothing to spill, man."

"Lil' dude, c'mon. Is it someone in the choir?"

"Bye, Jerry," I laugh.

I get lunch with Benjamin, Teo, and Jenny. Ben tells them all about how he found the secret stash of books under my mattress yesterday that I refuse to return to the library, and I kick his leg hard under the table for it. Everyone's laughing at me.

"Hey," Teo snickers, "at least he didn't find porn."

We all die after that. Them in the funny way — me in the melting from embarrassment way.

Benjamin has staff training with Morgan after lunch, and I offer to join him — sitting on a railing of the Kingdom's tall white gazebo, watching them spar on the deck. Only, I'm just half-watching. I'm also doodling in a book. Doodling guitar riffs that I think could sound nice.

King Ezekiel shows up halfway through the lesson, Richard and Jerry by his side. He tells the three of us that there's a matter of importance to attend to. Richard tells us to bring our guns.

We take the trucks out and stop at the warehouse where we herded the pigs on our last run. Though when we arrive, eight pigs are already waiting for us inside. All already dead and skinned. We load them into one of our trucks and then drive even further from the Kingdom. A guard that I don't know very well drives the pig truck, and the rest of us ride in the spare one. Richard drives up front with Dianne. The rest of us sit on the benches in the back.

Jerry nudges my shoulder in the truck a bunch of times. The first few I figure are just because it's bumpy. But when I look over, he's staring and grinning at me.

"What?" I laugh at his bright face.

"Who's the chick?" he asks.

I hold my face when I remember our conversation earlier.

"What chick?" Jenny asks.

It's a small truck.

"There's no chick," I groan — so loud that everyone seems to be in this conversation now.

"Sounds like there's a chick," Dianne pipes up, peering back from the front passenger seat.

"C'mon, guys," Morgan chuckles, sat on my other side.

"What?" Jerry looks genuinely confused.

"Young Rhys' business is his own," Ezekiel tells him, sat opposite up with his cane. "If he wishes to keep a secret of this maiden, who are we to pry?"

"There's no chick," I say again, certain that I'm turning a worrying shade of red by now.

Even Richard's laughing, which is a first. It's gruff and hoarse and almost contagious.

"Chick?" Benjamin looks up from reading The Art Of Peace book that Morgan lent him. "Oh," he realises. "Are they talking about Carl?"

My face doesn't do me the courtesy of leaving the truck to explode. It just does it right here and now. I Bury it in my knees to keep the crimson shade hidden.

Jerry's face pinches up, and he gets all excited in the eyes. "It's not a chick!" he facepalms. "Damn, I thought I had a good gaydar. Dude, that's tight."

"Ha!" Jenny laughs at him. "Please, I blew your mind across the Kingdom when I told you I think I might be Pan."

"Can we, like, y'know... stop this conversation now?" I complain, voice muffled by my knees.

"Rhys," Ezekiel calls to me, "whom we find ourselves courtly with is not a choice dictated by our own will. It's elementary. Natural. There is no need to feel disfavour here amongst friends. If this truck can accept a King that tames a tiger at the end of a chain... they will accept your nature."

I sit up, well-aware that everyone is watching me. I choose to look straight past them and out to the moving road.

"Thanks, guys," I say sarcastically. "I feel very accepted."

"Yeah, lil' dude," Jerry smacks my back. "Nature away. When do I get to meet this Carl?"

"You don't," Benjamin answers for me. I'd only told him about Carl once, and the details I gave weren't all true. "He's not from the Kingdom. Rhys met him on the road, and they got separated."

"How come you never told us?" Jenny asks.

I shrug. "Not everyone is cool with it."

"Homophobia was devised by the weak-minded to tame the dreams of the strong-willed," Ezekiel says loud and proud.

"We need to get that quote put up on the wall," Benjamin laughs with a wide and toothy grin.

We reach a small parking lot just inside the city limits. We park, get out and wait.

There are more of us than last time. Kevin, a young man with pale skin and slick brown hair who drove the second truck, is keeping watch with Richard. Jerry and Dianne are playing a game of patty cake to pass the time. Jenny and Benjamin are talking in low voices by the back of the truck.

Morgan and I are getting increasingly confused, and Ezekiel seems to notice.

"The swine are slaughtered far from the Kingdom," he tells us, pointing to the pigs hanging by their feet in one of the trucks. "Lest their screams carry in the wind and invite questions."

Morgan frowns at the King, resting his chin on the tip of his staff.

I look at Benjamin, hoping he might tell us in a more understandable way. He doesn't.

Ezekiel goes on. "What we are doing here is a secret I keep from my people. Some see secrets as a privilege of ruling. They are burdens— not part of the reward. They are the cost."

I see two more trucks pulling up to the deserted parking lot. At first, I guess more kingdom dwellers, but I don't recognise them.

Seven men get out. Six of them are armed to the teeth with rifles and handguns. The seventh man only has a pistol and a walkie-talkie on his belt, but the way he struts up to us with his hands on his hips makes him feel like he's in charge of this group.

I get a sinking feeling in my stomach when I realise who these people are.

Saviors.

"Here," their leader sighs, "I was worried we were early." His eyebrows are arched in a way that makes him look tired. He has pushed-back blonde hair with a scruffy beard.

"Our arrangement is something I consider with the utmost seriousness, Gavin," Ezekiel tells him. "We will fulfil our obligations on time, every time."

"Yes, indeedy you do, and you will," Gavin tells him, sounding cheerful but frowning all the same.

I glance at Benjamin, but his eyes are on the ground.

Gavin steps over to the truck, counting the pigs. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... eight. I count eight. That's good!"

Ezekiel nods, leaning on his cane.

"They look bigger than last time," Gavin adds. "That's good, too."

"They were well-fed," Richard tells him. "I made sure of it."

I smirk, wondering if Saviors like the taste of rot.

"Got something to say?" One of the Saviors asks me. He's young, with long red hair and a ratty face.

"He probably just noticed that you've got something nasty on your face," Jenny says to him, gesturing to his patchy red goatee. "Oh, wait..."

"Did you say something, Long-Jane Silver?" he laughs.

"Did you?" I ask. "Rat-faced prick."

"What's with the bandage?" he mocks me. "If she can accept lookin' like a cripple, you must really look something awful."

"Silence," The King hisses back at us.

"This doesn't work if you don't control your people, Ezekiel," Gavin warns.

"And I would wish the same of you," King Ezekiel growls.

Gavin rolls his eyes, watching Jenny and me, then clearly deciding it's not worth it, he turns to Ezekiel and Richard. "We appreciate your hospitality. Lucky thing we brought two trucks for those pigs." He looks at me. "How about you help us load them up?"

I look at Ezekiel, who nods to me.

I help the Saviors load the pigs. When it's done, the one asshole — that someone called Jared — shoves me, snatching the bandage from my head and exposing my missing ear. I swing around and punch him in the face, knocking him back. Being a foot taller, he recovers fast and charges at me, but Richard steps between us and knocks the Savior to the ground with ease, rangling him into a headlock.

Everyone pulls out guns.

"Goddammit," Gavin half yells, half sighs. Pinching his nose and shaking his head.

"Cease this," Ezekiel coos to us all. "Lower your weapons."

We do. Richard still has the Savior easily pinned as he struggles.

"Richard, let him go," Ezekiel says calmly. "This is not what we do."

Richard drops the Savior, who springs back, rubbing his throat and laughing.

"Free shots?" Jared grins, looking at Gavin. "I love this shit!"

But he squares up to me instead of Richard, winding his fist back with a sick grin. I shut my eyes, scrunch my face up, and brace.

"Not the kid!" Gavin declares, sounding ready to get this over with.

"Fine," Jared sighs. Spinning round and punching Richard instead.

Richard stays on his feet for the first punch, but strike after strike sends him to the parking lot floor with a grunt.

"Gavin!" Ezekiel barks as Jared continues to wail on Richard. "Tell your man to stop."

Gavin lets it go on for a few more hits before he calls Jared off.

"Jared! The man said stop! He's been good to us, and we've taken up more than enough of his time."

Jared's raised fist turns into the bird as he flips Richard off, getting in the back of their truck after.

Ezekiel and I help Richard up, and the King warns him that they'll discuss this later.

"Same time next week, Ezekiel, all right?" Gavin says, getting in his truck. "It's produce week, so... produce. You got the list, not one bit less." He leans out the window, staring at Richard. "Otherwise, y'know, Richard here is gonna have to go first."

The Saviors drive away, Jared squealing and reeling a pig impression at us from the back. I go to hold up my middle finger, but Morgan slaps my hand down.

Dianne turns to Morgan and me with a beaten-down grimace. "They're called the—"

"Yeah," I say. "We know who they are."

"You've encountered them before?"

Morgan nods. "Yeah..."

"The man you killed to save Carol and Rhys," Ezekiel asks, "he was one of them as well?"

"Yeah, 'was' being the keyword," I say with a sniff, snatching up my bandage from the asphalt and refixing it to my head.

Morgan's staring at the floor.

"That why you wanted us here," I ask the King, "because we could kill them again if we had to?"

"Then we only would have asked Morgan to come," Jerry says reassuringly.

I'm the one looking at the ground now.

"No," Ezekiel answers my earlier question. "Quite the opposite, in fact."

Richard wipes the blood from his lip and tells us we should move out. Jenny catches my arm before I get in the truck.

"You didn't need to defend me back there," she says, squinting at me.

"I wasn't," I shrug. "Just thought that guy should know he's got a rat face."

When we get back I ask Jenny and Ben why Mateo didn't come to the exchange.

"Zeke wants it on a need-to-know basis," Ben tells me, grabbing his pack out the back of the truck.

"Yeah," Jenny nods. "I only got invited because I overheard Dianne and Richard talking about it."

When Jenny and Benjamin don't stop staring at each other, I offer to do his stable chores for him. Getting out of dodge before they start eating each other's faces. Teo and I actually have placed bets on how long it will take for them to realise they like each other.

When I get to the stables, Teo's already working. We tire out some of the horses that didn't get out all day, and feed Downy-Beardy his usual barrel of oats. By the time we're done with our chores, it's time for supper.

We meet Benjamin, Henry, and Morgan in the cafeteria. The room is high-ceilinged and decorated with central pillars and floral ceiling tiles. Honestly, I get why people call this place the Kingdom. When we reach their table, Henry looks ready to leave, a few leftovers on his tray.

"Rhys! Mateo!" Henry squeaks when he sees us. "Tell Ben I don't have to eat my broccoli!"

Mateo laughs deeply. "But Henry, how will you grow big and strong like me without eating greens?" He flexes, making Morgan chuckle.

"Rhys..." Henry groans in a last-ditch effort to escape the green tree on his tray.

I hold up my hands to stay out of it. I find myself distracted reading Ezekiel's quotes on the walls.

'The Dead are Alive, Lest not the Alive be Dead.

-K.E.'

Henry groans, picking up the whole piece and stuffing it in, something he tends to do with food he doesn't want to eat. He chews on it for a while, staring at Ben with googly eyes to make a point.

"Wow, good one, smart guy," Ben smirks. "You can go to movie night... just be in bed by ten. Not a minute later."

"But I can read?" Henry asks diplomatically.

Benjamin chuckles. "Yes, you can read."

Henry leaves, and Mateo and I sit with our own trays. Him beside Ben. Me beside Morgan.

"He's a good kid," Morgan tells Benjamin.

"Yeah," Ben nods, poking at his own broccoli. "Yeah, he is."

"Well," Teo pipes up, patting Benjamin on the back, "you have done a fine job raising him."

"I only kinda know what I'm doing," Benjamin shrugs, looking down at his food. "Ezekiel's been a big help."

"You seem close..." Morgan tells him, holding his plastic water cup by the tips of his fingers, "you and the King."

"Yeah, he was, uh... pretty tight with my dad." Ben looks up, apparent happy memories playing somewhere deep in his head. "My father was a good fighter. One of the best in the Kingdom."

Mateo gets this uncomfortable look on his face, shuffling his weight beside Ben. "He was a kind man," he tells us. "People say he brought the most newcomers in after he arrived."

"How'd it happen?" Morgan asks Benjamin.

"It was about a year ago," Ben says, clearing his throat. "Ezekiel sends his detachment out to clear out a building. There were too many wasted and not enough backup. Eight men didn't make it out. My father was one of them."

Morgan and I both give this knowing nod. Knowing of loss.

"My father..." Mateo smiles. "He was only there to help with their truck. Still swears to this day that he wouldn't have made it out without what your padre sacrificed."

"Your dad's a mechanic?" I ask Mateo.

"Not before the fall," Mateo says. "Everyone had to be useful. He learnt to fix cars. I leant to keep horses. Drink from the well—"

"Replenish the well." I nod.

"But Ezekiel," Benjamin speaks, "he's a lot more careful now. He told me that it, uh, well..." Ben looks at Mateo, his eyes flickering for a moment. "Erm, Mateo, could you do me a favour?"

"Sure thing, ese."

"Do you mind going to the movie with Henry... I just worry, y'know?"

Luckily Mateo is a fast eater and has already finished his meal. He gets up. Nodding. "Perhaps I will see you at the movie, Rhys?" he asks.

Everyone's looking at me as I sip my water slowly.

"Sure," I say, nodding as I set down the cup.

Teo grins. "I will save you a seat."

When Mateo is gone, Ben scooches over a seat so he's facing Morgan and me across the table. "Anyway, Ezekiel told me he's keeping his deal with that group quiet 'cause he thinks that the people would want to fight. He says that even if we did, we wouldn't win— at least, not without losing people... maybe a lot of them."

"And you think he's right?" Morgan asks, glancing over his shoulder. "That we shouldn't fight?"

"I don't know," Ben admits. "I mean... I don't know if I know enough to know." He looks at Morgan. "Maybe you do."

Morgan just smiles. Getting that drop it look in his eye.

Benjamin clears his throat, pushing his tray down the table and leaning closer to Morgan. "Hey, um... there was an inscription in the book you gave me. It was handwritten— about not killing. Is it yours?"

"It's not, no," Morgan says, leaning back a little.

Ben nods. "'Cause I also noticed you only put vegetables on your plate during dinner. And, I mean... you are teaching me aikido, and aikido means not to kill..."

"It's not about what I think," Morgan says. "People can try and set you in the right direction, but they can't show you the way."

I know he's looking at me. I keep my eyes on the quote on the wall. He came all this way for Carol and me. Came all this way just to put us on a path. Now we're all here, pretending we're not from somewhere — that we're not who we are.

"You got to find that for yourself," Morgan goes on. "And... I thought I had it. I did. But I'm just fumbling through."

Benjamin's smiling at that. I try hard not to let my grinding teeth give me away. Truth being, I hate this. I hate that Morgan thinks he gets where I am. I wonder if he's right, though. Maybe that's why it makes me angry. I realise that I don't know. All I know is that when we saw those Saviors, we were both thinking about the same place. The place we left behind.

"Sometimes, we change our minds," Morgan finishes.

I scoop up my tray and stand, tired of the thinking.

"We'll miss the movie," I say to Ben.

Morgan gets up, too.

"Wanna catch movie night?" Benjamin asks him.

"I— I can't," Morgan says. "I got to talk to Carol." He stares at me. "You should, too."

I can't talk to Carol, though. I can't because Carol was there. I don't mean on the road here, or when I killed Paula in the slaughterhouse, not even when the wolves attacked. I can't talk to her because she was there for more than that. When Tyreese was put in the ground. When Terminus burned... when the Prison and Karen did, too. I worry if I talk to her, then all that will be real and the fairy tale where I'm just a boy that lives in a Kingdom will have to end.

I shake my head. Ben gets up, and we leave.

The movie is a comedy, and I'm pretty sure I annoy most people into leaving because I won't stop laughing my ass off. Ben and Henry sit next to me, Teo on my other side as he promised. We arrived halfway through, so I missed the name of the movie. But red velvet seats and the projector plastering pictures across the stage keeps me happy.

When the film is done, and Jenny is recommending some alcohol she brought in a backpack, I don't think twice. Ben sends Henry home, and the four of us sneak into the Kingdom's garden to drink away the day. I get impatient and drink on the walk over there.

It doesn't take long until we're all slurring and seeing the word through ripples of imaginary water.

"Man, did your day suck as bad as mine?" Jenny groans aloud, stretching her leg and stump over Ben's lap as we all lounge by a fire Teo lights in one of the royal garden's fire pits. We laugh at her since she didn't ask anyone in particular.

I love it out here at night. Swaying apple trees and humming honey bees creeping in and out of the fire's light.

"Nah," I decide to be the one to answer her. "I like getting pushed around by rats."

Jenny snorts at me. Benjamin gives this awkward and stiff smirk that makes me laugh harder, knowing that he's trying to deal with the fact Jenny's leg is still comfortably slung over his lap and his face is getting alarmingly red in the fire's glow.

Mateo frowns. "Rats? What are you speaking of?"

"Oh, nothing," I say, forgetting he doesn't know about the Saviors.

Feeling the need to change the subject, I ask Teo a question.

"Why did you start training horses?" I ask.

"Because they don't get tired of how nosey he is," Ben answers for him, just managing to dodge an apple when Mateo throws it at his head.

Teo tilts his head back, breathing in the warm night sky, inhaling the stars before answering. "Horses are calm. I think calm in the way that people cannot be. They can smell your fear and hear your heart. But they are calm in their soul. That is how you know a horse cares for you. When it shows you its soul."

"I like horses," Jenny giggles.

"You are so wasted." Benjamin smiles at her goofily.

"Yeah?" she pokes his face. "Well, you're so you."

"Would you two like for me to book you a room, or...?" Mateo laughs.

"Gah!" Jenny suddenly throws her arms to the sky. "Wish I had a cigarette."

"You smoke?" I ask.

"No," she looks at the ground. "Still wish I had one."

I suddenly remember that there's something in my pocket. I reach into my jeans and pull out the squished red box of cigarettes I've been carrying around for the last nine days. I hold them up. Jenny's face goes ecstatic, a firework exploding across her face and lighting up her grin.

I toss one to her. Benjamin takes one, too, but I'm pretty sure he just wants to impress Jenny. I take one between my lips before offering the box to Teo. He declines politely.

"I am happy as I am," he says with a calm smile.

I shrug, asking for his lighter he used to start the fire, passing it around after taking a drag.

"Where did you get these?" Ben asks, trying to suppress a cough as he reels from the taste.

I take another drag to avoid answering.

I think about telling them...

"Yeah, I took them off a dead Savior the same day we were found by the Kingdom's scouts. He almost blew my head off. It's all cool."

I consider being honest.

"I haven't smoked one since I got them, but I keep them anyways. Not sure why. Think I like the reminder that I took them... that we won."

I shrug at Ben after exhaling the smoke. Deciding not to tell them any of that.

"Can't remember," I say, shrugging casually.

Before long, Jenny and Benjamin are making out on the bench by the dim glowing fire, to neither Teo nor my surprise. Mateo invites me on a walk through the gardens to escape the scene. I accept, pretty sure that the other two don't even notice us leave.

The Kingdom's garden is somehow more beautiful at night. We walk down a cobbled path under leaning trees of colourful fruits. Dark green shades bellow out from the dark and invite us further.

I tell Teo that I guess he won our bet on how long it would take Jenny and Ben to realise they like each other. Teo laughs and says he should really get home, that his dad will kill him if he turns up late and smelling of booze. I boo at him, and he kisses me under a pomegranate tree. I pull away and giggle at the fairy tale that keeps writing itself.

"I have waited quite the time to do that," Teo tells me, smiling.

"You've only known me a week," I say, feeling all bubbly from the drink.

He leans back in. "Long enough."

"I really can't," I tell him, a hand on his broad chest. "I'm sorry."

"I apologise," he says, smiling down at what little floor is between us. "I thought maybe you felt the same."

"I do," I say. "I mean, I don't... but I do. You're great. You're just..." I try my best to make my head stop spinning, and it taunts me by spinning the other way.

"You don't like boys?"

"No, I do..."

"I'm not your type?" he asks.

"No!" I shout a little too loud. "You are!"

Okay, mouth, you can stop now.

It doesn't.

"You, like, totally are, Teo. I mean you're tall and strong, and... have you always had such big arms?"

Please, god, stop.

"I guess I have," Teo nods, flexing a little.

I shake my head.

"You. Are. Awesome."

I bite my fist.

"There's just someone else that I..."

"Oh," Teo chuckles. "I'm not asking for anything so... long term."

I laugh at him. He laughs at me. We're laughing together under the hanging pomegranates, and then I decide not to stop him when he leans forward to kiss me again because it made me feel something good inside.

"You're a terrific kisser," he tells me when I pull away.

I feel my cheeks get hot, and my neck itches. Itches less when Teo kisses me there. He pulls away just when I start to feel human, and just when I want to tell him to keep going, he squeezes my hand in his and says something.

"You do not want this."

"I guess not," I say breathlessly, smiling and grateful that I don't have to find the strength to say it. "I'm sorry."

"What is his name?"

"Carl."

"So... Carl is bigger and stronger than I?"

I smile at my feet. "No, actually. He's, erm, kinda small." I laugh and hiccup. "Like me, I guess."

"Then you must really love him."

Then Mateo kisses my cheek gently, says goodnight, and disappears into the garden's soul.

I laugh at nothing before realising I'm lost in the garden. I pick a path to stumble down. Yelping when I bump into someone.

"Sorry! I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be here. I was just looking for— Carol?"

I stare at her. She's staring at me, an apple in her hand that she just plucked from a tree.

"What are you doing here?" she asks in this stone-cold voice that tells me she's running away — that and the backpack she's wearing. It smells like fruit.

"I'm not," I say very slowly.

She looks confused.

She sniffs the air. "Are you drunk?"

"Fuck you," I say confidently, frowning at her. Not sure why I'm picking a fight. Just knowing that I have.

"Excuse me?"

"You don't get to ask me what I'm doing," I say, glaring at her cold silver eyes, making it up as I go along.

"Rhys—"

"No!" I yell. "You're not my mum. You're just some lady! Some lady that killed another lady that happened to be my friend."

Suddenly the argument feels a lot more real. A hundred weights pulling it down.

"Rhys, you need to calm down," Carol warns me carefully.

"You need to calm down!" I shout at her. "Don't you get it? Huh? I can be a real person here! I get to do that. No one looks at me like I— I fed Paula to the fallen. Like I helped burn all those Saviors alive. They don't know everything I've done here. These—" I hiccup, and Carol looks sorry for me. I don't stop. "These people... these guys don't look at me like I'm broken." I'm crying. "But every time Morgan reminds me that you're here, that you're real... then none of this is real. It's all just a story. Because you know. You know me!"

I vomit over Carol's shoes then. She doesn't move.

"What's going on here?" I hear the last voice I want to right now. Trying my best to stand straight as King Ezekiel rounds a corner. He sees Carol's shoes. "Oh, Rhys. Have you been carousing?"

"No," I scowl at him as I wipe my face, having no idea what the word means.

Carol doesn't look at Ezekiel. She talks to me but while looking up at the stars. "I'm going."

"What?" I mumble.

"There's a house inside the Kingdom's borders, but outside the walls. We passed it on the way here. I'm..." she looks at the King and rolls her eyes before saying, "...I'm going but not going. You can have what you want, Rhys."

I don't have anything to say to that, and Carol's gone before I can think of something.

I hear rushing footsteps clomping closer. Jerry skids around the same corner Ezekiel had, crashing into the King with heavy breaths.

"Sorry, Your Majesty," he gasps, doing a rushed little bow. His face is bright red. "Man, I know I said I'd keep in hollering range, but this place is a mega-maze."

Ezekiel groans, glaring at me still. "Jerry, accompany Rhys home."

A/N

The boys will reunite in three chapters time!

Also, Ben definitely didn't mean to out Rhys. I think he just wasn't paying attention. Plus, Rhys isn't closeted. He just doesn't see his sexuality as something that defines him, particularly.

Next Time: Chapter 108- Sing Me a Song: My Only Sunshine