Day 6 - Hedged In Part Six

Hey guys! Grace Nask here with Day 6 of the April Challenge. Today we have the rest of Chapter 5 of Hedged In, a novelette for teens and above. If you're just coming in, Olivia, our main character, entered the perilous Maze with her partner Jacob. They'd gotten into an argument after fighting a massive dog. So let's get to it!

Jacob dignified me by reading the paper when I sat down on the opposite bed but gazed up at the ceiling soon after. “Fine. Talk, my not mute partner who stopped me from interacting in a suicidal fight but now wants to kill me.”

I winced. I never said I wanted to kill you.

“No, only that you wouldn’t save my life if I was dying.” I wanted him to meet my gaze, but he’d only read the piece of paper before looking back up to the ceiling.

I didn’t really mean it like that, either. Just that I have something important to ask the orb in the center of The Maze, and I didn’t want you to blow it because of a dog the proctor would get medical attention to if it got serious.

Jacob kicked the edge of the bed so hard that it shuddered, making me jump. “Shut up,” he pleaded. “Just shut. Up. Olivia. If the proctor really cared about that dog, why would the door need blood to activate it?” He paused to let me write, but I didn’t have an answer for him, and he knew it. “These people just want a show. That’s always how it is. And they don’t care who gets hurt to perform their entertainments.”

What could I say to something like that? Instead, I did what I do best: stayed silent.

“So what’s in it for you?” I almost jerked off the bed when I saw Jacob staring at me. There was a ferocity in them that I couldn’t ignore yet had to admire. “You said you had something important to say. Go ahead. What’s so important to risk your life--and mine--for at seventeen?”

I’d spent hours trying to tell this story to Kayla after the incident to no avail. She and the police eventually pieced it together, but I tried. I really tried. But for a boy I’d met two days ago, who I’d saved the life of and who saved my own, it all came pouring out on the page.

It makes the most sense if I start from the beginning, so I guess I’ll say the whole thing. I should have the paper for it.

Four years ago my family had lived--and still lives--on the farther reaches of Houle. It’s about an hour away from here. As you can imagine, water ran scarce from time to time. We had a longer than usual drought, so my parents went into the center of the city to grab water. Kayla, my older sister, got to stay home, but I was dragged along because I was younger than her and they wanted me to be safe. Turns out I would’ve been safer if I’d stayed.

My parents hadn’t own a car, so we took the train in. From there, my parents went to a grocery store and bought some water. I remember it being crazy expensive--thirty dollars for a bottle--, so we bought what we needed and got out.

We were walking back to the train when a man intercepted us. He dressed in a suit and tie; come to think of it, it was a little big on him, but I hadn’t cared at the time. He had wanted to know where we got the water. He seemed friendly, but my dad sped up real quick once he saw him.

The man followed us, asking how much the water had cost. My mom answered in her polite way, but her lips grew more thin with each word.

The man stopped, and I realized we weren’t on the main road. From the look on my parents’ faces, he had corralled us from that main road on purpose. At the time, I hadn’t really noticed; now I became scared.

The ‘friendly’ man, in his suit and tie, whipped out a pistol from his jacket, a small, compact one that meant business. He shouted, “This is for Houdini.” Then, before I could utter a sound, he shot my dad in the stomach. My dad collapsed on the sidewalk as my mom shrieked. The man shot her, too. Then he whirled on me, but he couldn’t pull the trigger. Whatever problems he had with my parents, they didn’t extend to their thirteen-year-old daughter. He ran off.

Stuck in the city, I screamed for help. And screamed. And screamed some more, begging for someone, anyone, to help me out. Stomach wounds didn’t have to be fatal, I knew. I thought I might still be able to save them.

In a city filled with thousands of people, not one came to the aid of a screaming teen in the middle of the road. I think someone must have complained about the noise, for the police arrived after about three hours. By then, my screams were more hoarse whispers, and my parents’ corpses had gone cold.

Kayla had turned eighteen four months prior; she took me in, found a house, and got a better job. The police interrogated everyone they could from that day, but they never found the man who murdered my parents.

I couldn’t speak for three days afterward. When I got my voice back, the only thing I said was, “Never again.” Kayla wasn’t sure what it meant until I stopped speaking, for good that time. I screamed for three hours straight, and no one bothered to hear me; why should I give them the time of day when they couldn’t help me when I needed it the most?

That’s why I wanted to enter The Maze. To learn who killed my parents and why.

I finished writing in a rush, panting a little. Then I looked over. Jacob pretended to have dust in his eyes, and I pretended not to notice. Finally, he croaked, “Who’s Houdini?”

I don’t know. But I plan to find out.

Jacob closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. “And they thought I was crazy for trying to figure out how to keep us from starving,” he muttered under his breath. To me, he looked me in the eye. “Thanks.”

You deserve it, after what I said. I didn’t really mean it; I swear.

“Yeah; I know. You’re crazy, but I guess we’re gonna be crazy together.” Jacob’s eyes gleamed with mischief, and I smiled despite myself. “You better go to sleep right now, because I’m waking up at dawn and dragging you with me. And tomorrow, we’re gonna show The Maze what we’re made of and win this thing..

”

I smiled, nodded, returned the papers back to that woman, and got ready for bed. Who knows, maybe we will conquer The Maze, the youngest contestants to do so. And then I’d really learn why my parents had to die.