A Blossom's Thorn

[rumisramyeon]

U wrote so much

Surprisingly, that is one of my shortest chapters in my book
Typical chapters are six or five pages
Longest chapter is 7 pages
This chapter was 4 pages
Shortest is 3 pages

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 3 (Part 1)
Getting out of Petal Palace had been easy. Pansy had spied on the delivery men enough times to know when they came to the palace, when they left, where the boxes were stored, and she also knew that their stop after the palace just happened to be the Gray Mile.

First, she snuck into their van. She hid into a box marked to be sent out. It had originally been filled with papers that had been meant to be mailed to the government office building in Velmire. But not anymore. Now it held Pansy.

Once her box was in the hovercar and she felt it moving, she opened the box and got out. She’d never been in the back of a hovercar before, but she didn’t have anything to compare it to, as she’d never been in the front of a hovercar, either. Her mum always refused to let her go anywhere near hovercars because she was scared that Pansy would find a way to hotwire it and drive away. Which wasn’t a bad idea, honestly. It would get Pansy out of that stuffy castle.

Delivery hovercars were designed differently than normal hovercars. These ones only had two seats up front, whereas the normal hovercars could usually seat about 5-10 people (which depended on the size of the hovercar). These ones were a lot of trunk, which was where all the deliveries were kept. A wall separated the trunk from the drivers, so Pansy wasn’t worried about being spotted. She looked out one of the many small, round windows so she could see the scenery go by.

They were currently on one of Zenthaal’s famous highways. None of the other countries in Virelia had a connected freeway system like Zenthaal did. Some of the larger cities in those states had freeways, but they ended once the city did. These ones could take you anywhere.

Pansy watched in fascination as the buildings zoomed past. Petal City was a large, industrious workplace. All the towers were tall office buildings where people did really boring things, Pansy assumed. She didn’t care to learn what went on inside those buildings. She only knew what happened in the largest building: Petal Palace. The largest of the skyscrapers in all of Virelia. Shaped like a large flower, this building was nearly 200 floors tall. The bottom levels were larger and had rooms that required more space, like the kitchen and ballroom. The higher you get, the smaller the space. One hundredth floor and on were just rooms. These rooms were larger than typical bedrooms, about the size of a large apartment. Pansy’s room was close to the very top, floor number 187. But her favorite part of the palace was the top, where the stem turned into a purple flower. Nothing lived up there, but it was a reminder to everyone about who built Virelian culture.

Hundreds of years ago, Virelia had been a magical place. Beautiful maidens born from flowers had inhabited Virelia years ago. These flowers had the power to charm men and plants alike. While they used their plant magic for growth and healing, they used their charms for evil purposes. At least, that was what Pansy's mum had always told her. Pansy didn’t know for sure, as the flowers had gone extinct after they let humans come live on their island with them. The humans had risen up and killed the flowers, then had taken the island for themselves.

Now Virelia was a bustling metropolis, Zenthaal being the most industrious heart, or as Pansy liked to think about it, Zenthaal was where the boring politicians lived. Like her. Velmire was where the military was, or what Pansy called “the other boring people”. Then there were the other three states of Virelia: Hollisca, the fashion capital, Caulden Reach, the fashion industry, and Nyxvale, the musician’s warehouse.

Pansy hoped to one day be chosen to become a musician in Nyxvale. Anyone who wanted to become a famous musician had to go through Nyxvale first. All the popular entertainment agencies were in Nyxvale. And one day, Pansy was going to record a song that caught all their attention.

The absence of motion made Pansy snap out of her thoughts. She looked out the window again and realized that they were at the gates of the Gray Mile. She quickly realized that if she wanted in, she would have to get into a box that was meant to be dropped off at the Gray Mile. So she opened a box about the size of the original one she had hidden in, revealing a bunch of bags of bread. She moved the bags to her old box, put the lid back on that one, then got into her new box and shut it just as the back opened for an inspection.

Pansy expected them to check each box individually, and she was prepared to have to fight her way through them. But the door shut after a mere ten seconds. This was a top-notch facility holding Virelia’s supposed worst criminals. Why were they not checking things more thoroughly? Pansy figured that if anything were to come out of this, she could at least tell Sunny that they needed better security.

The van began rolling towards the storage shed entrance. Pansy waited inside her box, hoping it would hold her long enough for them to get her inside. She had gotten lucky with the last box, it had been pretty sturdy. She kicked at the sides of her new box a bit, trying to figure out how sturdy this box was.

The movement stopped. Pansy held her breath, ready to be moved inside. It took a few minutes, but they finally got to her. She felt the box be lifted up. She held onto the sides, careful to not make any sound. She didn’t want to be caught now that she was nearly inside.

She felt cool air hit her as soon as they walked into the storage shed. She smelled metal and other scents she couldn’t place, probably from whatever disgusting food they fed the prisoners. Whoever was carrying her set the box down hard. Pansy had to bite her lip to keep from crying out when her side hit the pavement. She felt bad for the other boxes that guy was tasked with carrying. Hopefully none of them had any glass.

She rubbed her side, waiting for the delivery to be done so she could leave the uncomfortable box. She heard a box land on top of the one she was in, and she realized they were stacking her in. She hadn’t considered that to happen, although that was usually how people stored their boxes. They stacked them.

This plan was starting to seem like not the best option she could’ve gone with. But she was already in the box, surrounded by other boxes, on the ground with a bruised hip. It was way too late to back out now. Pansy waited until the sounds of people moving around had died down. The room went dark, the faint light that had been coming in from a hole on the side of the box disappearing. She figured that meant that they were done doing the delivery.

She pushed the opening of her box, trying to force the other boxes off her. Loud crashes followed, and she winced at each one. She stood up once her box was fully open. All around her was a mess of food and boxes. She stepped out of the box and ran behind a wall of boxes as the door opened and three security officers ran into the room. She snuck through the shadows and to the door, where she slipped out. She shut the door and locked it on them, hoping they were the only security officers she had to worry about.

She was wrong.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” a woman’s voice yelled. Pansy turned around to see an older lady behind her. A third security guard. This woman was tall, about 6’5” and lots of muscle to go with that. But Pansy had one thing she didn’t have: maneuverability. Being tiny had its perks. Within seconds, Pansy had dashed under the lady’s legs and was running to the cells. The woman ran after her, but Pansy shoved a rack of uniforms at her. She figured this was where they held all the extra uniforms. All around her were racks and bins of gray uniforms, bulletproof vests, weapons, and even some jumpsuits for the prisoners.

Pansy ran towards one of the bins of weapons. She pulled out a dagger, hoping it could protect her from something. Of course, she didn’t know how to use it, but she could figure it out. Probably.

She continued to run down the hall, throwing the door open and heading into the prison part of the Gray Mile. She looked behind her, surprised to see the security guard wasn’t there anymore. She walked down the hallway, feeling victorious. She had taken down a security guard with clothes! She was amazing.

Then an alarm went off, and Pansy figured out where the security guard had gone.

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 3 (Part 2)
Trigger Warning: Mentions of death
~~~
Arabella sat on the ground of her cell, rubbing her foot. Kicking at the cell door had done nothing. No one had come to open the door, or had even looked inside to see what had caused the commotion. Now all she had was a hurt foot and was all out of ideas for escaping the cell.

Truthfully, she’d only had the one idea. She had never been good in the strategy department. That had been Mila’s thing. Toby was the fighter. Arabella had been… What had she been? She was the one who hadn’t wanted to be there. She never took lessons seriously and messed her first mission up terribly. It was her fault her friends had died, wasn’t it? Maybe if she had been a better leader, they would be here, with her. Or better, they would be celebrating a victory at Leo’s, their favorite ice cream parlor.

Tears welled up in her eyes. She was the failure of the group, that was what she was. She deserved to be locked up in this dingy cell. She began sobbing uncontrollably, missing her friends, her dad, everyone who she had let down. She hadn’t even known half the people on her team, but they were still dead. Their families had lost precious members, all because of her.

Mila’s parents had already lost one child on a mission, and now they had lost both. And it was Arabella’s fault. Toby’s parents had been arrested a few days before this. Now his younger sisters had to fend for themselves. And it was all Arabella’s fault.

She was too lost in her grief to realize that her tears had summoned Pansy to her cell. Pansy was standing on her tiptoes outside the door, looking in at a blonde girl who wasn’t wearing the typical Gray Mile jumpsuit. Instead, she had on a dark leather jacket, a black and white striped t-shirt and black jeans. Pansy realized that this girl was probably around her age, maybe just a year or two older. Why was someone so young in the Gray Mile? It didn’t make any sense. The Gray Mile was for hardened criminals, not teenagers.

And this girl looked so sad. Pansy decided that she needed to find a way to get her out.

“Psst, hey, up here!” Pansy whispered, trying not to attract the attention of the security guards. She’d had to run up multiple flights of stairs and hide in multiple empty cells to elude all of them. They were probably still looking for her, so she figured she didn’t have long to get this girl out.

The girl was still sobbing and hadn’t seemed to notice Pansy was there. She called out again, this time a bit louder. “Hey, new friend! I’m gonna get you out of here!”

Arabella looked up, very confused when she saw a twelve-year-old grinning at her. This girl had long, brown hair and bright blue eyes. Her smile was unnerving, something a psychopath might have. She was holding onto the bars tightly, squishing her face against them. Arabella might have screamed if she weren’t so desperate to get out. Instead, she stood up and walked over to the girl.

“The key should be on a peg next to the door,” Arabella said. The key was far enough away that Arabella couldn’t reach it, but she was constantly looking at it, the stupid, taunting thing. Her freedom was so close, yet so far.

The little girl spotted the key and grabbed it with one hand, losing her grip on the door and falling down as she did so. Arabella watched her fall with bewilderment and surprise. How had someone that tiny managed to break into the Gray Mile?

She was about to call out to see if the girl was okay when the sound of a key clicking in a lock sounded and the door opened. The girl was on the other side, grinning up at Arabella.

“Now you’re free!” she cheered.

Seriously, who was this girl, and why was her free time spent saving random people from jail? Not that Arabella was complaining, but she wondered if this girl’s parents knew how their daughter spent her free time.

Pansy spun in a circle, happy with her work. Now she could tell her mum that she was mature. She had just saved someone who had been wrongly convicted from jail!

Her celebration was short lasted when the girl grabbed her arm and dragged her into the cell with her. Pansy yelped, but a hand was put over her mouth. She was pushed up against the girl, who was hiding in the crack between the wall and the door. She pushed the door shut with a foot, as much as she could without actually closing it.

Pansy tried to pry the hand from her mouth, confused about what this girl was doing. Didn’t she want to be rescued? Why was she holding them here, in the shadows, when she could easily escape?

Her questions were answered a few seconds later, when several security guards ran past the door. Arabella stayed still against the wall, trying to calm her beating heart. She would trust this girl to get her out of here, but she was still very concerned about why such a young girl was in the Gray Mile.

She waited a moment after the guard’s footsteps had disappeared, then peeked outside. The hallway was clear. She let go of Pansy, who was looking up at Arabella with newfound respect.

“You saved me,” Pansy whispered.

Arabella rolled her eyes. “You aren’t saved yet. First we’ve gotta get out of here. Then you’re saved.”

The little girl’s eyebrows scrunched. “But I was supposed to be saving you…”

Arabella put a hand on her shoulder. “And you did. But again, we aren’t saved until we’re out of here. So let’s go.”

With that, the two took off running down the hallway, the opposite way the guards had gone.

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 4 (Part 1)
The boy had been logging his latest mission when the phone rang. With a sigh, he closed his computer and picked up his phone, fully expecting the call to be from Pansy. He was surprised to see it was actually from Troy Smalls, the Head of Security at the Gray Mile.

That was odd. His job never intersected with the Gray Mile. He usually delivered the rebels he captured to the courthouses, where they were judged based on the severity of their crimes. He’d never even stepped into the Gray Mile and never wished to.

He pressed the accept call button on the phone, wondering why Troy was calling him.

“Hello?” he said, putting the phone to his ear.

“Hello, Nicky Gold,” the voice on the other side said.

“What’s going on?” Nicky asked, figuring they would only be calling him if there was some kind of emergency.

“Our facility was broken into twelve minutes ago,” Troy said, sounding a bit bored.

“And this concerns me how?” he sighed, turning back to his mission log. He hoped this guy had the wrong number, but he had said his name, so it probably wasn’t. But the Gray Mile wasn’t Nicky’s territory. If there was a break-in, then Troy should have been handling that himself. Or was he so short staffed that he needed the help of a sixteen-year-old?

“Because it’s your charge who broke into the facility,” the man sniffed. Nicky froze. No, she couldn’t have, the Gray Mile was impossible to break into. How had she managed it? Then he groaned, remembering who he was dealing with. Of course she had managed it. She was good at getting into places she shouldn’t be.

“I’ll retrieve her,” Nicky said.

“Good. Tell the queen to keep her locked up a bit tighter, yeah?”

“I don’t think it’s the amount of freedom she’s given that’s the problem.”
~~~

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 4 (Part 2)
“I’m sick of running!” Pansy whined, leaning against a wall. Arabella grabbed her arm and pulled her along with her as she ran.

“Well, you’ve gotta run, or you’ll be captured!” Arabella hissed. They passed the sign for the third floor, and she almost cried with relief. She was almost there, her freedom was so close! So far they had been lucky and avoided all the guards, ducking into empty cells or blending into shadows when they came close. She was surprised they hadn’t been captured yet. It was almost like they weren’t trying. But why?

Pansy followed Arabella, pouting. She didn’t like running. She liked climbing and eating cake. But she figured she had gotten herself into this, so she had to run to get out of it. Why couldn’t she hide to get out of it? She didn’t run to get into it, so why did she have to run to get out of it? It made no sense.

The sound of footsteps approached, and Arabella pulled them into a side hallway. They hid in the shadows, waiting for the footsteps to pass. A few minutes later, three guards marched past their tiny hallway. Arabella shrank more into the shadows, but Pansy peeked out at them as they passed. Arabella pulled her back.

“Are you trying to get us caught?” she growled at Pansy.

“They walk funny,” Pansy said.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Arabella rubbed her forehead, exasperated. Why hadn’t she just left this girl in her cell and gone out herself? That would’ve been a lot easier than babysitting a tiny child. While running from guards. That didn’t seem to be looking for them…

She looked back down at Pansy, who had wandered off and was studying a sword mounted on the wall. The girl seemed so familiar to her, but she couldn’t place why. Maybe she had seen her at the grocery store, or the park, or maybe the ice cream parlor? But what was she doing here, rescuing her, if she was just a regular child? No, she was something more. Arabella knew that much. And she would bet money that this girl was the reason the guards were letting them wander around the Gray Mile freely. The intruder alarm had been shut off about ten minutes ago, which meant they were no longer concerned about them.

Arabella marched up to Pansy and pulled her away from the sword by the back of her shirt. “Who are you?” she asked, crouching down to meet the tiny girl’s eyes.

“You already know who I am! Do you have amnesia?” she tilted her head, wondering why Arabella was asking her name again.

“No, I don’t know who you are,” Arabella’s tone was cold and harsh. “No ordinary person can break into the Gray Mile, break out a prisoner and run around with no one worried about it. The sirens stopped ten minutes ago, and the guards aren’t even trying to look for us. Why, Pansy? If not because the person who broke into the Gray Mile is important to them somehow? If they hurt you, they’ll die. So I’ll ask again: who are you?”

“I’m Pansy,” she said, shrugging off Arabella’s hand. She had stopped listening to Arabella after the first sentence. “Come on, I’m hungry,” she said, heading back into the hallway.

“No, get back here, I’m not done questioning you!” she shouted at the tiny girl, who continued walking. After realizing that she wasn’t going to come back, Arabella chased after her and grabbed her arm. “They aren’t going to let us out of here, you know.”

“Don’t worry, I’m good at being sneaky!” Pansy grinned. “They won’t be able to catch me!”

Arabella groaned. “They’ll be waiting for us at the exit, plus whatever other methods they use to keep prisoners in! No one had ever successfully broken out of here, Pansy!”

“Why?”

“I just told you why!”

Pansy continued walking down the hallway, dragging Arabella with her.

“Pansy, stop, I mean it. You don’t know what will be waiting for us at the exit.”

“Outside will be waiting. And guards, probably, but I can take them!”

Arabella eyed the tiny girl, very doubtful about that. She dug her heels into the ground, trying to make Pansy stop. But the girl was stubborn. She kept going, nearly pulling Arabella down on top of her. She yelped and caught her balance, then let go of the other girl.

“You can walk into an obvious trap if you want to, but I’m finding a different way out of here.” Arabella stormed off, hoping that Pansy arriving at the exit would take the heat off her for a while, at least long enough for her to escape.

“Where are you going?” Pansy stopped walking and turned to where Arabella was walking off. “The doors are that way,” she pointed down the hallway.

“I just said where I was going!” Arabella huffed. “Stop questioning everything I do!”

Pansy ran over to her and grabbed her hand. Arabella stopped walking and looked down.

“Please don’t leave me! I don’t like this place, it’s creepy!” Pansy whined, holding Arabella’s hand so hard that she had to pull away for fear of her bones breaking.

“You’re the one who broke into here!” she snapped. “And I’ll be the one who gets out.”

“But friends aren’t supposed to leave each other…” Pansy said, staring at Arabella with sad eyes that could rival that of a puppy. She looked down and scuffed the ground with the sole of her shoe. She didn’t want to leave empty-handed, that wasn’t how this was supposed to go! She was supposed to save someone so she could prove that she was mature and useful! If she succeeded on this mission, then it meant that she was good at missions and could go with Nicky!

She was also sick of being left behind. Nicky had left her behind when he went away to training camp, leaving Pansy without her best friend. Sunny had left her behind when she had become queen, too busy with her responsibilities to focus on her little sister. Her mum had given up on her when she realized Pansy would be too hard of a child to control. She had forced her into the shadows, unsure of what else to do with a tiny, energetic, rebellious child. She didn’t stick around to raise her, instead handing her off to random bodyguards that didn’t know how to raise a child. Now Arabella, her new friend, was leaving her, as soon as they had met. Pansy didn’t even understand why she was leaving. The exit was so close! They were almost out!

Arabella stared at Pansy, trying not to fall for the emotional manipulation. She was going to get out of this place, not be caught by walking into an obvious trap. She didn’t want to spend 85 more days in this wretched place. But this girl was making it hard. ‘Friends aren’t supposed to leave each other’. Arabella had done that. She had left her friends behind. They had died because of her. Now she was leaving behind this tiny, helpless child to be captured. What if she wasn’t someone important, and they threw her into a cell because she had been left to fend for herself? Arabella didn’t think she could live with anymore guilt of leaving someone to die because of her terrible decisions. So she knelt down in front of Pansy and placed her hands on her shoulders.

“I’m not going to leave you, but if you want to leave here alive, you’re going to have to listen to me very carefully.”

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 5 (Part 1)
Trigger Warnings (for both parts): A child's death, abuse of children (I swear this is an essential part of the story and I'm not just doing it because I'm a psychopath TT)
“Okay, here’s the plan,” Arabella told Pansy, finally speaking after fifteen minutes of thinking. How to get out of the Gray Mile undetected had been her biggest question. She realized that they must have been watching her and Pansy somehow, which was why they weren’t too concerned about what they were doing, as long as they didn’t try to leave.

Once she had figured out how they were watching them, the rest had been easy.

Arabella leaned down and began whispering into Pansy’s ears. The answer was cameras. They were watching them through cameras. She hoped they weren’t audio cameras, but in case they were, she kept her voice as low as possible as she talked to Pansy.

“They’re keeping track of us through cameras. They don’t care what they’re doing because they know they can keep us in if they know where we’re going. So we’re going to take out the cameras.”

“How?” Pansy asked, but Arabella shushed her.

“Keep quiet while I explain. I don’t want them getting wind of what we’re trying to do. I’m going to cut the electricity in this place, so they can’t keep track of us using the security cameras. While I do that, I need you to go to the entrance and make a distraction. If they’re busy with you, then they won’t notice me.”

“I’m good at dis-” Pansy began, but Arabella quickly slapped a hand over her mouth.

“What did I say?” she hissed.

“Sorry!” Pansy said, running two fingers over her lips like she was zipping them. “My lips are sealed.”

“Good. Now, go!” Arabella stood up and showed Pansy where to go. The tiny girl took off down the hallway, running towards the exit of the prison. Arabella watched her go, then sat back down. She needed to wait for a few minutes, to make sure all the guards were properly distracted before she headed to the electrical room. Hopefully, whoever monitored the security cameras would be too busy trying to deal with the chaos going on at the front to notice where she was going.

After five minutes of waiting, alarms went off throughout the Gray Mile. Arabella stood up and slunk into shadows, watching as guards ran down the hallway. Once she was sure they were all gone, she slipped into the hallway and ran the opposite way. She stuck to the shadows, trying not to make too much sound as she ran. She got to the stairs and began running down them, hoping she was heading in the right direction.

She had to duck into random hallways several times as more guards ran down to the entrance to deal with the commotion. After the third time doing this, she began getting worried about how many guards Pansy had to deal with. She was one tiny girl, and it seemed the entire place was going after her. She hoped Pansy could last long enough for Arabella to cut the power, then use the confusion, commotion and darkness to get away.

If not… Arabella didn’t want to think about that. If it came to Pansy or her freedom, Arabella wasn’t sure what she would choose. She didn’t want another life on her conscience, but she didn’t want to waste her days away in the Gray Mile, either.

She shook her head, going back to the stairs. She continued running down them at a slight jog, trying to use the exercise to distract herself. It didn’t work. All she could think about on the way down was what she would do if it came down to herself or Pansy. Which was stupid, as she’d only known Pansy for an hour. She’d known Toby and Mila for much longer, and she had left them without any afterthought.

But she couldn’t just leave a tiny child to suffer at the hands of the Gray Mile creeps. She could barely stand the place. Everyday was another day closer to going insane. The boredom, lack of interaction, not knowing what time of day it was… It had been too much. She couldn’t leave that smiley, overconfident, bright eyed girl to the horrors she had experienced.

If it came down to Pansy or her freedom…

She sighed, knowing she would probably choose Pansy. She could never be truly free if she had another death weighing her down.

She came to this conclusion as she reached the bottom floor of the prison. It was the very bottom floor, the basement level. She opened the door into the first room she saw, hoping it was the server room.

Instead of walking into a room full of computers and technology, she walked into a nightmare.

Rows of cells were filled with young boys, ages zero to twelve. Each cell was filled with them, about seven to eight in each. The cells were so tiny that they were either all standing or they were sitting on each other. Most of them looked sick or on the verge of dying, so pale and sickly that Arabella could see their ribs under their ragged jumpsuits.

She walked down the hallway, feeling the boy’s gazes on her. She came to one cell that housed only one boy. This one looked healthy, with bright eyes, a healthy complexion and whole clothing, not like the rags the other boys were wearing. He was staring down at the ground, mumbling to himself. He had a bowl of half-eaten soup next to him. She hadn’t seen any trace of food in the other boy’s cells. Arabella crouched down in front of his cell and studied him. What made this boy so special? He seemed just as mentally broken as the others, if not more so. She wondered what kind of horrors they faced down here to get them like that.

That question led to many more. This whole place was shady. Where had these boys come from? What had they done to deserve this harsh of a life? Most of them were still children, which meant that they couldn’t have done anything remotely bad enough to deserve confinement, starvation and possible torture. She assumed that they were being abused in some way or another, as a closer look of the boy in front of her revealed deep, jagged scars along his arms, face and legs. She assumed he had more that were just covered up by his jumpsuit.

Is this what would happen to Pansy if she left her behind?

Arabella opened her mouth to speak to the boy, but couldn’t find any words to say. He was the only kid not looking at her. The others were all staring at her, eyes full of nothing but brokenness. She couldn’t detect any emotions from them except for dread. They thought she was going to hurt them.

She slowly stood up and kept walking down the long hallway of cells. Each group was about the same as the last. All hungry, dejected and in pain. She clenched her hands into fists, trying to keep them from shaking. She didn’t know why she was still in the room. It smelled rotten and stale. There was also the pungent odor of death, which wasn’t surprising. It would’ve been surprising if anything could live down here for that long.

She got to the end and stopped. A brick wall was all that was at the end, nothing else. She turned around, but something cold and wet touched her leg. She screamed, jumping back and looking down. A little boy, about five, with scraggly brown hair and hollowed gray eyes had grabbed hold of her jeans. He looked up at her with a pleading expression. She knelt down in front of him and took his little hand in hers. It was bony and cold, but it had a tough grip. He stared up at her for a moment longer, then coughed up blood. Arabella yelped and stood up, jumping away from the boy as he shook for a few seconds then drooped down, lifeless and still.

It took her a few seconds to register what had just happened, and when it finally clicked, all she could do was run. Down the hallway, out the door, back to the stairs. She sat down on the steps and began bawling. Of all the things to see, why did it have to be that? What other horrors were they keeping down here?

What fate awaited Pansy if they didn’t get out of here?

She took a few shaky breaths, trying to compose herself. She had a mission. She had to find the server room. She had to cut the power, go back upstairs, get Pansy and get them both out of there. If she couldn’t do that, then…

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 5 Part 2
The boy’s eyes flashed through her mind, and she put her head in her hands, unable to stop her sobbing. What had these kids done to warrant such treatment?

Her father’s words flashed through her mind.

“You can’t trust those people, Arabella. You can’t trust anything they tell you. It’s all lies, all of it. They’re cruel. They say they’re doing good, but look at the records, and you’ll see. You’ll see that they love taking people and making them miserable.”

Now she knew what he meant. At the time, she had just thought he was doing his usual rambles of: “Arabella, join the resistance because the government doesn’t know how to lead! Arabella, the government is just a puppet show run by Lola Miyakawa, who is supposed to be dead but she’s not. She’s actually immortal!”

But if he had been right about the disappearances, about the missing boys, the rumors about the science experiments going on under the Gray Mile…

What else had he been right about?

She stood up, still shaking. All her life, she had thought the resistance was founded on complete craziness. But now, she was starting to believe some of it.

Now she desperately needed to escape.

She ran down the hallway, opening and closing doors at random. She peeked inside each for a second, then ran to the next one when she didn’t find the room she needed.

Eventually, after five doors, she found it. Machines beeping, electricity buzzing, her only hope to survive, she found the server room. She stepped into it, going straight for the heart of the Gray Mile’s power. In the center of the room was a giant console, wires leading from it, making the entire room hard to navigate.

She made her way through the room, careful about not stepping on a wire. She didn’t want to accidentally electrocute herself. She made her way to the giant control panel and stood in front of it. After a few seconds of observing all the various buttons, wires and switches it had, she decided to start pressing and pulling things to see what they did.

She began flipping the switching, pulling out the wires and pressing the buttons. For a moment, it didn’t seem like anything was happening. Until she flipped a large switch near the bottom of the panel and the lights in the room went completely dark. The emergency lights flickered a second later. Those were powered by gas, luckily, or she wouldn’t have been able to find her way out.

She flipped the last few switches, hoping that she had successfully taken out the security system. She also hoped that there wasn’t a backup system powered by gas, because she had no clue how to get that one knocked out. If that were the case, then she figured that she was just screwed.

She carefully made her way out of the room, then booked it towards the stairs. She made certain she didn’t look into the room with the boys again, not wanting to repeat that. She still couldn’t get the boy who had died out of her mind. How he had looked at her…

She shook her head and ran up the stairs. She felt bad leaving them behind, but she had to. She couldn’t save them and Pansy. The only person she was focused on saving was Pansy, so that was who she thought about as she ran up the stairs.

She ran to their rendezvous, hiding in a dark corner. The entire place had gone dark, except for a few flickering back up lights. But there weren’t enough to light the whole place, so Arabella hoped that the darkness would be enough to cover her. If the guards hadn’t been looking for her before, they definitely would be now.

After a few moments of waiting, Arabella realized something was wrong. Pansy should’ve been back by now, she should’ve left for the rendezvous once the power had gone out.

Arabella cursed, then slapped a hand over her mouth. After looking around to confirm no guards had heard her, she slumped back.

Why had she sent Pansy out? What had she expected to happen? This wasn’t going to be an easy job anymore. She had no clue where Pansy was, for one, and she was probably being held by several guards. It was also probably a trap to lure Arabella in. If she rescued Pansy, then they’d both be screwed.

She could leave. She considered it, sitting down on the hard, cold ground. She had the perfect opportunity to do so, with the power out and the guards scrambling to figure out what had happened.

But she had already made up her mind to rescue Pansy. If she left now, then she’d be leaving behind the girl she promised to protect. Her mind flashed back to the room the boys had been in, and she shuddered. If she left her, would she face the same fate? Would she be one of those expressionless faces in a room full of sorrow?

How could she leave a tiny child to that?

Of course, this girl had broken into a jail. She must’ve known that some kind of consequence awaited her if she failed to get back out. Which led to Arabella’s earlier question of why a young child was breaking into a prison in the first place. None of it made sense.
If someone had sent her, then it was their job to get her out alive. Not Arabella’s. But if she had done this by herself, for whatever reason a twelve-year-old wanted to break into a jail, then if she left, she’d be leaving her to a terrible fate.

Arabella groaned, but knew she had to rescue Pansy. The girl didn’t deserve to be locked in a jail for the rest of her life, and she knew she couldn’t take another death to her conscience.

So with a sigh, she stood up and began her search for Pansy.

Note: I realized I didn't clarify this at the beginning, but this is just the first draft of the book I'm writing. Most of it I'm already contemplating changing with the second draft, this chapter and the first chapter included. I think it would be more beneficial to have Arabella's backstory slowly spread out throughout the book than given all at once at the beginning. But I think this is the only draft I'll upload on here, to keep the actual book a surprise, I guess? But I was making this note to clarify that the gruesome parts are needed, even if I'm not that good at explaining why in this draft. The room of boys is essential to the story, I promise TT.

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 6 (Part 1)
Trigger Warning (for both parts): Mention of guns
“What’s this?” Pansy pointed to a picture frame on a shelf. Inside was a photo of Troy Smalls shaking hands with Sunny as he accepted his role as the warden of the Gray Mile.

The warden sat at his desk, rubbing his forehead irritably. This girl had only been in his office for ten minutes and she was already driving him insane. At first she had begged him for food, so he had sent a guard to get her something from the kitchen. After that, she tried to climb the bookshelf. He’d had to rush to grab her off it before she pulled it over. While he was putting back the things she had knocked off, she had started throwing random items that had been on his desk at the wall to see how well they could bounce. None of them bounced. All of them had fallen on the floor in a pile next to his desk, making another mess that Troy had to clean up after the original mess she had made. Ignoring several verbal warnings to stop, Pansy had continued to throw things at the wall. The last item had missed completely and flew out the window, shattering the glass. He’d had to grab her before she went to the broken window to see where the thing had landed.

Now she was asking him what everything in his office was while he reorganized his desk. A guard was at the window, sweeping up the glass and making sure Pansy didn’t step in it and hurt herself. Troy knew that the queen would be upset if he put her daughter in a cell, but he was considering it so she wouldn’t break anything else. He wasn’t paid enough to babysit a sixteen-year-old with attention issues.

“That is a picture, Pansy. I’m sure you’ve seen one of those before,” he seethed, feeling a headache coming on. He tried to organize some papers on his desk, but a loud crash shifted his attention. Pansy was standing by the bookcase, staring down at the broken photoframe. She had tried to get it down to look at it, but she hadn’t been tall enough to reach it, so her attempt had knocked it down. Now there was more glass on the ground for the guard to clean up.

Troy buried his face in his hands and groaned. Nicky had told him he would be here over an hour ago. Why wasn’t he here yet? If Pansy destroyed one more thing in his office, he swore he would throw her in a cell. Just for the sake of his sanity.

“Where’s Arabella?” Pansy asked, watching the guard sweep up the broken frame fragments off the ground.

“Oh, she’s coming. Trust me,” Troy said. He wasn’t actually sure if Arabella would come for Pansy or not. He had a hunch she would, but this was a resistance member. They only thought of themselves. If she saw a way out, then she would very well leave the person who rescued her behind.

Which brought up the question of why the princess of Virelia would rescue her own enemy from prison. Surely she wasn’t working for the resistance herself…?

Pansy knocked a plant off the shelf while trying to examine it, and Troy realized she didn’t have what it took to be a part of the resistance. They surely would’ve fired her after the first hour. Or shot her, which he was considering doing since she had broken the pot his dead wife had made for him for their 30th wedding anniversary.

Troy picked up his phone to call Nicky. If that boy didn’t pick up his charge soon, the warden couldn’t make any promises about what might happen to her. Especially not if she broke the expensive vase she was eyeing.

The only reason he had taken her to his office was so that he could recapture Arabella easily. It was better to do things like that himself instead of having his bumbling idiots of guards chasing her around for another two hours.

No, those types of things he needed to do on his own.

Especially given who he suspected Arabella to be. There was a reason he had demanded her to be taken straight to the Gray Mile instead of the courthouse, where she should have been taken. He had a hunch, and he needed to see if he was right.

He couldn’t do that if she escaped. If she did manage to leave, there was no telling what damage she could bring to Virelia. She was dangerous, that much was sure, given who he assumed her father was.

But he couldn’t be sure if he didn’t recapture her.

He slammed his fist on the desk right as the vase fell to the floor and exploded into several pieces.

“I have had enough of this!” he yelled, turning to the sweeping guard. “You! Take her away! Lock her up!”

“But, sir, she’s-” the guard began, but Troy wasn’t having it anymore.

“I don’t care! Just get her away from here!” he roared, and the guard saluted before making his way to Pansy.

Before they could do anything, the door burst open and a very angry Arabella burst into the room. She surveyed the scene for a moment, then tackled the guard who had grabbed Pansy’s arm. They both went flying into the pile of broken glass, the guard landing right on top of it.

“Hi, Bella!” Pansy waved.

“Don’t call me Bella!” she huffed, trying to keep the guard from pummeling her with his fists.

“Ough, seriously, the incompetence…” Troy sighed, going over to Arabella and the guard and hoisting them both up by the backs of their shirts. “You, take her to the cell,” he threw the guard away from him. As he was occupied, Arabella put her legs on his desk and kicked off it, using the force to knock them backwards, into the wall. The warden hit his head and cursed, dropping his hostage, who landed in a crouch.

The guard was having a hard time grabbing Pansy. She had realized what they were trying to do and had climbed the bookshelf. She made faces down at the guard below her as she laid on her stomach. He began to climb the shelf after her, but thanks to his weight and an extra shove from Pansy, the bookcase fell on top of him.

Pansy jumped off the bookcase and landed with a summersault. She stood up and beamed at Arabella.

“Nicky taught me how to do that!”

The warden stood up and used their distraction to unhook the gun from his belt.

Arabella turned around just in time for the warden to fire a shot at her. She quickly dove over the back of the overturned bookcase and pushed Pansy over. The bullet grazed her arm as she fell, but she had bigger issues to deal with.

“There’s no escape, rebel girl. Surrender now, and I won’t have to kill you and your friend,” he walked around the bookcase, pointing the gun at them again. Arabella dove for his legs, knocking him down. A stray shot fired out, startling Pansy. Hands over her ears, she ran to the door, wanting to get out of the loud room.

 

[rumisramyeon]

Chapter 6 (Part 2)
Arabella and Troy wrestled on the ground, trying to both get possession of the gun. Arabella quickly realized she was at the disadvantage, as she had no muscle and was terrible at fist fighting. This man had years of experience and had easily 100 pounds and a foot on her.

He wrestled the gun away from her and rolled on top of her, making her yelp out as she was crushed beneath his weight. He pointed it at the door and fired, barely missing Pansy but hitting the doorframe. Pansy stumbled backwards and fell onto the floor, still covering her ears. Arabella clenched her teeth and, in one last effort to give Pansy a chance to escape, brought her knees up under the warden. She lifted her legs up, making him fly off her. She continued into a roll, landing on her feet. The gun went flying from his grasp and landed next to Arabella. She took a hold of it and stood up, pointing it at Troy.

“We’re leaving. We bested you, fair and square. So it’s time for you to let us go.”

He chuckled, holding his hands up in surrender. “Oh, we still have ways to keep you in-”

He was interrupted by the door bursting open again. Inside the doorway stood a boy around 16 or 17. He had messy, short blonde hair and brown eyes with a long scar that started on his forehead, wrapped around his eye and ended on his cheek. He wore the typical clothes of a guard: a gray shirt over a bulletproof vest, black slacks and boots. But over his shoulders was a white cloak, something only high ranking officers wore. Arabella wondered how such a young kid had gotten so much power.

As soon as Pansy saw the kid, she ran at him and hid behind his cloak. She glared at Troy and hugged the boy tighter.

“A-ah, Nicky, I see you’ve finally come…” Troy stuttered, now in a slight panic. He had shot at the queen’s daughter. There was definitely going to be a punishment for him. The best thing that could happen was that he would get fired. The worst… He shuddered, not wanting to think about it. So he did the only thing in his power he could to save himself from either fate: he lied. “This girl escaped her cell and attacked a guard. She overpowered him and stole his gun, then came up to my office, where she heard I’d been holding the crown princess. She opened fire on both of us. I tried to save our princess but she was too much. It’s a good thing you came, now Princess Pansy will be safe.”

Arabella stood there, trying to process his words. She’d stopped listening after he had said that Pansy was the princess. Pieces started clicking into place, and she wondered why she hadn’t realized it before. Of course the guards hadn’t wanted to hurt her. She was immune, as Arabella had suspected. That also explained why she had been taken to the warden’s office instead of being thrown into a cell, and why this high-ranking official had come to bail her out.

Then she realized what the warden had said about her and glared down at him. “Hey, wait a second, he was the one who fired at her! I was trying to help her escape!”

Nicky held up his hands to silence her. “I only trust one story.” He knelt down next to Pansy and put a hand on her shoulder. “Pans, what happened?”

It was then Troy knew he was screwed. There was no way the girl would cover for him, and the way Arabella smiled victoriously, he knew she knew that as well.

“Well…” Pansy looked down at the floor, like a child getting scolded. “I wanted to go on a mission with you, and I thought that if I proved I was mature enough, mum would let me go.”

“And this involved breaking into the Gray Mile how?” Nicky sighed, already knowing it was going to be a stupid answer.

“Well, if I convinced a rebel member to leave the resistance and come with me to the castle, then if I showed mum that they had changed, then that would prove I was mature! …Right?” Pansy looked up at Nicky, her eyes big and round like a baby puppy’s. Nicky sighed and shook his head.

“Pansy, they would’ve just gone with it so you would release them. Then they probably would’ve killed you as soon as they got out. You’re the resistance’s worst enemy, and they would do anything to get their hands on you,” he glared at Arabella as he said this.

“Hey, wait a second! We don’t go around murdering twelve-year-olds! We still have some decency!” Arabella huffed. “You guys aren’t so good, either! Your people killed my best friends!”

Nicky glared over at her. “She’s sixteen. And shut it, I’ll decide what to do with you, later,” he felt a tug on his sleeve and turned back to Pansy. “What is it, Pans?”

“She saved me,” Pansy pointed to Arabella, then pointed at Troy. “He’s scary.”

Nicky figured that would be the only explanation he got from Pansy. Seeing as who she trusted more in the moment, he figured the story Troy had told was false.

“Who fired at you, Pansy?”

She pointed at Troy. “Bella was trying to help me escape.”

“Don’t call me Bella!” she seethed from where she was standing, the gun still pointed at Troy.

Pansy tugged on his sleeve again. “We can’t leave her here, Nicky. We have to take her with us. She’s just a kid, like us.”

“Pansy, she’s old enough to have done something to deserve to be in here-” Nicky tried to explain, but Pansy cut him off.

“But she’s my best friend, Nicky!”

“No, she is not. She’s a random rebel member you just met!” Nicky argued.

Pansy looked up at Nicky, a full pout on her face. She knew Nicky couldn’t resist her when she pulled out the pout and the puppy dog eyes.

Nicky sighed. “Pansy, she’s still a member of the resistance-”

Arabella cut him off to argue. “Um, I was born into the resistance and forced to be there. I would’ve left by now, but it wasn’t my choice. What was I supposed to do, live on the streets? They wouldn’t have let me leave without killing me.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?” Nicky glared at her.

“Look up my records. Arabella Draper. If you look close enough at them, you’ll see I never did anything to warrant being in here. I was supposed to lead a raid against the courthouse and free some of the prisoners there, but I never stepped foot on it. Your people ambushed us outside. I never fired at anyone. I hid and then fled. They killed my people, shot me, and then brought me here. If I remember right, then I didn’t do anything bad enough to warrant being in here. This place is for murderers. I never killed anyone.”

She stood there for a moment, grinning at him. She knew she had him stumped. If he was as high-ranking as his cape suggested, then he would know this about the law. And if he did read her file, he would know that what she said was true. Which meant he couldn’t leave her here, since it was a violation of the law.

He stood up and turned to Troy. “Is this true? Did you bring her here without a trial?”

“Well, you see, Nicky, um-” Troy began, but Nicky cut him off.

"Yeah, that’s all I needed,” he sighed. Pansy tugged on his sleeve again, and Nicky placed a hand around her shoulders. “I can’t free you, Arabella. You’re still a member of the resistance, and your intention of what you were trying to do was clear.” Pansy tugged on his sleeve again, harder, this time.

“Nickyyyy, I want to take her home with us!”

“Shush, Pans, she’s not a stray puppy!” he hissed, but that had given him an idea. He walked over at her and took the gun from her hands. She stood there, a bit surprised and taken a bit off guard.

“Arabella Draper, you are hereby freed from the Gray Mile. But only if you agree to do community service for a year.”

“Community service…?” Arabella asked, raising an eyebrow.

He pointed at Pansy. “Prove you’re not a true member of the rebellion by being her bodyguard. One year. If you slip up even once by trying to contact the rebels or taking her somewhere that I deem suspicious, you come straight back here. Pansy trusts you, so I’m giving you a chance. But if you screw up, then I won’t be so merciful.”

Arabella stood there, still a bit surprised. She hadn’t expected that to actually work. But it seemed he placed a lot of value in this child’s words, whatever those were worth. So she nodded. A new chance at life… This time, she wouldn’t screw it up. “I accept.”