Chapter 5

Secrets

Several minutes passed before the tears finally stopped. The rain was still coming, but it was a mere drizzle, not the previous downpour it had been a while ago. She looked down at Clyde, her arms were still wrapped around him, but he had stopped his tears also. Now he was just staring blankly at the ground, probably feeling empty inside.

She shifted a little, and he turned his head up, his eyes red and puffy from crying. Smiling, she said, "We should probably go, before we get sick. And I need to check on Bri."

A little reluctantly he nodded, and got into a sitting position, looking a little embarrassed. Then they stood up, checking over the tarp and the pictures underneath. Finding that they were fine the left the flooded area, a deep silence hanging over them.

Clyde ended up following Lucia home, then sitting next to Briana once they got into the shelter of her house. He didn't say much, just stroked the little girl's hair and offer her some food when she woke up. Briana always said no, and it was starting to worry them. They even tried force feeding her, but everything came back up in a pile of pudding.

He suggested taking her to a scientist, since there were no healers or nurses in the town. But he was declined.

"The scientists don't know anything about healing. They probably know just as much as we do."

So they just waited it out.

xxx

Three days passed before Briana became well again, before she could eat the food and move around once more. It made Lucia happy, and now she didn't have to worry about the small four year old as much. She could go back and make plans for Clyde's sentence, before the people started surrounding him to make sure he doesn't commit himself like Peter and his kids.

Which was the next day.

He only had four days left. Four more days 'till he would be taken away by the Dandelions because he would turn twenty-one.

She shook the memory away and continued the walk to his house, hoping that he was there.

Pushing away the tall grass stems, she soon made it to his small house. His home was smaller than most, as he had made it so he could live alone after his family and other friends passed away, though it was still made of the same materials as all the others. She approached it and cracked the door open, peaking inside. He was there, sitting on a small little pallet in the corner. He had his legs spread out in front of him, and his head leaned back toward the roof.

When the stream of light from the now open door reached him he looked up at her, his face nearly emotionless.

Ever since the day were he had cried he barely showed any feeling except for calmness and slight happiness. And he had been locking himself up more.

He gave a small smile and sat up all the way. "Hi, Lucia."

"Hello." She went over and plopped down next to him, pulling her legs in to her chest and resting her arms upon them.

"Do you need something?" He asked, silently.

"Yes," was her reply. "I need to know what you want me to do. For your sentence. I'm going to make a big mural for you."

"What?" He jerked a little and turned to face her. "But they'll find out! The Dandelions. The Druids. They'll all find out. You can't do this... Not even for me."

She was surprised by his reaction, the harshness of his words. But she just shook her head. "No. I don't care. I want to do this for you. You're my best and only true friend, you deserve this. Besides, how can they find out, if they don't know who I am?" She smiled reassuringly at him, then gazed down at her knees, not wanting to see the look on his face.

He sighed, and slumped a little, giving her a searching stare. One that made it seem like he was reading her thoughts and learning the few secrets she had kept from him.

"If you want to get caught go ahead. Just remember. I don't want you to ditch Briana. She's your little sister. Only four years old. She be be alone, not yet. In five years she'll at least be nine, old enough to take care of herself and work at the factory. She won't need you anymore. And she wont see you anymore either-"

"Will you stop ranting and tell me your favorite color already?" She interrupted him, not wanting to think of her own sentence coming in five years. Life was too short.

He laughed an airy laugh. "You still don't even know my favorite color, and we have been friends for ten years."

She joined in. "There really hasn't been any time to ask you, you know."

"Until now."

They both smiled.

"My favorite color is yellow, Lucia."

She glanced up at him. "Seriously? Yellow?"

He nodded. "Yup," Then he paused for a few heartbeats. "What's yours? Pink?"

She stared flatly at him. "Pink? What makes you think that? Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I love the color pink." She sighed. "My favorite color is turquoise. Not pink."

He chuckled, "Okay. Gosh, you don't have to be so hard about it."

"You mean harsh. Not hard. That just doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah it does. It makes sense. You don't have to so hard about it."

xxx

Pulling her ear away from the clay wall she turned around and jogged to the Peace Seekers' house.

They were the ones.

A/N

Whaa! half way done now :( Only 5 more chapters and an epilogue left...

Why did I want this to be a short story? TT~TT