Chapter 14

Chapter 14

               Ellie paced throughout the cavern. She went from one end of the cavern, to the next, all the while kicking at the cavern floor. She took in the detail of the lights above her, hanging lights that she was unsure of how they were powered. Electricity was only for those with the money to spare, or close to the capital, and this cavern had neither, but she was sure there were not candles or oil burning in the lights around the cavern. Thinking about the electricity, or lack thereof, gave her mind something else to do besides worry. She worried about David and Sloane. She worried about whether she should trust Baye and Rafe. She had been spied on for years by someone she had considered a friend.

               Baye had been watching her for an hour, just sitting in a chair along one of the passageways. Everyone else stayed out of her way or ignored her. Ellie was just a stranger amongst those fighting a battle. She was not officially apart of any rebellion, she was a pawn, and she hated everyone a little for it, and yet understood. She was divided on her loyalties and it was destroying her from the inside out.

               She wished she could manipulate her own thoughts.

               Ellie found herself face-to-face with Baye on her next turn around. She stopped before she ran into the other woman and both of them stood there staring at each other.

               It was Baye who broke the silence first, blowing a black curl out of her face and saying, “There’s something I have to tell you, and I’ve been debating how to tell you since I brought you here.”

               “There’s more?” Ellie asked exasperated.

               “Come sit with me,” Baye said, and reached out and grabbed Ellie’s hand. Ellie pulled it from Baye’s grip. Baye did not let it drag her down, she only kept on the smile that was perpetually on her face, but her eyes were not smiling.

               The two went back to her little cove in the wall and sat. It was Baye’s turn to pace. Ellie finally had it and said, “Just tell me.”

               “Your parents are dead.” Baye clamped her hands over her mouth and her eyes widened. “I didn’t mean to tell you like that.”

               Tears rolled down Ellie’s face and it no longer mattered how Baye told her, or why she told her the way she did. It mattered only that her parents were somehow… dead. “What happened?”

               “I don’t know,” Baye said honestly. “We were originally going to wait for you at the house, we weren’t even sure we were going to take you with us for certain. But then your house… it was burned to the ground. Their bodies were found inside. There wasn’t much left. I didn’t want you to go home and see that. I’m so sorry, Ellie.”

               Her parents were gone. It wasn’t possible, was it? Why would her house have burned down? Ellie would like to think it was an accident, or a coincidence, but with everything going on since they ran away she knew it was impossible.

               “I have to go back to the house,” Ellie said, standing.

               “You can’t, Baye insisted. “Ellie, it’s dangerous, especially now. Everyone thinks you are missing. What if someone turns you in?”

               “We live in a corner,” Ellie said. “I can go and not be seen, and even if I am, it’s not like my neighbors know I am technically missing from the government. They probably still think I ran away.”

               “You can’t.”

               “I have to.”

               “Ellie, you don’t want to see it,” Baye insisted. “It’s your childhood in ruins.”        

               “Baye,” Ellie said quietly, “was the painting there when you looked?” Baye’s silence answered the question for her. “You said you think that painting had something to do with what I am. If that’s true, and it’s gone, someone else knows as well.”

               “Why is why you can’t go back,” Baye said. “Someone out there is looking for you, even with you forcing David to promise to say nothing.”

               “I am going,” Ellie said with finality. She stood and dared Baye to argue with her, knowing Baye no longer could. She felt more miserable and guilt ridden having used this on Baye, but it was worth it. She needed answers and she did not think Baye was going to be very forthcoming, plus she just wanted to be alone. If her parents were truly gone, and she had no reason to doubt Baye’s word in this, she needed to see the house, what was left of it. She may have been crying hard, but she knew it would not really hit until she saw the house.

               No one stopped her. She moved out of the front entrance that had not been repaired since Sloane and David’s rescue that had backfired on them. She walked out and into the open world and found herself higher up in the mountain than she thought. From her place on the mountain she could see the city, see trains moving and people, who looked like black specks in the distance, going about their day. Still, she knew it would take her longer than she anticipated to go back down the mountain and would likely be closer to nightfall before she emerged in the city. Perfect, it would be dark and she would be able to slip under the cover of darkness to her home where every material possession she had ever loved and known would be destroyed.

               She would also stand out like a sore thumb, unfortunately. Looking down at the shorts and small shirt on her body she realized it would be less than appropriate for her to go around the city dressed like this.

                It was a long debate of whether she should go back and change her clothes or not. She was afraid she would no longer have the nerve to do what she did if she went back.

               She made her way through the trees and towards her burned home.