18 Luke

I was half asleep as I walked through the halls of the military academy, stumbling back to my own room. Today had been longer than the others. I was kept in class longer, going through form after form after form. It felt strange to be walking normally again, not preparing for another punch, or a kick, or a combination of both.

I ate dinner in the cafeteria alone, everybody else already else. I ate as I tried to piece together why everybody else got to sleep while I was hearing the words "again" one after another for 14 hours straight.

I couldn't feel my arms. My legs felt like they were about to collapse in on each other and I only realized after staring mindlessly at my food for 10 minutes that I wasn't hungry. I ate it anyway. The slums had told me not to ever throw a single piece of food away. It wasn't something I was planning on starting to do.

I was walking back to my room when I noticed 4 Fire Nation soldiers gathered outside my room. My thoughts immediately went to the journal lying between my mattress and the frame of my bed. I don't know why it did, but I had to be sure. I hastened my steps to get to my room as quickly as possible.

"What's going on?" I asked the nearest soldier. I hadn't expected a reply, so I was surprised when he answered with: "Go back to your room. This is none of your concern."

I looked at the door and saw that the third soldier had just filed in. They had just got here. I could get inside before they found anything.

"This is my room."

"221?"

"222"

He looked at the worn engraved steel plate next to my door. "Damnit." He mumbled to himself. He looked inside my room and yelled, "Wrong room! Take the one next door! Get it open!" They were after the journal. At the very least, they were after something inside that room. And I had it.

The soldiers filed out and tried 221. As I expected, it didn't budge. While they worked on it, I took the first step to get inside my room, but the one in charge judging by his rank paldron turned to me and said, "Door's locked. We not to go through yours. Stand aside."

Damnit. I did as I was told and stood off to the side of my door. On the bright side, it wasn't me they were after. At least, they didn't think so.

"Door's been sealed, lieutenant! Just like the other one!"

Sealed? Damn. Raava wasn't leaving any trace of herself, was she?

"Damnit!" I heard the lieutenant say from within my room. "Private Zirek, go to the armory and bring the blasting jelly. We're blasting this open!"

I stepped into the room. "Wait, what?!"

"I told you to wait outside!"

I stepped closer to the bed. "You're going to blow up my room?"

"We're going to blow the door."

"Why?" Another step closer.

"Doesn't matter why."

I took another step and I was standing in front of my bed now, in front of where my book was hidden. "Doesn't this seem kind of overkill? Every room has a window like that one."

They looked. I raised the mattress every so slightly with my left hand behind me and with my right, slipped the journal between my pants and my waist. "You can just go through the window that goes to that room."

He turned back to me. "No time. We're going in, now!"

"Is there a problem?"

"Don't worry about it. Go to sleep."

"You're about to blow up my room."

"Then sleep somewhere else."

"Can you at least not blow up the door connecting the room and go through the one that leads to the hallway?"

"Will that shut you up?"

"Yes."

"Then we will. Now scram."

I did. I walked out facing them, keeping my back away from them lest they notice a rectangular shape where my ass should be. I reached the end of the hall walking the same way, not daring to turn around.

I walked down the stairs to the library, found the same bookshelf with the hollow floor. Hiding next to my butt was probably the most wanted item in Citadel right now. I removed it and checked around me before moving the book case to reveal the hollow in the ground. I found a spot between the floor of the library and the ceiling of the pipeworks room, slipping the journal in there. I would remember where it was.

If somebody found it. So be it. They wouldn't find it on me.

I eventually found a comfortable spot in a corner underneath the metallic stairway on the first floor. As I tried to sleep, I heard an explosion coming from above me, followed by dust falling from the ceiling above me, coating me in a fresh layer of dirt.

I just really hoped they didn't blow up my room. I was starting to like it.