The Sympathetic Pariah

After debating whether to ask Liam to stay in my room last night, I decided it was not the best idea. Also, I was already too sleepy for another talk.

I'm not going to lie, the force of wanting to stay the night next to him was unbearable. So when Liam escorted me back to my room and said goodnight, I had to muster all my whiny energy to the bed as Liam's footstep retrieved to his own bedroom across from mine. When I heard his door shut, I sighed and let my eyelids shut down.

I was awakened by the sunlight from the window this morning, and I don't remember opening the curtain. Did Liam come into my room while I was asleep?

There's a letter on the bedside table next to me, and my name is scribbled out in cursive letters.

"Good morning, Fumbly!

I'm out for work. Eat your breakfast, it's in the kitchen. I'll see you at lunch!

-Liam"

Yup, so he was here this morning.

I run out into the bathroom to shower and dry myself up quickly before putting on my clothes. Then I walk out of the bathroom towards the stairs, leaping down several steps simultaneously.

"Liam?" I call out when I reach the bottom of the stairs. But I get no response, so I guess Liam is still at work.

I walk to the refrigerator directly to look for milk, ignoring the surrounding. Where the hell is the milk? Are those blueberries? Ew, I hate blueberries!

"What the hell..." Then a voice comes from the dining room on the other side of the kitchen.

I instantly stand up straighter but still hide half of my body behind the refrigerator door.

It's not Liam's voice, although it sounds familiar to my ears. Oh my God, is someone breaking in? Shit, what if it's one of the escapees? Will I have enough time to grab a knife? Damn it, It's across the room!

I hear a creaking sound of a moving chair from where the voice is at.

"Who are you?" that voice squeaks.

I slowly take a step back, revealing myself fully. I close the refrigerator door and carefully turn my body toward the source of the squeaky voice.

My eyes widen when I catch a glimpse of a gun being pointed in my direction.

"Ava?"

"Hi, Ken..." I put my hands up in surrender, hoping that Ken would not fire the gun.

His hands are shaking, and I'm scared he will accidentally pull the trigger.

"Would you mind if you put your gun down?" I say while trying to swallow the lump in my throat.

Ken's face turns from horror to confusion, but he still has his gun pointed at me.

He is dangerous with that gun! He shot that bear yesterday!

My head twitches when my voice echoes inside, and Ken must have noticed it because he grips the gun even tighter.

"Ken, please put your gun down! It's just me," I try to sound calm and a little bit louder to ensure Ken can hear me from across the room.

"Why are you-" but the front door is opened before Ken can finish his sentence. A shrilling sound of footsteps reverberates throughout the living room. That sound made us flinch, and I thought he would fire the gun.

"Kenny, I'm back!" Liam shouts in a sing-song voice from the living room before entering the kitchen. "What the hell are you doing?" Liam's voice snitches from the kitchen door, and I think it is stuck in his vocal chord.

He keeps looking back and forth between Ken and me, wide-eyed. When Liam finally can sink into the current situation, he quickly stands in front of me, shielding me from the possibility of a terrible accident of a flying bullet. "Ken, look at me! Would you please put the gun down? I'll explain everything."

When Ken sees Liam's face, he blinks several times before finally lowering his gun.

He puts the gun on the table, but the gun barrel still points toward Liam and me. I'm still scared somehow it will magically explode, and the bullet will fly through Liam's chest.

"I'm sorry," Ken says from across the room. When Ken sits in the dining chair, Liam strides to the table like a bat out of hell. He unloads the gun before shoving it inside his jacket pocket.

"Why are you letting her loose, Liam?" he finally snaps his head towards Liam, who's still standing beside him. "You're lucky I wasn't Peter!"

"Wait, am I not supposed to be out of my room?" I put my hands up in defense reflexively. They both look in my direction in sync like they're best friends and know each other's movements naturally.

"You're our captive!" Ken says in a 'duh' tone. I put my hands over my chest, pretending he hurt my feelings, and make an 'ouch' sound.

"Well, I can't keep her locked in all day, can I? She needs to go to the bathroom somehow," Liam says, putting his hands on his hips while shooting Ken a glare.

"Yeah, I know," Ken snaps back at him. "But she's not supposed to be out of your sight, Liam!"

"I can't babysit her for 24 hours, Kenny!" Liam narrows his eyes on Ken when he says his friend's name. "I have work to do, and she's also not going anywhere. I've locked all the doors and windows around the bungalow before I left."

I clear my throat, approaching those two dunderheads, "I can hear everything, you know!"

Ken pouts his thin lips when he looks at me.

"Can I sit down?" I say, pointing to the empty chair next to him.

He hesitates for a moment before nodding. I walk over to the table when I'm sure the situation is not awkward anymore. When I flop down on my seat, Ken begins to relax, and he goes back to eating his cereal.

Ken is actually cute with that long brown hair that falls over his face, but only when a gun is not anywhere near his grasp. The sunlight from the window rests on his straight hair, and he looks so pretty. His mosses green eyes catch mine, and I can see his cheeks turning rosy. He quickly drops his gaze back to his bowl of cereal when I smile at him.

"Stop staring at the poor guy!" Liam snarls at me. He's still standing next to Ken with hands on his hips.

"Shut up, Liam! Just go grab my breakfast for me! I'm starving," as I snarl back at him. We go into a staring contest for several seconds before he finally gives in and walks to the kitchen. Ken chuckles from his place with his eyes still focused on his almost empty bowl of cereal.

Liam returns to the table with a plate filled with scrambled eggs, toast, and a steaming mug of coffee in each hand. He places them in front of me and pulls his chair across from me.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Ken asks Liam while pushing his bowl away.

I glare at Liam, not knowing what it's all about or that I'm allowed to listen to their conversation. Am I supposed to leave them to talk?

"Well, it's a long story," Liam's eyes keep darting from Ken to me, and I believe that is the cue to keep my butt on this chair. "It's about the councils of Monarch and their plan to kill every Riotist and Alloyist bloodline-" before Liam can finish his sentence, I clear my throat and throw him the 'what the hell are you doing' look from across the table.

He catches my eyes, but he ignores me. Ugh, he can be so annoying sometimes.

"And-" he continues, but I clear my throat again.

"Um," Ken hums slowly. "Is there something I'm supposed to know about you two?"

I open my mouth to answer him, but Liam cuts me off. Is this his payback because I keep cutting him off?

"Ava, it's okay! Ken's my best friend, and I trust him."

What can I do? I don't know Ken that well. All I know is that he's been sweet to me since we met two days ago. Well, he kidnapped me, but he didn't attack me or anything, so I guess there's a good reason to trust him. I nod my head at Liam, letting him carry on with whatever story he will tell.

Liam is telling Ken everything, from our childhood story to the Monarch keeping our parents hostage and about the annihilation. Liam does not say anything about last night and refers to me as his childhood friend. I almost finished all the food on my plate when Liam closed his story with, "Ava thought we should tell everyone."

I choke on my coffee and spit the rest in my mouth back on the mug. Ken makes a gagging sound when he witnesses that, but I ignore him and sip my coffee again.

"How about this, you guys talk to Peter, and I can tell Lucas about their plan. Maybe these two camps can work together to stop the annihilation, maybe it's still not too late." It sounds like a simple plan in my head, but things are always easier said than done. But I speak firmly; it could help convince them that this is a good idea.

"I don't know about that, Ava. To be honest, I don't really trust Peter." Ken bites his thin lips, making them even more invisible. "Do you trust Lucas?"

I'm the one who's biting the lips now. "I don't know," I drop my gaze to my mug. "I've known Lucas for so long, but it's been 7 years, and I sometimes feel like he's changed into a different person."

"Your friend told you that my brother is keeping secrets from you, didn't she?" Liam asks like he's thinking about something in his head, and I nod at him.

"That's what I don't understand! I know that Lucas hasn't been an open book lately, but I don't think he's hiding anything from me. But Sierra told me about him killing his best friend, and Peter also said something about Lucas hating a traitor. What was that supposed to mean?"

Nobody says anything, and something looks fishy. They keep glancing at each other uncomfortably, like they're communicating with each other through telepathy. I'm waiting for any of them to tell me something, but none of them speak.

"What are you guys hiding from me?"

When Ken drops his gaze to the table, Liam finally tells him. "He killed Harry because he found out we made your friend's boyfriend spy on Lucas."

Suddenly my heart escapes from my body, and runs out of this bungalow. I'm dead, aren't I?

"How did even Lucas find that out?" my voice sounds hoarse, and I can't hide the fear behind it.

Ken stays silent in his place, like he's trying to find a superpower to disappear, but Liam takes over for him. "We don't know how he found out, but after we sent him back to Lucas's camp, we found Harry's frozen body in the forest on the day we were supposed to pick him up again."

Shit.

"Maybe he w-was killed by a b-bear?" why do I suddenly become stutter, and where's the oxygen when I need it the most?

"No, he wasn't!" Liam tries to strike the right note with his voice, and I can see that this topic also makes him uncomfortable.

No, kidding! In two days, he's about to send you to the same path Harry met his own death!

Shut up, you Flying Dutchman! You're only making things more complicated for me.

That's not my job to make your life easier!

Fuck off!

"How are you so sure?" I can't hide my fear any longer, and I don't care a pin about sounding vulnerable.

Ken snaps his head up, his pale face has turned red, and his lips are quivering like an earthquake inside his body. "Because it happened to my Jessie!"

I was about to ask who's Jessie, but Liam cut me off. "The point is that you're not the only person Peter has ever sent, which always leads to the same ending."

"Death?" even though Liam doesn't want to bring it up to the table, that does not mean I can't see the elephant in the room, so I do it for him.

Both of them nod their heads slowly, and I feel like a social pariah to be sent to my death this away, and what's funny about it is that I'll die in the hands of the people that I trust the most!

Is Liam really going to send me back there, even if he knows the end of this all will be the same? When last night's images flash back into my head, I suddenly become so enraged. If he really loves me and knows that Lucas will kill me, why didn't he stop Peter from sending me on this mission? Was he the one putting the idea on Peter's head?

He's lying to you, and last night was just an act to comfort you.

My voice growls inside my head, sending me a vibration of rage and betrayal. God, why did I fall for that?

I can feel the anger and the Rebel's adrenaline prickles in my fingertips.

"Maybe we shouldn't say anything to anyone," Ken says, snapping me out of anger.

"Not yet," Liam assures him. "We need to think about it thoroughly before we can discuss it later after Ava comes back from Lucas's camp."

Is he kidding me right now?

"Oh, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Liam! But don't you think that I won't come back here ever again?" I say sarcastically.

"Why?" He furrows his eyebrows into a frown.

Holy mother and father!

"Let's see why," I stand up from my place, knocking my chair to the floor. "Maybe it's because you will find my frozen body in the forest next week!"

I rush out of the kitchen and out the front door. I sprint to the forest across the bungalow and run as fast as I can until the anger disappears.

I don't look back, even when Liam's voice roars behind me. Liam can't keep up with my running pace, and I'm grateful for the practice I've been doing back in the camp.

Without thinking clearly, I keep running deeper inside the forest until the sound of Liam's voice calling my name disappears completely.

I thought he loved me, he said it last night. But why would he throw me under the bus like I mean nothing to him? That could be how he really feels toward me. He feels nothing.

Let me kill him for you, and then we can run away from here!