Chapter 6 #3
I jumped when something brushed the top of my head and I looked up to see a handkerchief.
Looking up higher, I met dark eyes, a narrow gaze.
It was a boy, a little taller than me but as young as me.
He was slim, dressed all in black, with a shaved head, standing beside me.
It was the first time I had seen a boy other than the security guards in the building; it was normally forbidden.
I grabbed the handkerchief without a word and blew my nose into it without restraint.
He suddenly knelt in front of me, his gaze analyzing my body.
"You shake," he said in broken English with such a strong accent that I almost had trouble understanding him.
I didn't know why, but it make me laugh.
I started laughing so hard that my empty stomach hurt.
Where did this guy come from? "Of course I'm shaking.
I haven't eaten anything in almost two days, and I'm a type 1 diabetic.
And I don't have access to my injections because those sons of bitches have them," I blurted out, clearly seeing that he was only catching every other word.
"And I have to act like a real lapdog to get them if I don't want to die.
" " I continued with an honesty that I had abandoned in this cell two months ago, and damn, it was liberating.
For two months, I had been acting like a puppet, burying all my feelings to stay strong.
I wiped the new tears that had escaped from my eyes with a trembling sigh as he took something out of his pocket, and I froze when he handed it to me: a lollipop.
A strawberry lollipop, my sister's favorite.
I slowly raised my gaze to his as he waited silently, his face expressionless, and something inside me broke.
I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his waist and knocking him onto his backside as I hugged him tightly.
He didn't push me away as I started crying again, crying so hard that my whole body shook.
"I want to go home, I want to save my sister," I sobbed against his shoulder, and gently his arms closed around me and he hugged me back, making me cry even harder.
I clung to something in this darkness, I clung to him.
—
"All right, ladies, I've gathered you here for an important announcement," Joana told us as the twelve of us girls stood in a line in the middle of the reception hall.
This was where our dance classes took place.
We were taught every dance imaginable, every dance designed to attract men.
"We have some new arrivals," she continued as the door to the room opened and Igor entered, followed by several young men, strangers to us.
They were as young as we were. They lined up in front of us, their hands clasped behind their backs, legs apart, like little soldiers.
"These young men are in training, just like you, ladies.
Their roles will be very important to you, as they will become your Shadows," Joana continued.
"Their mission will be to accompany you wherever you go, to protect you.
Think of them as your personal bodyguards," she explained before turning to the boys.
"But there is one golden rule that must be respected, otherwise the repercussions will be very painful for all of you," she warned us in a sombre voice.
"No physical contact between a Star and a Shadow, ever," she ordered as she walked between the two rows.
There were twelve men, one for each of us, and my gaze suddenly fell on one of them.
He was the smallest and slimmest of them all, so much so that he disappeared between two burly men.
It was him, the one who had given me a lollipop.
The one I had cried against for a good quarter of an hour before abandoning him when I heard Joana's voice calling me in the hallway. I didn't even know his name.
"All right, ladies, choose your Shadows.
Make the right choice, because a Star and a Shadow are for life, it will never change," announced Joana, stepping aside before motioning to the girl at the head of our line.
One by one, the girls chose one of the boys by pointing at them, and Joana introduced them by telling them their respective " surnames" before allowing them to go out into the garden to get to know each other.
My turn came when there were only three choices left: a tall guy with blue eyes, a second guy who was smaller but just as muscular, and the one who had helped me.
He looked like a child next to the other two.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wendy getting impatient.
She was last in line, and I knew exactly what she was thinking.
She didn't want the little guy; she wanted someone strong, and she was right.
If Joana was telling the truth, then one of these men might save my life one day, so I had to choose the strongest one.
But if I had understood one thing over the last two months, it was that it wasn't Stella's body that needed protection, but Sienna's soul.
So I raised my finger and pointed at the slender boy.
His eyes met mine, but no emotion showed on his face.
"Interesting," commented Joana. "Stella and Wraith, go ahead.
" Wraith. I knew the meaning of that word.
It was Scottish. I had seen it in class during a history lesson on myths and legends.
In Scottish tradition, it was a spirit or ghost that appeared just before or after a person's death.
I walked towards the door leading outside and frowned when I didn't hear him follow me, I turned around and gasped when I bumped into his chest. How could he walk so quietly?
I frowned and started walking towards the exit again.
I opened the door and lifted my face to the sky, breathing in the fresh air, we rarely went outside, staying locked up and acting like perfect dolls.
I walked over to the bench under one of the few trees in this shitty desert before sitting down and waiting for Wraith to do the same, but he remained standing next to me, his hands crossed behind his back.
"I don't bite, you know?" I asked sarcastically, crossing my legs in a way my body had learned in two months, in a way that lifted my skirt, revealing my thigh.
My eyes remained locked on Wraith's, and I smiled when I saw his eyes remain on mine, without even glancing at my legs for a second.
"No, you strangle," he replied with a straight face and broken English.
He was joking, and I burst out laughing, throwing my head back.
Seriously, I loved this guy. "It's called a hug," I smiled before patting the spot next to me.
"Come on," he stared at me for a moment before finally sitting down next to me, sitting up straight as a board.
I leaned forward to see his face. "The least you can do is look at the person you're getting to know," I insisted.
He closed his eyes and sighed deeply before turning slightly toward me, which was better than nothing.
"Are you Korean ? " I asked without a hint of embarrassment, with everything I had seen over the past two months, nothing really embarrassed me anymore.
Between the positions in bed that Joana had taught us and the way we had to dress provocatively.
"No, Japanese," he replied curtly, glancing at me.
"You Russia?" he asked, much to my surprise, so he knew how to talk after all.
"Russian? Me? Yuck, no. I'm pure Italian," I replied with a grimace, my eyes widening when I saw a slight smile on his lips.
His eyes analyzed my face at length. "How old?
" he suddenly asked, and my good mood slowly faded.
"Sixteen," I replied, and he pressed his lips together, nodding slowly.
"And you?" he frowned, and I saw him thinking before he finally raised his hands between us.
He had long, slender fingers, and he showed me the number ten, then seven.
"Seventeen?" I asked, and he nodded. "Seventeen," he repeated the number, which sounded strange coming out of his mouth, as if it were the first time he had ever said it.
Which was surely the case. He was only a year older than me.
How had he ended up in this hole? So far from his home country?
But I could see from his gaze that he was asking himself the same question about me.
We were two kids who had no business being here.
"My name is Sienna, nice to meet you, Wraith," I said, holding out my hand, his eyes dropped to my hand and I saw him hesitate, Joana's golden rule echoing between us, but I didn't give a damn, seriously.
Since meeting Wraith last night, I felt like I had found a small part of the old Sienna that had disappeared when Esteban left.
I smiled at him and raised my eyebrows, and he finally slipped his warm hand into mine.
"Kenji," he said, gently squeezing my hand, and I felt my frozen heart gradually warming up.