Territorial

I sit on the counter, swinging my legs back and forth, the counter cool on my bare thighs, my shorts doing nothing to dispel the chill of the marble. I wait there, in silence, for half an hour. Of course, I never really left the hide out; I was a medic, not even a field one. But I knew how things went, I could handle my own, I could be a fighter, I just wasn’t. I could patch people up the best of anyone, and they didn’t want anything to happen to me. I could do stitches, I could fix broken bones, and I could deal with disease. I kept them from needing to go to a hospital, drawing attention and using up our funds for travel and rations, and water. I hear the pounding of footsteps outside, seeing as I’m just to the left of the only door that comes into out sheltered warehouse. Not just a single pair, I’d guess sixty pairs. That’d be our girls coming back from the turf war with one of the other gangs.

I expect the usual injuries; bruises, split knuckles, maybe a couple gashes and scrapes to be cleaned out, usually one person needs at least two stitches. I hop off the counter and prepare for care. What I’m not prepared for is two of the gang, Alice and Marissa, to be hauling in an unconscious man. This is a girl gang; I know he’s not one of ours.

                “Why?” I ask, opening up the one of our mini first aid kits, which we have hundreds of. Sandy, our leader parades in after him, blood covering one of her cheeks, and her hands.

“Please, Scarlett. They left him to die, and I couldn’t leave him there in good faith.” I take a deep breath, and shift into the peace and static mind of medical care.

“Injuries?”

“Sandy hit him in the back of the head with a crowbar when he tried to jump Lily.”

I nod, and begin barking orders. “Turn him over onto his stomach. Bring me the box on the wall, just in case.”

After they turn him over, I tilt his head over so he rests on his cheek. I check his pulse, finding it to be surprisingly weak. I open the box someone brings to me, and pull out the breathing tube, fixing it over his face. I turn it on, and it floods him with oxygen, and pulls carbon dioxide out. I part his short sandy blonde hair to see the damage.

“Bowl of water. Tissue.” Someone hands them to me, and I begin lightly cleaning blood away, until I can see the heavy bruising, and small dent in his skull. “God, how hard did you hit the guy? I knew you’re protective of Lily, but seriously?” I probe the area with my fingers and he groans. “I know, I’m working on it,” I mutter, and begin stitching and bandaging his head. “I can’t do much else, only stop the blood. Sorry. He should be okay, didn’t hit anything important. Now get him out of here, and let me take care of my people.”

Sandy needed stitches for the cut on her cheek that got blood all over her. Nothing else was too unusual, except that Katy cracked a rib. Finally, I shower, and wring my hair out, twisting it up into a bun with my bangs falling in black rippling waves around my face. I stare at my reflection, and my dark green eyes stare back. I sigh, wondering if we gained any territory in this fight, and pull on underwear and a bra. Then I dig through the chest at the foot of my bed, and decide on my blue skinny jeans and a black tank top. I throw my army jacket over it, and lace up my combat boots, stuffing some of the bills I’ve gained hustling pool and playing poker in town into my pocket, and check my watch. We all have some fancy watches we scavenged from some old store named after a fruit. I have time, and they’ll call me if they need me. I slip out the front door, and go on my way.

I walk to the west boundary of our land, and stare at town. I scuttle past the decrepit old buildings, fallen in the last great war, and into the bustling market place. I choose things that we don’t need, but we like. I grab myself an apple, and pick up all manner of things the girls want. Oranges. Avocados. Grapes. Peppers. Spices. Luxuries, things only I spend my free money that doesn’t go to the cause on. Everyone else hoards it, and then buys gadgets, or every now and then, a train ticket to somewhere civil. I load up my purchases, and take them back to the warehouse, eating my apple along the way. I drop the rest of in the empty rec room, because everyone else is healing up, training, or working for cash right now.

I venture back out, scuffing my shoes as I walk in the chill November air, meandering to the North boundary this time, where the scuffle occurred earlier today. There’s blood on the pavement, and it makes my stomach roll. Not that blood bothers me, because it doesn’t. What bothers me is that over a few yards of land, a few more yards of power, we almost kill each other. I sigh and sit on the ground, drawing patterns in the dirt, and then footsteps crunch the dirt. Soft, like someone is trying to sneak up on me. I slide my switchblade down from my sleeve, holding it in my hand, prepared to fight off the lone person. I turn around, and it’s not just one person, it’s several. My heart leaps to my throat. I have training, and I could kick ass against one, or three people. But I’m no match for seven.

I flick open my blade, and hold it out defensively. “I don’t want any trouble.”

“You’ve got that watch. You’re one of the girls that stole some land today,” the one in the front, the leader of the patrol, sneers, with a slight lilt; I’d peg it as vaguely French.

“No, I wasn’t there, I swear. I didn’t do anything!”

He laughs, tossing back his head. “You might not’ve been there, but you’re sure as hell one of them, you don’t look stupid enough to venture into someone else’s territory.” He steps forward, and grabs my wrist painfully hard, squeezing until my hand unfurls and I drop my blade. I panic, and pull my hand back and punch him in the face, hitting his cheekbone, hard. He roars in pain, and grabs both of my wrists in one of his large hands, the other cupping his already bruising cheek.

The other boys come around behind me, making me vulnerable. I’m gagged, blindfolded. My arms are wrenched behind me, and bound together at the wrists and just above my elbows. My legs are tied at the thighs, and calves. I get thrown over somebody’s shoulder, and a violent swaying motion tells me that the men are running, and as I wiggle, an arm claps over the small of my back, holding me in place. After a while, we come to a stop, and the swaying gets gentler, like we’re walking now. The sharp jab of a needle pricks in my arm, and I black out.

I wake up, blindfold and gag gone, and instead of rope, metal bands are holding me to a chair, which doesn’t even shake when I rock back and forth in it, leading me to believe it is bolted to the floor.

“So sleeping beauty finally woke up.” I look at the speaker, the leader from the guys who jumped me. I look to check my watch to see how long I’ve been gone, to see if anyone would be looking for me. My watch isn’t there. “Looking for this?” the man says, holding up my watch. Luckily, those things open on password, voice, fingerprint, and face recognition since our techie reconfigured them. Nobody is getting into the watch who we don’t want to, which keeps all of our information safe. “Well, I’ll be honest here, girly. This won’t be fun for you. But I tell you what. You tell me your name, I’ll tell you mine.”

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

“You’ll have to trust me, won’t you?” he says with a crooked smile.

“You go first, because I don’t trust you, and I have no way of making you tell me.”

He shrugs. “True. My name is Alek.” I mull it over, searching his bright blue eyes for any tells. When I don’t see anything too wrong, I give Alek a name. I decide on my mother’s.

 “Sierra.”

“Liar, that’s the name of someone you were close to, someone you don’t see anymore. Probably dead. Was Sierra your mother? You’re Scarlett, aren’t you? Sam talked about you a lot.” he trails off with an odd expression blanketing his face, a mix of guilt, pain, fear, and a affection. I bite my lip and don’t look at him, my older sister’s face flickering through my mind. “A deal is a deal, girl.”

I sigh. Alek was smart. I’m a good liar, only those few who are extremely close to me can tell, so this man knows what he’s doing. “Yes.”

He nods, and turns his back on me, and hums to himself, typing on a small computer I hadn’t noticed. “Scarlett, you’re a medic, aren’t you? Not field, too good to be field.” He turns back around. “You have a good heart. You help the younger girls. You bring everyone fresh food, instead of hoarding your money. They like you, they love you.” He steps close, and grabs my chin between his thumb and forefinger, making me look at him, at the prominent bruise I left below his eye. “Imagine what they would do to get you back.” He lets go, and then smacks me in the face, hard, and I taste blood in my mouth. “That was for my face. Now for the actual beginning.”

 I can only begin to guess at my injuries from the amount of pain I feel; I can’t see any of them. Blood is filling my mouth, trickles down my face. One eye is swollen shut, and Alek is getting angrier, and punching and kicking harder, because I won’t tell him anything.

“Just tell me!” he screams, enticingly close to my face. I work my mouth around and spit in his face, blood leaving a sickening red splatter. He seethes, and pulls back his fist before someone comes running in.

“ALEK! STOP!” I turn to see who my savior is, and it’s a slight boy, can’t be older than 9, who looks like the man we have at home, who looks like Alek. If I had to guess, they were all brothers. “Alek! You’re gonna kill her. Maybe they’ll give us back Tyler if we give her in exchange!” Alek stops, and kneels on the floor in front of the little boy.

“James, we both know Tyler’s gone, he can’t come home;” he says, and I see the tears in both their eyes.

“What if I told you he isn’t?” I say softly, and both boys look at me.

“What?” James asks.

“He’s got Alek’s jawline, your light brown hair, and broad shoulders, right?” They nod. “He’s not dead, he’s hurt real bad. Alek’s right, I’m a medic. They brought him back because they didn’t feel right leaving him. He might be in a little pain, but he’s going to survive. I patched him up myself.”

Alek slowly stands up. “You call your girls. You tell them to bring Tyler to the border in three hours, and then they’ll get you back. Or else the whole territory goes up in flames. Do it, now.” He puts the watch in my hand, and takes James out of the room.

I call Sandy, and she picks it up almost immediately. “Scar! Where are you? What happened?”

“Shh, I’m alright. That boy you picked up, his name is Tyler. They want him back.”

“Scarlett, do they have you?”

“I’m fine, but don’t let that boy leave until he tells you something. They said they’re giving you three hours, or they’ll light all of our land up. At the North Border.”

“Are you coming home?”

I take a deep breath. “I think so. That’s what they said, but I don’t trust them. Just bring the guy, don’t let anyone else get hurt on my account.” I hang up, and hold the watch in my hand, gripping the black band hard. I shut my eyes against the pain, waiting out the time limit.

On the way back, I’m just as blindfolded as when I was kidnapped. But I’m not tied up.

“Alek?” the person carrying me grunts.

“What do you want?”

“Why must I still be blindfolded?”

“So you don’t know where we base our operations.” I roll my eyes beneath the cloth, and wiggle around.

“Then can you just guide me and let me walk on my own?”

“No.”

We’re not moving much longer before I’m set down, and the blindfold removed. I open my good eye, and we’re on the border, and I see Sandy, with Lily, which makes sense, because Sandy never leaves her side. Guiding a blindfolded Tyler carefully are Annalise and Beth. Behind them is Marissa, my closest friend, she’s practically my sister. I see the shock on all their faces; they had never seen any blood on me that hadn’t been someone else’s. I stumble over to Marissa, and place my hands gently on either side of her face.

“I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay,” I repeat as she shakes with silent tears. I hear footsteps going away, probably Tyler and Alek. “It’s okay, I’m okay, we’ll be okay,” I say, and collapse to the dusty ground, fading into black.

I wake up in my bed at the warehouse, and climb out of it to look in the cracked mirror on the wall. Someone took the time to wash the blood from my face, and suture the cuts on my cheekbone and jaw, but the bruising still shines across my face. I’m wearing a soft T-Shirt that was probably a guy’s at one point, and leggings. My feet are bare, and I find all my clothes clean and in the chest at the foot of my bed. I realize I’m hungry, and slowly make my way to the kitchen, and search through the pantry for crackers, and munch on a few, and drink some water. Afterword, I go to the medical room, and go through our supplies for pain meds to dull the pain in my face and arms. I swallow them dry, and then go sit on the porch of our warehouse. No one can say I invaded their territory here, so I just sit there, and watch the sunset. I watch the horizon, and see someone coming near.

It’s Alek.

He’s bloody, and limping. Even though he hurt me so badly, made me bleed, I run to him, and pick up his muscled body, not letting him walk. I carry him into the med room and scream for Sandy, because she’s the boss around here, and she’ll know what to do, after I patch him up. One thing peaks my interest; she shows up with her shirt twisted, usually sleek orange hair messy.

Broken ribs, two of them. Sprained ankle. Stab wound on the stomach. Cut on forehead. Blood loss. Bullet hole in his temple, badly aimed, bounced off the skull. This has an attempted murder. Sandy says we question him after we get him some mild pain meds, to at least dull the ache, but leave him lucid. We strap him down to an empty bed, and begin our questioning. Or rather, I do.

“Alek, what happened?”

“Screw you.”

I nod, ignoring the underlying pain from my still fresh bruises. “I didn’t have to save your life, could’ve let you bleed out, or killed you myself, no one would disagree.”

“You didn’t.”

I nod again, and step close. “You came here; you walked, from the looks of it, for miles, looking for us. Why?”

He chuckles weakly. “Because there’s a reason you’re not a field medic. I knew you’d pity me, patch me up, and now I can go home and tell them where you are.”

“What makes you think we’re letting you go home?” His eyes widen; his pupils contract until they’re barely there, all icy blue irises. “You didn’t think of that, did you? It didn’t cross your bleeding brain.” He doesn’t answer. “Hmm. Why did someone try to kill you?”

“Because of you,” he spits. “They all say I should have killed you, because you knew some of our names, we knew yours, we knew you, you could worm your way into our hearts and weaken us. Because we had no use for you.”

I turn and run out the door. I need air. I can’t have an almost murder on my conscience. I can’t have someone else’s blood on my hands. I can’t be the cause of someone else’s death, someone else’s pain. I hear Sandy call for me and come running, but I don’t pay attention. I just need to breathe. I’m sitting outside on the steps, same place where I was when Alek came stumbling into our home. I take a deep breath, breathing in and out, like ‘Rissa always tells me to. Sandy comes out and sits beside me. I know she doesn’t know what to do, or what’s happening, so she just rubs my back. We sit that way, and I don’t know how long. It could’ve been five minutes, it could’ve been five hours, but we just coexisted in silence before I stand up to go back in.

“What-”

“Talk to Marissa,” I say, not feeling up to telling my story to another person, and I walk carefully back to where Alek is.

“Did I rattle you, sweetheart? Did I scare you, make you run away?”

I look him dead in the eye. “Don’t call me sweetheart,” I say coldly, monotonously, and walk slowly close to his bed, where he can’t flinch away. I get close to his face, our noses almost brushing. “You’re an awful person. You’re right, there is a reason I’m not a field medic. A couple reasons. None of them concern you, but you know why you’re lucky? I was sitting on the steps. If anybody else had been, or if you knocked on the door, and anyone else answered, they wouldn’t ask questions, just shoot you dead. You owe me, so don’t go around making me mad. You’re alive, and stitched up because I did it. If you cross me, and I stop protecting you, I can guarantee you won’t see the next morning.” I step away, and lean against the door frame, hoping he won’t call my bluff, hoping he won’t realize why his words bothered me.

“You’re lying. Your name isn’t Sierra, and you won’t let them kill me.” I sigh, and he studies me. “Your tell; your eyes don’t have their usual sparkle when you lie.” I think it’s a compliment.

“Thank you?”

“You’re very beautiful when you blush, Scarlett. A fitting name for the pink streaks.” I cock an eyebrow, and tap my bare feet on the concrete. “I can tell you something you don’t know.” That catches my attention. “Your shirt; it is a man’s. And the ginger, she is not as loyal or pure as you believe.” I look at Alek with wide eyes.

“I’m well aware of my shirt’s origin, why is it important? And what do you mean about Sandy?”

“I could tell you, if you’d undo my arms,” he pulls on his wrists emphatically.

“Your legs won’t be undone, and you will not get the key,” I warn.

“Deal.” I unlock his arms, and he gently rubs the raw marks left behind by the handcuffs.

“Your shirt was mine, when I was younger. Sandy took it from me.” My jaw drops. “Sandy, your friend; how do you think a deal negotiated this easy, why do you think she trusted us? She works for us. We showed her where to scavenge for watches, that’s how I knew you were one of them. I was not worried for Tyler. I knew so much about how you acted as a person, what you did for them. I didn’t know why. Sierra, the dead one whose name you gave. She was your mother; Samantha was your sister. You feel responsible for their deaths, why is that?”

I look away. “That’s loyal. Why isn’t she pure?”

Alek laughs. “She’s very protective of Lily, no? And she ran to you, messy?” I nod slowly. “This bed, why is it open? The sign on the door was wiped, but it very faintly says Lily. Where does Lily sleep, hmm?” I run out the door to Sandy’s room, knowing Sandy is still talking to ‘Rissa.

I open the door softly, and Lily sits up, pulling the covers with her. “Sandy? What happened?”

“Not Sandy,” I say, and Lily rubs her eyes.

“Scarlett! What are you doing in here?” I come and sit on the edge of the bed.

“Not important, how much do you know about Sandy?”

                “Everything, she tells me everything that happens, why?”

“So you know about her working with our rival?” I don’t know why I trust Alek, but I do, because he hasn’t steered me wrong so far. Lily looks down.

“Yes.”

I fight off tears; I trusted Sandy, I trusted Lily. I run to the kitchen, and grab the tin pot and metal spoon, and run around the ware house, hitting them together, drawing everyone to the main room, where we gather when we hear that sound. When all fifty seven people are gathered, I call Lily, still only half awake, and Sandy, confused, to the front with me.

“Anyone else here know anything about Sandy?” Everyone looks confused, so I continue. “Sandy and Lily have been in a relationship, behind our backs, for almost six months.” A ripple of distrust circles through the crowd. The problem wasn’t their relationship, not by a longshot. ‘Rissa and Beth are a couple, but nobody cares. It’s just an unspoken rule you don’t keep big secrets unless you have a great reason. “And Sandy has been working for the guys on our North border for an undetermined amount of time.”

Sandy starts laughing, and it’s obviously nervous laughter. “Wow, Scarlett, you loopy on pain meds? I mean, I would never work for them,” she says, signing her own death certificate.

“All in favor of expelling Sandy and leaving her to wonder the south territory?” Everyone, even Lily, albeit sadly, raise their hands, some faces glistening with tears.

A small “I trusted you,” rises from the crowd.

“All in favor of expelling Lily?”

Before anyone says anything, Lily stops me.“Wait! I knew. I knew about Sandy, I’m sorry I didn’t say anything, you deserve to know that I knew too.” Lily is crying, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

Then something hits all of us at once; Sandy is twenty six, and Lily is just under sixteen. “All in favor of expelling Lily to wonder the south territory?” Not one hand rises.

Lily can’t watch it; she just hides in Sandy’s room and cries. ‘Rissa nominated me for leader, and so did Annalise, and so did Lily, and so did Alice, and so did Katy. They voted for me, so I must now banish Sandy. She takes it silently, her hair over her face, and she looks ashamed. When we reach the south border, we open the gate. The gates circle the whole province, and we’re right on the edge. Sandy undoes the lock, as she is the only one who knows the combination. I throw the lock into the dirt, and close the gate behind her, and put the new lock on. The twenty of us who see her off take a somber, silent journey back to the warehouse.

When we arrive, I call another meeting, and everyone stares at me attentively. “I refuse to become leader, when there is something you don’t know about. The clan who Sandy was working with, the group of the hurt boy, Tyler, outcast one of their own. His name is Alek, and he is residing in Lily’s old room. Any questions?” Chloe, a slight, freckled little girl about 13, raises her hand. “Yes?”

“Isn’t Alek the one who hurt you?”

I pause. “Well, yeah, but he has been forgiven. He told me about Sandy, and I didn’t believe him until I investigated myself. That, and the fact that his outcast was due to being part of the patrol that took me, but not killing me, has proved that he may be allowed to live. It has been a long night, you should all rest.”

I walk to the other corner of the house, and pull a chair up by Alek’s bed, where he lays with his eyes closed, and I sit there with my head in my hands. “They elected you leader, didn’t they,” he says, and I look over to find him with one crystal blue eye open and staring at me.

“You’re very good at reading people,” I say, and he sits up.

“It is a gift.”

I shrug and straighten. “What am I going to do?” I tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Not even four days ago, I was just a medic, no one special. And then you left Tyler behind, and now all this happened.” I feel a tear roll down my cheek, and a gentle hand caresses it away.

“I did not want to leave him behind. Do you want to know why I told you about Sandy? Why I risked everything to find you?” I nod. “Then listen closely.”

“It was me, Tyler, and James against the world. I was the oldest, at eleven. We were on our own. We were lost, and scared, and we stumbled upon this huge building, and these people came out. This fifteen year old girl, with fiery orange hair, and this guy, maybe 17. They asked who we were, what we were doing. We didn’t know, so they took us in, trained us, brainwashed us. James and I fell for that bullshit, but Tyler didn’t. The guy, eleven years later, knows about the ginger Sandy and Lily, and makes me tell Tyler to take Lily down. He does, because he trusts me, and the guy knew that Tyler wouldn’t survive. But Sandy knew Tyler, wouldn’t let it happen, so she brought Tyler to you, and instead of thinking they were insane, you took care of him. You took care of me when I came to you, even though I hurt you. When we kidnapped you, I knew you were hurting, I knew you were smart, and you had that fire in your eyes, and they wanted me to kill you. But you were so pure, you were trying so hard to be good, and kind, and I WASN’T GOING TO KILL YOU! I WASN’T LETTING THEM HURT YOU; YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING TO DESERVE IT! I WASN’T WATCHING ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL GIRL DIE BY MY OWN TWO HANDS!” I stare at him, bewildered. “Scarlett, I saw your gorgeous green eyes, so bright like the grass before we had to run for it. When they told me to just kill you when you wouldn’t say anything, I just couldn’t do it. I owe Samantha that much.”

I breathe in shakily, ten thousand thoughts about Alek, Sam, Tyler, Sandy, all running through my head at once and Alek cups my face gingerly, and kisses me softly, and gently. I kiss him back, until he pulls away. I go running, barely remembering to lock the door behind me. I run to my room, and close the door behind me, and sink to the floor, holding my head. No, this is bad! He’s your enemy! You just met him! He hurt you! He just admitted to killing Sam! My mind argues, screaming at me, telling me it’s wrong. But there’s always that stupid voice in the back of your head that breaks you; makes you realize what you want, and what you need. He didn’t kill you when they told him to. He nearly got killed, for you. He got expelled from his home, from his brothers, for you. That tiny voice that knows that even though it’s wrong, it’s right.

I sigh, and hear soft footsteps behind me. When I turn around, it’s Lily. She sits at my side, and tucks her platinum hair behind her ears, and we just stare at the ground. “What Sandy and I did, it’s not right, is it? That’s why they voted for me to stay, because they thought it was wrong.”

  I turn to her pale face. “Probably, because all they saw how the decade she had on you, and we know you didn’t want that, did you?”

“What do you mean?”

“In the beginning, did you want to be with Sandy?”

She shakes her head softly. “She kept asking, and asking, and she said she cared, and I didn’t know what to do-” She breaks off into sobs I pull the small girl into my arms, holding her as she shakes with tears, as she regrets what she had no choice in.

I stay that way until sunrise, Lily missing from her spot hours ago. ‘Rissa comes out, and talks quietly. “We’ve been looking for you, there’s a problem.” That catches my attention.

“What is it?”

She bites her lip. “See for yourself.”

I take off on a run after her to where Alek is. There’s blood everywhere, brain matter on the pillow. Sitting on the floor beside the bed, laughing is Lily. She’s holding a gun, probably the one she used to shoot Alek. She’s just sitting there, curled up, laughing and laughing. I take the gun from her hands, and give it to Marissa.

“Lily, can you hear me?” I ask gently. She just keeps laughing, never stopping. “Okay, I’m gonna take care of you, it’ll be alright. ‘Rissa, tell everyone what happened, and then please clear out the body, I don’t think I can right now.” She nods, and I lift Lilly up in my arms, and carry her to the med room, and set her down gently on the counter, and begin digging through the cabinet, listening to the laughing slowly fade. I turn around and hand Lily a couple pills. “Here. You need some water?” she doesn’t speak, but accepts the meds, and curls in on herself.

Nothing happens for an hour, until her meds kick in, and she stares at me, slack jawed. “Scarlett, I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed-” I cut her off.

“I know, it’s okay, you’re going to be alright. How ‘bout you stop being a soldier, and I train you to be a medic? Do you want to do that?” I know it seems like something feeble to ask at the moment, but she needs a distraction.” She nods. “Okay, let’s start with how to dress a wound.”

I keep her occupied with this, practicing on a dummy, with a mud paste, so as not to waste valuable medicine. I leave her to it, albeit nervously, and go to talk to my girls, explain what just happened, a hollow feeling settling in my gut. I hear Lily’s words, but it’s not her voice, it’s my own. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him. Next, I wash all the blood off of Alek, and have ‘Rissa help me carry his body. We carry him to the border, and lay him down carefully, leaving a letter placed on his chest, envelope addressed to Tyler.

Dear Tyler,

  My name is Scarlett. I’m the one who stitched you up. Your brother came to our door, hurt and almost dead, because your gang thought he should’ve killed me, but he had a heart, and didn’t. He helped us uncover what Sandy, our old leader was doing. He said I made him question orders. Alek also told us that you were told to jump Lily, and it was a set up for you to get hurt, and that you questioned orders. I hope you make decisions that aren’t only right for you, but for James, and for whomever else over there that you care about. I propose we meet here, tomorrow night, because your brother brought up some things I can’t ignore, and I want to work with you.

  I know you miss Alek. He adored you; I could see it in his face. I may have known him less than a week, but I wish I could’ve known him longer. You have no reason to trust me; you’re receiving a corpse instead of your brother. I can explain; if you’d give me the chance. It’s been a long few days for both of us, I’m sure. I know it probably hurts, deep down inside. But Alek told me about the brain washing, and how you were too smart for it. If you gave up, I need you to try again. Rally your troops against the man who took you and your family in. If you want him gone, I will sign a truce with you, I will back you up, because I do not stand for wrong in this world, none that I could stop. You might be planning your coup right now, you might have tears rolling down your face, I honestly don’t know. All I’m asking is that you give us a chance to be allies.

All I’m asking is that you give me a chance.

Yours Truly,

Scarlett