First Draft Chapter 32

Sleep did not come easy to me that night, but when it did come it came with force. My body was exhausted from the previous restless night, and fell into a deep slumber once I finally did get to sleep. Almost immediately I began dreaming. Like most dreams, my perspective changed throughout the night. At first, I was just myself, and I was going to visit the barricades. Then, I became one of the revolutionaries. Next, I was a Strate looking at the barricades, patiently holding my rifle. Then, I was a bird, flying over and observing the whole thing. I became many different things all in the same dream, and the story of the dream changed drastically too. At one minute there was fighting at the barricades, the next minute everything was all right, and then there was fighting again. It was not a very pleasant dream, and perhaps the name nightmare would be more apt to describe it.
And then I became conscious that someone was knocking at my door. It was a loud knock repeated over and over again. As soon as I realized that I was awake, lying in bed, I bolted up. My first thought was panic. I thought the Cadets had come. Instantly my blood began racing.
But that was just my first thought. It was the thought of one awakened from sleep, who grasps at the first instinct fluttering through one’s head, and then quickly abandons it once reason sets in. Why would the Cadets be knocking? They never bothered with such courtesies before. And yet it was not a friendly knock on the door, but an urgent, stern knock.
I glanced out my window. It was pitch black outside. It must have been the middle of the night. I didn’t have a clue what time it was. I was still considering the strangeness of things as I walked over and opened the door. Standing before me were Clio, Orpheus and Eurydice.
I didn’t know which one of them had done the knocking, but I was surprised that such a forceful knock could have come from any of them. My surprise at seeing them quickly gave way to annoyance. What was so important that it required waking me from my sleep in the middle of the night? A sleep my body badly needed. Clio ran forward to hug me, but I remained solemn, not returning her eager embrace. Orpheus looked at me with an embarrassed look, and seemed to be on the verge of saying something. Eurydice looked at the ground, deliberately avoiding eye contact with me.
Clio hung on to me for longer then usual, but when she finally did release me, Orpheus spoke. "We need your help Jon." There was a definite sense of urgency in his voice. "Eurydice is in trouble."
Instinctively I looked over at Eurydice, but Eurydice would still not look at me. Instead she looked past me, with a sort of glazed expression on her face. There was silence in the room. Orpheus was reluctant to continue, but Clio prodded him with a tug on his arm. "I’m sorry Jon," he said. "I would normally never ask you to do this but I don’t know what else to do."
"What is it?" I demanded impatiently. Orpheus’ voice was unusually slow, and my curiosity was eating me up.
"We need you to hide her Jon. Just for the night, that’s all we ask." They all looked eagerly into my face to see what I would do.
Again I looked at Eurydice, but Eurydice was gazing at Orpheus and refused to look at me. I looked at Orpheus. "What sort of trouble is she in?" Orpheus opened his mouth, but I suddenly cut him off. "This doesn’t’ have anything to do with the protestors, does it?"
"No Jon, she’s in trouble for stealing."
Eurydice seemed too timid to be a thief. "Stealing?" I repeated the word to indicate my surprise, but Orpheus and Clio must have thought I was upset because the rushed forward to placate me.
"It’s not her fault," Clio insisted. "He left it right out in the open."
She talked so fast I could barely understand her. I held up my hand to get her to slow down. "Whoa, easy. Who left what out?"
"Angelo."
The name struck me, but I didn’t know why. I knew I had heard it before. "What did Angelo leave out?" I asked this with great patience, hoping she would be calmed by my voice.
It appeared to work, for her reply was in more measured tones than her initial outburst. "Angelo was at the University, visiting the Duke. He must have taken his wallet out to pay for something, and he set it on the counter, and Eurydice grabbed it." The mention of the Duke made me instantly remember where I had heard the name Angelo before. In fact it is amazing I didn’t recognize it immediately. It was a name heard frequently at my house growing up. Angelo was the Duke’s right hand man, second in command of all of Fabulae. There’s no such thing as a little bit of trouble. It always manages to come in huge chunks. "She didn’t mean to steal it," Clio explained. "She saw an abandoned wallet on the counter so she picked it up to see what it was, but when Angelo saw her, he yelled at her, so she got scared and ran off."
"Can’t we just explain to Angelo that this was all a big mistake?" I knew even as I said the words that they were a waste of breath. One did not run away with Angelo’s wallet, and then chalk it up to a misunderstanding and expect to get away with it.
Orpheus confirmed this. "Not a chance. Angelo’s really angry about this. He’s been looking everywhere for Eurydice. Cadets are even stationed in her dorm room right now."
It was trouble alright. I looked at Eurydice. "Did you give the wallet back at least?" It was a question directed right at her and she still ignored me. She chose to look at the floor instead. I thought perhaps she had misunderstood me, and I began to clarify myself. "I mean I realize of course that you can’t just walk up and hand it to him, but you have to give it back some how." Eurydice remained silent, and I was made increasingly nervous by the fact that neither Clio nor Orpheus was speaking for her. I began to assume the worst and my voice began to crack nervously as I continued. "My God, you don’t still have it, do you?" I waited only a couple seconds, and then hearing no reply, I concluded that she did indeed have possession of Angelo’s wallet. I could not believe the three of them had overlooked this detail. "Well that’s what he wants. That’s why you’ve got Cadets stationed in your room. He just wants his wallet back. You can drop it off at the University. Just put it in an envelope and place it in Flash’s mailbox. Here, I’ll do it for you." I paused. Everyone remained silent so I just continued again. I found myself becoming more and more frustrated with Eurydice as I continued. "I mean use some common sense here. Angelo will still be angry, but once he gets his wallet back he’ll stop overturning every stone to find you. Then you just lay low for a while and you’re all set."
Orpheus finally interjected himself to speak for Eurydice. "She doesn’t have the wallet anymore Jon," he said. "After she ran off with it, she panicked and wanted to get rid of it, so she threw it into the river."
My jaw dropped. Part of me wanted to yell at Eurydice for being so stupid, but the other part knew that wouldn’t do any good. I shrugged and concluded in a dry tone," so that’s that."
"That’s that," Orpheus agreed. "Now I’ve arranged for Eurydice to leave tomorrow morning with a group of traveling merchants who don’t ask many questions. She’ll be taken safely out of Urbae, and she has an aunt she can stay with in one of the provincial districts. She can stay there for a few week, and then I’ll travel out to meet her and we can go from there." Orpheus tried to smile. "I’m not sure where we’ll go, but after what happened to my art, I don’t mind leaving this place one bit."
"Why my room?" I asked.
The question obviously disturbed Orpheus. Perhaps he thought I was about to refuse the request. "It’s just for one night Jon. She’ll be gone by morning. We can’t have her stay in my room. That would be the first place they’d look for her. I’m sure they know we’re going out by now. And she can’t stay in Clio’s room. They know Clio’s my sister." Orpheus was partly right. There was no doubt that Angelo, or whoever was conducting this investigation, had already figured out who Eurydice’s friends were and where she spends her time. The obvious problem with his logic, though, was that I was probably on their list somewhere too. After all, once they figured out I was Clio’s boyfriend, my door would probably be watched closely as well. Besides which, I was in enough trouble already with the FJC. I brought both of these points to Orpheus’ attention.
"I know Jon, but I don’t know where else to go." I was not sure what Orpheus meant by this: whether he had no other friends or no one else he could impose upon for this kind of favor. With all the time he spent with Eurydice, it would not surprise me if his other contacts were somewhat limited. "Besides," Orpheus continued, "You’ve shown you can stand up to the Cadets if you need to." This last comment shed new light on things. It showed I was not chosen in spite of my conflicts with FJC, but because of them. Orpheus wanted Eurydice with someone he felt could protect her. I was pleased with the compliment. Perhaps it affected my judgment, as afterwards I quickly agreed to the task. But then again, I would have had to agree eventually. What else could I have done?
"Alright, she can stay here." Clio ran forward and hugged me a second time. Orpheus broke into a smile. Eurydice still had yet to look at me.
"Okay, great Jon. Thanks a lot. Now, listen closely, this is really important. I’m going back to my dorm room, and I’m not coming back here until Eurydice is safely out of Urbae. I don’t want to lead the Cadets to her. That means you have to make sure she gets out of here okay. A contact is coming to this dormitory at 10:00 A.M. shapr, but he won’t set foot inside. He’ll just wait by the door. All you have to do is make sure Eurydice meets him at 10:00." It sounded very simple, but I knew well what was being said between the lines. I would have to deal with any cadets who wanted to get in my way.
"I can do that," I answered, hoping I would be able too.
Orpheus shook my hand. "Thanks a lot man. I won’t forget this."
"Don’t worry about it," I said in an almost inaudible voice.
Orpheus stepped a few paces away. Clio came up to me. "You look upset," sh said worriedly. "Did you want to talk about this?"
"No, go ahead," I answered. "I don’t want you walking back alone, especially tonight. You should go with Orpheus." She nodded meekly, and the two of them left. I waved good-bye to them as they descended down the stairs.
When I turned to Eurydice she was looking at me, although she quickly averted her eyes and looked at the floor again, but for an instant we had made eye contact. She was still standing in the hall, so I made a harsh whisper for her to get inside. Once she was in the room, I closed the door.
As soon as the door was firmly shut, I began to have second thoughts about this whole thing. It was too late to change my mind now, but I swore in frustration. I didn’t shout, but I said it forcefully. Eurydice flinched at the sound of my angry voice, and she looked at me with frightened eyes. As soon as I looked at her, he averted her gaze. "This is a terrible idea," I hissed. "Why did I agree to it? There has got to be a better place to hide you." I said the words in anger, but they gave me an idea. I grabbed Eurydice by the wrist. "Follow me."
I led Eurydice out into the hallway. Even though there was no one around, I was nervous at being with her out in the open, and desired to get to where I was going as soon as possible. But, to my great frustration she was like a slow child, always a couple steps slower than I wanted her to go. More than once I gave a rough tug on her wrist to get her moving faster.
I led her down the stairs and down the hallway of the first floor. I found the room I was looking for, pulled her in with a final tug, and closed the door. I knew the occupants of this room always went home for the weekend, and so the room was empty right now. This should throw the Cadets off. Maybe they would be smart enough to look here, but probably not. I turned on the lights briefly. Leaving the lights on would obviously give away the fact that this room was occupied, but I decided to allow myself a couple minutes to get settled.
The blinds were already closed, which would have been my first action had they been left open. There were two beds, neither was well made and the sheets had probably gone several weeks without being washed, but at this point I really didn’t care. The beds aside, the rest of the room was well kept, considering it was a University dorm room. Eurydice was already reaching for the books kept on the shelf.
"Don’t touch those!" I spoke in a crisp, clear, commanding voice, and Eurydice’s hand drew back quickly as if it had been bitten by a hidden spider. "Don’t touch anything. This isn’t my room. None of this is my stuff. Just leave everything where it is."
"I wasn’t going to hurt the book," she said defensively.
"Yeah, I know, but just don’t tough anything, alright. Nothing here is mine." She looked so upset that I added, "look, it’s okay, just don’t mess this room up."
"I wasn’t going to." She looked at the beds. "Which one is mine?"
I walked over to the bed I wanted and sat down on it. "Well here’s what I’m thinking: someone ought to stay up tonight and keep watch just in case, and I don’t think it ought to be me." I guess I was looking for her to argue with me. I wasn’t really upset with her so much as I was upset with the whole situation, but I was looking for some sort of release. To my disappointment, she didn’t argue back, but I could see her eyes darken and I could tell she wasn’t happy with me, and I took that as justification enough to continue. "After all, it’s your fault we’re in this situation." I she had just agreed that the whole thing was her fault maybe that would have pacified me, but instead she just stared back at me in silence. I got up to turn the lights off, then laid down in the bed. "Keep a watch on the door," I said to make sure there was no doubt about what I expected of her. "Wake me up if you think anyone’s coming." She stood woodenly by the bookshelf, not even reacting when I turned off the lights. She didn’t even turn her head, but just kept staring straight ahead at the books.
Tiredness was beginning to catch hold of me again, and I closed my eyes. Just for a moment at first, then I opened them again and blinked at the ceiling. "I can’t believe how stupid you are, " I said. No response. I looked over. Eurydice still hadn’t moved. "You know, I can understand sort of running off with the wallet. I still think it’s pretty dumb, but I can understand it in a skewed sort of way. But why did you throw it into the river? I mean what were you thinking? How was that going to fix anything? And if you wanted to get rid of it, why there? Why not on the ground, or say in the trash, or somewhere where we could have gone and got it later. Or maybe where someone could find it and return it to him." She still stayed rigid. "Well, for future reference next time you run off, leave the wallet behind. Just drop it. There’s nothing hard about that. You just open your hand and let go. Then you’d save us both a lot of trouble." Knowing I wouldn’t get any further response from her, I rolled over and went to sleep.


I awoke the next morning to the sound of the usual commotion and roughhouse that often occupied the dorm hallways. Two guys were likely having a friendly wrestling match, and the sound of their laughter was mixed with the sound of their bodies hitting the walls. My first thought was confusion at the strange room I was in and the strange bed I was on top off. This was closely followed by the remembrance of all that had happened last night and with that came the explanation of my new surroundings. Next I noticed the bright sunlight pouring into the room, and I wondered if it were after 10, and I became angry with Eurydice for not keeping a better watch. And lastly, I realized that Eurydice was not in the room at all.
I burst out of the room and looked worriedly at the clock in the hallway. It was almost fifteen minutes after 10. I ran past the two wrestlers and out the door.
I had initially though, when I realized that Eurydice was not present, that she had gone ahead to the contact without me. This, however, appeared to be not the case when I saw the contact standing outside. He was very easy to spot. For one thing he was the only older person standing anywhere close to the dormitory. He was all dressed very formally, whereas all the students were in their weekend attire. He also had a look of great impatience, and I suspect that had I come five minutes later I would have missed him altogether.
I walked up to him. "Pardon me sir," I asked, "but were you supposed to meet a girl here this morning?"
"I was," he snapped, "but that was nearly twenty minutes ago. Do you know where she is?"
"No, I’ve lost track of her, but just wait here a while longer and I’ll find here again."
He looked at me skeptically. "I was toll 10 O’clock sharp."
"Yes I know," I answered as polite as I could, wanting to stay in his good graces in hopes of getting more time. "There seems to have been a little mix up, but if you just stay here a little while longer I’ll straighten everything up."
I was already starting to leave, but he grabbed my arm and roughly jerked me back. "Alright now listen. I don’t know who this girl or what kind of trouble she’s in, and I don’t want to know. But, if she wants to travel with us, then she had better be on time because that’s the way we do things. We’ve got a schedule to keep, and if her boyfriend thinks we’re going to waste a whole day of travel looking for his girl, then he’s not paying us nearly enough."
"Just wait ten more minutes. That’s all I ask." He let go of my arm, and I ran off towards Orpheus’ room.
I sprinted up the stairs to his room, and to my relief found no Cadets guarding his door (at least that I could see), but Orpheus was not in his room. With the remaining time I had I went to Clio’s room. "Where’s Orpheus?" I asked breathless, throwing her door open.
She was initially surprised to see me, but must have sensed that I had come on important business, for she answered my questions quickly. "I don’t know. Probably at breakfast."
"Is Eurydice with him?"
"No Jon, Eurydice is with you." She became excited. "Oh no Jon, what happened? Where is she?"
I turned to go. "I don’t have time to explain."
I was already down the hall before Clio caught up to me and stopped me. "Jon, what have you done?"
"I’ll find her," I said, trying to hurry past Clio because I knew my ten minutes were up.
"Orpheus already paid the merchants," Clio wailed. "If they leave with out her, we’re not going to have any money left to send Eurydice anywhere else."
She was becoming quite excited so I grabbed her firmly by the shoulders to calm her down. "Look, I’ll take care of it." With that I moved past her and continued quickly on my way.


When I made I back to my dormitory, I was out of breath and exhausted from all the running. I had also taken twenty minutes instead of ten. The merchant was not too pleased, and greeted me with a harsh air and a gruff voice. "Did you find her?"
"No," I gasped out.
He took his hat, which he had been spinning around on his fingers while he was waiting for me, and placed it back on his head. He gave a casual shrug of his shoulders. "Too bad mate."
I put out a hand to stop him, although I did not feel like I had the strength in me to get into an argument. "Wait. I need more time."
He looked at me like I had gone mad. "Maybe I didn’t make myself clear earlier. We can’t afford to get a whole day behind schedule for this girl of yours."
I cut him off, not wishing to hear him repeat himself. "What ever Orpheus is paying, I"ll match it if you just wait a while longer." I didn’t know what Orpheus had paid, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to match it. I had very little money of my own. Most of my funds came from home, and now that I was cut off from that, I ate all my meals at the University and lived off the charity of the Duke. Nonetheless, I was willing to say whatever I needed to say to get myself more time, and I would deal with the consequences later.
The merchant paused. "Well, that’s not a bad offer son, not a bad offer at all. Yes, maybe we can come to an understanding." He took his hat off again, and returned to twirling it. "Of course I’m not authorized to make such a decision. I’m just the errand boy, you see."
"Who do I talk to?"
"The head of our expedition is the one who makes those sort of calls. He’s supposed to be downtown all morning, buying all the last minute provisions and such. Although it’s not really morning any more, is it? Maybe he’s headed back by now."
"So where is he?"
"Well, try down town, Main Street, near the business district. If he’s still there, you’ll find him. He’s not an easy man to miss, and I’ll give you a description of him. If he’s not there…well if he’s not there, he’s not there. That’s the best I can do. Oh, now don’t look at me that way young man. We’re not as bad as you think." He leaned close to me, seeming eager to prove himself. "I mean, how many people do you know who would just take this girl, no questions asked, and bring her to safety? And at the price we do it for? Why, it’s practically like we’re running a charity."
"Yeah, you guys are saints," I said dryly. "Why don’t you give me that description."


Armed with a physical description of the expedition leader, as well as several empty promises I planned to make once I found him, I sped off on my bike. I knew what the fastest route downtown was, but unfortunately there was the slight manner of barricades blocking the road, so I took a detour. I was greatly surprised, though, to find out that even though I took care to avoid the barricades, there were Strates wherever I went. Sometimes there were just a couple of them on the street corner. Sometimes there was a whole troop of them marching down the street. They were out in full force, patrolling everything and making sure no trouble occurred. Every Strate in the city must be on duty today. I wondered, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, what Old Flash had planned.
I got to Main Street as quickly as I could, and sped right to the business district. Locking my bike up, I ran from one store to another, reaching everywhere for a man who fitted the description. I found nothing.
I was doing a second check of the stores when I collided with a man walking down the sidewalk. In my haste I must not have noticed him. The man fell over, even though I had bumped into him rather lightly. I extended my hand to help him up from the ground. As I helped him up, I realized the man I had knocked over was Timothy, my father’s old friend.
He didn’t recognize me. Nor should he, I suppose. I was seven years younger when we had last meet, and I had grown a lot more in that time then he had. He brushed himself off and swore at me for not watching where I was going. "Hello Timothy," I said.
He leaned in close and peered at me. "You seem to have me at a disadvantage, stranger." His breath reeked of alcohol, and his words were slurred. It wasn’t even noon yet and he was drunk. "You know me, but I don’t remember seeing you before." He laughed, and added a last part, that was spoken softer so I think it might have been more for his benefit then for mine. "Of course that doesn’t mean I haven’t seen you before. I don’t remember a lot of things."
"I’m Paul’s son."
His eyes lit up. "Oh, yes I remember you now. You were the brat." I let that comment go. After all, chances were I was a bit of a brat in my younger days. "My, how you’ve grown. The last time I saw you, you were this high." Timothy held his hand level to his waste to demonstrate. I was much taller than that at fourteen, but as Timothy couldn’t keep his hand steady, I suppose it wasn’t supposed to be an accurate measurement anyway. "So what are you doing down here? Shouldn’t you be in the library studying? Or up on the barricades with the rest of the Unversity students?" There was a joking tone in his voice which I didn’t think was appropriate, and I gave him a hard glare, but he didn’t seem to notice. "I’m very impressed with the bravery of the students. What a noble way to die." His courteous words were undermined by his mocking tone, and since these were my friends he was talking about, I felt myself under no obligation to continue listening, and I pushed past him. He, however, pursued me with his annoying commentary. "Have you seen all the Strates in the street today? You must have. How could you have missed them? You know what that means, don’t you? There’ll be blood on the barricades tonight."
I thought at the time that Timothy was trying to harass me about the student barricades because I was also a student. Thinking back on the conversation, I have often wondered if perhaps he was just eager to find someone he could talk about current events with. He must have led a lonely life. At any rate, I turned on him in anger. "Leave me alone," I said. "I’m not on the barricades."
"Neither am I, Paul’s son, but it affects us all. You know, I was there when they fired into the workers. It’s only a couple blocks from here if you want to see it. The blood is still stained on the brick road."
"I don’t want to see it."
"But that’s what I’m talking about though. I was just minding my own business when the Strates shot them. And the workers weren’t hurting anybody either. They were just sitting on the ground, carrying sings, and the Strates fired. And then when the workers got up to run, the Strates fired again. Then after everyone had finally scattered, they walked up and down the streets, shooting at anyone who looked like they worked in a factory. I almost got shot myself just for being there, so don’t you talk to me about being on the barricades or not being on the barricades. It affects us all. [Awful, truly awful. Must find way to revise or will be forced to cut].
"Now what would bring a nice young University Student like you down here?" asked Timothy.
"Anyone can go downtown," I asserted.
Timothy nodded. "Maybe so, maybe so, but I don’t see many people like you down here." [Another problem-Jon’s only in business district. In order for this to work-need to redirect him to slums first. A shop keeper can point him in that direction while he’s looking for the merchant. Also, in order for Timothy parts to work, I’ll need to make him look less like an idiot.] It’s been years since I saw the last person who was dressed so nicely, and then today I see two. Are you kids having a convention down here or something?"
It occurred to me that the merchant leader might be a man who liked to dress in style. It was unlikely for Timothy to mistake him for a University student, but it was worth a try. "What did the other one look like?"
"Oh, let me see now. She had blonde hair, and was rather small and frail looking. Why? Does that sound like someone you know?"
It sure did. I all but grabbed Timothy frantically. "Which way did she go?"
"She went into a local tavern. Of course that was a couple hours ago. She might not still be there."
"Where? Where?" My head was spinning in multiple directions.
"Oh I think it’s called the bear tavern, or something like that. It’s only a block from her."
"Which way is it?"
"I can show you almost as quick as I can tell you," Timothy responded. "Come on." Timothy’s comment proved to be a bit of an exaggeration, for the walk took us a good five minutes. This was much to my annoyance, because Timothy’s leisurely pace was a good deal slower then I would have gone on my own, but even after repeated requests on my part, Timothy insisted on showing me rather than telling me. Once I realized how firm Timothy was in his resolve, we walked the rest of the way in silence. A troop of Strates went by on the street. Timothy watched them go by quietly, then gave me a knowing look. I didn’t respond, but I knew he was thinking about our earlier conversation.
At last we came to the tavern. "Want me to go in with you?" Timothy offered. "They can be rough characters in there."
"No, I think I can handle it," I answered. "But thanks." I shook Timothy’s hand, and went inside.


The tavern was loud and noisy. I suppose it was just like one expects a tavern to be in a lower class neighborhood. The whole place was covered in smoke from hundreds of different cigarettes. The air smelled of the smoke, mixed with a strong odor of sweat. My ears began to tear up, despite my best efforts to look like I fit in. As I walked a little further into the tavern, I began to notice how poor the quality of the furniture was. The tables and chairs were made of old rotting wood, and would likely fall apart the next time some oaf slammed his beer down too hard. Some of the chairs were already on three legs.
I made my way to the back of the tavern, but I could not figure out who was in charge. There didn’t appear to be a bar tender at the place. All the barrels were tapped, and the patrons just helped themselves at will.
I scanned the room for Eurydice, but she was nowhere in sight. After getting so excited at the prospect of finally finding her, this was a disappointment, but I still had a little hope. There were a couple of doors in the back. I tugged on one of them. It didn’t budge, but I thought perhaps it was just stuck in the doorway, so I pulled harder. Even though it was much too loud to hear the bolt rattling, I could feel the bolt hitting the doorframe, and I knew it was locked.
Someone on the other side must have noticed the door was trying to open, and the door was quickly unlocked and thrown open. A well-built man with fierce eyes and unkempt hair appeared in the doorway. "What do you want?" he said angrily.
He startled me, and I almost lost my will to speak. "I’m looking for a girl," was all I could say.
"She’s not here. Get out."
Instinctively I obeyed, taking a step out of the doorframe. "Get out of the tavern," the man commanded. "You don’t belong here."
I was ready to obey, but then I saw Eurydice in the room. The man still stood in the doorway with a glare on his face, unaware that Eurydice had walked into my line of vision. I pushed my way past him to get into the room. I moved quick enough so he couldn’t stop me, but he gave a shout of protest as I shoved him aside. Once in the room, I could see a table with three other men sitting on it, all smoking cigarettes. They all leapt to their feet as soon as they saw me, but I ignored them.
"Are you all right?" I asked her. She didn’t’ answer. "Come on, we’ve got to get out of here. You’re late. You’re going to miss your ride."
The man who had been in the doorway interjected himself between us. "She doesn’t want to go with you."
I was furious at the interference. "Yes she does."
"No she doesn’t. She’s one of us." I wasn’t sure how to respond to this. I clenched and unclenched my fists in anger. The three men who had been seated at the table were now slowly closing in on me, still smoking their cigarettes confidently. The man in front of me repeated his command sternly and through clenched teeth. "Get…out…now!"
I extended my hand past him and towards Eurydice, beckoning for her to grab it. She ignored it and looked away. The man, upset that I showed no signs of leaving, shoved me backwards. I took a step back, recovered my balance, and punched the man in the face. Before I knew what was happening the other three men had tackled me. The restrained me while the other, apparently their leader, rubbed his bruised jaw. "Put him on the table," ordered the leader.
They tried to lift me up and bring me towards the table. I struggled to free myself. I managed to get a leg free, and I made a wild kick into the face of the man closest to my foot. He jerked back briefly, and then I was again restrained. The more I struggled the tighter they held me, and yet I struggled all the same.
I was roughly thrown against the table. I managed to free my left arm, and there was a moment or two of commotion before they again restrained me. The leader leaned over me, and I could see a bright red spot on his jaw where I had hit him. I could tell by the look on his face that I was in trouble. "That was a mistake," he said. I looked over at Eurydice. She was in the corner watching the whole thing. My head was grabbed and I was forced to look back at the leader. "She’s not your concern."
"Let her go," I demanded.
"The leader gave me a cynical smile. "You don’t get it, do you? She’s not our prisoner. She’s one of us." He looked over at her. "Eurydice, do you want to leave?" The grip on my head was relaxed so that I could look over and see her reaction. She shook her head. "Do you want to stay?" She nodded. Of course that didn’t prove a thing. Naturally she would be submissive in his presence. He saw the skepticism in my face. "Still not convinced?" He reached into his pocket, and pulled out something. "Do you know what this is?" I couldn’t see the object since his hand obscured it, so I just stayed silent. "It’s Angelo’s wallet," he answered gleefully. He began pulling various things out to show me. "Look, see all these cards? They all have Angelo’s name on them. And just look at all this money." The sight of that thing, after all the trouble it had caused, enraged me. I strained to get free but to no avail. The leader laughed. "Looks like we got a feisty one here. Keep a firm grip on him. Don’t worry young man. You’re not going anywhere."
I tried to make sense of everything. Just because they had Angelo’s wallet didn’t mean Eurydice had given it to them. Perhaps the river had washed it ashore downstream, and they had simply found it and dried it out. Maybe they had seen Eurydice throw the thing away and then fished it out after she left. Perhaps the cards bearing Angelo’s name were just part of elaborate forger, and it wasn’t Angelo’s wallet. None of these explanations convinced me. I didn’t know what to do, so when the leader leaned in towards me, his leering face reveling in the victory, I spit at him.
He recoiled, and then wiped my spit from his face angrily. He left the room in a brisk manner, slamming the door behind him. I barely had time to take a breath before he was back, brandishing a huge knife. It looked like the kind of knife that I saw in old fairy tale books. It had a large shiny blade, which came to a sharp point, and had two razor sharp edges. He had a fierce look in his eyes as he held the thing, and I was horrified.
"Alright kid, we’re going to play a little game here." He came towards me. My muscles grew tense, and I felt the grips of my restrainers tighten in response. "Eurydice, come over here." Eurydice obediently approached, and the two of them were now standing over me. "Here’s how the game works." He was fondly holding the knife, twirling it in his hands with ease. "I’m going to take this knife, and I’m going to make little cuts all over your body. I might cut a few of your toes off," he made a swipe in the air next to my feet to demonstrate, "or your ears off, or maybe your nose, and a few of your fingers. Here’s the catch though: the second Eurydice tells me to stop, I put my knife away and you get to walk out of here with whatever appendages you have left." I didn’t know why he was doing this. Surely he knew Eurydice would object the moment that knife even got close to me. Wouldn’t she?
"Take off his shoes," the man directed Eurydice. She obeyed silently. "And his socks as well." Again, Eurydice quietly complied. The man ran the blade along the tender bottoms of my feet. The touch was light enough so that he did not pierce my skin, but I could feel the razor sharp edges of the instrument. He ran the blade up and down a couple times, seeming to delight in prolonging the anticipation. "I’ll tell you what kid," he said, "we’ll start out with real low stakes at first. I’ll just take off a couple of your baby toes. You don’t need those for anything right? Then we’ll gradually move up to more important things, like your fingers. That is, if Eurydice lets us get that far." He looked over at Eurydice, and smiled as he said the last part, but she didn’t react.
The knife hovered by my toes. He touched my toes lightly with the blade, again not hard enough to cut, but I winced each time he playfully brought my skin into contact with the metal. "Eurydice, do you have something you want to tell me before we begin?" he asked. She didn’t say a word. I tried to flash her eyes pleading for help, but she wasn’t even looking at me. Why was she prolonging this? Why didn’t she say something? Was this man really crazy enough to cut me up? Maybe she knew he wouldn’t really do it. Maybe they were both together in some sort of sick joke. "Say good-bye to your little toe kid." He brought the knife down in a sweeping motion. I closed my eyes and grimaced. Then there was a sound like loud fire crackers, coming from outside. I opened my eyes again to find that the four men had temporarily forgotten about me, and were looking around the room in an effort to figure out what had happened.
"What was that?"
"That sounded like gunfire."
"Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s probably just the Strates shooting those kids on the barricades. It doesn’t concern us."
"But it sounded so close."
"Yes, there are no barricades down here."
"Maybe they’re shooting at the workers again."
"Do you think so?"
"Maybe they’re just shooting at everybody again. Like they did last time."
"You mean when they fired on the workers?"
"They almost shot the whole town. My brother got shot clean through the arm just for being outside."
"Damn."
"Shhh! There it is again."
"It sounds further away this time."
"They probably stormed the barricades earlier today. Now they’re chasing these kids all over town."
"Let’s go out and have a look."
"In a second. I never leave a job unfinished."
They turned back to me again. During this whole time they had retained their hold on me, preventing me from escaping while they were distracted. The leader still had his knife, although during the distraction he had allowed it to simply hang loosely from his hand. He gripped it firmly now, and held it upright again. "Now, where were we," he said. I suspect it was just a rhetorical device, because he quickly followed with, "ah yes, I remember now. Little toe gets lopped off foot. Just a small start to warm up. Are you ready kid?" I didn’t answer, but I prepared my self again, closing my eyes and setting my teeth. I felt the knife cutting my flesh, and then I lost consciousness.