The Damaged

The Savior

My vision came back and I was on the shore coughing up water.  I couldn't believe it.  I was alive.  I was alive!  But how?  I sat up and looked around.  I was in a dimly lit room on the floor, but I wasn't cold.  No sunlight could reach me and it was too dark to see the walls on any side of me.  

I thought I saw a figure in one of the corners, and it was coming closer.  I scrambled to my feet.  This was the Picking; anything could happen.  Any of the picked could be killed at any second.  Maybe this was where you fell too to be sacrificed.  Maybe they weren't lying, and this was the angry Keeper I had tried to kill.  Maybe it was trying to kill me.

It got closer so I could see it's face, and it didn't look like any murals I've seen of Keepers.  It looked... like a he.

I remembered stories of the Savior, who watched all challenges and was allowed to save one person if they were supposed to die.  I couldn't imagine being that one person.  I wasn't ugly but I sure wasn't pretty, and my face wasn't that memorable or noticeable at all. This year's Savior looked like a boy, so I couldn't imagine what interest he had in me.

When I saw him closer up in the light I gasped.   I'd expected some forty year old guy that lived an a hole in order to save young lives.  This... was...unexpected.

He was a young boy, maybe 17 or 18, but he could have passed for 15.  I only knew he was older because of his haircut.  He had dirty blonde hair, like it was meant to be brown but had seen too much sun and been bleached.  He was tall and skinny, but not scrawny.  He wasn't fit either though.  I didn't know what to make of him.

"Hello?"  I asked surely as  I  approached him cautiously.  He seemed to smile at me.  It was slightly crooked and it scared me with its tinge of sinister activity behind it.

"Hi there sweetheart.  What's you're name?"  His voice slithered around my head, penetrating the most secret parts of my brain and rattling down my spine like a snake made of ice.  I tried to sound brave as I stood up, but it was hard being so much smaller than him.

"None of your business.  And don't call me sweetheart." I guess I sounded more confident than I felt, because he backed off with his hands up in surrender.

"All right, sugar plumb."  That was even worse.  "I can see you're not as delicate as you look."  He wasn't scary anymore, just really annoying.

"What is this place and how do I get out?"  I wanted to sound aggressive but I let my guard down and it came out more like a plea.  I swallowed hard and hoped he didn't notice.

"Ah you see, there's the problem.  You have to get through me, and the only way to do that, is to make me let my guard down."  I thought he meant a personal bubble of toughness, until he backed a little ways toward the wall and hit the air with his fist, sending a rattling shock waves of electric blue ripples revealing for a second the force field barrier around us.

The energy pulsed through and around my, making my head pound along with the quick beating of my heart.  I was stuck, and my only way out of here was this son of a-

"As you can see, you're trapped."  He laughed a menacingly mechanical laugh that crawled up my spine and settled at the base of my neck, rattling up into my brain.  I shivered but took a step closer to him, straightening up as much as I could and using my toes for extra height.  He still towered over me.

"I'm not afraid."  That was probably the most pathetic thing I could have said.  I had heard that dogs could smell fear, and I was pretty sure this guy was half Rottweiler.  He took a few steps closer so his face was inches from mine.

"Yes. You. Are."  He took a minuscule step towards me with each word, building the panic in my chest until it turned into a scream.  He jumped back at the sudden, shrill noise, momentarily stunned, and I saw the boards start to waver.  I swallowed as he laughed again, brushing himself off like my scream was a bucket of sand I had dumped on him and he was trying to wipe away the rest.

I could feel goosebumps trickling in a wave from the base of my neck and down my arms, then through my legs making then unsteady.

"Listen sweetheart, I saved you. I. Saved. YOU.  You're mine until you get out yourself.  They think you're dead. No one's coming to save you."  The truth of his words hit me like a freezing anvil to the heart.  He was right; no one was looking for me.  For once, I had to do something all by myself.  The realization of my freedom gave me a burst of adrenaline.

I laughed at him, "Good!  They can think I'm dead.  Easier to disappear that way."  I thought of all the lies that had been drilled into my head since I was a baby.  How desperately I had wanted to get away, but how it only seemed like a daydream.  I had the chance now.  I could leave forever if I wanted to.

The guy's cockiness faded, and so did his uncomfortable smile.  "You don't agree with them?  I mean, everything they've told you, you don't believe it?"  His voice was softer somehow, like he could relate. I wondered what exactly had pushed him into this hole in the first place, and why he chose to stay.

I shook my head, and he let his guard down, both of them.  His face softened, making a scar on his forehead more visible.  It ran from the top center by his hairline down to his left eyebrow.  He sighed, "You're probably going to leave now."  He stepped aside to let me pass, revealing a thin, poorly lit staircase going up.

I moved swiftly past him, thinking he would stop me and grab me.  He didn't.  I was so close, so close to freedom, and I was leaving this innocent boy here.  My foot was on the first step when I decided to look back.  His eyes were full of longing, envy, and pain.  Everything I was afraid of.  Could I really force this on him?

I swallowed hard, "Do you, uh, want to come?"  How do you ask a boy you just met to run away with you?

His eyes lit up and he smiled at me.  "You sure?"  I nodded, though I'm not sure why.  He didn't hesitate as he followed me up the tight winding staircase.