THE TRAVERSING SERIES
Ecaterina Scarlat
The day Amir saw her in the hostage room she nearly took his breath away. He was sitting on the vestibule of the Arena on his stool totally unhappy with his post inside the stuffy room. He was equipped with his detail uniform that included two AK-47's on each hip. He was adjusting his ammunition belt when he started scanning the hostage room. Then he saw her. Almost like he already knew her. The word stunning came to mind, and there was something about her that electrified him, and he just couldn't take his eyes off of her. She had dark red hair and it glistened even in the barely there artificial light. She seemed to be comforting her friend on the floor, cradling her and brushing her friend's hair with her fingers. All of a sudden her eyes darted up and she caught him gazing at her, and his heart skipped a beat. He was having feelings he never experienced before. Like he couldn't catch his breath; it was terrifying and quintessential all at the same time. He made himself turn around to stare outside, and he tried to occupy his mind with the soldiers running around, wondering what they were talking about and if he would even really care.
"Don't go," he says to me, and gently pulls me into the vestibule with him. I look around, afraid that I will be seen, but he is not worried and never takes his eyes off of me.“I do not feel safe out here,” I say to him looking around. I knew that the other guards did not care about us girls at all. I felt very vulnerable, so I start to head back into the room, but Amir does not let go of my hand. He leads me into the darkness and pulls me to him. I stare into his eyes, afraid of what I was feeling, what I was thinking. I take his other hand in my hand and take a deep breath and quickly close my eyes. Did I trust my emotions now? Was I just being susceptible to my captor? I look up and see such emotion in his eyes. It appears he is conflicted as well.“ I must go back,” I whisper, motioning over to the room. He let go of one of my hands and gently touched my face, letting his thumb rub slowly across my lips. Without hesitation, he drew me to him, and I went willingly. It was if I was being whisked off to another place and time, where only this moment existed. I felt myself almost explode when his lips touched mine.
Sepa suddenly jolted awake and woke up thinking it was morning, but it was in the middle of the night. She had fallen asleep on the couch. She limps over to the window and again looks outside, nervous and always thinking that someone was watching her. The streets were empty, but she did see a few Supervisors patrolling, shooting at a random dog or cat. There was no way she would let Warrior outside without her. She closed the curtain and went back in the chair. She had sweat dripping down her face, but she suddenly felt cold. Warrior was lapping her face and she put her down on the floor, questioning her decision to stay at the house. If she wanted to leave, where would she go? She didn't know this town or even what it is called, or even how much of it was destroyed. Plus, she was 8 years old. And injured. She couldn't even move her infected foot, even nudging it slightly on the comforter made sharp waves of pain go up her leg. She didn't know what day it was, or how long she had been laying there. She was thirsty and hungry, but she didn't move. She was tired. Just so tired. She prayed to her mother that Kokia would find her. She didn't want to die alone.