The Room In Which Bad Things Happened 2

I suppose you could say that I was never quite graceful in the darkness. I trip over the books piled in the room before Luna grabs me by the arm and yanks me forward.

"Shhh River!" She whispers "You'll wake everyone." I look back through the hatch there's no one much left. Even Lilyan's gone.

"Don't you think it's too late for this?" I ask. "No, and besides, this is important." Luna says and begins shuffling around in a box before pulling out a match and a bowl.

"Do you have candles?" I ask. "Of course I have candles!" She snaps in a hushed voice "What idiot would I be if I didn't!" She pulls out three wax candles and sets them around the bowl.

"And the flowers?" Luna asks, more patient this time. "Here," I hand her five pink flowers. "Ok let's see." Luna says, delicately shifting through the flowers "Lilyan, Jay, Theo, Jack, and Violet." It's amazing how she remembers all their names, but I never asked.

She sighs as she pours the water in the bowl and sets the flowers down gently.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" I ask her. "Of course...we can't hold on forever." Luna mumbls and grabs one of the candles. One by one she sets the flowers aflame until all that left in the bowl is a mushy dirt like substance.

"Do you feel better?" I ask. "I guess." Luna sighs as she pours the substance into a flower pot she had placed before hand. "Will you hand me the seed River?" She asks. I reach into my pocket and pull out a small white seed. I hand it to her and she buries it in the pot.

You may not realize what we were doing, so let me sum it up for you. The flowers on the water mean a loved one put to rest. The burning of the flowers symbolize finally letting go. The planting something new from old life represents being reborn.

Luna stared out the window at the rolling hills for a moment before turning and crawling down the hatch. An attic might seem like an odd place to have a ceremony but Luna insisted the closer we are to the sky the better and I refused to go on the roof.

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I cover my ears as the pots bang against each other. "Wake up!" Ms.Kai calls "C'mon we got a long day ahead of us!" I sigh, I've been up for about an hour, couldn't sleep anyways.

This is marginally better than the Asylum but even so...it's still horrible. Ms.Kai is slightly better than Mara but twice as idiotic.

She makes us do stupid tasks like clean the ceiling or wash the wall.

"Hey!" Ms.Kai barks at a girl cleaning the ceiling "Leverage Sassy! We aren't running some podunk in Alabama we're cleaning this godforsaken building!" The girl rolls her eyes and sticks her tongue out at Ms.Kai while her back is turned.

I've been forced to wash the wall. I sort of feel sorry for this poor building. The walls are dewy and water stained. The ceilings are peeling and cracking. The floors have huge holes in them in which I've seen more than one person fall through. The furniture is dusty old and falling apart. It might just sound like I'm complaining but any safety expert would say these are legitimate problems.

Of course there are no safety experts around so it doesn't matter, law or something on this island. Stupid really, that this unmarked island has its own laws.

If no one sees it, it never happened is the number one rule here so of course the streets are full of pickpockets. So, there are no trials around here just the fact that someone reported them means that they were caught. This is only to ensure the government doesn't cancel the police force. As far as the police care, they have never not caught a criminal because it's not against the law to cheat, lie, steal, or speed, it's only against the law if you get caught and in which case you'd already be in custody of police men.

In other words, say someone robs a bank. The police come and see the crime in action. They can only ensure legal action if that person gets caught, if not they do not chase them. That's why there are two types of criminals on this island. Groups with disposable members and a single person who controls the entire group, and skilled criminals who work alone, less people to hold them back.

Besides, the laws on this island, are to dumb for me to care about.

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"River wake up!" She says and shakes me. "Been up." I say and get up "What is it?" Luna stands there with a wide smile on her face a pretty smile. Her hair had grown back and her eyes have somewhat of a spark in them again.

"I'm gonna go and I want you to go with me." Luna says. "As in go shopping, or as in go go?" I ask. "As in leave forever." She chirps. "What time is it?" I mumble. "Ten maybe midnight." Luna says, I think it over. "Fine I'll go with you, but only because I don't want to deal with Ms.Kai in the morning and living on the streets is marginally better than living in an orphanage." I say.

Luna jumps up and down, her smile widening. "Careful, you'll fall through the floor." I say. Luna nods and grabs my sleeve.

She pulls me through the orphanage and stops before we reach the front door. I know why too. Ms.Kai's room is right next to the front door and she is known for staying up late and sleeping light.

"River," Luna whispers in my ear "I've been thinking and, let's just run for it. I know she'll wake up, but I doubt we'll get caught." I stop. "Fine I trust you." I sigh.

Luna tightens her grip on my sleeve before rushing forward, through the door, past the field, and into the trees. I look back and see Ms.Kai standing in the doorway swearing her head off.

Luna pulls me into a field laughing. We watch as the sun rises on the horizon. That's the funny thing about light it reveals things. What this light reveals is ominous shadows building on the horizon...