Eyera (The Eyera Series Book 1) Read online

  “I risk anything for you,” she says.

  I don’t know what Cyren is going to say that I let them tag along, he is going to be mad. Hopefully, he’ll understands.

  three days to the escape.

  I lay in my bed smelling bad, and with food stuck on to my clothes. I feel dirty and disgusting. A guard walks in with a tray in his hand, and he throws it.

  “Dr Liza said to eat,” he says.

  The guard sniffs and his face creases.

  “You stink. Once you’ve finished eating, go to level eight and shower, and change your clothes,” he says covering his nose.

  Thanks …

  I’m glad I can shower, I haven’t showered in a while, and I hate that. I pick up the note from the tray and read it ‘Acelyn eat. I made sure it’s fine — Dr Liza.’ I smell the food and for once it smells nice. I stir the oats with jam in the middle taking a bite, surprisingly it tastes good. I finish the sweet oats in seconds and wash it down with water. I walk by the guard and he covers his nose, and mutters. I don’t smell that bad, do I? I take a quick sniff and nearly throw up, I do stink, really bad. I go into the elevator and press level eight, the elevator goes up but stops at level five. A boy walks in and his eyes widen and cheeks puff, he looks at me and stands far away. I stand awkwardly wanting the elevator to hurry up. He brings his hand to his nose.

  “I uh, have an itchy nose,” he says, trying to avoid my stench. The elevator finally stops at my level and I run out not looking back. I am so embarrassed, he’s going to remember me by the girl that stinks. The steam blasts onto me and I tug at my shirt feeling hot, the room is large with silver benches and mirrors, clothes hang on hooks and shoes are tucked underneath the benches. I walk along the white tiled floor, and girls stare making me uncomfortable, they notice my ribbon and some whisper to each other. A female guard points to a direction, and I follow. I walk to a bench with a towel hanging and essentials in a small bucket. I take off my boots and socks putting them underneath the bench.

  I walk up to a guard, and she orders me to turn around and touches my neck for the label. I peer around the corner to see teenagers behind a counter with piles of uniform and sorting out the dirty clothes. The guard gives me the fresh set.

  “Go through,”

  I clutch my clothes and roam across the wet tiles. I go through a set of doors to see two white archways with guards either side. Some girls come out with their hair wet and holding onto their clothes tightly, there isn’t much chatter.

  “The younger girls to the left, and you older girls to the right,” the guard says letting me proceed to the right.

  Two girls wait in line, at least it’s not long. I just want to shower and leave quickly. Six showers fitted inside a cubicle, nice knowing privacy exists. A large drain is centred, the walls are tiled white with black tiles in the middle. I stand agitated due to the heat, sweat and rubbish mixes in and I know a few girls are covering their noses. Three girls leave the showers covered in bruises and cuts. I walk to the shower closing the door, and I’m surprised how roomy it is. I hang my clean clothes and ribbon on the hook and remove my smelly clothes. I twist the tap and water covers my body. I get soap from the bucket cleaning underneath my fingernails and scrubbing my body thoroughly. I rest my head on the wall for five minutes enjoying the warm water. I finish up dabbing myself with the towel and changing into the fresh clothes. I tie my ribbon back on my leg, I notice it’s been getting a lot of attention lately. I put the essentials back in the bucket and towel dry my hair, so it’s not dripping. The line is much longer now, I’m glad I don’t have to wait. I walk to the locker pulling out clean socks and putting on my boots. I put the bucket back on the hook, but a girl stops me from doing so.

  “You’re supposed to take it to the counter, and put your towel in the basket,” she says.

  “Oh, thanks,” I say.

  “They make sure there are clean towels and essentials,” she says roughly drying her black beaded hair.

  “Makes sense,” I respond.

  “I’m Sienna, it’s nice to meet you,”

  “Acelyn, and you too,” I say.

  “I know who you are. I hope we see each other sometime soon,” she says putting on a T-shirt.

  I wonder how she knows me. I go to the counter watching people rush behind the glass window to get the right size clothes. I watch a girl in front putting the bucket into a silver door and closing it up, I open the door to see the bucket is gone and I do the same thing too. I walk down seeing towels in a basket and I leave mine there, and I walk through the doors down the stairs to my level. I feel much better, no more smelling like the rubbish bin and no more stares. I go to the cafeteria remembering my primary goal for today, getting the guard to trust me enough to drink coffee. I pass the girl with sewn lips, she offers a tray, but I refuse. I walk to Eethia and her face curls in disgust.

  “The guard asked for coffee please,” I say, waiting for her to grunt.

  She looks at me suspiciously and smacks her lips, but makes the order anyway, to my surprise.

  Eethia gives me the piping hot silver cup, and I carry it carefully to Cyren, Raiya, Parrish and Orin. I hear Raiya worrying about the guard that stays up all night. Cyren assures her that it’s under control.

  “The guard will be fine Raiya,” I say, but she doesn’t believe a word I say.

  “And how do you know huh? What you’re going to kill him too?” she digs harshly.

  I bite my gum and brush off her comment.

  “No, but he’ll be dead to the world,” I say, air quoting the word dead. They are curious and keen to know what I got up my sleeve, I pull out the pills discreetly and Cyren smirks.

  “Put him ta sleep, genius,” he winks.

  “I got to get him to trust me first,” I say.

  Orin mouths something to Cyren and they both chuckle. I leave seeing Haston walking in grabbing a tray and he spots me.

  “Hey,” he says.

  In the corner of my eyes, I feel a pair of eyes looking at us cautiously, Cyren.

  “The boy knows how to be polite,” I say.

  “Look, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t express my thanks,” Haston says much friendlier this time.

  “Did I have a choice?” I say.

  “Ah I know, and as I said I’m sorry. I was a jerk. I just want Enkara to be safe,” he says. I get that he would do anything for her, I do anything to keep Hadrian safe.

  “It’s okay,”

  “Thank you, Acelyn, I mean it,” he says touching my shoulders.

  Cyren’s fist clenches in anger and focusses on our conversation. I shrug and walk back, not knowing what his problem is. The guard leans against the wall looking exhausted, he stands up tall and puffs his chest to make him look bigger and dominant. He snarls putting his hand on his club.

  “I came to give you coffee,” I say defensively.

  He removes his hand and cocks his head.

  “What you playing at, kid?” he says.

  “Nothing, I thought, maybe you needed something to help you stay awake at night, Eethia made it,” I say sincerely. He takes the coffee and puts on a slow smile which creeps the hell out of me.

  “Hmm,” he grunts.

  I peep over my shoulders to see him drinking, results. I hear rapid footsteps, a storming Cyren twitching and teeth grinding, he stops in front of me.

  “Can we talk?”

  But before I can answer he cuts me off and drags me in my cell.

  “I heard two people joining us, do ya know anything about that?” he says, very, very angry.

  I open my mouth to speak, but he stops me again.

  “Ya had the nerve ta invite them,” he spits.

  “It isn’t like that,” I say.

  “Please enlighten me,” Cyren says.

  “I never told them a thing. they knew because of Raiya and Parrish,” I say which makes him scoff.

  “Ya, whatever,” he says bluntly.

  He is beginning to piss me off.

/>   “He overheard, if you want to point fingers then turn around, and take it out on them,” I say annoyed.

  “But ya still invited them,”

  “Yes! Because I couldn’t say no,” I shout.

  “I am in no mood for arguing, and you’re making me want to punch you, so leave Cyren because you are pissing me off.”

  Cyren tuts and stomps off. Good. I stomp to my bed, does Cyren honestly think I put us in jeopardy? Throw the plan to anyone risking it all. I pinch my nose needing to cool myself down, and release this anger I’m holding. I take a sharp object I found the other day and begin to sketch on the walls, drawing helps me release anger. I brighten up this soul sucking cell, putting pressure carving till my hands ache; I blow over the sketches to remove the peels. I carve a stag that stands next to a worn out tree, with a bird sitting on the branch, and three more birds flying to sit on the branch. I trace it and it brings memories to my sixth birthday, a day that made my birthday more special that it’s supposed to be.

  I remember mother stayed up all night baking a cake, making decorations and preparing food with whatever we had. She made sure that I had the best birthday; it didn’t matter if we couldn’t afford lots of things, but there was always a way for my mother. Father came back from the city tired, he sat next to me when I was colouring.

  “Happy birthday my little fighter,” he whispered and I giggled at that title.

  “I got you something.”

  He placed a small white box with a yellow ribbon wrapped perfectly. I opened it eagerly, and eyes lit when I took out the beautifully crafted stag. The stag had four little birds on its back; each bird had unique markings.

  “These birdies represent our family,” Father said.

  I was confused to why there were four as there was only Father, Mother and me.

  “There is three of us Daddy, you put four birds, you are silly,” I giggled.

  Father signalled Mother to sit with us; she sat on the chair rubbing her stomach; I knew she was getting big, but at that age I thought she was getting fat, eating all our food.

  “You see Acelyn, soon there be four of us,” Mother hummed.

  Father pointed at each bird telling me who they were.

  “This is me, your mother, that one is you and see this little one, this will be your brother or sister,”

  My eyes came out of their sockets when I heard that.

  “I’m getting a brother!” I squealed.

  Mother said it might be a sister, and we will find out soon, but I wanted a brother more than anything. Every day went by I crossed my fingers wishing for it to be a boy. I used to speak to my mother’s stomach.

  “I can’t wait to meet you Baby H.”

  “Baby H?” Mother knitted her eyebrows.

  “Yes Mama, Baby Hayden because that can be a boy or a girl’s name.” I chimed.

  I fell in love with the name Hayden. When the day came, and I found out Baby H was a boy, I was over the moon. After school I ran straight home, opened the door to see mother sitting on the chair with a blanket. I moseyed to my baby brother, he smiled at me, the most precious thing.

  “Meet Hadrian,” Father said proudly.

  “Hadrian,” I whispered.

  I fell in love with Hadrian; the best thing that has ever happened. I loved and cherished him and wanted to teach him everything I know. Watching Hadrian grow, spreading his kindness and love, sharing it with everyone. Hadrian never saw the cruelness of Eyera; he didn’t know people were capable of doing bad things. He loved and only knew love.

  A sound of someone clearing their throat snaps me from my thoughts. I look to see Cyren leaning on the door.

  “I shouldn’t have jumped on ya like that,” he says.

  I sigh.

  “No, you shouldn’t.”

  Cyren rubs the back of his neck and looks down ashamedly.

  “I’m sorry, Acey, I should have known ya wouldn’t, ya smart,” he says.

  “I forgive you,” I say.

  Cyren sits on my bed clasping his hands.

  “Cyren, what do we do about the rest of these people?” I ask.

  He kicks the floor.

  “We have ta get out first, that’s our primary goal. Then maybe we come back,” he says.

  “How are we supposed to do that? I feel guilty leaving people in here,” I say.

  “Then I guess we leave them, not much we can do,” he says.

  If we escape and come back to get people out, Eyera will make sure we never see daylight again, coming back a second time is suicide.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispers.

  He leaves me to my thoughts. I want everyone out of here but it will draw attention, and we can’t risk that, as selfish that may sound, I have to do this, for Hadrian.

  two days to the escape.

  I pat my fingers on the board looking at the schedule I have for today, scrub floors, clean rooms on level ten, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. I hate it. I wanted Cyren to be my partner, but instead, I’m assigned with Raiya, I do like her, I think she is fierce and strong headed and doesn’t care what comes out of her mouth. She’s straightforward and tells you how it is.

  Raiya enters with her arms folded and makes a loud, dramatic sigh. We continue to stare, and she is the first to break the uncomfortable silence.

  “Are you going to stare at me all day?”

  I clear my throat.

  “Er … no,”

  “Move then,” she says walking out.

  I bite my lip and quickly catch up to with her, we walk down the corridor but she walks faster making me jog. I press the button for the elevator and Raiya stares at me like I did something wrong.

  “What are you doing?” she snaps.

  “Taking the elevator,” I say more like a question.

  “We are taking the stairs, don’t be lazy,” she snaps again walking away though the double doors.

  Okay, this is going to be so much fun.

  Raiya is half way up to level ten, I climb and feeling like it’s endless. Eventually, I get to level ten, it’s different from the other floors I’ve seen, no children screaming, no blood and no workers. The walls are a lovely shade of blue, and the floors are a dirty white. I look into every room, silver desks with pencils neatly lined, files on top of files and other office materials. It’s average looking, nothing fancy.

  “What do Eyera use this level for?” I ask.

  “The guards come here to report files on us, everything they need to know about you is all here,” she answers, taking a seat on a chair spinning it around, she kicks up her legs on the desk. I pick up rubbish putting them in a plastic bag; I clean the floors while Raiya plays around with the files, and chewing on a pen. These people are not very good at helping. Raiya is complicated to talk too, when I’m with Cyren, it’s comfortable and natural. Raiya leans forward and looks at me weirdly.

  “What is up with you and Cyren?” she says.

  I rinse the mop and clean the floor.

  “What do you mean?” I say.

  “Oh come on, I see the way he looks at you, something is going on.” she says. This makes me laugh, I regret it soon as possible as her face turns sour.

  “He’s not a knight in shining armour,” she says.

  “Okay … but nothing is going on,” I say. Not following what she is getting at.

  It goes back to an uncomfortable silence. I carry on with the work and my ears prickle as I hear people talking.

  “So, I—” I stop trying to come up with something to say, but my mind is blank.

  “I mean—”

  Raiya cuts me off.

  “Don’t do that, don’t give me small talk it’s pathetic,”

  “Okay, how did you end up here?” I question.

  “And there it is,” she says stopping the chair from spinning and kicking over the pots of pens.

  “My attitude,” she shrugs.

  “Your attitude?” I say.

  “That is what I said, isn’t it. Gosh, a
re you deaf?” she says.

  “If you can’t tell I don’t like being told what to do, and I’m not good at following the rules,”

  “Figures,” I mutter.

  Raiya looks through the drawers pulling out files and kicks back reading it; she flips through pages and grumbles ‘boring, boring, you’re ugly, cute, eurgh why are you crying’ she puts those files down and gets another doing the same.

  “Raiya,” I say.

  “What? Can’t you see I’m busy,” she says.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “You already did,” she says.

  I roll my eyes, brushing off her sarcastic comments.

  “Why doesn’t Orin talk?” I say rinsing the mop.

  “What makes you think he doesn’t talk?” she says.

  “I’ve never heard him, only hear laughter.”

  She closes the file and props her elbows on the desk.

  “Orin is mute, Eyera did that, the closet thing you’ll hear is laughter,” she says.

  “Oh,” I say sadly.

  I didn’t know that was the reason; Orin is sweet. Raiya claps her hands.

  “Alright enough with the depressing stories, I clean the offices, and you clean the corridor floors.” she orders.

  Giving me no choice. I close the door to see a name written in black letters on a gold plaque Officer Slevic. The name sends an uneasy shiver. I get on my hands and knees and scrub the floors. A boy and girl walk by, I have no interest in looking up, but something captures my attention. The boy is wearing a ribbon wrapped around his right leg mirroring mine. Why is he wearing it? The boy smiles and whispers into the girl’s ear, I can’t hear, but he seemed excited.

  “Uh I-I, err … hi, Ace- Acelyn,” he stutters tremendously turning beet red.

  “Hey,” I say with a small smile.

  “I wanted to say that I think you are a badass for what you did, you stood up against Eyera,” he says enthusiastically. I don’t know how to respond, so I laugh, awkwardly. I wonder how he knows. Come to think of it, I’ve been getting a lot of people staring and whispering. The boy is about to speak again but a sharp voice booms startling all of us.