I couldn't believe it.

I went out to get some air because those rooms were so pathetically tiny and I hadn't been able to sleep.

Actually; I was leaving.

I didn't know why I'd agreed to come here in the first place. The Karnoi were disgusting, hideous beasts, and here I was, in a whole society infested with them.

But just as I made it to the exit; I saw them.

They were lying on the ground like idiots and as I began to listen to their conversation,  I realised that Jake was telling her things... things he'd never dared to tell me.

Just as I thought it couldn't get any worse; he kissed her.

My jaw dropped.

I bolted back to the huts without thinking, because anything was better than witnessing that.

I found myself breathing harder than I should have.

Oh God.

Was I having a heart attack?

I checked my pulse and it seemed a little off but not life-threatening.

When I felt a tear run down my cheek; I realised that I was in shock.

Was that even possible?

I hadn't cried since... since I'd woken up. And that was only to get them to kill me.

Why would I allow myself to cry over something so trivial?

I wiped the tears away angrily and kicked the tree. Just as I was about to kick someone's hut I heard a voice.

I couldn't make out what was being said, but I felt somewhat drawn to it.

I took a step closer to the hut and immediately identified the speaker as Malvin.

I considered leaving when I realised it was him but instead I leaned my head up against it so that I could hear his words.

As they grew up, the twins developed a strong bond...

At first nobody understood why she had screamed, but when her brother came back with a broken arm....

They all knew that she had felt it too.

My eyes widened.

And I kicked the door down so fast, Malvin screamed and fell off his bed.

"How do you know that story?!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

When he didn't reply, I stomped  up to Malvin and grabbed him by the shirt.

"Who told it to you?"

"What story?" He fumbled around pathetically.

"The story about the twins!" I yelled.

A light suddenly clicked in the idiot's brain and his face turned serious.

"You mean the story about you?"

I couldn't respond. "I... I..."

No words were coming out and my thoughts weren't processing.

Malvin effortlessly moved out of my grasp and casually dusted himself off.

He had a smartass look on his face that would have made me punch him. I would have if I could think straight.

"My mother told me that story every night before bed until I escaped for the first time," he explained. "When you popped up it didn't take me long to figure out who you were. You hate the Karnoi. You hate yourself for being one and my mother had never really specified that you'd died. When I asked her, she just said that you got what was coming to you."

"I did." My voice sounded feeble and I couldn't look him in the eye.

"You got a second chance at life, my dear," he stated. "Not death."

"I wanted to die for my people."

I don't know why I was bothering to explain this to him. Nobody had ever known. I'd never let anyone know.

"Don't be ridiculous," he said. "They were never your people. They trained you to believe that you were a monster. They broke you."

"You know nothing," I spat.

"I spent years thinking about you situation, Miss Mercia and it seems to me that I know a lot more than you do about yourself."

Mercia.

"Why were you up and about in the middle of the night anyway?" He changed the subject when I didn't respond.

I frowned and remembered what I'd seen on my walk. "I was just leaving."

Malvin raised his brow. "Is that so? Well how 'bout you stay here for tonight instead?"

"So you can make sure that I don't leave? Yeah right."

"No Veera," he corrected.

"So I can show you where you belong."

Who's your favorite couple so far?

Jacem

Malra

Jeera

Parin