Chapter Two

Ophelia's history.

          Chapter Two

                   

         When they had walked at least a few miles, and when the sun was starting to lower in the sky, he stopped. They were in a part of the forest that looked just like any other part to her, but was apparently where they were supposed to be for him because he said, “We’re here. All we have to do now is wait.”

         And he sat down, his back against a tree. Looking at her expectantly, he waited until she sat down across from him with her back against a large boulder, catching her breath. “You must have a ton of questions. Before you ask them, though, I’m betting you’re as hungry as I am.”

       She saw him reach inside the jacket of his uniform and pull out two sandwiches. Her stomach rumbled, alerting her that it hadn’t eaten yet today. Her face went red with embarrassment. The man smiled at her and handed her one of the sandwiches. Trying hard not to shove the entire thing in her mouth, she ate slowly, savoring the first real food she had had in a long time. It was some kind of meat, pink looking and delicious. There was a kind of white paste that added flavor and the bread was beyond incredible, fluffy and so tasty.

       She contained a whimper and closed her eyes, breathing in deeply. This was what they meant in her book when they talked about figuratively dying and going to heaven. She was free and eating real food. What more could she ask for? Nothing, she thought. She couldn’t ask for anything else.

      When she finished the sandwich and opened her eyes she saw the man looking at her with a small smile on his face. “What?” she asked.

       “Nothing.” he shrugged. “I guess I’m just enjoying watching someone else get so happy over a simple sandwich.” The girl watched him quietly for a minute.

      “What was that meat? And that white stuff?”  “ The meat was ham. It comes from pigs. And the white stuff is a spread called mayonnaise.’ He answered. She could tell he’d forgotten that she wouldn’t know any of these things. The guards never gave her anything like it before, and it wasn’t exactly the type of material her books talked about.

     With a full belly and tired legs, the girl was getting sleepy, but she had too many questions to ask. So she shook herself and tried to stay awake. “Tell me everything.” She demanded sullenly. She really wasn’t used to behaving correctly around people. She added a “please” when the man gave her a look. “I’ll start by at the beginning.” He settled in to begin the tale, looking as though he’d told it many times before.

   “Since the beginning of time there have been Naries, ordinary people without any powers, and Extras, extraordinary people who have powers. They weren’t always called these names, but over time the original names have been lost. Some say the Gods made Extras because their souls were blessed. From the start Naries were weary of Extras, afraid of their abilities. For that reason, Extras have almost always hid their talents. They formed small communities amongst themselves, teaching the younger ones all they knew and passing the information from generation to generation through stories. Never has anything been written down concerning our powers, which is another reason Naries fear us. Fear of the unknown.

     “Over the years, though, the expansion of technology and the discovery of our people have brought the stories to a halt. Very few remember any Extra legends, any lore. Our elders have been hunted and either killed or tortured for information.” His face became more and more serious as he told her the history of their people. “They never tell the Naries anything, like they have been told not to since the beginning. Never tell.” He looked at her until she nodded in agreement.

      He continued “That horrible place we just came from, the one you’ve lived in your whole life, is only one of the places they’ve built to contain Extras. They catch us and keep us captive, searching for the answer to our powers. They won’t find it.” This he said with certainty. “You can’t see what’s in our souls. But they’ll never learn. They’ll keep hunting us until they’ve killed or captured us all.” They both shivered a little at the thought. “Anyway,” he said, shaking off the thought, “most of the time, as in your situation, they find a family of Extras. Extra parents almost always have Extra children.” Pausing to let her process everything, he watched her face for her reaction.

     There was so much to take in. First was that the feelings she had in her dreams had been real. She really was filled with magic. Secondly, she knew there was still more he had to tell her. Her thoughts rested on what he’d just said. She’d had a family. “What-” Taking in a deep, shaky breath, she started over. “What happened? To my family, I mean.” She shouldn’t be feeling this apprehensive. It happened before her memories, so there was no reason to feel such a deep sense of dread filling her body. Right? But she was shivering, waiting for him to answer. Her hands were shaking, and she forced them down on her lap, keeping them tightly still.

   The man looked at her with empathy in his eyes. He covered one of her cold hands in his own for comfort before saying “Both of your parents were killed when they took you. They’re names were Samantha and Jason Green. Your name was, or rather, is, Ophelia Green. They took you when you were a baby, six months old.” He let it sink in, his hand still squeezing hers gently for support.

    Dead. My parents are dead. Have been for quite some time now, I guess. It doesn’t make it any less painful. She took another deep breath to calm herself. She’d never known anything else but her little world, the little room she’d been in for years. She knew she must have had parents. That is how a person comes into existence of course, but she never really dwelled on it before. Thinking about having parents when she didn’t really know anything about them was just like thinking about the outside world. Painful.

   She thought about her name, not wanting to acknowledge her pain any further at that moment. Ophelia. It’s actually a lovely name, she thought. “Ophelia Green.” She said, testing the name. It rolled off her tongue quite nicely. “I am Ophelia Green. Not Freak.” She gave the young man a small smile. He smiled at her brightly. “What is your name?” Ophelia realized she had never asked him.

    “Clicker. Clicker Hayes, at your service, Miss Green.” He joked with her, bowing dramatically, his forehead nearly touching the forest ground. She knew he was trying to lighten the depressing mood. It worked a little, lifting the corners of her mouth. “And before you ask, it is my real name. My parents were a bit weird.”  That sentence wiped the smile off Ophelia’s face. The past tense in his sentence was like a slap in the face. “I’m sorry for your loss.” she offered.

    Clicker’s own smile was grim this time. “Thanks. It happened when I was little, so it doesn’t hurt as much anymore.” “How old am I?” she suddenly asked. She hadn’t given it much thought, but he appeared to know her history somehow. “Seventeen. Your birthday is June, 22, 1994. You were born on a Wednesday. Oh, the date today is the thirtieth of March, 2011.” Before she could ask he said “I’m nineteen.”

       Relative time meant little to Ophelia. Everything in her prison was timed by when her meals came. She knew what day her shower was when six meals had passed since the last shower, and when twelve meals had passed since her last visit to the test room, it was time for another. She focused on Clicker. “What else do you know about me? And how do you know these things?”

      “The Naries kept a file on you, containing all of your information. I know that you’re five feet and five inches tall, have black hair, blue eyes. Your blood type is O, the universal blood type.” Ophelia nodded here. She had read all about blood types in one of the science books she had been given. It was an interesting read.

        Just then something occurred to her. “Was I the only Extra in that…building?” Ophelia remembered all of those doors they’d passed when running through the halls. She remembered thinking there could be more people in them. “Yes. You were the only, the last. There used to be other Extras. That was before they were…well, before their usefulness was up.” Knowing this meant either they were tortured for information or killed, Ophelia wrapped her arms around herself. In all the books she had ever read, not one single page explained why there was such evil in the world. She doubted there was even a plausible excuse in the first place.

      “That’s why we didn’t encounter as many guards during our escape.” he mentioned. “Why were you there, anyway, Clicker? I mean, how did you know I was in that place?” There had to be a reason he had become a guard. How else had he known she was there?

    “Well, that brings us to the next thing I have to tell you. It wasn’t just you and your parents there when the Naries took you. Your brother was there too.” “My brother? I had a brother?” she asked. She didn’t know if she could handle knowing she had lost her parents and her brother in a single day.

       “Have. You have a brother. The Naries couldn’t find him when they came to…to your house.” He had almost said ‘when they came to kill your family’. “Your brother hid when they came. They never found him, so they took you and left. After they were gone, he came out of hiding. He saw what had happened and went to your neighbors. The neighbors knew about your family being special, your parent had a plan put in effect if something like that ever happened. Your brother was sent to live with some Extra friends your parents knew. A few years ago, your brother and I met up when we joined the Nary resistance. Ever since then we’ve been searching for you, and any other Extras, to help them escape from the Naries.”

    Ophelia felt her eyes begin to tear up. She still had some family left, a brother. Never had she hoped for a family, but she felt something in her heart warm at the thought of having one. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her gown and sniffled. “What’s his name?” she asked.

   “Arden. He’s actually my best friend. He’s my age, nineteen.” “Why didn’t Arden come and get me himself?” “He wanted to, but he was busy infiltrating another Nary base. It was only by luck that I found out you were in this one. One of our spies stumbled across your file while organizing the Naries’ files.” It seemed like their resistance was bigger than she originally thought, if they had spies. “Actually, this is where Arden and some others are supposed to meet us. They should be getting here sometime soon.”

     Clicker’s reference to time made Ophelia aware that the sun had gone down and it was dark and chilly on the forest floor. She shivered and rubbed her arms to warm them up. Clicker noticed and shrugged off his jacket. Standing up, he reached over and placed the jacket over her shoulders. “Thank you.” She gave him a big, warm smile. She was smiling more in these past few hours than she had her whole life.

Author's Note

Please review!!! If you find any mistakes, don't hesitate to say something. Sometimes, for example, I accidentally say "here" instead of "her", and I don't catch it, so for my sake and the sake of the story, tell me. Thank you!!
Originally this was part of chapter one, but I decided to split it. Now, everything has been moved back one chapter.

Reviews

[MR_BERG]

You do have some spelling and syntax errors, so reread. You will need to be deliberate in what things Olivia does and does not know. That will be tricky, since her knowlege only comes from her books.

No matter. I love this story, and you can write.