Defiance

by Hannah Hanson

CHAPTER EIGHT

  Amelia lay on the hard bed and stared into the darkness her eyes had become accustomed to. She had turned and twisted for hours. She had thought of a hundred ways she could escape. Yet with every idea that popped into her head, the magnitude of the escape agitated her. What had become of her mother and brother? Was her father even alive? She stared into the emptiness and fidgeted, longing for the end of the night. She yearned for someone to talk to in the hope of finding answers she could not find on her own.

  Suddenly, she heard two distinct treads walking carefully down the stairs. They echoed in the silence. She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as though afraid their eyes could pierce the darkness and they would notice she was awake.

  “You have to get rid of her. She’s a liability who doesn’t know her own strength,” said a man whose voice she did not recognise.

  “Since when is the death of an opponent anything but a part of the game?” The question betrayed Diablo’s intense annoyance.

  “This isn’t about death. Sue is alive and better than ever, but the issue here is that this one is unpredictable, without self-control, and that’s never a good sign.”

  “Word has spread of new and fresh blood. She’s a rough diamond, that’s all.”

  Amelia was aware they were referring to her, but her thoughts drifted as she heard the good news about Sue. The guilt that had haunted her for three days disappeared as though it had never been there.

  “Mark my words, Diablo: She will be the fall of your empire,” snorted the other man.

  She continued to listen but heard nothing after that. Sometime after, Amelia drifted off. She curled into a foetal position and slept peacefully that night.