Together on Ecarte Island

Jenna

Jenna and Casper walked together along the same lane they had taken all their lives to go to the beach. When they were children they would race , but as they grew up, the closer and slower they became. Now he held her hand as they journeyed.
Jenna listened as Casper spoke of the exams he had just completed with high marks, and how his friend Dante had also passed and they would be advancing together. Jenna was happy he would be continuing in his engineering education, but felt concern at the mention of this troublemaking friend. Perhaps this wasn't exactly true and Dante Pollock was simply a part of Casper's support system. Everybody needed support while living away from home.
"Living in Trouse is tolerable." Casper continued, "At least it isn't crawling with Leidenschaftlich scum like, well, LEIDEN."
"Scum?" said Jenna distastefully.
Casper ignored her inquiry and continued. "On our campus there are relatively few of them, but you know what they are when you see them strutting around like they've conquered our entire world. But their time in the institute is short lived. If they don't want trouble with the rest of us, they best not return from summer break. There's plenty of other institutes they can enroll into with others of their kind further south."
Jenna's heart sank with all his talk of intolerance, but dared not speak against him. He had always been so much more intelligent than she, and being near him meant the world to her. Jenna half hoped Casper would propose to her before he left again, but now. . .
They came to a fork in the lane. The left one led down to the beach, the right one led down a winding path ending at the village graveyard.
Casper chose to go right. Jenna pulled back and let go of his hand. Casper stopped and scowled at her.
"I. . . I don't want to go there." she said feeling frustrated.
"And why not?" Casper wanted to know. "Your father and your brothers lie there, or have you forgotten?"
Jenna blinked back tears. "Of course I have not forgotten. I would just much rather go on to the beach."
"Well, MY father is buried there, too and I intend on paying my respects. If you're so selfish as to not go with me. . . then don't. Go on home!" Casper turned and continued down the lane.
Jenna considered doing just that. Go home and just forget about him all together, but her heart hurt and tears ran down her face.
"CASPER!" she cried as she plucked up her skirt and ran after him.
The graveyard was small but crowded with Ecarte's dead young men, those who had remains to return. Jenna stood looking down at the three grave stones marking the burial place of Rudolph Callie, Jenna and young Toby's father. Beside him were the graves of Aisley and Brentford Callie. They had been killed only three days shy of their 21st birthday.
Jenna had loved all three of these men, but standing over their graves always haunted her down to her bones. Toby always had night terrors for days after visiting.
She looked over at Casper who sat on his heels at his own father's grave several yards away. Perhaps she had been selfish, whining about the beach instead of letting Casper have his visitation time.
When his father died in the the Battle of Intense, Casper had lost the last of his immediate family. Only his father's sister and her family remained to claim him. He had been lost and lonely, until Mr. Jilbert showed up and took the teaching position at the school.
Casper excelled under Mr. Jilbert's instruction, and he pushed the boy to concentrate in the area of engineering.
Jenna dried her remaining tears and went to the boy she loved and knelt beside him.
"It's all so wrong, Jenna," Casper grumbled, "All these good men died because of Leidenschaftlich unethical practices. They experimented and augmented the limbs of those street orphans into specialized firearms to make them into killing machines. Child berserkers."
"That's horrible," said Jenna.
"They need to pay, Jenna, every last stinking one of them. . ." Casper growled through gritted teeth. "Don't worry, Dad," he said to the gravestone, "I'm going to do my bit. . ."
Jenna gasped. "Casper? What could you mean by that? Not the military!"
"Don't be stupid," Casper sneered, "There has been word that a thought-to-be-dead high ranking Leidenschaftlich officer is in hiding somewhere on Ecarte. I intend on finding him."
"But. . . Why would he have to be in hiding?"
"Apparently, he was the top official over the orphan soldier program and now that the war is over, the Leidenschaftlich nations want to act as if he went rogue and the program did not officially exist at all, destroying all evidence of any use of child soldiers, augmented or no."
"Oh. . ." said Jenna trying her best to understand the conspiracy theory.
"So, there's been a network of students from several campuses that have been trying to pin point where this official might be hiding out. They've deducted he might be hiding out in one of the caves along the coastline either here or a couple of other remote islands nearby. And if anyone knew the cave system on this island, it would be me."
"It all sounds so dangerous, Casper."
Casper stood up and started walking away. Jenna followed up the lane and toward the village.
She followed Casper to the small house on the outskirts of the village that had at one time been his home with his father. It had remained abandoned since he began living with his aunt, but Casper decided to put it back to use by taking up residence while he visited on holiday.
Jenna saw there was a pallet on which he slept and a lamp. Casper turned to her and sighed sadly. "Come here, Jenna." He opened his arms to her. "I'm sorry. I know I've frightened you. Come here."
Jenna smiled at him nervously. She suddenly felt alarmed, not at all comfortable about being here alone with him. Before she even realized it, Casper had positioned himself between her and the door.
"I want to go home now, Casper," she said shakily, "Please, take me home now. It will be dark soon."
"Oh, Jenna," Casper took a cautious step toward her. "Haven't you dreamed of this since I've been gone? I know I have."
It was true, she had many times dreamed of being with him, but somehow the dream felt all distorted to her now. This was not the Casper who left her a year ago. This was a predator about to pounce and the prey was now trapped and frightened out of her wits.
Jenna then began to cry, covering her face with her hands, as she felt Casper's arms encircle her. She felt him kiss the smooth dark hair on the top of her head.