Aletheia

Chapter 9: Claire

CLAIRE COULDN'T HELP BUT WONDER how Griffin had gotten in through the wall the first time, if he had made it in shouldn't he be able to make it out too?

"Don't worry about it, I'll find a way out. I made it in didn't I?" Griffin said. His hands were dug deep inside his pockets. Somehow he had gotten different clothes, probably stole them from somewhere, the right size too.

He was leaning against the brick building, his foot tapping against the muddy street floor. He had a hat too, one of those slouchy gray caps that made him look like a coal miner.

Although Governor Krette was forced to shut down the coal mines a few years ago, for safety reasons. Otherwise just a little more dirt and soot on his face and he would've looked like he had come straight from the mines.

Claire never asked him why he'd come through the wall, did he know what was going on inside? He had never said much about the outside world either... Claire was about to ask him, but a voice yelled out behind them, Claire turned in time to see an old man pointing at Griffin to a Protector, whispering something in his ear.

"Just trust me, I'll get out." Griffin whispered quickly to Claire before he slipped into an alleyway and disappeared into the darkness. By the time the Protector came over to look he was gone.

~

Claire tapped her foot nervously against the old floorboards, Will still hadn't said a word and it was making her more and more frustrated by the minute.

"You're not going," he said finally bringing his eyes up to look at her. Claire blinked, waiting for his words to make sense.

"What?" she asked, her foot tapping brought to an abrupt halt. Will looked away, running his hand through his tuffs of hair.

He adjusted his thin silver glasses on his nose effort saying, "I'm not allowing my baby sister to go outside the wall on her own, it's too dangerous. Those walls are there for a reason ya know." Will moved over to the table and began pouring himself a glass of water.

"I won't be alone, they are sending a Protector with me, to 'ensure my return,'" Claire said, already feeling annoyed. His baby sister? She was barely 5 years younger than him, that didn't qualify her to be his baby sister.

"Still, I don't trust them and you know that." he grabbed his glass of water and drank it all down, when he finished he slammed the glass on the table and looked up, "I am coming with you."

Claire's heart sped up, "What no you're not, you cannot do that, they won't let you do that... there's no way."

"Watch me! I cannot just leave you out there, with... with one of them!" Will shouted, his voice getting louder and louder. Claire glanced to the couch, scared he would wake up Ebony. His expression tightened as he saw her lying so peacefully.

"I'll be fine, you don't always have to worry about me and protect me! And it wasn't too long ago that you were at the Academy, you were going to be one of them," Claire whispered fiercely. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him further into the kitchen, away from the sleeping Ebony.

"Don't you dare bring up the Academy. I-I can't, I can't let you, not like dad." Claire felt her jaw tightened, he couldn't seriously be comparing her to their father.
"That was completely different and you know that. I am not dad. Either way it's not like he's here to stop me."

"Neither is he here to stop me." He said, and with that he stalked off, out the door and into the night.

"Whereare you going! It's the dead of night!" Claire yelled after him, following himuntil the door. She watched him go, but he wouldn't look back.