The Bagman's Destiny

Chapter 10

'He doesn't deserve what you're putting him through...'

I woke up in a state. I was gasping for air, blinking the sweat of my brows from my eyes and clutching the sheets beside me in my tight fists. I quickly calmed myself down, thankful my roommate was a heavy sleeper. When my thoughts had settled and all traces of horror had dissipated, I thought to myself what could have given me nightmares. Was it Twist's words? Was it my own guilt? Was it what I told Henry at midnight?

I swallowed it all down and laid back against the wall, unclenching the sheets. If I concentrated hard enough I might have been able to hear Harry's breath through the wall. I pictured him sleeping with his eyes closed, hair messily resting on the pillow, the rise and fall of his chest...

My phone buzzed from where it was on the night-stand. I grabbed it, slowly reading it all the while rubbing the sleep from my tired eyes. Henry had messaged me explaining he would be absent from the base for the next week and I was subsequently in charge. I was surprised. In a situation like so I would've assumed Szilvia would take over but he texted me. I didn't feel too bad for Szilvia, I was an overtly selfish man and took the role happily. I then got another message but this time from Szilvia, telling me she would meet me in the main room when I was ready. I felt important for the first time since Jez died.

I got dressed, had a cuppa, said goodbye to the still sleeping Twist and then headed out of the room. I jogged down the stairs, smiling and waving at strangers on my way. Eventually I was in the main room and my eyes were darting around for the red-afro.

"Louis"

I almost jumped when I heard her voice. She was standing at attention right beside me with an electronic-pad in her hand; I figured she must've been there the whole time and I had dumbly not noticed. We both grinned at my mishap though before getting down to business.

"Being Atlas isn't going to be easy" She explained as we strolled further into the room, "The people here will ask a lot of you but you need to have time for the more important matters. Henry usually let's them figure it all out themselves and focuses on his personal projects such as the monitoring of Controlled Butterflies after curfew and securing alliances and Moth trials"

"Do they not get annoyed?" I frowned.

"We get thoroughly annoyed"

I jumped for the second time that morning when Sofia and Tobias appeared behind us. They pushed between us and Szilvia rolled her eyes. They walked at the same pace as us and I felt uncomfortable being separated from Szilvia when I was getting information. She didn't get to do much explaining anyway because Sofia kept chatting away.

"Georgia had a spat the other day because Henry denied permission to paint her room. I mean, c'mon, where's the harm in that? Also my computer has been broken for two weeks now and he still hasn't gotten anyone around to fixing it" She grumbled while Tobias nodded along.

"I can fix it for you?" I suggested and Sofia's face lit up.

"Really?" She beamed and I couldn't help but beam back.

"But, Louis..."

Szilvia had tried to gain my attention back on the 'important' matters but Sofia had grabbed my arm and started hauling me to her desk. Tobias and Szilvia had found it hard to keep up.

"Louis" Szilvia panted a couple of minutes after I had sat down at Sofia's desk and started mucking around with the monitor, "You have things to do today"

"Szilvia, you said that I'm a love-kinda-guy and because of that I wanna help people out while I'm leader for the week. So let me" I shrugged, inspecting the wires at the back of the computer.