Survival

Part 29: Valerie

Jeordie yawned loudly, drawing it out for extra drama.

"Aaaawwwww, do you need to sleep?" I asked him patronisingly.

"Nah. I'll try to keep awake for a while," Jeordie ignored my sarcasm. He shifted his weight gingerly, wincing in discomfort. "Hurts like a bitch."

Aluna and Indiana were sitting together, talking quietly with their heads touching lightly. Aluna smiled at something Indiana had said, the skin near her bright eyes crinkling along the lines of her winged eyeliner. As always she was chewing on a stick of red liquorice, and, to my intense surprise, she had given Indiana a piece! He nibbled on it tentatively, savouring every last bit. I didn't blame him. Aluna didn't just give her red liquorice to anyone.

"Tunetunetunetunetune!" Aris whispered a little too loudly behind a cupped hand and made a show of looking surprised when they glared at him. I laughed.

Aluna and Indiana reluctantly crawled over to us. Lune stuffed the remainder of the red liquorice into her pocket secretively. Anna and Aris shuffled around so we were in a circle of sorts. I was having trouble seeing my friends in the increasing gloom.

"It's getting dark. Want me to light a candle?" Anna gracefully got to her feet and dug around in one of the bags. She returned with a scented candle and placed it in the centre of the circle on a small china dish.

"So I suppose I'll just light it with my hot looks?" Indiana offered, trailing a hand down the side of his body suggestively.

"You're a dork." Aluna told him plainly. She took a box of matches out of her pocket and pulled one out. With a quick swipe she made a spark and the match ignited, a small dancing flame in a world of darkness. The little flame cast shadows over Aluna's perfect face and highlighted her cheekbones and long eyelashes. She lowered the match down to the candle and the wick quickly burst into flame.

Aluna held the burning match up in front of her face. The hungry flame devoured the thin piece of wood, leaving only twisted blackness behind. When the fire almost touched Aluna's thin fingertips she blew it out. A tiny wisp of smoke spiralled away to the roof. The light from the candle showed the smoke as an orangey grey colour until it drifted out of sight.

"Let's play spin the bottle!" Aris said in a stereotypical white girl voice, totally ruining the moment.

"Shut up Aristotle." Anna shook her head and Aris made another show of disgust.

"So you guys were all in prison?" I broke the building tension between the two.

"Yup. Fun times. We taught the rats circus tricks and made a slip 'n' slide in the mud!" Anna laughed sourly.

"Why did you get put in?" I asked curiously, leaning forward a little to catch every word.

"Pancake." Jeordie pointed to where the dog would be outside, crunching on the corpse of a Changed we had killed for it.

"It has a name?" I asked.

"Of course SHE has a name. She's my dog." Jeordie said in a mock offended voice. The sound of bones crunching and loud snuffling from outside punctuated his statement.

"Yeah. Dog. Okay. What about you, Anna? You don't seem like the kind of person to, you know, commit crimes?"

"I was playing metal," She scoffed. "Apparently that's unholy or something. You know, that place was basically a Christian cult. No room for K-V-L-T. I was afraid at first, but then I realised how dumb it was."

"I killed someone." Aris said without any of his normal humour.

"Why?" I asked, curious.

"She was Changing. Almost gone." He replied. Anna looked away uncomfortably. For a moment I saw tears in her bright eyes. My thoughts went back to what had transpired the day before.