The Rebellion

Chapter six

Olive

"Seriously I just want to see if my theory is correct," I asked the General and Duke shook his head, his arm crossed with a stern look on his face. Our relationship hadn't improved in the last week and a bit, not that I was surprised. Everything I did was either wrong or not allowed. He was hovering around me more than usual and I was this close to beating him.

"Even if what you says is true..." The General started as he put down his knife and fork, "what would you have me do? Run them out of the city? Slaughter thousands of innocents?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "When did we go so soft? And isn't that exactly what they are doing to us? You know, with the invasion?" I reminded them and they both sighed, Duke having the nerve to roll his eyes up at me but I refrained from leaning over and punching him in the face. Eli would be proud.

"I know that. Don't you think I know that? But Olive you have to understand that most of us, myself included are so tired of this war. We'd be happy to live out the rest of our days here if it meant we could live. Not all of us have a vendetta." The General spoke softly and slowly and I felt my face go red with the first shock before the rage settled in. The fork I had been holding snapped in my hands, the metal making a large cracking sound that echoed throughout the eating hall. The sound caused everyone to jerk their heads in our direction in shock and from the corner of my eye, both Frankie and Robin rose to their feet ready to assist in any way. It felt like there was an earthquake erupting from inside me, my entire body began to shake as I tried to contain the rage I felt.

I stared at the General for so long, it felt like an eternity. I couldn't understand where this had come from, this sudden submissive behaviour. Or maybe it had been there for a long time and I just hadn't seen it. I shouldn't be so surprised but I didn't think he would ever admit that he was tired of this war, I thought at least he'd pretend for his own sake, if not for the pride of his soldiers.

Slowly, I let go of what remained of the fork and rose to my feet. "The fact that you would rather roll over than fight means that the Golik have already won. And everyone who died has died in vain." My voice broke and I tried unsuccessfully to push down the lump in my throat. "So go ahead and live here for the rest of your days General. If you can even consider this living." I pushed away from the table and made my way out of the room, leaving silence in my wake. I didn't dare wait for the elevator so I made my way straight to the staircase.

As I closed the door behind me, I took a big deep breath and tried to make my way up the stairs. But the dam of tears, that I hadn't realised had been building, broke suddenly taking me by surprise. I wasn't sure if these were angry or sad tears or even just exhausted defeated tears, but it didn't matter. I collapsed onto the fifth step, leaning my head against my knees as I brought them to my chest before letting the dam break completely open without restraints.

No one used the stairwell, normally because they confined themselves to their rooms or their level. Most people just relied on the elevator. The rare people who did use the stairs today, however, ignored me, which I was grateful for. I was slowly losing it. My head was filled with what if's and every unanswered question ate away at me continuously. I hated my life and what it had become. What I had become. Around the Chambers, if I wasn't venting my frustration in the gym, I was lying awake in my room trying not to cry. When I slept, my dreams were haunted by beautiful blue eyes and midnight black hair. I was always chasing but never catching them and I woke up feeling sad and angry at the same time. It was a constant circle of anger, sadness with a sprinkle of onset insanity.

The stairwell door opened slowly and I didn't bother raising my head to see who it was, praying that they would ignore me. The door closed and I heard nothing for a few seconds before the sounds of the steps closed in on my position. When they stood on my lowly step, they stopped and sat down next to me, their body a little too close for comfort. Biting my tongue in frustration, I sat still as I tried to quieten my tears and compose myself again. The stranger rested their arm around my shoulders and I couldn't stop the shudder that rippled through my body, as I shrugged it off quickly.